What is a Shotgun to you?

[Apone]

The root of all frags for me. What's better than taking a sniper by surprise with a shotgun?

For me sneaking up to them and stabbing them in the back.
Just beating them by being more stealthy and sly and knowing the annoyance they'll get as you pull it back out again and walk away.
Oh and I like to keep one handy... for close encounters

 

[Easykill]

I don't usually like them, but in gears of war, I'd rather have that than any other weapon.

 

[Beaux]

I like axing the unsuspecting sniper in the back with a big fireaxe

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

What is the shotgun to me....

....thats like asking what the Gravity Hammer is to me. It's a good room clearing weapon and it works well in both Half-Life 2 Deathmatch and Halo. Although sometimes a shotgun can be woefully underpowered it still pwns at close range.

Speak softly and carry a big gun.

 

[JBX06]

Anti-Zombie Decapitation Close Encounter BFG 9000

 

[Kraj]

When balanced I love it, when Unbalanced I hate it. When looked at from a realistic perspective, its horribly overpowered and terribly underpowered at the same time. Just make the level well and balance the weapon and its a joy to have around.
keep in mind that description goes for any weapon. -_-

 

[Abbadiel]

Good and reliable to shred zombies and people in close quarters but useless in long range open spaces against a big squad of soldiers.

 

[Russ Pitts]

Also, happiness is a warm gun. That is all.

 

[goodpoltergeist]

I'm not really a shotgun kinda guy. Except in Doom. I do have to say though, that some people use them highly effectively. Not sure which is worse, 1hit snipers or pointblank shotgun rushers...both hurt. a lot.

 

[man-man]

The double shotgun in Timesplitters 2 was an lethally effective short-range weapon - I don't think there was any character who could take 4 blasts to the chest and still be standing, and the reload times were rather short. Could be a balance-breaker if there weren't some (a lot) of other high-powered weapons in the game.

The mighty shotty took a nerf to the face in Timesplitters 3 though - no dual wield, the load time was pure torture.. it was far too realistic to make for a good zombie-shredding weapon.

Luckily the Tactical 12 Gauge was more or less unchanged from TS2.. it saved the day with shot after shot of shotgun goodness.

Team Fortress 2's shotgun strikes a fair balance I think - its a good solid weapon, but nothing really special. You can take people down at short range, but the class specialities are normally a better bet (and more fun to boot)

 

[Worr Monger]

The 'ole one-shot-one-kill for an annoying Imp in Doom.... If used properly.

 

[ComradeJim270]

Depends on the game. In Doom, it's your bread and butter, of course. That's been said. I will also say... Halo 3... that snowy map... it's what I will use to kill you. Repeatedly. Possibly without ever giving you the chance to retaliate.

 

[Captain Planet]

It's what I pull out when the enemy retreats out of the range of my flamethrower.

 

[MarcelGarde]

Hrm. As someone who has always had to take point, the shotgun has been a godsend and saved my life at point black range more times than I can count.

The fun level of it, and it's usability varies greatly from game to game. Explosive Shell Shotty from Duke Nukem 64, the Dual Shotguns from Area51(Xbox), the Auto shotgun from Rainbow Six. So many variations. Some are terribly cheap, and really rank up there.

But, I find the more one gets into competitive gaming, you can't really risk using them. As much as you'd like to hang back, or charge in and wait for that point blank splatter shot, if you're playing against or with a good group of friends... you can't really give up range. You become a hinderance not protecting people with long range fire, or a sitting duck not being able to fire back like that.

Fun as they are, as long-range weapons see constant improvements in most games, and a variety of range-fire rate-damage tradeoff guns... they're just losing their competitive edge.

My two cents, anyway.

 

[Worr Monger]

Oh, and can't forget. You have another barrel to your shotgun... and it becomes one of the best weapons ever created for a video game.

Click-Clack-BOOM

 

[Count_de_Monet]

In CS 1.6 the pump shotty was a great humiliation weapon especially since it was a beast once you figured out how to use it. I remember fondly my days of rushing around cs_office with the pump shotgun taking people out left and right. The auto, on the other hand, was just a bad gun and I only ever used it for rushing the BD in assault and other similar uses.

In CS:S the pump is even better and the auto is quite a bit more useful for door breaching.

I absolutely love my shotguns in CoD4 even though I'm tired of seeing them abused. Far too many people will bunny hop and randomly prone with the shotgun just to avoid rifle and smg fire and I, personally, consider that to be abuse. Put the pump in my hands with the grip, and extreme conditioning and maybe UAV Jammer and you can run around any map nearly undetected (one shot reveals your position much less than having to constantly fire for a kill).

I don't remember shotguns being overpowering in Unreal Tournament. Compared to the rocket spam and the sniper rifle that shot like an assault rifle the shotgun was practically ignored. So many of UT's maps were open and most players were more than capable of keeping you out of range that I rarely remembering picking the shotgun up.