Hmmm... My top 10 FPSs games. That's a tough one. Let's see...
My Personal FPS Hall of Fame
1. ArmA II - I have lost countless hours in the editor, and the campaign really shines in full, four person co-op. Despite some bugs and flaws within the engine, it's still a solid game. Did I mention the amazing modding community? They are second to none!
2. Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis + All expansions - I had never felt truly proud and privledged to have beaten a game in my life until I completed both the Nato and Resistance campaigns. I spent a month on one mission alone. Yes, it can be that hard. It also laid the framework for the ArmA series and set the standard in mil-sim gaming.
3. Tribes 2 - Jetpacks and spinfusors. 'Nuff said. I have Tribes Ascend, and I have yet to dive in. I really need to give it a shot, but I am afraid it won't be as awesome as Tribes 2 was. Some of my best moments in FPS multiplayer took place on this game.
4. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - I am going to include the whole series here. The atmosphere is incredible, and the sense of immersion is very strong when spending hours wandering the waste of The Zone. I also have to nod to the incredible modding community for keeping S.T.A.L.K.E.R. alive by creating some amazing mods and total conversions.
5. FarCry - I fell in love with this game when I built my first gaming PC back in the early 2000s. It has beautiful visuals even by today's standards, and it's a solid FPS that is still fun to play. Oh, and the editor that it comes with is also quite nice.
6. Wolfenstein 3D - This was my first FPS. However, I have grown up a lot since then. Still, it carries a special place in my heart. It was also my second PC game!
7. Medal of Honor (2010) - In a world dominated by the CoD franchise, it's nice to see the original PC military FPS franchise make a return, or at least, the franchise that pre-dates CoD. I enjoyed this game. It had a focus on the characters and the reality of war (as best as one can convey such things in a game). I found it more believable than CoD, and it was far more enjoyable for me.
8. Crysis - I don't care what anyone says. This game is tons of fun! I also enjoyed the story; even if it's a little cliche.
9. ArmA: Combat Operations - This game was ok. Yes, I am a mil-sim fan, but even Bohemia Interactive admitted tha this game was more of a tech experiment than anything, and they didn't really put their heart and soul into it. The combat is fun, and the missions are still tough, but better things definately came of this game.
10. F.E.A.R. - I was a beta tester for this game, and I was a very active member of the community (there's a (digital) fan-made F.E.A.R. snow shovel with my screen name on it out there somewhere). This game has been a long time favorite. The horror was genuine, and the plot was creepy for more reasons than one. Too bad it was the only truly great game of the series.
My personal FPS Hall of Shame
1. Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising - This game made a mockery of the Operation Flashpoint name. In fact, I usually just refer to it as, "Dragon Rising," so it's not confused with a good game like Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis. Codemasters broke so many promises here. The campaign was quite linear, and the player was punished for straying too far off mission. Overall, the game discouraged the exploration of the game world, and the player's decisions didn't feel like they had any real impact on the future of the campaign.
I will also mention that the MP was pretty bad.
2. Wolfenstein (2009) - This game could have been great, but it was held back by the fact that it was developed mainly for consoles. There were very few options for optimization, and the campaign felt half-baked. I wanted to like it, I really did, but I just could not get into this game. The world felt very compartmentalized, and the story seemed to progress slowly.
3. The Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Franchise - I just can't see what all of the fuss is about. I enjoyed the first Modern Warfare game, but after that, things just got ridiculous. The campaign wasn't believable at all, and the MP is not the engaging. I feel like I am playing an arcade game when I play, and the servers are usually packed with whining kids. That's been my experience anyway. I just can't take those games seriously.
