During the recent weeks I have been occasionally engrossed in playing Cytus, a rhythm game for the iOS and Android mobile platforms. Most people would probably take a look at the game and just pass it for another one of those catchy touch-based rhythm games that only become popular for a few moments then slowly and painfully die out into inexistence.
Cytus is especially unique due to it being completely designed for capacitative multi-touch screens. I have also played other touch-based rhythm games like osu! (more specifically its Android port, osu!droid) in the past, but osu! appears to be designed specifically for graphics tablets. Additionally, due to its user base consisting of mouse-trotting players, a good handful of songs available for osu! made by the players are optimized in favor of mouse players more than those who play with graphics tablets, or in my case, fingers.
Cytus is also relatively easy to pick up and learn. The gameplay is easy and intuitive. A black bar continually bounces up and down from the top to the bottom of the screen, with each direction of movement corresponding to a measure (though sometimes I think a complete round trip from top to bottom corresponds to a measure, I'll have to take time to study this). A black glow on the sides of the screen repeatedly pulses after every two 1/4 beats. Colored circles (that are colored by group depending on which trip the black line is going to and fro) pop up on the screen, and the player has to hit these circles alongside the music's rhythm. Then there are the sliders, which are a couple of smaller circles connected in a chain. The player has to slide their finger through the slider, hitting all of the smaller circles in the process. Then there's the freezes (or holds), where the player has to keep their finger on a large circle with a bar running underneath, and wait until the black line has finished traversing the entirety of the freeze bar. Because Cytus is specifically written for multi-touch screens, "jumps", where the player has to simultaneously press two or more circles at one time, can be easily implemented.
As of the time of writing, Cytus comes with 26 songs (2 are cleverly hidden, and one of the songs requires the player to like Cytus on Facebook or follow Rayark's Cytus Twitter account), most of them unique and highly enjoyable. A song in Cytus is about a bit longer than an average DDR song (most Cytus songs do not reach two minutes in length). Rayark (the development team of the game) announced that the current roster of songs in the game are currently incomplete, and there are at least a hundred more songs that are about to come out in the future. They created an interesting release plan---every hundred thousandth registered player of the game awards everybody with ten more songs, possibly an entire new chapter; with all the songs presumably unlocked for everybody by the time Cytus gets a million official players.
Notice my use of the word "official" in the last paragraph. Cytus is available for both the iOS and Android mobile platforms, though it is not free (as in both freedom and beer). iOS users are expected to shell out approximately two dollars to get to play the game. Android users can initially pay the game for free, but as they play on the second and third chapters, they must wait out a 30-second and 45-second "cooldown" period (respectively) before the song plays. F2P Android players also have song restarting disabled by default.
F2P players are not included in the release "census", for obvious reasons. Additionally, those who acquired the game illegitimately through black repositories for jailbroken iOS devices and leaked .apk's for Android devices are also (hopefully) not counted for the census.
I bought the game off Google Play (with the same price as the iOS version) because I've decided that taking a mandatory 30/45 second break between each song isn't fun.
I have a couple of gripes with Cytus, especially with the Android port, since that's where I play most of the time anyway. Firstly, the game rendering performance is awfully poor on my Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101. I suspect that the primary reason for the lag is due to Nvidia implementing poorly-written Tegra drivers, where by doing so, they can effectively force game developers to optimize their games for the Tegra devices, rather than for every mobile GPU out there. The game runs smoothly on my HTC Desire HD, though there are some freezes here and there (but that's probably because of activities and apps fighting for CPU time in the background). There are also timing issues present within the Android port of the game, where a rather perfectly timed tap is registered with an annoying delay, turning some of my "Perfect" notes into measly "Good"s. So I can also hypothesize that some blame is to be put on the game developers themselves as well, probably because from my experience most games ported from iOS into Android are almost always badly implemented.
To solve the performance issue on my phone, I resorted to overclocking the CPU up to 1.2-1.4GHz, choosing the Performance CPU scaling governor, and/or closing every background activity and app that I can close. For my Transformer, however, overclocking the CPU doesn't seem to have any effect, nor does closing a couple of background applications. The only viable solutions I can think of are (1) just living with the game with bad lag and timing issues (I did get a couple of Million Masters with the tablet though), (2) Just play the game on my smoother phone (though thumb players will probably be a separate category for "competitions"), or (3) steal an iPad off an unfortunately picked friend who plays the game.
I also do hope that the game will offer its players the ability to import their own songs and use them in the game, though the iOS roots of the game will most likely prevent that from doing so, if the developers decide to make the iOS and Android versions of the game completely similar to each other in respect to features. It's the same thing that keeps "osu! for iOS" an unstable hack job for jailbroken iOS devices.
Showing posts with label gaming. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gaming. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Monday, June 4, 2012
Why I think Dota 2 going free-to-play is a bad idea
After the last school year (which did not end well, but that's not the point of this post), I've decided to try out being a beta tester (read: someone who can't wait for the game to be released) of Dota 2, the derivative of the immensely popular action RTS game Defense of the Ancients (whose roots started as a Warcraft 3 map), created by Valve (who also created other not-so-popular titles like Half-Life, Counter-Strike, and Portal). The process was simple. Go to the Dota 2 webpage/blog, fill out a simple survey about your Dota habits and skills (which I'm sure a lot of people have purposefully put in false information), and wait for Valve to contact you back with your Dota 2 "beta key". For most people, the "wait" takes weeks, even months. For me though, it's just 12 hours or so. Probably because of my Steam game collection and loyalty to Valve and Steam:
Anyway, after downloading Dota 2 and having fun with it, I've somehow accumulated a little bit less than 200 hours of play time in the course of less than a month. Which is not totally a bad sign for my productivity because I still managed to work on some hobby projects of mine here and there, and I merely substituted the countless games of Solitaire with Dota 2 every time I needed a break.
What I liked about the community of Dota 2 that it was seemingly better than that of Garena's (where most online interactions between Dota players occur) original W3 Dota. Gameplay-wise, people in Dota 2 actually intentionally choose support heroes to help their teammates. In a Garena W3 Dota game, if you happen to come up against a team with a solid lineup (not consisting of 5 carries), they're pubstompers and you should clear out immediately or you're in for a bad game. And there are really a lot of other differences between the Dota 2 and Garena W3 Dota community that makes the former more superior than the latter.
It is in my observations that I believe the relative "good" behavior of Dota 2 players is due to the mere fact that beta keys are limited and once they're banned from playing, it sure is going to take a hell lot of time to get another one. Kind of like Team Fortress 2 before it became Free-To-Play, nobody would dare to cheat (although some did anyway, with hilarious consequences) because they didn't want to waste the $60-$10 (depending on how early you bought the game) that they spent.
But now it seems that Valve has decided to turn Dota 2 into a free-to-play game and follow Team Fortress 2's business model to generate income, which is simply "to sell useless cosmetic items at ridiculous prices while taking advantage of people's gambling tendencies by capitalizing on selling keys that open special item crates". The good news is that the game is probably already in a complete working state and that Valve is ready to "sell" it to people. The bad news is that the game is now open for everybody to play, which includes the diverse species of 'tards that inhabit Philippine comshops, that I'm desperately so trying to avoid running into in games.
There were some comforting thoughts that came out of my mind after hearing the news, however. Steam's current way of game distribution is that every user account using Steam on a computer was given separate copies of games for themselves, even if they both owned the game. Which means there would probably hundreds of Steam accounts logging in a single computer in a comshop every month. Doing the math, that would mean 5GB~ (a single installation of Dota 2, not including the base Source Engine stuff) * 100 worth of data installed on a single computer, or 500GB. I highly believe that comshops do not have that kind of money to acquire hard drives larger than 500 gigabytes, nor would it give them any sort of business advantage for doing so. Also, every time a new user wants to play Dota 2, they would have to download the game again for themselves, which, given how immensely slow the average Internet connection in the Philippines is, would take a very, very long amount of time.
Also, Dota 2 has some very strict hardware requirements that would require beefy computers. Which means most comshops will probably not be able to play Dota 2 since they commonly employ Intel GPUs from 2005 as their graphics cards, unless the kids today are fine with playing games at slideshow speed (what has this generation come to?).
After writing all of that, I now feel kind of comforted that most kinds of people that I don't like to play with won't be able to play Dota 2. The game's matchmaker would also do good to keep me safe as well, since nowadays I usually get teamed up with and put up against respectable gentlemen who actually know how to play. And if buying from the Dota 2 store would guarantee me a spot in the Dota 2 community's civilized circle, I would totally throw my money in Valve's direction for the sake of my own sanity (sadly, not for the sake of my wallet).
 |
| I actually have more games that would probably fit 5 or more screenshots, but listing them all here would make me look like a douchebag. |
Anyway, after downloading Dota 2 and having fun with it, I've somehow accumulated a little bit less than 200 hours of play time in the course of less than a month. Which is not totally a bad sign for my productivity because I still managed to work on some hobby projects of mine here and there, and I merely substituted the countless games of Solitaire with Dota 2 every time I needed a break.
What I liked about the community of Dota 2 that it was seemingly better than that of Garena's (where most online interactions between Dota players occur) original W3 Dota. Gameplay-wise, people in Dota 2 actually intentionally choose support heroes to help their teammates. In a Garena W3 Dota game, if you happen to come up against a team with a solid lineup (not consisting of 5 carries), they're pubstompers and you should clear out immediately or you're in for a bad game. And there are really a lot of other differences between the Dota 2 and Garena W3 Dota community that makes the former more superior than the latter.
It is in my observations that I believe the relative "good" behavior of Dota 2 players is due to the mere fact that beta keys are limited and once they're banned from playing, it sure is going to take a hell lot of time to get another one. Kind of like Team Fortress 2 before it became Free-To-Play, nobody would dare to cheat (although some did anyway, with hilarious consequences) because they didn't want to waste the $60-$10 (depending on how early you bought the game) that they spent.
But now it seems that Valve has decided to turn Dota 2 into a free-to-play game and follow Team Fortress 2's business model to generate income, which is simply "to sell useless cosmetic items at ridiculous prices while taking advantage of people's gambling tendencies by capitalizing on selling keys that open special item crates". The good news is that the game is probably already in a complete working state and that Valve is ready to "sell" it to people. The bad news is that the game is now open for everybody to play, which includes the diverse species of 'tards that inhabit Philippine comshops, that I'm desperately so trying to avoid running into in games.
There were some comforting thoughts that came out of my mind after hearing the news, however. Steam's current way of game distribution is that every user account using Steam on a computer was given separate copies of games for themselves, even if they both owned the game. Which means there would probably hundreds of Steam accounts logging in a single computer in a comshop every month. Doing the math, that would mean 5GB~ (a single installation of Dota 2, not including the base Source Engine stuff) * 100 worth of data installed on a single computer, or 500GB. I highly believe that comshops do not have that kind of money to acquire hard drives larger than 500 gigabytes, nor would it give them any sort of business advantage for doing so. Also, every time a new user wants to play Dota 2, they would have to download the game again for themselves, which, given how immensely slow the average Internet connection in the Philippines is, would take a very, very long amount of time.
Also, Dota 2 has some very strict hardware requirements that would require beefy computers. Which means most comshops will probably not be able to play Dota 2 since they commonly employ Intel GPUs from 2005 as their graphics cards, unless the kids today are fine with playing games at slideshow speed (what has this generation come to?).
After writing all of that, I now feel kind of comforted that most kinds of people that I don't like to play with won't be able to play Dota 2. The game's matchmaker would also do good to keep me safe as well, since nowadays I usually get teamed up with and put up against respectable gentlemen who actually know how to play. And if buying from the Dota 2 store would guarantee me a spot in the Dota 2 community's civilized circle, I would totally throw my money in Valve's direction for the sake of my own sanity (sadly, not for the sake of my wallet).
Friday, September 2, 2011
Nightmare House 2: A Game of Pants-Shitting Misadventures
Don't worry, there aren't any spoilers in here.
At some point during the Steam Summer sale I bought the Valve complete pack out of instinct. I did not actually plan to buy the pack, I only thought that it would be a good idea to buy it right ahead while it was 75% off its original price. It was one of the best fifty dollars I've ever spent, however, my desktop messed itself up during that time period, but that's a different story.
I've been playing most of the Source games included in the pack, most notably Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead 2 and the Half-Life series. However, I've been lurking Reddit for a while and heard about this awesome Half-Life 2 single player modification called Nightmare House 2. It is a survival-horror game that strangely enough, starts off in a creepy old farmhouse. I went to the mod creator's workshop and was glad that it was completely free, and only required the Half-Life 2 Episode Two game content files, which I have thanks to the Valve Complete Pack. I wget'ed it from my laptop (seriously it's sooooo fast from there) then transferred and installed it to my desktop.
The Good stuff
First, there's the game's really excellent level design. The actual first chapter, called the "Prologue", was actually the first Nightmare House game, just included in the second installment as a supplement. Most of the game occurs inside the creepy old farmhouse, however, they made excellent use of the entire house, everything was nicely and creepily decorated, and there were absolutely no loading screens during the chapter. Seriously, one thing I hate about Half-Life 2 are the annoying loading screens because apparently because of the limits of the Source engine. Nightmare House managed to go around that.
As some people put it, "Nightmare House 2 is a combination of Half-Life 2 and F.E.A.R.". This is correct. Most of the enemies you are going to be facing in the game are zombies, the dark, and the instinct to involuntarily crap your pants. Also, the final boss showdown in this game is really, really similar to GLaDoS in Portal. You don't actually "fight" the boss directly in Nightmare House 2.
The Bad stuff
One thing I didn't like about Nightmare House 2 is that the farther you get through the game the more weapons you will get that will help you survive. A survival-horror game is defined as a game where you have a limited amount of things that will help you survive and the simple fact that you have only 5 bullets in your gun is the creepy part. In the Resident Evil games I'd really happy if I manage to find a box of shotgun shells, while in Nightmare House 2 finding a box of shotgun shells is as easy as just looking around. Or maybe because I played it in easy difficulty, I got a crapload of weapons and ammunition.
Overall, I think Nightmare House 2 is a great mod to play if you have bought Half-Life 2 Episode 2. It's just that if you're expecting the game to be very much like Silent Hill, Resident Evil or Amnesia, don't bother, because in this game you can kick anything's ass with the vast array of weaponry you will be receiving.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
The importance of defragmenting your file system
Some time this month my desktop decided to die after three years of proud service. I ran all kinds of diagnostics and found out that it was due to my GPU constantly overheating (it was due to dust completely blocking off the airways of the heatsink). So I replaced the motherboard and the GPU and got a new copy of Windows (because apparently Windows recognizes a new motherboard as a completely new computer). I left the other partition and hard drive intact, hoping that my games are still runnable after a fresh new install.
I reinstalled Steam in the same directory on the other partition where it was before, and it recognized all my games there instantly. It even read my previous download queues. For a week I let Steam download most of the Steam games from the Valve Complete Pack, which I have bought for $50 during the Valve Summer Sale).
After acquiring an almost complete set of Valve's source games (HL2 w/EP1 and EP2, TF2, CS:S, DoD:S, etc.), Steam started to act weird and froze frequently. It freezes the first time I start it. I'm getting pissed with this because my PC is new in a sense, and that I haven't even done anything with Steam when it happened. So something was definitely wrong there.
I googled for some solutions and they recommended turning on background processes and services. So I did. I even got to turning off MSE for a while, but still to no avail. I even deleted the .blob files inside the Steam directory so that it could update itself again, but still, it completely freezes.
At some point I just let Steam freeze and unfreeze itself while running. Then a dialog box showed up telling me that my Steam game files are horribly fragmented. Then I realized that file fragmentation was the cause of Steam constantly stopping.
I ran Defraggler and I let it analyze the drive where Steam was located. The result was both surprising and sad: The total size of the fragmented files has reached 38.6GB. That's the largest amount of file fragmentation I've ever seen, since I constantly defragment my NTFS partitions. So I let it work its magic, hoping that my problem with Steam will be fixed after defragging.
The real insult here is I get these shitty problems when I've already bought legal copies of games. I've done Valve a great favor buying their games instead of pirating them (which was what I have been doing for eight years until now), and now I'm faced with this dilemma with Steam.
I will edit this post and write an update if Steam gets fixed by Defraggler or not.
I reinstalled Steam in the same directory on the other partition where it was before, and it recognized all my games there instantly. It even read my previous download queues. For a week I let Steam download most of the Steam games from the Valve Complete Pack, which I have bought for $50 during the Valve Summer Sale).
After acquiring an almost complete set of Valve's source games (HL2 w/EP1 and EP2, TF2, CS:S, DoD:S, etc.), Steam started to act weird and froze frequently. It freezes the first time I start it. I'm getting pissed with this because my PC is new in a sense, and that I haven't even done anything with Steam when it happened. So something was definitely wrong there.
I googled for some solutions and they recommended turning on background processes and services. So I did. I even got to turning off MSE for a while, but still to no avail. I even deleted the .blob files inside the Steam directory so that it could update itself again, but still, it completely freezes.
At some point I just let Steam freeze and unfreeze itself while running. Then a dialog box showed up telling me that my Steam game files are horribly fragmented. Then I realized that file fragmentation was the cause of Steam constantly stopping.
I ran Defraggler and I let it analyze the drive where Steam was located. The result was both surprising and sad: The total size of the fragmented files has reached 38.6GB. That's the largest amount of file fragmentation I've ever seen, since I constantly defragment my NTFS partitions. So I let it work its magic, hoping that my problem with Steam will be fixed after defragging.
The real insult here is I get these shitty problems when I've already bought legal copies of games. I've done Valve a great favor buying their games instead of pirating them (which was what I have been doing for eight years until now), and now I'm faced with this dilemma with Steam.
I will edit this post and write an update if Steam gets fixed by Defraggler or not.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Why the games of tomorrow suck, and why we should stick to the classics
Let’s face it – the future sucks. Being so obese that you can’t lift your fat ass off your seat will be so commonly accepted. Robots will be left to do the dirty work, and that isn’t cool because, unlike the sweatshop workers of today, they don’t look sad and you can’t laugh at them. Robots are programmed to be happy while they do menial tasks, which sucks.
The future of gaming is even more bleak. Ever since Nintendo attempted to touch the more unfortunate side of the gaming society (aka old people), with their devices of doom called the Nintendo Wii, everyone, even non-gaming companies, have tried to follow suit to make digital life better for people over 40. Apple, for instance, created the iPhone and the iPad because they knew old people would go all sorts of crazy with keypad buttons, and that they would love a device that resembles their fantasies of the future during the 60’s.
Sony and Microsoft have tried to appeal to the much older community too, because apparently Nintendo has made a lot of money selling gaming consoles with remotes that were accidentally thrown into flat screen TVs, smashing them in the process, because they thought you have to throw the controller forwards when you’re playing Wii Bowling. They wanted to produce the same effect of making you look stupid while you’re playing (which has been the standard for the whole gaming era), sans the weird looking controllers we have been with since the beginning.
Enter the Kinect and the Move. Created by Microsoft and Sony respectively, these accessories will be available shortly to the Xbox 360 and the PS3. Both have been featured in the recent E3 2010, where nerds and gaming enthusiasts have gathered to watch the impending horror of the death of the gaming industry before their very eyes, in a fancy and exciting convention.
Both of these motion controllers, which feature state of the art sensors (I won’t go into any details here, go Google for it yourself) that somehow intelligently perceives your motion in front of it. This allows games like dancing to be more “dance-like” without the use of a heavy metal pad with four direction buttons on it. Boxing and fighting games wouldn’t need a badly designed glove-like accessory or a platform with infrared sensors that does the contrary to feel realistic. Driving is probably the worse – instead of using an already awkward-to-use steering wheel and pedals, you now just have to raise your hands in the air, grip and imaginary steering wheel, and you’re good to go. It’s like reliving what you were doing in your childhood again.
There’s also new ways of manipulating this new technology, like using it for simulation games like having a pet tiger in a jungle. With these new toys you can actually own a virtual pet tiger that you can feed, pet, and punch in the face by just letting your hands do the action in front of the motion sensors. Of course, all this does is just doom children when they realize that tigers don’t like being fed, pet, or punched in the face when they grow up as adults.
If there’s such thing as too much technology, it’s very apparent for the coming years of the gaming industry. This makes me want to throw away all my new games away and just start playing games that were made prior to 2008. Those were all better than most, if not all the new games we have now.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Top 10 FPS games (for me)
FPS (First Person Shooter) games have been the staple genre of the modern gaming world. For non-gamers, a FPS is a game wherein you directly control a character and see through his/her/its vision and fire projectiles at targets. Usually FPS games lets you take control of a bipedal creature wielding some sort of weapon, but in some instances, like first person space shooters, you take control of something else, such as space fighters.
Many people have been arguing about what are the top 10 FPS games from the past, and today. So I've made this short list of the top 10 FPS games, according to my own honest opinion. But don't worry. If you want to share your own, you are free to do so in the comments section of this post.
Please note that these ten games are not arranged in ascending or descending order according to rank, but rather, they fulfilled a certain criteria that landed them on this list.
10. Best Graphics (Crysis)
When Crysis was released in 2007, it was quickly acclaimed for its amazing graphics, however, not everyone had the same reaction since computers were shitty during the time. But when I built myself a new computer sometime in 2009 and played Crysis on it, I was immediately mesmerized by the sheer awesomeness of the graphics. The small, isolated island in the Philippines was so beautifully rendered that it made me believe that it's just a prerendered video playing. Of course, those assumptions were called off, as my computer struggled to keep the game running at a steady flow of 39fps, even without any anti-aliasing at High. Even after three years, Crysis is still popular among those gamers who burns money, and is a standard benchmarking platform for those who create the most powerful of gaming computers.
It's awesome because, since I have been playing games with shitty graphics that look nothing more than half the real world for a long time, that I realized soon technology would render near perfect graphics, if not the best or the smoothest.
9. Best Cinematics (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 1 and 2)
The three first Call of Duty games were, to be honest, stale and boring. Of course, it's historically accurate, but the drama of the WWII was just not captured during the first three games. The Modern Warfare series, however, changed the boring set of the first three games by moving the story into the future and adding exemplary cinematic effects into cutscenes, making the fictional plot more dramatic and realistic.
Another striking feature of the game, and the whole series itself, is that you always play with some sort of superior in the single player campaign who tells you to do everything while he sits back and pretends he's shooting at the bad guys. Not really much in the old CoD games, but in Modern Warfare, it's been there for a long time.
8. Best FPS bots (Quake III)
When I bought Quake III sometime in 2001, I became so addicted to the game that I finished my first gaming marathon (playing eight hours straight). It's not the gameplay that mattered during the game (although sometimes it did), but the simple, but powerful bots that are built in with the game. The same bots whom you'll bash with the words "cheater" and "hax0r" whenever they snipe you from the other end of the map with a rocket launcher. These bots are just so amazing that, it's quite impossible to find replacement bots on the Internet, and if there are, they're not really worth it.
7. Best FPS Storyline (Bioshock 1 and 2)
Bioshock takes us to the deep abyss of the Atlantic Ocean, where the fictional underwater city of Rapture, the metropolis of the free-minded people, crumbles and slowly dies. A man (whom you control in the game) apparently crashes into the ocean, and finds a bathysphere which takes him into an adventure to find out what is Rapture and what happened to the city. I won't go into any more details here, as it will spoil the plot, but if you happen to play or have played this game, you must understand that its originality, flow, and drama is more powerful than any other FPS game out there. It's like watching a movie.
6. Best puzzle FPS (Portal)
Portal is, by far, the shortest single player FPS game I have ever played. In my first playthrough of the game, I managed to finish it in about five hours, which isn't bad for someone who just begun playing it. The puzzles were somehow difficult, but is very rewarding once you finish them. And you won't get bored with the gameplay, as you can stick portals anywhere you like - provided that it's not somewhere metallic, or places you just shouldn't fire at.
5. Best FPS Series (Half-Life)
The Half-Life series takes us to the story of Gordon Freeman, a silent, and perhaps the only non-nerdy (who can explain his ability to climb ladders extremely fast?) physicist who works in Black Mesa, a fictional government science facility in New Mexico. Now suddenly something goes wrong and aliens start occupying the facility, and you must now escape and reach the Lambda Lab for help. The series itself has spawned forth other notable titles such as Counter Strike and Team Fortress, most of them popular through many years. The sequel to Half-Life, Half-Life 2, made the series better through the introduction of the Source engine, which gave us better graphics, AI, and added functionality of a full physics engine. Sure, the engine itself is dated, but it is one of the most versatile engines today, also one of the most stable.
4. Best multiplayer (Left 4 Dead)
Left 4 Dead is a Valve zombie game, and like most other modern games of Valve, it runs on the Source engine. But unlike other Valve and other zombie games, Left 4 Dead was one of those that are most centered towards multiplayer gameplay. It also introduced the AI Director, a full-fledged AI that controls different aspects of the gameplay, such as how many zombies will be spawned, where weapons will be found, etc. The game was such a success that it nearly overtook other famous Valve titles such as Team Fortress 2. Left 4 Dead's sequel added more weaponry, enemies, and levels to play in, but for me, the original was the best, as I had so much fun with it online in Garena. Sadly, my game friends moved on to Steam and left me in a desert hell full of Chinese people who can't speak English.
3. Most Freedom in an FPS game (Garry's Mod)
Garry's Mod is a mod of Half-Life 2 that allows you to do...well...almost anything you could ever imagine. Want to go on a headcrab shooting spree? Or build guided missiles? How about drive a wagon car with boosters to boot? You can do all three, and much, much more. Garry's Mod uses the Source engine to power itself, which means you also have cool physics to play with as well. You can also pose ragdolls, which is excellent for wacky photos or epic machinima. You can even just join in custom deathmatches, and even roleplay. It's also one of the best deals for a good FPS out there, just shell out $9.95 at Steam, and you already get near unlimited hours of fun with this game.
2. Best Action FPS (Duke Nukem 3D)
Duke Nukem 3D is the oldest game you'll find on this list. To be exact, it's just about two years younger than me, yet I enjoy it even now. But how did I discover this game? I salvaged through old CD collections and found this game alongside other games, and when I played it, it was hell lot of awesome. Sure, the graphics is incredibly shitty, but remember that in 1996, full 3D games with multiple floors were as rare, and FPS games with full 3D capabilities rarer.
Of course, Duke Nukem 3D did not deliver full 3D, only a full-3D environment. The enemies, pickups, and you were just pixely 2D sprites, augmented with bloody particles that were very gory and realistic during their time.
But what makes Duke Nukem 3D my best action FPS? The fast-paced gameplay, the awesome explosions, the hilarity of kicking aliens in the face, and the voice of a dude who speaks of nothing but kicking the asses of anything that's not a human female while going medieval on their asses and chewing bubblegum. Duke Nukem himself was a legend, a forgotten one, to be exact. And now that Duke Nukem Forever is officially dumped, there's no hint of what will be the future of the very badass Duke of Nukem.
1. First FPS (Quake 2)
I'm sure you're shocked. You might be saying, "Now hold on just a minute, Sulatang Tapunan, but Quake 2 isn't the first FPS. It's , and you're wrong. Sulatang Tapunan reader, in case you have forgotten, this list is based on me, and since you are probably years older than me, you immediately had those words in hand.
Quake 2 is, to be honest, the first FPS, and more importantly, the first video game I have ever played. My dad personally bought it for himself, since he had no idea what Quake 2 is. He even let me play the game, since those small squares of red that pop out of Strogg when you shoot them with a machinegun don't even look like blood. Or the gibs when you blast them with a rocket launcher looks more like mashed potatoes filled with ketchup than body parts.
But most importantly, it taught me composure, and the common-sense that everything in the video game world isn't real. It's a fantasy world. I had no thoughts, ever, in my life that video games are dangerous for children, the elderly, or anybody else for that matter. It's the awkward parenting and guidance that misled children, not the game itself. Quake II helped me become mature, logical, and open-minded. Sure, it glued me to the computer and gave birth to the nerd in me, but at least I didn't grow up the pussy way: children playing Hello Kitty Island and Mickey Mouse games because Mario depicts a plumber with a moustache stepping on turtles and shit.
It made me calm, and made me badass, because even if somebody told me that there's a serial killer-slash-pedophile is on the loose kidnapping, raping, eating, mutilating, and displaying dead bodies of children in plain view, I don't fret. So what if it's a little blood?
Special Mentions: Borderlands (most diverse), Counter-Strike (most frustrating yet addictive), Left 4 Dead 2, Call of Duty 1
Got something to say? Want to share a list of your own? Want to bitch the writer about changing the list above to your preferences (hopefully you don't)? The comments section is below.
Many people have been arguing about what are the top 10 FPS games from the past, and today. So I've made this short list of the top 10 FPS games, according to my own honest opinion. But don't worry. If you want to share your own, you are free to do so in the comments section of this post.
Please note that these ten games are not arranged in ascending or descending order according to rank, but rather, they fulfilled a certain criteria that landed them on this list.
10. Best Graphics (Crysis)
When Crysis was released in 2007, it was quickly acclaimed for its amazing graphics, however, not everyone had the same reaction since computers were shitty during the time. But when I built myself a new computer sometime in 2009 and played Crysis on it, I was immediately mesmerized by the sheer awesomeness of the graphics. The small, isolated island in the Philippines was so beautifully rendered that it made me believe that it's just a prerendered video playing. Of course, those assumptions were called off, as my computer struggled to keep the game running at a steady flow of 39fps, even without any anti-aliasing at High. Even after three years, Crysis is still popular among those gamers who burns money, and is a standard benchmarking platform for those who create the most powerful of gaming computers.
It's awesome because, since I have been playing games with shitty graphics that look nothing more than half the real world for a long time, that I realized soon technology would render near perfect graphics, if not the best or the smoothest.
Brings a tear to my eye.
9. Best Cinematics (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 1 and 2)
The three first Call of Duty games were, to be honest, stale and boring. Of course, it's historically accurate, but the drama of the WWII was just not captured during the first three games. The Modern Warfare series, however, changed the boring set of the first three games by moving the story into the future and adding exemplary cinematic effects into cutscenes, making the fictional plot more dramatic and realistic.
Another striking feature of the game, and the whole series itself, is that you always play with some sort of superior in the single player campaign who tells you to do everything while he sits back and pretends he's shooting at the bad guys. Not really much in the old CoD games, but in Modern Warfare, it's been there for a long time.
8. Best FPS bots (Quake III)
When I bought Quake III sometime in 2001, I became so addicted to the game that I finished my first gaming marathon (playing eight hours straight). It's not the gameplay that mattered during the game (although sometimes it did), but the simple, but powerful bots that are built in with the game. The same bots whom you'll bash with the words "cheater" and "hax0r" whenever they snipe you from the other end of the map with a rocket launcher. These bots are just so amazing that, it's quite impossible to find replacement bots on the Internet, and if there are, they're not really worth it.
7. Best FPS Storyline (Bioshock 1 and 2)
Bioshock takes us to the deep abyss of the Atlantic Ocean, where the fictional underwater city of Rapture, the metropolis of the free-minded people, crumbles and slowly dies. A man (whom you control in the game) apparently crashes into the ocean, and finds a bathysphere which takes him into an adventure to find out what is Rapture and what happened to the city. I won't go into any more details here, as it will spoil the plot, but if you happen to play or have played this game, you must understand that its originality, flow, and drama is more powerful than any other FPS game out there. It's like watching a movie.
6. Best puzzle FPS (Portal)
Portal is, by far, the shortest single player FPS game I have ever played. In my first playthrough of the game, I managed to finish it in about five hours, which isn't bad for someone who just begun playing it. The puzzles were somehow difficult, but is very rewarding once you finish them. And you won't get bored with the gameplay, as you can stick portals anywhere you like - provided that it's not somewhere metallic, or places you just shouldn't fire at.
5. Best FPS Series (Half-Life)
The Half-Life series takes us to the story of Gordon Freeman, a silent, and perhaps the only non-nerdy (who can explain his ability to climb ladders extremely fast?) physicist who works in Black Mesa, a fictional government science facility in New Mexico. Now suddenly something goes wrong and aliens start occupying the facility, and you must now escape and reach the Lambda Lab for help. The series itself has spawned forth other notable titles such as Counter Strike and Team Fortress, most of them popular through many years. The sequel to Half-Life, Half-Life 2, made the series better through the introduction of the Source engine, which gave us better graphics, AI, and added functionality of a full physics engine. Sure, the engine itself is dated, but it is one of the most versatile engines today, also one of the most stable.
4. Best multiplayer (Left 4 Dead)
Left 4 Dead is a Valve zombie game, and like most other modern games of Valve, it runs on the Source engine. But unlike other Valve and other zombie games, Left 4 Dead was one of those that are most centered towards multiplayer gameplay. It also introduced the AI Director, a full-fledged AI that controls different aspects of the gameplay, such as how many zombies will be spawned, where weapons will be found, etc. The game was such a success that it nearly overtook other famous Valve titles such as Team Fortress 2. Left 4 Dead's sequel added more weaponry, enemies, and levels to play in, but for me, the original was the best, as I had so much fun with it online in Garena. Sadly, my game friends moved on to Steam and left me in a desert hell full of Chinese people who can't speak English.
3. Most Freedom in an FPS game (Garry's Mod)
Garry's Mod is a mod of Half-Life 2 that allows you to do...well...almost anything you could ever imagine. Want to go on a headcrab shooting spree? Or build guided missiles? How about drive a wagon car with boosters to boot? You can do all three, and much, much more. Garry's Mod uses the Source engine to power itself, which means you also have cool physics to play with as well. You can also pose ragdolls, which is excellent for wacky photos or epic machinima. You can even just join in custom deathmatches, and even roleplay. It's also one of the best deals for a good FPS out there, just shell out $9.95 at Steam, and you already get near unlimited hours of fun with this game.
2. Best Action FPS (Duke Nukem 3D)
Duke Nukem 3D is the oldest game you'll find on this list. To be exact, it's just about two years younger than me, yet I enjoy it even now. But how did I discover this game? I salvaged through old CD collections and found this game alongside other games, and when I played it, it was hell lot of awesome. Sure, the graphics is incredibly shitty, but remember that in 1996, full 3D games with multiple floors were as rare, and FPS games with full 3D capabilities rarer.
Of course, Duke Nukem 3D did not deliver full 3D, only a full-3D environment. The enemies, pickups, and you were just pixely 2D sprites, augmented with bloody particles that were very gory and realistic during their time.
But what makes Duke Nukem 3D my best action FPS? The fast-paced gameplay, the awesome explosions, the hilarity of kicking aliens in the face, and the voice of a dude who speaks of nothing but kicking the asses of anything that's not a human female while going medieval on their asses and chewing bubblegum. Duke Nukem himself was a legend, a forgotten one, to be exact. And now that Duke Nukem Forever is officially dumped, there's no hint of what will be the future of the very badass Duke of Nukem.
1. First FPS (Quake 2)
I'm sure you're shocked. You might be saying, "Now hold on just a minute, Sulatang Tapunan, but Quake 2 isn't the first FPS. It's , and you're wrong. Sulatang Tapunan reader, in case you have forgotten, this list is based on me, and since you are probably years older than me, you immediately had those words in hand.
Quake 2 is, to be honest, the first FPS, and more importantly, the first video game I have ever played. My dad personally bought it for himself, since he had no idea what Quake 2 is. He even let me play the game, since those small squares of red that pop out of Strogg when you shoot them with a machinegun don't even look like blood. Or the gibs when you blast them with a rocket launcher looks more like mashed potatoes filled with ketchup than body parts.
But most importantly, it taught me composure, and the common-sense that everything in the video game world isn't real. It's a fantasy world. I had no thoughts, ever, in my life that video games are dangerous for children, the elderly, or anybody else for that matter. It's the awkward parenting and guidance that misled children, not the game itself. Quake II helped me become mature, logical, and open-minded. Sure, it glued me to the computer and gave birth to the nerd in me, but at least I didn't grow up the pussy way: children playing Hello Kitty Island and Mickey Mouse games because Mario depicts a plumber with a moustache stepping on turtles and shit.
It made me calm, and made me badass, because even if somebody told me that there's a serial killer-slash-pedophile is on the loose kidnapping, raping, eating, mutilating, and displaying dead bodies of children in plain view, I don't fret. So what if it's a little blood?
Special Mentions: Borderlands (most diverse), Counter-Strike (most frustrating yet addictive), Left 4 Dead 2, Call of Duty 1
Friday, October 9, 2009
5 people we all hate in FPS games
A first person shooter game is a video game wherein you play in a first-person perspective while shooting bad guys, or other players. First person shooters are becoming a popular genre for video games ever since Doom debuted in the early 90's. Game engines supporting first person shooters evolved ever since, from the first Quake Engine to Valve's Source engine.
Like every other video game, there are good players and bad players. However, there are just some players that you can't keep around in your game, because they act like dicks, or just plain stupid. Like...
5. The spammer
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The spammer comes in two variations. He can be a fire spammer (firing excessively and unaccurately at people)or a chat spammer (chatting unnecessary words). Whatever the spammer is, he is always illogical, non-thinking and prefers quantity over quality.
Noticeable features: They pick guns with more capacity to spam with.
4. The Rambo or Leeroy Jenkins
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A "rambo" is derived from John Rambo in the film "Rambo". Like John Rambo, rambo'ists charge at the enemy with little or no concern for self-preservation. Their chances of killing an enemy is mostly 60-40, but it could be higher or lower depending on the success of their attacks. Rambos usually attack solely on themselves, however, their skills can be augmented if one of their teammates bait themselves to the enemy, allowing rambos to freely attack their distracted enemies.
Noticeable features: Usually they don't listen to you about ambushing the enemy. They'll just charge right in and die afterwards.
3. The Sniper
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A "sniper" is someone who is fond of using sniper rifles, or weaponry equipped for long range combat. A sniper usually sits somewhere hard to reach, with an open view of the battlefield, taking out targets as they go. They're usually annoying to people who are involved in the crossfire, therefore some games ban sniping to improve game performance. Nevertheless, sniping is still a popular trade.
Noticeable features: Brags about his AWP or similar powerful rifle and how he kills you a thousand game meters away.
2. The Grenadier
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Grenadiers have a special love for grenades. They usually prefers grenades over everything, and strongly believe that grenades are the solution to everything.
Noticeable features: They meet you in close range and decides to lob a grenade at you instead.
1. The Dumbass
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Dumbasses in FPS games are characterized by failing in a scale above normal. They usually brag about their skills when they have none at all. Dumbasses can be a fail rambo, a fail sniper, a fail shooter, or a combination of everything.
Noticeable features: It's you.
![]()
Like every other video game, there are good players and bad players. However, there are just some players that you can't keep around in your game, because they act like dicks, or just plain stupid. Like...
5. The spammer
The spammer comes in two variations. He can be a fire spammer (firing excessively and unaccurately at people)or a chat spammer (chatting unnecessary words). Whatever the spammer is, he is always illogical, non-thinking and prefers quantity over quality.
Noticeable features: They pick guns with more capacity to spam with.
4. The Rambo or Leeroy Jenkins
A "rambo" is derived from John Rambo in the film "Rambo". Like John Rambo, rambo'ists charge at the enemy with little or no concern for self-preservation. Their chances of killing an enemy is mostly 60-40, but it could be higher or lower depending on the success of their attacks. Rambos usually attack solely on themselves, however, their skills can be augmented if one of their teammates bait themselves to the enemy, allowing rambos to freely attack their distracted enemies.
Noticeable features: Usually they don't listen to you about ambushing the enemy. They'll just charge right in and die afterwards.
3. The Sniper
A "sniper" is someone who is fond of using sniper rifles, or weaponry equipped for long range combat. A sniper usually sits somewhere hard to reach, with an open view of the battlefield, taking out targets as they go. They're usually annoying to people who are involved in the crossfire, therefore some games ban sniping to improve game performance. Nevertheless, sniping is still a popular trade.
Noticeable features: Brags about his AWP or similar powerful rifle and how he kills you a thousand game meters away.
2. The Grenadier
Grenadiers have a special love for grenades. They usually prefers grenades over everything, and strongly believe that grenades are the solution to everything.
Noticeable features: They meet you in close range and decides to lob a grenade at you instead.
1. The Dumbass
Dumbasses in FPS games are characterized by failing in a scale above normal. They usually brag about their skills when they have none at all. Dumbasses can be a fail rambo, a fail sniper, a fail shooter, or a combination of everything.
Noticeable features: It's you.
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