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So this is going to be a rant on how I feel fps gaming on the pc has become worse over the years. Especially the Call of Duty series.
First some background on me, I started playing my first fps game when I was about 15 and we just got cable internet. For the first time I could play with a decent ping and develop some skills. The games I started with were Enemy Territory and Call of Duty 1. Pretty soon I joined a clan for cod1 and started playing matches on clanbase, at one moment even playing for one of the best clans back then, H2K.
Then Call of Duty 2 was released and I immediately noticed some so called 'improvements' on cod1. Now when you fired a weapon you became a red dot on the minimap, a convenient X showed if you hit someone and the screen was cluttered with little skulls to show you the places that might be dangerous. The game still had good gameplay and more or less balanced weapons together with a nice set of maps. So it was all good with me.
Hey look! Red dots! Maybe some enemies are near!
Fast forward to cod4. It was more of the same little things like the red dots, death markers, hit blips, the only new thing being the killstreaks and perks. At first I thought it was an interesting concept but soon enough I realized that stopping power was almost necessary on any weapon and most matches consisted of people with frag x3, martyrdom and the p90 or an assault rifle with the grenade launcher. Ruining my day with their spam.
An ordinary day on a cod4 server
Maybe it was stupid, but I had high hopes for Call of Duty: World at War. Back to ww2 with my old trusted factions and their weapons. I wish I had done a little more research. Because the multiplayer was a straight copy of cod4, perks, killstreaks and even more little icons on the hud. My main dislike with cod:waw is that you no longer have faction weapons, but like cod4, unlock the weapons as you rank up. No longer you could distinguish between friend and foe by listening to the sound of gunfire, or gain an advantage by picking up an enemy weapon. The main trend I noticed so far was the addition of more gimmicky stuff like the bouncing betty, perks, killstreaks and less focus on the core: the actual fps game itself.
The epitome of this mindset is Modernwarfare 2. No dedicated servers making high latency and lag a normal experience, even more killstreaks, overpowered weapons and more gimmicks with the riot shield and tactical knife. This game threw any kind of necessary skill out of the window and replaced it with randomness. All due to the lack of dedicated servers.
Hmm I wonder if the host would have an advantage
What brings me to cod: Black Ops. They brought back dedicated servers and instead of expected smooth gameplay there is even more lag due to poor coding.
I could have added more things I dislike but I would like to conclude with the trend I noticed, and why I feel it is bad for online fps gaming on the pc. In all recent fps releases these so called 'gimmicks' are added to the point they handicap the core part of an fps: the actual stable and smooth gameplay with interesting and balanced weapons.
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stop playing CoD and play Counter Strike, it's the best FPS there is. Day of Defeat for WW2
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All so very very true.
I started a few years before you with Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. I also played on Clanbase for a series of top clans (MyGspot being EU champions several times over cups and over the ladder).
For me MoH:AA was the perfect FPS setup for competitive FPS, we often had 3-5 clan matches a day and there was actually a skill to the game.
I played CoD1 for a while but like 2 years after it came out (still had a big following), but never really got into it competitively as I played MoH:AA competitively for around 5 years, attending LANs such as Insomnia in the UK. Myself and the clans I played for were pretty successful to say the least.
Fast forward a little bit and I quickly observed the detereoration of FPS competitiveness. As you said, the CoD series was going downhill, so I jumped ship to MMORPGs, in which I led a team who, simply put, hardcored every major MMORPG out there. We would play for 18 hours a day on new games/new servers to show how much we wanted to dominate.
So I played these games for around 3-4 years, then went to consoles for a little bit. MW2 on Xbox360 I played on GameBattles "competitively"... GB is a subsidiary of MLG for those that don't know. But MW2 was and still is a case of Marathon, Lightweight, Ninja Pro alongside a UMP + Silencer. The single most OP class you can really have in the game... I mean, c'mon, how the hell can an SMG be so accurate at such a long distance?!
Fortunately, Starcraft 2 came out, and I thought I'd jump ship to RTS and try my hand at the worlds most competitive game. I sucked, and admittedly still do (finally advancing through the leagues though!).
Nevertheless, I'm straying off topic and would ultimately like to agree with you that PC FPS competitivity is terrible these days, and unfortunately all the old games that made competitiveness so good are dying out now (MOHAA, CS etc)
TLDR; I agree.
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What do you expect from a series with EA style publishing? There has been 7 CoD games in the last 7 years. Of course its becoming bullshit. Just look at how EA games like Command and Conquer developed. Same publishing style, same result. They see it works, and then they completely "over-drain" the franchise with a ton of new games in a quite short time.
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CoD2 ! ou memories : (((((((( but look at this. how many RTS games are there ? not so much more than FPS ones. FPS - CS, CSS, QL, little bit CoD4 RTS - SC, SC2, DoW and dying W3
We all know that CoD is gonna be just worst and worst, CoD2 got skill capped on high level play. others like CS, CSS, QL are here so play em.
MW2 on Xbox360 I played on GameBattles "competitively" cmon, there is no competitive play of CoD with perks, and that MLG league is one big JOKE cause that game cant be taken like a competitive game.
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IMO big competitions like WCG have it right, stick to CS 1.6 for competition. Games like CoD, BF, modern fps i guess, just aren't made for competition. They're made to appease the casuals who give them money. Stick to CS for competition.
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You'll get x prestige level, play a near carbon scene for scene campaign copy of mw1&2 and realise there are tonnes of single player games you could have played through. Even WoW is more fulfilling the fps nowadays.
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Less a state of FPS and more a state of CoD lol.
Anyway, people interested in this type of game will love this guy's Let's Play of Battlefield 1942:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Battlefield315
I still like your points though... My brother shows me those new games and I don't like them. Perhaps it's for the same reason I am so fond of SC... At the start of the game you are not at an immediate disadvantage because your opponent has gotten a better rank than you.
Really, giving players who have played longer (therefore know the ins and outs of the maps and general glitchy things about the game) the better weapons, while totally screwing newer players who don't feel like playing every day is a terrible idea. It's kind of like letting a Protoss build arbiters out his Nexus so he can feel gosu as he beats someone who is not allowed to get detection.
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play 1.6? it is still very much alive and still the best competitive fps out there.
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
http://www.quakelive.com/#!home
Quake Live for the win. Seriously, all others have no comparison if you want real FPS action. You sissy walking, crouching, wall hugging wannabes, go play a real FPS!
And its free to play for some limited features. No, I don't work for them, but I was an old school Quake 3 player.
You sissies! And agree, the state of competitive fps in the toilet, the fact that ID brings out this as their new product lol. But I'd say the Q3 was what SC was for RTS was for FPS.
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We can blame the consoles. Developers just make console games now and port them to PC, that's why most FPS games nowadays are crap. THe console players cant pirate as easily as the PC players. Why should they make games catering for players which will "steal" the game instead of buying it? Capitalism, what can you do?
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On November 22 2010 02:22 MightyAtom wrote: But I'd say the Q3 was what SC was for RTS was for FPS.
True. And CS 1.6 is the same for team FPSs..
Why do you expect anything but crap from Activision, hasn't Battle.net 2.0 taught you anything? The worst part is, all the brainless retards put up with that crap and still buy CoD games.
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all I have to say is that overall FPS skill level has declined since Q3A and UT1/UT2k4 fell from prominence
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On November 22 2010 02:34 h3r1n6 wrote:Show nested quote +On November 22 2010 02:22 MightyAtom wrote: But I'd say the Q3 was what SC was for RTS was for FPS. True. And CS 1.6 is the same for team FPSs.. Why do you expect anything but crap from Activision, hasn't Battle.net 2.0 taught you anything? The worst part is, all the brainless retards put up with that crap and still buy CoD games.
In all honesty, the CoD games are actually fun to play on public. Not everyone buys games because they want to go to LANs, win prizes...etc. You have to remember that the vast majority of consumers are casual gamers and couldn't care less about competitive features.
tl;dr the troglodytes have to be catered for, they make up >90% of the revenues
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lol, this is the reason i continue to play css. it's just so good and relies on skill (unless you're awping ) and there aren't any gimmicks to take away from that. and dust2 is THE SHIT!
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I guess I bet on the wrong horse back then by starting out with call of duty 1. Wish I started with cs then, now it is too late to really get good at it i'm afraid. And besides that I really don;t have the time anymore to play fps competitive on a high level. But it is such a shame that there are no true fps game developed anymore.
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Please play TF2 its the best modern day shooter at the moment. And you get to wear hats.
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United States4053 Posts
As an interesting note, I played on some (cracked) servers in CoD4 where Martyrdom and Last Stand were banned (dunno how, but you'd get kicked if you used them), and the game was actually pretty tactical and skill-based rather than people spamming nades all over the place. Just goes to show how a couple strong gimmicks can totally ruin a game x____x (cough tacknife commando)
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Unfortunately I had to swear off the CoD series. I don't even mind the perks and stuff as much, but not being able to join servers with custom rules was a real turn off. I put a ton of hours into MW2, but in the end cheaters just became so prevalent that it was more frustrating than anything else. I might pick up BF3 when it comes out, but I'm not holding my breath. Diablo3 and SC2 can probably float me for the next few years.
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On November 22 2010 02:50 eLiE wrote:lol, this is the reason i continue to play css. it's just so good and relies on skill (unless you're awping ) and there aren't any gimmicks to take away from that. and dust2 is THE SHIT!
i think you slipped in an extra s somewhere there
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