T w e n t y S i d e d
Which is how I feel about Halo. I will add, however, that being one of the “best console shooters out there” is not very high praise. This is akin to being the world’s cutest cockroach, or the world’s sexist leper.
I’m mystified that people are still trying to capture the first-person experience using a television and a joystick. Consoles are ideal for many types of gaming experiences. In fact, often times a console is the only way to properly experience a game. But first-person games belong to machines that can connect to a mouse, and anyone who tries to do it with a d-pad sould be whipped.
Check out some of the other links in that post: The link to the Yu-Gi-Oh! parody is pure gold, even if you’ve never seen the show. Anyone who’s seen some anime should get it. Many familiar anime tropes are delightfully savaged.
The Best of 2017
My picks for what was important, awesome, or worth talking about in 2017.
Good Robot Dev Blog
An ongoing series where I work on making a 2D action game from scratch.
Megatextures
A video discussing Megatexture technology. Why we needed it, what it was supposed to do, and why it maybe didn't totally work.
How to Forum
Dear people of the internet: Please stop doing these horrible idiotic things when you talk to each other.
Game at the Bottom
Why spend millions on visuals that are just a distraction from the REAL game of hotbar-watching?
Actually, I actually do better with a game controller than with a keyboard/mouse.
Granted, this is likely a result of my _utter_ incompetence at shooters overall, but….
Thank you for this Shamus, because now we can bask in the light of how much crap Halo and Halo 2 really are, and how much crap Halo 3 all the way up to Halo 3942 when everyone will realize that console fps are stupid and Microsoft won’t be able to milk the series because you know they will that many times if they can.
Actually, the one non-computer place that I kind of liked a FPS (which I agree are abomination on consoles), was my DS. The touchpad does a decent simulation of a mouse, and the ability to actually react and look was better than I expected.
But the DS does so many other things better that wasting it on FPS was annoying, so I stayed on the computer.
“the world's cutest cockroach, or the world's sexist leper”
Ha. I don’t know that console shooters are quite that bad. Still, when it comes to Halo vs. Generic B-Grade FPS such as Soldier of Fortune… I’d have to think about it for awhile.
I thought Halo and Halo 2 were pretty good. I don’t have a computer to play on but I still thought they were pretty good.
I don’t know … modern dual stick technology is pretty nifty.
FPS games that are more tactical in style seem to fare well on consoles
but if it is a FPS that is a freeforall shoot’em fest I’ll take the PC
Oh god. YOu’ve really got to watch the other episodes of that Yu-gi-oh series. He’s got like 11 of them now and I think he’s been putting them out one a week. Just classic pure classic.
The X-box is the only console I’ve played that actually made a FPS with somewhat intuitive controls. This is all due to the triggers. They feel somewhat like the triggers on an actual gun, my trigger fingers are resting on them the whole time, and it just feels right to squeeze them to shoot. Aiming and moving with the damned thumbsticks….that’s a different story.
Actually, one of the better FPS games released on console that played fairly well was Quake II on the Dreamcast (which had those two triggers that came later on in the xbox controllers). Of course, when a DC Q2 player played against a PC Q2 player…much pwn4g3 was inflicted upon the DC player.
It would be interesting to see a well-implemented Wii FPS game (I haven’t played red steel, but I’m told it isn’t as great as it could be) could turn out.
I think the one thing consoles may have over computer FPS’s is that the controllers were designed with gaming in mind. Aiming may be hard with the weird joystick thumbpad setup, but I think that the triggers and button setup makes up for it. It is extremely annoying when you are attempting to throw a grenade and end up crouching for a split second, or vise-versa (I have blown myself up far too many times when trying to get under something). Since all the keys on a keyboard look and feel the same, it’s very easy to mix them up. Has anyone here ever accidentally hit L1 when they wanted L2? Or just jumped over someone when trying to beat them down. (On the Xbox, that is.)
I once played a demo of Call of Duty 2 on the Xbox360. It was rather good, but a little frustrating because it took alot longer to aim than if I were to use a PC. The rest of the interface was okay — moving around, ducking, firing the weapon, jumping — but aiming was a real chore. So if there way to have a joystick and mouse combination, I’d be all for it. Or maybe joystick and light-gun.
So all it inspired me to do was wait for the PC release of that title.
little typo:
sexist != sexiest