By Jim Rossignol on October 14th, 2008 at 3:13 pm.
Do you play a multiplayer shooter on a regular basis? If so, what is it? Are you guys still hammering away at Counter-Strike? Has Team Fortress 2 retained its appeal for you over the year? Are you looking forward to Quake Live? Are you, by some peculiar happenstance, still playing one of the olden Quakes or the early Unreal Tournament? OpFlash perhaps? Do you play any FPS mods?
Also, what do you guys think of Multiplay’s new concept: Pickup.gg? Would you use a service like that to find you opponents, teams, and instant games? How do you find games at the moment? So many questions!
Speak!
Team Fortress 2 still gets trotted out. I think I went 4 months without playing it after I got bored, even missing a few of the class patches but I recently started playing again and it’s still as fun and frenetic as it ever was. It’s a great game to rediscover.
I’m not particularly looking forward to Battlefield Heroes or Quake Live, I shall be watching with interest and I’m sure I’ll give them a go assuming they’re free to play but I’m not that fussed.
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Never been too wildly big on online FPS’s myself, but Team Fortress 2 provides a couple of rounds of fun on a semi-regular basis.
Left 4 Dead is probably going to become my game of choice soon, though. It just looks so damn fun, and you KNOW that Valve are going to playtest, refine and patch the hell out of it to the point of delicious perfection.
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What? Why? When? How? Who? ANSWER!
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Pickup.gg? Is this similar to All Seeing Eye?
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I still play UT3. No mods, and I only really play deathmatch. I don’t like team games. I tend to use the in-game server browser to find games. That’s it really… Dull, dull, dull I know. I’m somewhat behind the times.
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I play TF2 occasionally, though Warhammer has taken most of my gaming time lately. When playing I generally see if my friends are on through Steam and then join whatever server they are in.
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I’m a TF2 man, Heavy by trade. Haven’t played as much recently though due to being sucked in by WAR.
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Team Fortress 2 is nice in that if I have a short amount of time, I can join a perpetual 2Fort server and have some fun. If I have to go suddenly, I can log out without really worrying about how much time is left on the clock and how that might make my team lose.
After a bad day of work, I either want to kill someone in a ridiculous fashion or be killed in a ridiculous fashion. Even if some jerk spy is dominating me, it’s still kind of funny and hard to take personally.
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Armed Assault, Battlefield 1942 (vanilla and DC) and Rainbow Six Vegas. Don’t get any joy out of typical FPS online modes, largely because I’m utterly rubbish and get shot in the face within two seconds.
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Just TF2 for me. Still as much fun as it ever was, and the server browser is fantasic- I can always find the style of game I’m looking for.
I’m looking forward to Battlefield Heroes more than Quake Live myself, but I think that’s because Quake 3 never really did it for me (Sorry Jim).
I never played Planetside, but I would definitely like to give that style of online FPS a go. Is Huxley still the best hope of that?
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Armed Assault: http://www.pukrw.com/wordpress/?p=82
Also, CoD4 for mindless shootyness.
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What? TF2!
Why? Fun SHOOOT!
When? The question is not when, but where…
How? Now brown cow.
Who? US.
That pickup.gg thingy looks interesting. I used to be in a CSS clan, but also played in mixes with a few decent blokes I had on my xfire list when they needed a fifth and if I wanted I jumped on. They were usually atleast a reasonable giggle and even sometimes great funs.
I’ve often thought about playing TF2 mixes but I know no one who plays that would invite me.
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just TF2 and I’ll be getting L4D when it comes out, still play Q3 sometimes though so I’ll definitely be trying out Quake Live
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Regular sessions:
* Team Fortress 2
* Day of Defeat Source
* CoD2
Sporadic sessions:
* CoD4
* Counter-Strike Source
* STALKER Clear Sky (connection problems in the game keep me from booting it up much)
* Albatross18 (Golf MMO)
I mostly play SP games though lately (freelance reviews on PC/X360).
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I play Call of Duty 4 on the work LAN occasionally. That’s about it really.
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I play a moderate amount of Team Fortress 2 and Call of Duty 4, and I sooometimes flit to OpenArena aswell.
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NATURAL SELECTION, the mod that so few play anymore but that still rocks like when it was young.
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Hmm I guess I am the only one looking forward to QuakeLive. I don’t know what it is. I played the hell out of Q3 years back, then stopped afer becoming consumed by other titles. But the idea of playing free, with a ranking system and such is kind of appealing. I’m curious to see what else they add to the game.
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I play quite a bit of HL2DM, but its getting harder as the servers have dried up due to TF2. I got bored with TF2 a while back..
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Team Fortress 2
Call of Duty 4
and occasionally quake 3 (yes really, it’s still that good after all this time
Just on publics with good pings atm or favourites.
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TF2 is the only one I play on any sort of regular basis, and even that is pretty far from regular.
I just join public servers, though I usually stick to the first ones I found that I really enjoyed.
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I play warsow and quake live.
And before you ask, I can’t give you any specifics about QL, the NDA basically gags all of the people in the beta from talking about it. If you like quake 3, you’ll like quake live.
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I play Quake 3 CPM – http://www.promode.org/ – on a regular basis. Duels and TDM- and 2v2-Pickups mostly.
I’m in a tdm team and we find practice clanwars just asking around in various IRC channels on Quakenet. When there are no tournaments around the corner, that can be difficult because most teams are not active. It’s still great fun when it works out.
Yes, I’m looking forward to Quake Live, although mostly because I hope it will bring more people into the original Quake 3 & Mods. Playing the Beta of course, it seems to be shaping up very, very nicely.
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Hate people so not really a big online type, but enjoy a few hours of TF2, not played since before the heavy patch, not sure why.
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Usually Team Fortress 2, ten years in the making and man was it worth it.
Although over the past week I’ve found myself getting sucked quite heavily into Crysis Wars. You know I disparaged this a fair amount before, but they’ve really tightened up the gameplay and it’s genuinely a lot of fun now.
Once you know what you’re doing and what objectives you need to focus on when, the game becomes a good collision of action gameplay with strategic thinking. The suit versatility and choosing between the available equipment help add to that.
At least when your team actually know what they’re supposed to be doing. Half the time I feel as if I’m the only one trying to get the TAC tank up to end the game, and even then everyone else is too busy playing “Gunship!” elsewhere to give me any decent support. Seriously, guys, I’m only half-way up the leader board and there are people with hundreds more points than me, why am I the only one spending to get the TAC up?
Anyway, it’s really fun, and it strikes me as the kind of game that would be really awesome to play with a regular group of people.
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I still play Codename Eagle every so often… its still the funniest game ever made, the bugs are like the hisses in old jazz lp’s.. ahhh god I love that game so much…
It was made in 200-2001 and is still played today by people online, even with its awful netcode. Battlefield Heroes has a lot to live up too, if i wasn’t also gagged by an NDA I’d tell you why so far it isn’t living upto it.
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Mostly TF2 these days.
Although I’ve also picked up RA3 again at work as of late.
And then there is my first love, Q3 Promode, which I play every so often. Good to see somebody else plays CPM around here (sbs)!
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Team Fortress 2 almost every day with the RPS chatters on the RPS server. I’m still playing it because it’s just incredibly comfortable to slip in to and it’s still funny; I still hear the characters come out with little phrases I’ve never heard before.
Red Orchestra drags me back in semi-regularly; It’s a very atmospheric game and fulfils my cog-in-a-machine urge where I can enjoy being an unimportant grunt in an epic battle. I can’t wait to see what Tripwire are working on.
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I can’t stop playing CoD4 on the pc. It basically is Counter-Strike 2. I know the single player is supposed to be good but I just haven’t gotten around to playing it. It’s like when I played thousands of hours of CS before I ever tried Half-Life (and ultimately didn’t like it because it was the same engine that I am used to bunny hopping and boosting through roofs and skyboxes on).
I’ve had to reinstall it a couple times and both times I didn’t save my file so I had to get back up through the ranks again and that was fun.
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Hurrah, another opportunity to pimp Dystopia!
The heavy update didn’t pull me back into TF2 like I’d hoped, still don’t have any of the unlocks. Maybe the next one will do!
That pickups thing looks rather nifty, there was an IRC bot for Dystopia that would do the same thing (make teams, set game and ventrilo servers up, etc). I might see if I can try some UT3/CoD4/TF2 matches on it and decide if I like any of them more competitively. Of course whether it’s any good entirely depends on what the community who uses it is like, the advantage of a small mod community is knowing everyone and being sure that you’ll have a good time if you hop on ventrilo and join a server with them.
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Outside of term-time, I play FPS entirely too much. This year I’ve been playing Enemy Territory:Quake Wars, TF2 and CoD4 in about that order.
ETQW was my main game as it was the only large team FPS in recent years that was brave enough not to let a pseudo-realism fetish get in the way of fast fragging.
I played TF2 regularly for a fresh outlook and original direction, but 95% of public servers were terrible 24/7 FASTRESPAWN OMG GO GOGO 2FORTZZZZZ, meaning I limited my play to Knifeback Mountain and the RPS community server. If it hadn’t been for finding good servers I would have considered my money wasted, like how I consider the money paid for DoD:S and CS wasted.
I dabbled with CoD4 once for a couple of weeks just for variety. Was fun enough as long as I could find a good server that wasn’t running a Hardcore campfest. Good game, but not really my thing.
I’m dabbling in lots of betas for upcoming FPS, am looking forward to playing Quake Live and griefing on Battlefield Heroes.
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TF2 for the win always fun to pick up and push the little cart.
Battlefield heroes is fun but a little unbalanced and needs some polish still. Beta only has 2 maps and its fairly easy to own with one or two classes. For instance they try to do the spy in battlefield heroes but its almost impossible to hit anyone withe knife. Beta is fun though. I hope I’m not breaking a NDA :S
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UT2004 – I’ve been playing regularly since then
TF2 – when there’s a patch
Zombie Panic Source – flavour of the month – it’s good despite some rough edges, the big-budget L4D should be amazing
They all have decent server browsers and inbuilt voice, so I don’t see why anything else is needed.
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I play CS 1.6 when I have the time, both pub and praccs. I’ve played it since beta 6 or so, and for the past few years I played several matches most days of the week. It doesn’t get old (still the most popular online shooter by a mile)
Sometimes I get around to playing some Q3 Clan Arena and TFC. TF2 bores the living shit out of me
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Played Counter-strike Source competitively until recently, been to last 5 or so i-series and a few other LAN events. Playing quite a bit of tf2 at the moment :D
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I CAN NOT WAIT FOR QUAKE LIVE, sorry, needed to get that out of my system.
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I haven’t played an online FPS regularly since the spring. Just don’t feel like it. On top of that, none of the stuff coming out this fall that I want is really multiplayer focused either. Multiplayer FPS’ are dead to me until a proper Battlefield 3 comes out.
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CoD4 TDM, only.
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COD4 is my multiplayer aggression outlet of choice atmo.
As a casual player (play for a few days and then take a month or so break) I get frustrated by my lack of progress. I can get up to mid table but no further. I wish more PC game offered non competitive on-line co-op mode like Gears of War.
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I’m shocked that no one didn’t say Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. Its the best Online FPS there is atm. Its not about killing people and more about people working as a team to win. If you haven’t tried it out, you should! It only costs about 20€.
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I don’t really play FPS’ online much anymore, but I did get into the Quake Live Beta and it was a nice return to that game after so many years. I’d almost forgotten what manic mp shooters were like. Needless to say I got my ass properly kicked.
nabeel
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TF2. Still. Bitches gotta burn!
@Manlove – No joke, I was also going to add that I used to play some ET:QW, but stopped when the servers started drying up.
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There only one FPS game to rules them all : Penguins Arena.
Penguins fighting each other. Freaking Penguins goddammit!
Did you know that we added game modes, a map creator, penguins customization… did you know? huh?
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I play both COD4 and TF2, but being rather antisocial, as well as rather bad at both, my online FPS time can definitely be described as “occasional.”
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its all about the mods.
Natural selection (half-life) first person biter
Hidden Source (half-life 2) first person stabber eater
Project reality (battlefield 2) first person hiding IED’s on lamposts.
Call of duty 4 and Team fortress 2 manage to come though unedited.
What about non FPS mods of FPS games? (alien swarm)
I love to flood non tactical team games with tactics, get in a Quake live team play server with a few friends and issue suppressive fire.
Oh, and Splinter cell chaos theory ( multi-player is an FPS’s for one side)
Finally and most recently, Brothers in arms, although i hardly consider it an FPS as I shoot no-one, my AI squaddies do my dirty work.
Oh, and SWAT 4, over lan with my girlfriend, she executes the captives who she deems to be perverts or murderers.
There will be more, I’ve played all these this month.
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I’ve already mentioned ETQW, Manlove. While I too think its the best online FPS, I’d be more qualified in recommending it to people as its not for everyone. It is going for really cheap right now, but you should still try the ETQW demo v.2 first. (here: http://files.filefront.com/Enemy+Territory+Quake+Wars+v20+Demo/;9454627;/fileinfo.html)
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Not played Quake live btw, but i am planning too.
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@Seniath
There’s still more than enough servers to play on, but yeah you are right that there really isn’t that many compared to many other online FPS’s. Because of the servers, you start know all people, how they place etc. And sometimes even new servers pop-up. But what the game really needs is a new content update like maps etc. But I still urge people to try it out!
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Played Counter-Strike for 5 years, then CSS. Played both CSS and Team Fortress 2 when that came out, the past 6 months I now just play TF2.
Went from playing public only to public & competitive, then competitive only, back to pub & comp and now public at the minute over 8 years. Doesn’t time fly
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used to play a lot of q3 cpma, am now in the testing for quakelive and its kinda sweet ^^
the most tense mp matches i every played were some s&d and tdm in cod4… the weapon customization is just my fav! i’d love to see more of this in upcoming games!
just finished bf bad company and started brothers in arms hells highway… both on x360, very nice games indeed but i dont think i will play them online very much :D
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Oh yeah, and the pickup channel is brilliant for TF2 6v6 games. Some quality players from top teams play quite often.
Alas Left 4 Dead is coming out soon, (huzzah!) so I shall probably be devoting my online fps time soley to that
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I’ve been playing a lot of Insurgency lately. It’s a great mod but suffers from a ton of TKers.
Other than that I frequently play CoD4, TF2, and Arma.
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I don’t really play them on PC these days – outside of term I play CoD4 on the 360 and occasionally Halo 3/GoW. I used to play a lot of Counter-Strike – I suspect that it’s probably the game I’ve clocked the most hours on, ever. Tried it recently and I was rubbish. Not that I was ever great, but it was jarring to just keep dying.
TF2 I’ve never really ‘got’, possibly just because I’m rubbish at it and have very little impact on the game. Looking forward to Left For Dead though.
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TF2 still remains my FPS of choice.
I mostly play either Warhamer Online or Company Of Heroes, so its nice to play an FPS to suit a particular mood I might be in.
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Started playing online FPSs since I was on 33.6kbps. Back then some employee of my ISP’s had covertly set up a Quake 2 server on their computers so I got absurdly low pings even on that crappy connection. That got clamped down before long and I gave up, couldn’t get a decent game. A few years later I tried again with Q3A on 56kbps, but my connection couldn’t hack it until I discovered the Rocket Arena 3 mod: with only 2 players on a small map, I could get semi-playable pings even connecting from across Europe, so that gave me a few months of entertainment over university holidays.
I got back to RA3 about 18 months ago or so, was surprised to see there were still servers about. Played obsessively for a month or two, hooked up with some Venezuelans who were hosting regular games and kept their servers mostly clear of people using hacks.
I enjoyed FEAR for a few months, though the number of bunnyhopping nitwits 1-shotting people with their feet eventually drove me to quit and go back to RA3 for another month or so.
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TF2, DOD and INS and run some servers of these with a similarly aged bunch of coots… not quite cobra kai but I’ve been away last 4 weekends. Been on the RPS server a few times.
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The best online FPS out there is Red Orchestra. Period. Next comes Quake Wars, then Armed Assault, then COD4 (which as someone said is CS:S 2).
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The longest i’ve gone without playing TF2 since it came out was about 2 weeks. Now, i don’t play as much as i used to, at it’s peak i probably played about 3-4 hours a day but i still play around 6 hours a week.
Right now i’m mainly playing Crysis Wars.
Looking forward to:
Left 4 Dead
Battlefield Heroes
Quake Love
In that order.
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I’ve been without a gaming connection (Uni firewall) for a year now. I rarely played online shooters, as, though I’m not useless, I’m no where near as good as most.
TF2 allows for that, it’s difficult to feel entirely extraneous in a TF2 game.
I’m really looking forward to Left for dead. Having only four players on a cooperative game is much, much more appealing. Also, zombie games are not anywhere numerous enough.
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Used to do a lot of TF2, but these days it’s pretty much all Zombie Panic! Source all the time.
Put it this way, in the past two weeks of 50 hours playtime, I’ve played Age of Chivalry 1.3 hours, Team Fortress 2 for 2.3 hours and Zombie Panic! Source for 46.1 hours.
More than 46 hours! That’s almost 2 whole days of nothing but ZPS!
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I’ve never been much into online play with strangers, or even deathmatches.
Usually, I only play multiplayer games with a couple of friends, on LAN, from time to time. We’re usually 3, so most team based games with no bots/AI are lost for us.
We used to play mostly Jedi Knight/Academy and Operation Flashpoint, now it’s mostly HL2MP and co-op mods (Synergy, Follow Freeman.. there’s still one we need to try), and recently a bit of Splinter Cell : Chaos Theory, but we just began.
We’ve never really been into “pure deathmatch” à la Quake/UT (Jedi Knight has the Force and sabers ; HL2MP has the physgun). Battlefield or TF2 never felt fitted for us, because it doesn’t look like teamplay would be interesting – or doable – with just 3 players on a LAN ;)
Now maybe it’s a misconception… You tell me, RPSers!
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I am being owned in the private beta of Quake Live.
I also waiting for a new version of Zombie Master and Resistance, both mods of HL2.
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My computer’s graphics chip is made of wood, so I can’t play much without getting my butt kicked. I play a Jedi Academy mod called Movie Battles 2 mostly. I play Serious Sam co-op, DoD, Zombie Master, and Team Fortress Classic every now and then. Used to play Zombie Panic! Source, but they switched to the Orange Box engine, and now my PC crashes whenever I try to run it :(
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I still play TF2 a lot, but often I suffer from an sense on bemused ennui after a play session. The previous FPSs I played for this long were BF2 and BF2142 which both had persistent career progression.
After each new TF2 update comes out and I’ve got the unlocks I’m left thinking “what is it all for?”.
Red may defeat Blu, or Blu may reign supreme (yeah like that ever happens), but then it’s back to square one.
I may have rocked the scoreboard and block the critical capture that won us the game, but it matters not a jot.
It’s like Counterstrike, you just get into a rhythm, round after round with no end or ultimate goal.
Is it the fate of every multiplayer FPS that is played for too long, that any one game has no meaning? Career progression gives you a reason to keep playing, but it still leaves each game faceless.
Man, I wish I had had unlimited dialup when Planetside was current (although I’ve heard that was also perpetual stalemate).
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Also, not interested in Quake Live beyond a tech proof of concept. It makes for good games journo fodder: new business model etc. etc. but a slightly less fugly Q3 for free == meh.
I long ago moved beyond pure Deathmatch (probably TFC), and haven’t looked back.
Kills for kills sake is boring, objectives are the way to go.
Is it going to include ET? That might be worth a shot.
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One last thing:
The past 2 days have been 100% Zombie Panic!
Since it’s been hosted on Steam tons of people like me have given it a shot and found it’s loads of fun.
It fills that gaping Left4Dead hole.
Braaaaains!
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Currently my online FPS of choice is Team Fortress 2, although I always feel crappy when I play it. Literally the only class I can be sure to get any kills with is the Heavy, and it’s pretty easy and simple to be as the Heavy. It’s the populist’s choice. I like playing as a Demoman the best, but it’s always frustrating to fail.
Otherwise, a bit of Synergy these days, although I hate the Trials stuff! Just gimme the things that Valve made, and I’m a happy bunny. That to me, is the whole draw of it. “Wouldn’t it be great to play Half Life 2 cooperatively?” not “Wouldn’t it be great to play Half Life 2 cooperatively, but with badly-textured levels which feature no combat?” If I want that stuff, I can play Monkey Island!
Really looking forward to both Battlefield Heroes and Quake Live. WOW takes away a lot of money I have to spend on other games, and the online FPS genre isn’t one I play that much, so freebies are awesome, especially if they give me the chance to play the great titles I may have missed.
Instant Action is good for that too, although I don’t like jetpacks.
And yeah, I like this match-making stuff. The things I don’t like are the annoying need to forward ports to host games, and stuff like that, although I can understand these things are necessities that can be bypassed with a little technical know-how. But yeah, greater accessibility is a plus. Trawling through server lists is nostalgic, but bloody archaic. I applaud Steam Friends, and Xfire.
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I still play TF2 quite a bit, Valve has kept it fresh by continuously adding content. I suspect I’ll be playing it for years to come!
I also *gasp* play the occasional console FPS online, but I suppose that’s not relevant here :P
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Team Fortress 2 for me mostly, it’s really great. I mostly play it 1-2 weeks after the class packs though, when the initial frenzy has died down, until I have the new unlocks and played the new maps to death. A pity cp_steel was underplayed. The server browser is great, there’s a big community, I always find games on servers I visit halfway regularly.
Unreal Tournament 3 would be higher up in my choice if I’d have found servers where other maps would be played than Biohazard and Deck (for DM), and Suspense (for VCTF). the Warfare mode is nice and has no such overplayed maps, except if you count Downtown. The negativity in the community kinda killed this one though, and there’s rarely many people online. I tried to get into clans, but just suck too much for them I guess.
What I’m looking forward to is Quake Live, and Left 4 Dead – particularly Left 4 Dead.
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An addition: I’m not really looking forward to Battlefield Heroes, it looks way too arcade-y and simplistic for my taste. And I might suck, but in publics I’m still near the top in both TF2 and UT3, so I don’t suck horribly :P
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For the guys in quake live, does it really play as smooth and awsome.com as quake3 is?
ive been hoping for a beta key FOREVER, and its not come yet :(
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@Theo
yeah. It’s as smooth as VQ3. There’s been some minor changes to the netcode and weapon balance, but nothing to write home to mom about. I’ll repeat, if you like quake 3, you won’t be dissapointed with live.
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On the FPS side, I prefer to play the Single Player ones, probably because of the Half-Life Series. But TF2 is a lot fun. Even when loosing, eventually something will happen that will make you laugh, and games are meant to be fun anyway.
Yesterday, my team was defending our last CP on Granary, and while trying to get the second point back, I went on a x1 withagainst a Demoman on the duct in the upper-right side. After some time, I killed him (I like to throw the sticks back to their master, as a Pyro :P) and realized that he was a friend of mine. He message’d me immediately on Friends because he didn’t noticed me on the server either. The best of all, he was recording XD
In general, I’m all about SP FPS and TF2, and, sometimes, CSS. All the FPSs seems a bit generic nowadays… So:
What? Team Fortress 2
Why? Because it’s fun and so not generic
When? Almost everyday
How? Making everyone scream FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!
Who? Us
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I’m still enjoying TF2, even more then a year ago. The constant updates and the humour give me a reason to spend most of my gaming time on this game.
I also regularly play a couple of rounds of DoDS, but that will almost certainly be replaced by the newest awesomeness constructed by Valve. Zombies here I come :)
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Day of Defeat & Day of Defeat: Source has always been the ones for me.
I’ve tried Counter Strike too unforgiving with the wait to get back into the game punishing weaker skilled players and rewarding those with the time to put into it.
TF2 is excellent in so many ways but didn’t capture me.
I’ll prioritise and recommit for Left 4 Dead when it’s out.
Anticipating Awesomeness….
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I play alot of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (I’m in a clan or something – don’t really know how or why that happened) and Halo CE.
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TF2, it’s like a pickup game of basketball. Easy to get into, easy to get out of, and high-energy entertainment.
There’s some good groups doing stuff with games like OFP/ArmA, and if they solved some core problems, I could very easily find myself playing an evening of that every once in a while. Those core problems are:
A. Multiplayer missions are time-intensive to code, and hence lack the surprise element. As a result, they’re designed to be played several times, and usually, the “replayability” is done by adding difficulty.
B. Many of the more popular playing styles are ill-suited to the game.
__1. Deathmatch and Capture the Flag games can’t compete with the Battlefield/Team Fortresses/Whatevers of the gaming world. A “Realistic” FPS playing an “Artificial” rule set is going to pale when compared to an “Artificial” one geared to the “Artificial” rule set. Put another way, it’ll all boil down to sniping or bomb-spanning.
__2. Capture The Island/Evolution is just one big grind.
If you look at a TF2 game in terms of how intense the action is at any given point, you’ll see a nice lull at the beginning, several peaks and troughs, leading up to a crescendo at map end, which occurs anywhere between 5 and 30 minutes after it starts.
A long lull should start things out as players maneuver to bring the most amount of violence on the other side in a short a period as possible. Then the violence happens, both sides afterwards consolidate, and repeat until mission end.
That’s true of TF2, where we’ve got respawn waves, intermediate levels and übercharges to help us; and it’s also true of an ideal “realistic” game — only the latter should have a longer interval between violent moments, and greater effort required to concentrate violence (from as simple as maintaining tasking and formation in a convoy or patrol to as complex as a combined ground assault with coordinated air and artillery assets).
But for that to work, mission generation needs to be much faster (a player in a “GM”/director position would work really well), and the game needs to communicate to the player how it should be played.
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Battlefield 2142 and ET:QW: gimme fire squads and give me team play or gtfo. I would still be playing RA3 if I hadnt lost my Quake3.
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The only online FPS I’m playing at the moment is still TF2. Is probably the game that I’ve spent most time on ever. As a warmup to L4D I’m again trying Zombie Panic! Source, pretty fun mod.
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CoD4 for me.
Also a little CS:S and DoD:S now and then.
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My ETQW addiction has subsided a bit and there’s not been anything similar out for ages.
Actually, I hope that pickups.gg adds support for ETQW. Being able to assemble a team easily would make it much easier to get new players to stick with the game long enough to learn it.
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I usually play CoD4 HC w/ “realism” mods. I don’t really play stock anymore, reason being they STILL won’t let us edit our classes mid-game (wtf?) and too many fucking bunny hoppers (around corners, to dodge bullets, etc.)
I also used to play Insurgency, but then found a little mod called Resistance and Liberation (RnL) and never turned back, despite them only having 6 guns in total.
Play TF2 from time to time, mainly as medic, pyro, and heavy because I suck at all other classes. Haven’t even unlocked any weapons, though, since I play so little.
Occasional DipRip player, too, if it isn’t lagging too bad for me.
I play CoD4 and RnL to subdue my occasional/frequent stalking needs(love to sneak up on people, flank, etc., and stock CoD maps are too small for that). I play TF2 and DipRip when I feel like getting owned, being called a n00b, and getting yelled at for not healing well enough, or whatever.
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No.
I’m not particularly great at them, and not into spending a week getting my backside kicked to pick up the basics.
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Fun is sorted: TF2, Left 4 Dead incoming, COD4. Fine.
Competitive FPS is dead. CSS is a joke. CS1.6 needs to be remade, or someone needs to cotton on to what makes it good (and boy can I tell them) and make something equal.
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Oh, and a whole bunch of us Uni types are playing Hidden: Source (thanks Ging!) whilst we wait on L4D.
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TF2 is King until Left 4 Dead arrives. What more do you need for online FPS action?
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i’m the ugly duckling here, i don’t do any MP at all, in any genre. although every few years i’ll get an itch to try an mmo to see if the genre has evolved any since the last time… usually a short reprieve before i go back to singleplayer gaming.
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Mostly TF2. A few games of Battlefield 1942 here and there. Maybe a round of TFC Dustbowl to remind me of my roots :)
TF2 is even fun when you’re losing. It’s so silly and absurd that you can’t help but laugh at least once per round (death cams showing a freeze-frame of your killer’s gibs flying everywhere are the greatest)
It’s a shame that so few FPS games have worthy server browsers.
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Still got love for the TF2, yo. Probably play it every other day, at present, despite having loads of other games waiting for me to get stuck into. Probably won’t even start more than one or two of them before L4D takes over my life.
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Hello ¬___¬
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o/
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Seemingly along with a few others here, I’ve never been wrapped up in the online shooter space (partly due to technology, but partly due to not having the 1337 mouse skillz), but Team Fortress 2 has been my buddy all year long. I’ve clocked up 150+ hours which is a first for me in the online shooter world.
I guess it’s because it excites the tactician part of my brain and I can be MVP without being a particularly accurate shot.
Obviously it helps that it’s extremely balanced in my opinion, and that Valve are the gods of content due to their dedication to releasing maps/updates/game modes/weapons etc. completely free. In these Actizzard times I can’t help but love Valve for this.
Got my eye on Left 4 Dead too.
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I’ve been playing TF2 and CoD 4 on a regular basis since they were out last year.
And after buying Garry’s mod and Css together on the cheap, have been playing them too.
I can’t handle any more online games, my collection has already reached critical capacity. :(
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Team Fortress 2. That is all.
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Battlefield 2. There is no better large-scale online FPS, period.
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I still play CS 1.6 regularly. 6 years since I started it.
Feels like crap on public servers, but with the right people competetive matches are awesome. The maps are really, really well made.
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Half-Life 2 deathmatch is about the only online deathmatch FPS I play. Yes, that’s right, HL2DM. I used to play a bit of Unreal Tournament 2004 with friends but it’s just too arcadey – ridiculously fast, don’t enjoy the no-reload thing (reloading guns is a personal pet love), etc. HL2DM offers the right speed, the right amount of action and generally just does everything well. Weapons-wise a tad a boring after a while but eh, can’t win everything.
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DOD: Source, Forgotten Hope 2 (for that clog in the machinery feeling) and a little bit of Natural Selection (when is NS2 ever going to come out??)
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OH, have to say Savage: Battle for Northrend since no one brought it up and i really played that quirky game.
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Played Team Fortress 2 regularly until Steam stopped working for me recently, so until that’s fixed I’ve reverted to Call of Duty 4.
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I do:
-Battlefield 2142 (not much anymore)
-CoD 4 (for fast fragfests)
-Day of Defeat Source (main game atm)
I did:
-CS
-Quake 1+2
-UT up until 2005
-Planetside
I will:
-L4D
-CoD 5 (propably)
-The next Battlefield
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Red Orchestra still keeps me playing, I don’t get the same experiences anywhere else. Team Fortress 2 is also a big part of my diet, aside from them I haven’t played any other online FPS for a while.
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TF2. It’s the only consistent one I’ll keep going back to. Bits and pieces of occasional others, (CS:S, Zombie Panic: Source) but really it’s all about TF2. Will get L4D though.
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Call of Duty 4, Team Fortress 2, Counter Strike Source when I get the urge.
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TF2, still.
It just keeps giving. I really don’t understand why it hasn’t got a bigger player base than the CS’s of this world. Oh yes, the pursuit of l337ness (YAWN).
Combat Medic is fantastic. As is hit and face Pyro-ism!
I wonder how L4D will cut into Valve’s own market share, seeing as most people seem to be intending to give it a go.
Crysis Wars is ok, but the gigantic levels are too much of a good thing. I got tired of being headshotted from a mile away by a guy in a bush (like BF2 has there ever been a game that encourages so camping or VTOL/Jet hogging?) and the more deathmatchy games are yet another example of death by l337.
Anyway, back to TF2.
“You want a second opinion? You are also ugly!”
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TF2, mostly. I play some CoD4 and Battlefield 2, but only at a LAN centre, since my PC can’t handle the first and I don’t have the second.
I’ve also recently got Tribes 2 again after about seven years. One of my favourite games of all time. Mad dashes with the flag, mowing people down with a low-flying Shrike, screaming “SHAZBOT!” when you fuck up… Good times.
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Counterstrike is still the game I play the most – have been in a mature clan for years and play a match or two most work nights; it’s both a social and gaming thing.
Using Enemy Down, natch. Vent for team chat. Also ED’s mixes system for pick-ups when short of players. Should also mention I’m connected to ED, but can still whole-heartedly recommend it – proudly.
Apart from that, TF2 & COD4 for public jollies (Counterstrike pubbing is not fun, I don’t care what anyone says). Basically, I was a Quake player who gave up on 56k around the time of Quake 3 and didn’t FPS online much until I got a Broadband connection, round about the release of CS. It immediately, completely replaced Quake for me – though I still love anything brown.
Oooo – almost forgot Red Orchestra. What a brilliant game.
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I thought it might be worth looking at the Steam stats for most played. (first number is current players, 2nd is peak today)
84,191 87,341 Counter-Strike: Source
75,060 80,143 Counter-Strike
12,720 14,806 Team Fortress 2
11,421 12,249 Condition Zero
7,280 7,626 Day of Defeat: Source
3,106 4,057 Garry’s Mod
2,647 3,220 Zombie Panic! Source
2,285 2,772 Age of Chivalry
2,273 2,607 Insurgency
CS:S has only recently overtaken the 1.6, and wierdly almost as many people play condition zero as tf2
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TF2. Actually, right now I’m on a term abroad with a crappy laptop. But if I was back home with my gaming PC, TF2. I’ve never really gotten into multiplayer games much before, but I’ve clocked well over 100+ hours in TF2, and it hasn’t gotten old yet.
I also tend to play a bit of Day of Defeat Source ever now and then, as well as little spurts of Counter Strike Source. However, those gaming sprees tend to end in sheer frustration. In TF2 I’m usually one of the top three players on the server pretty easily. In DoD or CS, I tend to die a lot and my kill to death ratio in both of them is absolute crap.
Oh, and I can’t wait for L4D. Pre-ordering it as soon as I can.
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Recently school has kept me from doing much gaming of any kind, but during the summer I was playing a lot of TF2.
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COD4 mostly some TF2 here and there, also Combat Arms.
Just started playing a great new (zombie) mod called “The Haunted” for UT3, looks like I’ll be plyin that a lot. Waiting for Left4Dead for more zombie killin goodness
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The only FPS i’ve played of late has been .
Free. Simple. Awesome.
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oops, that didnt work right.
meant to say nexuiz. at http://www.nexuiz.com
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I played Project Reality (BF2 mod) for quite a long time… the official online campaigns were fun !
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A year on and I’m still brawling in TF2. I can’t honestly imagine anything topping it for a long time.
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Multiplayer is only fun the first few weeks when people haven’t memorized the layouts. The checkpoint race after that is no longer fun :/
I miss Planetside.
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Unreal Tournament 99 – still is the premier fps imo, although Q3 could come close, but it’s just not varied as much. UT still requires a heck of a lot more finesse.
TF2 otherwise (career spy) and currently, a bit of Zombie panic (because it’s free!)
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I must admit Counter Strike is the game I keep going back to. I dabble in others, spent a fair time with TF2 but just can’t be bothered getting back into it again and again. I’m currently playing Crysis Wars when I need my multiplayer fix.
I was heavily into BF2 but the bugs eventually got to me.
Insurgency and Dystopia were great while they lasted for a change of pace, and that’s about it as far as fps goes.
And no I don’t play MMORPGS
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TF2 and Insurgency mainly, occasionally Zombie Panic and Age of Chivalry.
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And as Thiefsie just reminded me, Crysis Wars.
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I’d love to say TF2, but due to computer and financial problems I haven’t been able to play it for about 6 months. No, no money, thank you, your sympathy is enough.
I’m typically cycling between Counter-Strike: Source and HL2DM, although single-player is more my thing. Occasionally a GoldSource game or the original UT or something. Also there’s a really neat and weird HL2 mod called Pirates Vikings & Knights II, one which I hope Steam hosts in their next batch of mods.
Despite not having the highest opinion of the frantic, Quakey variety of MP, I’m pretty interested in Quake Live. Although I think that might just be because the screenshots are pleasingly colorful.
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Been playing TF2 since before release. The class variety and map community keep it from ever getting old.
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Huh, didn’t we used to be able to edit posts? Also I usually just play on our “clan” servers (not so much a proper competitive clan as just a group of people that play stuff together), so I don’t really need to look for where to play.
Also want to see Dystopia and PVK II (And BG2 lol) get official Steam releases to boost their player population, unlike the mostly rubbish they’ve released so far.
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I used to play…
X OPERATIONS ONLINE. My god are the graphics awful and the gameplay so oddly delicious.
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http://www.urbanterror.net/
It’s the best q3 mod ever made.
It’s ridiculous amounts of fun.
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Huh, that’s interesting. Well, practically 1.6 is still more popular, since CZ is basically 1.6 but with a bit prettier maps and sound. ;P
Also, I’d want to claim that there is more competetive gaming done with 1.6 than with CS:S. Just a hinch though. (And I don’t just mean all the big tourneys etc, but normal clan matches too)
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I’ve had a pretty long term relationship with TF2, total number of hours logged must be in the low 400s by now. Lately I’ve been playing a little CS:Source. A while back I had a little fling with Insurgency, which was also fairly good fun.
Here’s hoping Left 4 Dead has got that dynamic replayable coop thing nailed.
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Those stats say it all for me, competitive FPS is dead.
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What a shame.
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As far as online FPSes go I pretty much only play TF2, although I do dabble with CoD4 on the 360. I don’t play TF2 anywhere near as much as I used to, although that says more about the silly amount of time I’ve clocked in playing it than anything else.
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Being playing TF 2 for last 12 months, but I experience ping problems lately, so I got back to CS:S
Not much time though between wife, kid, work 1, work 2…
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CS 1.6 is more popular than CS:S. What valve did was to count steam genuine players rather than counting players from servers. Because we all know china is filled with VAC off CS 1.6 servers playing with cracked versions. ;)
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http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg69/teoliit/cs310k.jpg?t=1224024818
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counter strike:source is the only fps i play with any regularity. mainly because i don’t own too many others.
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I only play the “Project Reality Mod” for Battlefield 2 currently, but not as often as I’d like. I’ve kinda been in a funk lately… multiplayer FPS wise it started when it became obvious that ET: Quake Wars wasn’t going to be what I had hoped. I think I’d rather play something with co-op, but I don’t have anything that doesn’t require knowing the person you play with. I have no friends 8(.
Before BF2 came out I used to play CS/DoD/TF for Half-Life 1 religiously. It’s sorta that I haven’t even touched them or their newer counter parts since BF2 was released… don’t know why.
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Once again, World War 2 Online fails to get the respect it deserves. Still going after 6 years, with maps lasting 3 months with over 2 million casualties and 100′s of players in one game world at the same time with 100 different weapon systems and the ONLY MMFPS game except for Planetside.
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tf2 only. but i played cs: source before that because it came in the hl2 silver pack back whenever that was released. gun-game servers were reasonably fun, but team fortress is much better.
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Comstar: I gave my respects to WW2OL after giving a few months of my life, plenty of useful and completely ignored bug reports on the beta boards, $49 and my faith in player-originated development teams. I’m happy that, seven years later, you’re enjoying the game, but don’t pretend their fate is undeserved.
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TF2, CoD4, BF2 recently.
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I’m pretty much solely playing TF2 online currently, but I had an unhealthy CoD4 obsession for a few months which has been threatening to come back lately.
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TF2. I play with a clan I love, on their servers.
L4D will likely surplant it, though.
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TF2 dominates my life. I have a big group of friends who make it a point to get together at least once a week for an organised night of play (“Serious Business Monday” is our running-joke moniker for it). It’s casual enough to drop in and play, but deep enough to reward ongoing dedication. And while I almost never join games without at least one friend in tow, the quality of play and teamwork on Australian public servers is generally pretty high. Surprisingly so, actually, compared to the other shooters I’ve played over them there Internets. I was fairly into Battlefield 2 and 2142 for a while, and love them as games even though I find the community and public server quality somewhat lacking. Also, I was just getting into Quake Wars when TF2 hit, and the poor thing didn’t stand a chance. I feel bad for it, because it is a great game, and I don’t regret the money I spent on it, but I’ve barely played it at all. Tragic timing.
Other than that, I haven’t played shooters online. I’ve played lots and lots and lots of Counterstrike, UT and Quake over LANs, but always felt a bit intimidated to go out into the wilds of the net with them. I’m a competent shooter player, but I don’t kid myself that I have the skill to compete on that level in pure deathmatch games. I like teamplay (where I generally play support classes, as my 110+ hours as a Medic in TF2 will attest), which is why Left 4 Dead is about the only thing I can imagine unseating Team Fortress in the forseeable future. And even then, that’s more of a special occasions game, which I’ll play in spurts for years to come, but I don’t think it’ll be the mainstay that TF2 is.
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TF2 is really it. So fun, but I haven’t played in a month or two — mostly due to life responsibilities.
I have COD4 on the 360 because at the time I didn’t have a competent PC. I might sell that copy and buy it for the PC soon, and I have no doubt I’d start playing it the second I re-purchased it.
Left 4 Dead looks mighty promising.
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There is a similar service running for Counter-Strike called ESEA. Look it up:
http://www.esportsea.com/index.php
But yeah, pikups.gg, seems like a good idea
as long as the players will sign up.
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Oh, and I play The Ship, but that kind of stretches the definition of FPS. Regardless, it’s criminally underappreciated and I try to mention it whenever possible.
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@Saflo: The Ship ranks high on any list of shooters no one ever played. I take it as a matter of pride that, even though I only manage to play one game every month or so, I always end up in the scoreboard’s top three.
Team Fortress 2 is my current FPS of choice: my friend and I have been practicing to get the 20 kills/assists-with-a-heavy/medic-pair achievements for a while now. Beyond that, there’s nothing I can say about that game that others haven’t. So I’d like to take an opportunity to reflect on shooters past.
I used to be a pretty good deathmatch player at Call of Duty 2, which I found hysterical since I was completely awful at the first game’s multiplayer and found its singleplayer slightly better than the sequel’s. I got rather good with a Grease Gun, though assault rifles and sniper rifles were still beyond me.
Both Battlefield 1942 and Battlefield 2 were great fun, especially the former. I’ll never forget the El Alamein map, great tank battles roaring across the great central plain, dive-bombing the Allied B-17 just as it was getting ready to lift off…good times. While Battlefield 2 was better in some respects, I can’t help but feel the persistent stats and necessary mechanics of portraying modern combat sacrificed some of the quirkiness that made the original so appealing.
And then there was Tron 2.0. All I have to say is that if Disney wants a new game based on the upcoming movie, they had better give the license back to Monolith, and Monolith had better bring back Disc Arena. No other game embraced the shooter-mindset so well while taking shooter elements to an illogical extreme.
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What time I have goes to my first playthrough of Stalker (w/the Snow mod) and TF2. I miss Quake 2, especially with the superhero mod. It’s the ony game I remember that offered downloadable player models – there was something awesome about spawning to find Rogue Trooper fighting a Gundam, while Elmer Fudd charges everyone with a ticking hand grenade.
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Was addicted to TeamFortress for years when it was born via Quake World…I miss it even… TF2 not as appealing or flexible for me but I do appreciate it’s most recent reincarnation and appeal for others. COD franchise has had lock on FPS for me for the most part for last few years … multiplayer game finder and server side quite stale however… technical implementation.. not the game play itself. COD can be intense and not everyones cup o tea though.
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Steam games: Team Fortress 2, assorted HL2 mods (Fistful of Frags, Zombie Panic), Red Orchestra: Ostfront (for my forays into ironsights, trajectory-arc, ammunition selection (HEAT or AP, hmmm?), overheating barrel shootyness). The occasional BF: Heroes round too, though that’s technically a third-person game.
My previous poisons of choice have been Tribes 1 & 2, the Battlefield series (my current router doesn’t like BF2′s port requirements), and Lucasart’s classics, Jedi Knight and Outlaws.
Red Orchestra deserves praise for one thing that I’ve seen few other FPSs do: When you reload mid-magazine, you don’t lose the round you’ve still got chambered. In addition, you don’t need to charge the weapon, you’re ready to fire right away once you’ve swapped the magazine. Strangely, all of the Call of Duty games have a shorter reload animation for mid-magazine reloads (i.e. you don’t have to tug the charging handle) but you lose the one chambered round anyhow!
Err, and how do I find my servers? In-game browser. Lowest ping, sufficient amount of players on a public non-passworded server. Or whichever server my friends are on. Go!
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I play TF2. It’s a game that is simple to get into and learn, yet strikingly complex and strategic if you really get into it. I also find the game alot more social than any MMORPG game I’ve ever played, but it’s probably because there’s a huge emphasis on TEAM.
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I replaced EVE Online with Team Fortress 2 as my main timesink. This means, I have zero sympathy for anyone complaining about “long respawn times”.
Reinstalled HL2:DM a while back, played a couple of hours. Enjoyed it, but quickly went back to TF2. No contest.
Looking forward to Left 4 Dead, suspect I will give BF: Heroes a whirl.
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True Combat: Elite
The only decent tactical FPS
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I’m still playing BF2, played it since day one, but not as much as i did back then, my clan moved on to other games, being Word of Warcraft, and COD4, which kinda ripped it apart. So nowadays i play alone.
I also have been playing age of chivalry since it appeared on steam, and im quite good at it, i can easily swing my way to the top of the lists, and its nice to be among the best in a game ^_^ . Besides that, it’s just fun swinging a sword beheading pesky archers!
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I play Quake Live Beta on a daily basis! :D
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I played TF2 for a few weeks when it first came out, since I got as part of the Orange Box. (I never would have bought it on its own.) I had a lot of fun with it for a while, then got bored and never went back. I’m not crazy about the unlockable content, but I may return to it in the future.
In general, I do not play any games multiplayer, FPS or not, and have no interest in doing so. The last game I played online before TF2 was Diablo 2, for about 4 hours total. Before that, it was Quake, over ten years ago.
I’ve not played any FPS mods since the original Doom. Steam just made a few HL2 mods available for free, though, so I might try them out sometime.
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This mod on their server has for me been the best online multiplayer experience of the last 2 years. Re. pickup.gg, might be useful for the intial period with a new game, but like a lot of seasoned gamers I tend to stick with the same servers or teammates to play with.
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I started off with Quake on 28.8 modem way back in the day. Moved on to hldm and tfc on 56k when those came out. DSL was so sweet at first with TFC and CS betas.
I’m a big follower of Mods. NaturalSelection is the greatest. I’m still pulling for EmpiresMod to have a revival because it’s basically the game I dreamed of when I first played C&C and TFC.
Currently I play TF2 mostly. It is just so great! L4D will be the next awesomeness I’m hoping. CSS and DOD:S are in my steam account, but they just aren’t that appealing anymore. I played some BF42 and DC for a while on a friend’s cd key, but those games just weren’t ever focused enough. Seems like Crysis and later BFs have a similar problem of sandboxy MP with “optional” objectives for most players.
I’ve purchased Savage 2 but haven’t played it much. Red Orchestra is appealing about once a month. I keep thinking about getting ET:QW (it’s cheap now), and ArmA looks interesting (I enjoyed some LANing with OPF). InstantAction was a fun distraction for a few hours.
I’m kinda disappointed MP innovation on the PC has been so directed at MMOs with limited action gameplay. I’m really hoping something comes along to innovate the online action game like FC2 looks to be innovating in the SP action game.
[END]
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I always go back to Dystopia and for each new class update Team Fortress 2. The pickup site doesn’t look that bad, if it added other games such as mods or indie games for pickup games it would be a lot better.
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Currently taking a break from Team Fortress 2 due to Warhammer, but that’s usually where I go to fulfil my needs of murdering other people. And of course the venerable classic, Quake 3 Arena. Possibly I could also get back into UT2003 or whatever the revamp of that is again.
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Still playing cod4 and Tf2 at the moment, but I still have q3/enemyterritory installed if my old clan need some backup (they still play them religiously).
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