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!
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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!
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!
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.
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 :(
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).
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.
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!
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.
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
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.
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
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 :(
@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.
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
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 :)
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….
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.
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.
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.
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.
CoD4 for me.
Also a little CS:S and DoD:S now and then.
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.
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.
No.
I’m not particularly great at them, and not into spending a week getting my backside kicked to pick up the basics.
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.
Oh, and a whole bunch of us Uni types are playing Hidden: Source (thanks Ging!) whilst we wait on L4D.
TF2 is King until Left 4 Dead arrives. What more do you need for online FPS action?
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.
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.
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.
Hello ¬___¬
o/
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.
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. :(
Team Fortress 2. That is all.
Battlefield 2. There is no better large-scale online FPS, period.
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.
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.
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??)
OH, have to say Savage: Battle for Northrend since no one brought it up and i really played that quirky game.
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.