Good Action Games to Watch For?

[Blackcompany]

Usually I am an RPG kind of guy. Every now and then, though, I just want to fire up a game, press start/enter and begin beating/shooting/blasting stuff in a matter of minutes, if not even seconds.

With that in mind, I was wondering if there are any good action games to watch for now the Holiday sales have begun. Were it not for the pain caused by extensive use of kb/m gaming and the resulting need of a controller, I would be playing PS2 and so wouldn't need to worry over action games for those impatient gaming moods, but alas.

So...thanks for recommendations, and may others benefit as well.

[fiddlesticks]

Buy Doom 2 on Steam, download ZDoom and visit the Doomworld archives. Playing Doom wads is what I do whenever I have half an hour to burn and want to play something action-packed.

[DaftPunk]

F.E.A.R. 1,still best one in series. Graphics are still quite decent,but the gameplay and enemy AI..dayeeeeeeeem,top notch!

[Fumarole]

The Serious Sam games are good for blasting away your sorrows.

[victory]

With that in mind, I was wondering if there are any good action games to watch for now the Holiday sales have begun. Were it not for the pain caused by extensive use of kb/m gaming and the resulting need of a controller, I would be playing PS2 and so wouldn't need to worry over action games for those impatient gaming moods, but alas.

Just to be clear: you specifically want recommendations of action games to be played with a gamepad?

Always a good choice: boot up a console emulator and get to choose from 100s of AAA action games that were designed for pads to begin with. Or MAME, although many arcade games are best with stick not pad.

I have been playing Trine and Trine 2 with pad and they are good stuff. BTW, Trine (with soundtrack and goodies) is available in the current "5 games for $10" sale at GOG.

Shadowgrounds was decently fun and I think it should work well with pad, I can only vouch for the KB+M experience though. Sequel was boring.

If you are cool with playing a single-player FPS with a pad, pick up Serious Sam 3 (-75%). FEAR is a brilliant FPS but I'm not sure if it has pad support at all.

Third person shooter? Max Payne 3 (-75%).

Not sure if Hotline Miami is best to play with a gamepad, but it apparently does now have working pad support.

[Mohorovicic]

Watch out if you get FEAR on Steam - you get both expansions of debatable quality as a "bonus" and you have to download *all of it* to play FEAR itself.

[Blackcompany]

Good suggestions. Been thinking about Serious Sam III for a while now. Think I might give it a go, as it looks quite fun for those impatient, action-gaming moods.

Appreciate all the suggestions!

[DaftPunk]

If you want that kind of game there is Painkiller 1 plus expansion pack. Check it out.

[LTK]

Serious Sam 3 will make you cherish the moments when there are less than a hundred monsters coming at you at once. Once you get past the slow start, that is. By the time SS3 hit its stride, I had to take five-minute breaks between each level just to recover from the breakneck pace. No other shooter ever does that to me, not even Painkiller. So yeah, highly recommended.

[Ravelle]

Warhammer Space Marine is a pretty good action game that supports gamepads as well.

[Shooop]

The three Serious Sam games and possibly the Borderlands games. Borderlands has a few RPG elements thrown in there so it might appeal to you a bit more than a straight up shooter.

[sabrage]

I don't think anyone really needs three Serious Sam games. Just pick the one that appeals to you the most.

[Giaddon]

With a pad, I'd stick to melee games and stay away from shooters.

+ Dark Souls
+ Batman: Arkham City
+ Prototype 2
+ Sleeping Dogs

If you can do shooting with a pad, I'd say

+ Max Payne 3
+ Bulletstorm
+ The Darkness 2
+ Just Cause 2
+ Borderlands 2
+ Lost Planet 2

[Bobtree]

I loved EDF: Insect Armageddon on the PS3, and there's a mod to remove the 30-fps limit on the PC version. IA has a bit of grinding and loot collecting, but the action is excellent. It's $10 on Steam.

[Gentleman Jim Stacey]

Ass Creed 2, Just Cause 2, the Batman Arkham games,

[Velko]

Just Cause 2 is brilliant.

[dnf]

Watch out if you get FEAR on Steam - you get both expansions of debatable quality as a "bonus" and you have to download *all of it* to play FEAR itself.

I played the underrated Perseus Mandate and it was good enough, even if it is just more of the same. now, compared to the shit we got today as expansions...

[Arona Daal]

I found

Black Mesa

to be surprisingly good.

[Fumarole]

I found

Black Mesa

to be surprisingly good.

William Shatner?

[Ravelle]

William Shatner?

Nah, Adam West.