It’s been a while since I bought/played a new FPS on my PC. Which do you think is the best, in terms of single-player action?
I’m not interested in online gameplay, but I am interested in multiplayer action vs. bots. Which FPS game has the most challenging/fun bots to play against?
I see lots of rave reviews for Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Far Cry. Are all these good bets? Which has the best single-player experience? Which have the option for playing against bots? Which has the best bots?
Far Cry is very, very good. Its AI is wickedly smart, and the game uses its physics well. Its only flaw is that it has a really poor, weak ending… but hey, the game DID start as a mere tech-demo. In my opinion, it easily matches Half-Life.
Call of Duty is high-quality, as well.
If you want a lot of Ol’-Fashioned Doom-style Kill-Lotsa-Stuff gameplay, then go pick up Painkiller.
As far as multiplayer goes, nothing beats Battlefield 1942 IMHO. I have never had so many moments where I have honestly laughed out loud from shear glee and giddiness as I have while playing that game.
No online for YUO = Far Cry
If it’s been a while since you’ve played an FPS you might want to check your computer’s specs before you buy anything, though.
Are we talking a PIII 300/256 MB RAM and a Voodoo Video Card? Or more like a P4/2.4 Ghz/1MB RAM/ATI Radeon 9800 which will make Far Cry run like buttah?
For me, Far Cry had the best single-player experience recently. Open environments, a consistent physics engine and spectacular graphics = endless fun.
Call of Duty is no slouch either - it was another amazing single-player FPS experience.
An older machine will have a better chance of running Call of Duty since it’s running the Quake3 engine. If your machine is up to it, pick up Far Cry.
The ones on my PC—well, my Mac, really—right now are…
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
Breathtaking, amazing look and feel to it. Great and weird enemies—including Nazis, zombies, Nazi Zombies, and Nazi supersoldiers—and weapons. The parts in Castle Wolfenstein itself are mind-bogglingly scary…scarier than anything Hollywood’s put out in quite awhile, even on “easy” with the gamma turned up. A LOT of fun.
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (+ “Spearhead” expansion pack)
Good, solid, fun. Great level design, weapons, enemy AI, etc. That’s not saying much, I guess, but…not much needs saying. It’s a good buy.
Soldier of Fortune II
A bit outdated in a few areas, especially the graphics. However, it’s nice to have the chance to use modern weapons in a modern setting. But the best thing about it is the “GORE engine”…you can maim, injure, and kill enemies in the most gruesome and physically accurate ways imaginable. Decapitations, limbs being blown off—complete with terrorists screaming in horror as they hold up their bloody stumps—spraying arterial blood (it squirts out to a “heartbeat”), broken glass and shrapnel embedding in flesh…you name it.That might be a turnoff to some, but it’s OK by me. After all, no one’s getting hurt but computer-generated phantoms.
My 2¢, take it or leave it.
I’m not a die-hard gamer, but I’ve played my share of FPS and this is the only one I had to stop playing before I had played all the way through. It was too freaky for me. I just couldn’t face those catacombs one more time. :shudder:
Single Player? Thief 3.
I rather liked Unreal Tournament (never played anything other than the original). No storyline, just blasting goodness.
All come on you guys. You forget your roots. I will start with Quake 2. Strong play with almost a story. Good enough to freak you out on a dark night (may be dated to some now).
Then there is Thief 2. One that I personally never finished, but played over and over. Great atmosphere. Used to get totally involved in it late at night and with the lights out. Don’t really know why I never finished it.
But my personal favorite: Half Life. That is the game that made me awestruck and kept me awestruck to this day.
I started with Quake 2, but for me the discussion now begins and ends with Far Cry. I have replayed most of the levels using various tactics and have rarely been disappointed by the AI. Amazing engine in that game.
Honorable mention to the second Jedi Knight game, the official title escapes me at the moment. It was too cool playing character with high saber powers, ripping through those Stormtroopers and lesser Dark Jedi at will.
Surprised this has not been moved to Cafe Society
Closer to the latter. I built it 2 years ago; Asus A7V333, AMD 1800+, 512MB PC2700, GeForce3 Ti200 64MB. I downloaded the FarCry demo last night and played it, it autodetected all the lowest graphics settings (obviously), but I agree with everyone who recommended FarCry, it does look like a kick-ass game.
RTCW was the last game I played, a couple years ago, and my computer ran it fine. Yeah, those catacombs were pretty creepy. I’m looking forward to Doom3 being really scary, and bloody. Anyway, I know it’s just the graphics card I’d need to update to play the newest stuff. Can my card play Call of Duty at 1024 with high quality? What is the minimum, worst-performing, cheapest graphics card I can get to play FarCry at medium-mostly high quality? Or is it just the newest $250+ cards that can do that?
Before you go on a spending spree for a new 3d card, go find System Shock 2. It’s old and showing its age, but the atmosphere and omnipresent feelings of dread haven’t been topped by anything I’ve played since. This guy has been updating the models on his own (NSFW, some nudity in the screenshots, but definately not sexy unless you have an HR Giger fetish) with incredible results.
Far Cry is indeed a lot of fun. There are a lot of different settings to tweak, so even if the autodetect places you on low you can improve or reduce various performance options to help performance.