This is why I love this board

[sketch]

I'll say this - as someone who cut my teeth on Wolfenstein 3D back on my 386, who played pretty much every big PC FPS as they arrived, Goldeneye was still a quality game. I think that's a point which gets overshadowed in the hyperbolic praise it gets - sometimes a game doesn't have to be genre defining to be extremely high quality. And thats why I think people elevate it's impression on video games (and similarly popular games, such as Halo) - because it was simply a great game in a format which didn't normally receive titles of that quality.

To the guy who was saying that the modern FPS is built on goldeneye's foundation - I actually disagree. I'd say the modern FPS is actually closer to Wolfenstein than Goldeneye. The modern FPS is light on puzzles and level complexity (compared to, say, Doom 2), with largely linear levels (interspersed with highly cinematic cutscenes). Goldeneye isn't really anything like that - goldeneye is mission based. I'd actually compare the structure of goldeneye to something more like Grand Theft Auto or Infamous, despite those games being 3rd person. Goldeneye felt, at times, like a sandbox game, without the openness. You could finish a level and still lose because you didn't accomplish all the goals, which is pretty much impossible in today's modern FPS.

This is, of course, disregarding FPS-RPG hybrids.

I will say, however, that I'm not very big into FPS games. I pick them all up - mainly because I pick up EVERYTHING - but it is no where near my favorite genre, classic or modern. I much prefer a great platformer or action game, or vertical shmup, to first person titles. In general, I mean.

EDIT: And just as a fanboyish aside - I'm of the belief that Valve is pretty much the greatest FPS makers of all time. There is no valve game that I haven't immensely enjoyed. I'll take what valve dishes out over any other FPS.

I'm ashamed to say I've never played Half Life That's the other shooter that frequently gets mentioned as a game changer. It was never ported to the Mac and I never seemed to have a system it was on. I was eagerly awaiting it on the DC when it got canned.

I agree that Goldeneye was a very high quality product; maybe it gets over romanticized. I started playing fps games with Wolfenstein shareware on a 386 as well, and I played all the major fps games through about 2001 or so. Goldeneye was the only one of those early games that brought everything I liked about the genre together. For me, that's what makes it special.

One of these days I'll find a way to play Half Life; I'd like to find that next "holy crap" moment from a game

Edit: And I agree with your statement that most fps games are linear, which is one of the reasons I got bored with them in the first place (the other reason being the emphasis on deathmatch, a style of play that was fun until the novelty wore off). I think the only fps games I've put any time to in the last 10 years are Halo and Borderlands.

[M4R14NO94]

I personally don't care about most new releases & don't particularly care about modern FPS's. That said, I have both COD world at war & Black Ops for one reason: Nazi Zombies. Yes, it is repetitive...No, I'm not good at it, but dang, it's addictive!

-Rob

Hell yeah, Nazi Zombies! It's honestly the only reason why I got the DS version of Black Ops. Well, that, and the option to aim using A/B/X/Y instead of the touchscreen.

[Cholkavich]

you can play half life on DC if you dont mind playing burned games

[DarkDragon]

Modern Warfare 3 Breaks Every Sales Record Known to Man

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news...d-Known-to-Man

How did this happen and how did we get to this point ? Are kids today just obsessed with violence or what ? No one goes outside anymore or has 'real' friends ?

[Kamahl]

The game changed stuff so that camping is not a good idea in multiplayer. I can see every multiplayer FPS lover drooling over that.
Add in a popular brand, word of mouth, and advertising everywhere and there you have it.

Heck I don't even agree with all the craze about Skyrim, I have a friend that bought it "just because". I mean... Come on.
It's the fluoride and cellphones I tell you.

[NeoZeedeater]

Are kids today just obsessed with violence or what ? No one goes outside anymore or has 'real' friends ?

You sound just like adults 25 years ago complaining about kids playing video games.

[DarkDragon]

You sound just like adults 25 years ago complaining about kids playing video games.

Its just strange to me to see any game sell this much. There have been far better games that sold a lot less so its fustrating. Once the line between console and pc gaming became blurred, crappy games starting selling huge.

[NeoZeedeater]

And Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sold a billion times more than Wonder Boy III in 1989. It sucks when good games get overshadowed and ignored but it's nothing new.

[DarkDragon]

Now so more than ever because it seems multiplayer/online is more important than single player experience.

[kool kitty89]

One of the big things that Goldeneye brought into the homes of the masses is deathmatch play. Now you could grab some friends and some controller and blow the living hell out of each other with ease. You didn't need access to a networked computer to blow up your friends, and you didn't need to coordinate getting online to play against them. Even better, you could see their faces as you lay the smack down. Sure, you only had 1/4 of the screen, and you could "cheat" by peeking to see where everyone else was, but it was still loads of fun (and the peeking ensured that you didn't have campers).

It was a cheap and easy way to DM. And yes, I know Hexen predated Goldeneye for split screen DM, but Goldeneye's DM was fun and part of what made it so successful. Hexen, not so much...

Honestly, a co-op split-screen story mode feature is more fun/important (at least to me personally) than deathmatch/competitive multiplayer, though having both is obviously better. (and pretty much all games with co-op also have vs modes)

That's one of the areas Perfect Dark is ahead of Goldeneye . . . except it tends to get a bit choppy in co-op mode. (especially if set to high detail)

That feature is one of key aspects that made Halo so much fun for me, among a few other games. (LAN co-op of Serious Sam was a hell of a lot of fun too)

[M4R14NO94]

That's one of the areas Perfect Dark is ahead of Goldeneye . . . except it tends to get a bit choppy in co-op mode. (especially if set to high detail)

At least for me the reason why Perfect Dark is ahead of GoldenEye is that PD has the Simulants on competitive MP.

[TailsAlone]

I find COD and Battlefield pretty damn boring, to be honest. Nothing really interesting has been done with the FPS since the late 90's, so I don't know what's hypnotizing the kids. All they've done since then is improve the graphics. I'd still rather play Doom, Heretic, Quake 1, even Zero Tolerance or Wolfenstein 3D.

[profholt82]

^I think the sales numbers are so high because of all the 20 and 30 something guys who are into the game. While I'm sure kids are into it too, the bread and butter of the marketing campaign seems to target young to middle aged men. The same can be sai for the Madden games. I can tell you that I am 29, I work in an office, and most of the guys in there who are my age or older are into the COD games. A lot of them play online together. That is how the sales figures have gotten so huge. It's not just kids buying the games anymore.

[NeoVamp]

The only reason I even got COD was because of Nazi Zombies, though I refuse to buy the DLC maps since they are packaged
with regular deathmatch maps, And I refuse to pay for maps I'll never use. (I hate deathmatch)