The Retro PC FPS thread

[Shadowknight]

Originally Posted by Molondo

F.E.A.R. definitely, awesome game. Not much besides that, been eye balling systemshock2, but worried i won't be able to stand the aged graphics.

I hate to self-pimp, but see here: http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost...5&postcount=50

[FalseChristian]

I still enjoy Quake with the Darkplaces HD mod. The graphics are amazing! All most as good as Crysis. I also enjoy Quake II and Hexen II.

[runzwithsizorz]

Return to Castle W, Halo 1, Crysis

[Oubadah]

Max Payne 2 might not be a First Person Shooter, but it plays like one with it's excellent controls and none of that 'cover' rubbish. The game is all-round superb; visuals that have really stood the test of time, buttery smooth engine, nice story, high standard of dialogue, excellent voice acting and probably the most stable and polished game I've ever owned. In all the years I've been playing Max Payne 2, I've only encountered one noteworthy technical issue (slow loading in 'The Million Dollar Question'), and that was only on one PC. The game only ever had one very, very minor patch - I think that speaks for itself. I also found that the game was very forgiving of lower spec hardware back in the day. It doesn't support widescreen aspect ratios, but the game is so good I don't care. I never tire of it.







Oh, and I have to mention the muzzle flashes. Beautiful sequential 3D muzzle flashes, the quality of which i have never seen in another game. Just look at the pathetic muzzle flashes in Max Payne 3 and compare them to this:


http://youtu.be/SL4ZUwBn2H0?t=20s

Quake 4: I always preferred the Unreal series over Quake, but due to the deficit of quality shooter these days, I decided to give Q4 another go. I just love the rich lighting and crisp shadows in these old games.

Originally Posted by PingSpike

I'm not sure how old Dark Messiah is...

2006, like I said it just fits in to this thread's time frame.

I guess the kicks were a little overpowered, but I'd sooner they were overpowered than not there at all. The combination of the game's physics and the kicking/magic is awesome though. Using telekinesis to slam zombies into the ceiling, and each other.

[lakedude]

Best FPS ever IMO from 2004: Far Cry

I also liked games like Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior, and Red-neck Rampage because they were fun. The dialogue was much better than in games like Quake where your guy only says "hugh, hugh, hugh"...

Who want-a some Wang?
Must be American made.
Git off my land!
That is one Doomed space marine...

[supremor]

F.E.A.R aged very well for what is now an 8 year old game.

[ICXRa]

Originally Posted by BFG10K

The rig in my sig runs everything, old & new.

What OS? I recently put back together and in service a D875PBZ with a Northwood 3.0 Ghz, 4 Gigs and an X1950 with XP Pro just to run retro games like this. My thinking is this would ensure compatibility with anything 2001 on....., but I'd rather not have another machine if I can get by with okay running them on 7.

[DigDog]

FEAR was great i admit; loved the guns and nades in that game.

A game which i enjoyed a lot, even though it was much maligned, was - wait for it - Invisible War.

Yes, i liked DX2.

[Shmee]

I still love playing classic doom on source ports, and also have Quake and Quake 2 on steam. Doom 64 absolution I had a while back as well, it was quite awesome! Pity i got stuck somewhere on like level 26. Also, starcraft BW, FEAR, and all unreal/UT games (the earlier the better)

I love playing as the Nali warcow

Also, I am looking for a good source port for dark forces. Anyone know of one? I have it on steam, but I am not good with the old style controls.

[Legios]

I play Battletech, Crescent Hawks revenge, about once every year. That game was really hard when I played it as a youngin.

[Iron Woode]

Originally Posted by Oubadah

Did anyone play Unreal 2 (The Awakening)? I really enjoyed it, even though it was a huge disappointment in having practically nothing to do with Unreal aside from the presence of the Skaarj. I would have accepted "Unreal: The Awakening", but calling it a sequel to Unreal was folly. It was also far too slow and clunky for an Unreal game.

Nevertheless, I thought it was pretty good as a stand-alone game, and it was certainly something to look at - awesome visuals. And it had the same kind of diversity of environments that the Tournaments had.

I liked Unreal II.

graphics were better and the game play was enjoyable.

[Karstein]

What about old FPS frag movies, anyone have favorites?

Here are some of mine:

Quake
Frags Done Extreme
Frags Done Extreme 2
Dag Def Extreme
Dag Def Extreme 2
Dag Def Extreme 3

QWTF
TF Done Extreme
TF Done Extreme 2

TFC
Bodycount
SHS Movie
Don't Blink - UncleBRUCE
Skillout
Open Your Mind
Guilt

CS
Chicks Dig X-Pec
The One And Only HeatoN
The Fellowship of NoA
eoLithic - The Movie
Hard Clan - Die Hard
Frag Or Die

Tribes 2
Travel

[MrRamon]

Quake1 was a good one with a sick rocket jump.

Half-life 2 is still good.

[BFG10K]

Originally Posted by ICXRa

What OS?.

Windows 7 x64.

[HeXen]

Originally Posted by Oubadah

Max Payne 2 might not be a First Person Shooter, but it plays like one with it's excellent controls and none of that 'cover' rubbish.

Ya know there is an first person mod for that game. It actually plays very well like that, i loved it. Still have that game and the box, it is definitely one of the best old games i could replay again without the graphics giving me a seizure.

[Oubadah]

Originally Posted by lakedude

Best FPS ever IMO from 2004: Far Cry

I don't do mods as a rule, but I thought this one was pretty impressive:





I found it while I was trying to find a fix for the water bug on Windows 7. They've put in a lot of effort, and it looks great, but it's only 3 levels and to be honest, it was buggy to the point of unplayable (mostly stutter).

I still like vanilla Far Cry, but I have to admit that it hasn't aged well visually.

Originally Posted by HeXen

Still have that game and the box...

Back when they actually gave a rat's arse about packaging. I liked the panoramic fold-out and artwork. I even got mine in the old 8.5"x10.5" outer box. Screw digital distribution, I like to have something physical for my money.

[AdamantC]

Ah, I always find it amusing how the nine year old Doom 3 engine does better lighting and shadows then most "modern" titles.

Another title I can't believe people haven't mentioned yet is Painkiller. That game is pure, fraglicious perfection. Not to mention it has a totally kick ass sound track. And pinning enemies to the wall with the stake gun never gets old.

[jhansman]

I'd love to play NOLF, NOLF 2, or Mechwarrior 3 if they would run on my Win7 64-bit rig, but alas...

[lakedude]

Originally Posted by jhansman

I'd love to play NOLF, NOLF 2, or Mechwarrior 3 if they would run on my Win7 64-bit rig, but alas...

I'm pretty sure you can get MW3 working on W7. Do a search, you might be surprised!

[tomosrider]

On a P3-850,650mb ram,GF4Ti4200, running XP Pro I have QuakeII and expansions installed. Also SS1, UT, Half Life,Thief 1,Thief2 and a bunch more good old games.
Lots of fun.

[tomosrider]

Gone to install NOLF now, thanks for reminding me of that great title

[jaqie]

oh jeez... where do I even start?

I guess a good example of how much retro gaming I do is talking about the computers I have put together to do retro gaming on, and you can guess from there how much I do...

all of these use mostly or entirely era parts and were built by me out of the exact parts I wanted:
386DX40 SCSI system (build log in sig!)
486DX2/66 VLB system
pentium 75MHz system (in progress)
pentium 166 non mmx system (in progress) (have all parts, incl voodoo1)
pentium 233 mmx system (in progress) (have all parts)
pentium II 450 dual voodoo2 system (changing from pata to scsi)
dual pentium III 1GHz system (mothballed for now) (need voodoo3 2000 agp)
dual pentium III tualatin 1.4GHz system (mothballed for now, even have v5 5500 agp)
athlon xp system (in progress)
athlon barton system (in progress)
athlon 64 x2 socket 939 system (mothballed for now)
core2 quad 3GHz system (finally found cpu, finishing build atm)
phenom II x6 system (current gaming box)

I don't even want to begin to try to list all the games I have (and play) on all of them... holy crap that would take forever...

[DAPUNISHER]

I am replaying Ghost Recon at the moment(PC Gamer and IGN PC game of the year 2001 winner). Runs fine in Win7, and looks surprisingly good for a game of its age. One of the first titles that supported the physX card.

The 360 version was total garbage BTW. Being able to send all 3 of my Ghosts to specific locations so 1 can lay down suppressing fire, 1 can snipe, and the 3rd can watch my back, really helps. You can play very realistic, where 1 or 2 shots and you are dead. Use you drone and the overhead real time map to recon around you, I.D. bad guys, and setup ambushes and assaults. Even dig the micro managing in the load out menu. The ability to tweak everyone's load out, and make compromises based on max carry weight. Decide if you need greater accuracy or stability for full auto from a weapon.

And the physX is impressive for the time too. Depending on how you hit that sniper on the roof and where he was, it will dictate whether or not he falls off the roof or not. And they seem more realistic than most games with the ragdoll stuff. Vehicle explosions are good, and the audio is well done. Nothing like a couple rounds whizzing by your face while you are sprinting for cover, to increase immersion and intensity. Particularly when that 1 round can make you a KIA.

I would like to find some other tactical shooters like it. So suggestions welcomed.

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally Posted by jaqie

oh jeez... where do I even start?

I guess a good example of how much retro gaming I do is talking about the computers I have put together to do retro gaming on, and you can guess from there how much I do...

all of these use mostly or entirely era parts and were built by me out of the exact parts I wanted:
386DX40 SCSI system (build log in sig!)
486DX2/66 VLB system
pentium 75MHz system (in progress)
pentium 166 non mmx system (in progress) (have all parts, incl voodoo1)
pentium 233 mmx system (in progress) (have all parts)
pentium II 450 dual voodoo2 system (changing from pata to scsi)
dual pentium III 1GHz system (mothballed for now) (need voodoo3 2000 agp)
dual pentium III tualatin 1.4GHz system (mothballed for now, even have v5 5500 agp)
athlon xp system (in progress)
athlon barton system (in progress)
athlon 64 x2 socket 939 system (mothballed for now)
core2 quad 3GHz system (finally found cpu, finishing build atm)
phenom II x6 system (current gaming box)

I don't even want to begin to try to list all the games I have (and play) on all of them... holy crap that would take forever...

Holy cow. What did you do, rack them all up and use KVM switch?

[akahoovy]

FEAR and Heretic 2 are a couple that I still really enjoy.