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'Quantum Leap' Awards For FPS Games Revealed
simoniker writes "As voted by game industry professionals, the results of the Quantum Leap Awards for the first-person shooter genre have been revealed, honoring the titles which 'brought the FPS genre forward' in the biggest ways. The winner is a truly classic title, but there's at least one seminal FPS that, surprisingly enough, didn't make the top 5." The top 5 are, from 1 to 5, Half-Life, Quake, GoldenEye, Wolfenstein, and System Shock 2.
No Unreal Tournament? That was the game that brought forward the genre for me though it was out at a very similar time to Quake 3. Ah well, where's the next stop Ziggy?
Warhammer forums
Very nice quote. In fact, I'd say it was hard, fast and intense.
(no-one will get joke this but me and you.. ok, just me.)
How we know is more important than what we know.
Historical Correct: Wolf3D was the first popular First Person Shooter. It was preceeded by Id Software's [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catacomb_3D]Cat
Wolf3D's success over Catacomb probably had more to do with Apogee's marketing muscle than with it being truly the first FPS.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Okay, so, if it was a top ten... I'd expect to see Doom, Marathon, and Deus Ex on the list... possibly Duke 3D... and I don't know what the last game I'd pick for the list would be. Maybe that's why they kept it to the top five?
No Daikatana?!
Hovertank 3D
:P
Catacomb 3D
Sorry about that. I'm not awake yet.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
I'd put Doom on the list before System Shock 2. Or Goldeneye. Or HL. Or Quake. Or Wolf3d.
Or System Shock 2. I mean, wtf?
I realize they didn't want to weigh down the list with Id games, but if you were going to drop one it would have to be Quake. Or Wolf3d. The BBS's were pretty excited about Wolf - but it was Doom that defined the genre and made it what it is.
Let's not stir that bag of worms...
I'm glad to see Marathon and Deus Ex mentioned, but I'm not sure how seriously I can take a list of games that "advanced the FPS genre" which only feels that Doom ranks an honorable mention.
Oh wait, Halo isn't listed....
Future ruler of a small Asian-Pacific island
Where's Doom?
THAT is the game that revolutionized FPS!
Watch the Teaser Trailer for "The Lightning Thief" Her
Oh god. How geeky am i? I know exactly what your talking about, but didn't suffer from it myself. There is actually a fix for this, use the console to change your field of view settings - don't remember the command myself, but google HL2 nausea and field of view. A lot of people complained about this and my wife got nauseous looking over my shoulder while playing.
oh come on. Doom deserves much more than an honorable mention. It may not have brought the FPS genre forward in a technical way, but it certainly drew much more attention to the genre than had ever been there before. how many of the FPS games around today would still be here had doom never existed?
Doom was the first game with graphics good enough for non-gamers to understand what I was so excited about. It basically had the first big mod community, started deathmatch, brought LAN parties and big gaming tournaments into reality, etc.
Think of it this way: There were games before Doom and there were games after Doom. This division is more clear than probably any other game in history. 13 years later (or so) we're still running around in a 3D-ish world and pointing at what we want to die.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Considering that Doom not only defined the FPS genre in general, it also opened the PC gaming industry.
It's historic value is so great that its non existence on this list makes as much sense as dividing by zero.
Well, end of reality, here we go!
I'm god, but it's a bit of a drag really...
I've read that a possible fix to the motion sickness problem you are experiencing is to change the FOV (Field of View) from the default 75 to 90 (which supposedly is the norm for other FPSs).
In the console, enter the following:
sv_cheats 1
fov 90
If you want to change it back to the default, fov 0 does the trick.
At least, that's what I've read.
The Field of View of the camera can cause your symptoms.
I can play most FPS games, but my head almost explodes whenever the drugged about to explode effects come into play.
Most notably, in original Unreal tournament when you fall off a spaceship or into the pressure chamber the camera does some crazy shit and makes me want to puke.
Anyway, the HL2 camera might be outside your comfortable range.
You could try bringing up the console and changing this:
fov [angle] - Specifies the character's Field of View (fov), i.e. the total angle which can be viewed at once. Default is 75, higher values create more of a "fish-eyed" view, lower angles create a zoomed view.
default_fov [angle] - Determines the default Field of View in HL2. Default is 75 (cheat).
See here for the rest of the commands.
liqbase
A FPS that I really enjoyed and thought was a pile of fun was ROTT(Rise of the Triad). who can forget the poor guy on his knees saying "No, please, please, don't shoot".
Now go back and play Doom - guess what - it's still playable, and it's still a ton of fun. Goldeneye did not age well - AT ALL. It was a great game for its time, but I honestly think that's all. Timesplitters 2 for example (done by the same core development team) is a vastly superior game - in all aspects. Now take a look at Zelda 64 - came out around the same time, but what has come out since that you can easily say is flat out better in all aspects? Food for thought...
Drop Quake? Are you kidding? Quake is the game that brought large-scale online network play to the masses. Previous games were mostly limited to LAN. QuakeWorld refined and improved online play significantly for slower connections and pioneered the client-side prediction model that is used in nearly every game today.
No Duke Nukem Forever, either!
I never spellcheck and I freely admit it. Save your karma for more worthwhile "lol erorrs" replies
I'd leave Quake on there too. All I'm saying is that Doom was more important.
Quake: introduced solid multiplayer over unreliable networks
Doom: introduced multiplayer
Quake: introduced quality lit/textured graphics, pushed development of 3d accelerated graphic cards
Doom: introduced graphics
I realize that's overstating the case a bit. But not much. Doom was an absolute revelation from on high - and it made waves far outside the gaming community. When Wolf3d came out, I started work on my own raycasting 3d engine. It was pretty good. When Doom came out, I started playing Doom. When Quake finally came out, I was fairly disappointed - it was nothing like the hype that preceded it. That said, Quake should clearly be on the top 5 list. But not before Doom.
Let's not stir that bag of worms...
Maybe this should be followed up by a list of most under rated FPS games in other peoples lists.
like...
5. Postal 2 (Cat's as silencers, gas can and shovel make this trashy, ultra-violent post appocolytic game. To bad the multi-player end hummed.)
4. Swat 3 (Some where between Shooter and Sneaker this squad based game is tatically entertaining, and in multiplayer can have complex and intresting goals.)
3. America's Army (Sure it's propaganda, but man is the sniper rife a pain, ie ealistic. The ROE violations make it a very efficent self policing game.)
2. Conker's Bad Fur Day (While 3rd person and console, two big strikes for me, it does have furry animals swearing and blowing each other up.)
1. Soldier of Fortune 2 (Excellent Mod community made this game for me. Raven Software was forever patching and improving. Few FPS's I have played have had so many new weapons and maps availiable and in general rotation on public servers. The biggest point about this game, for me, was how customizable the hud was, and how much control an admin could have over a game.)
Just my 2 cents.
-Lemur
Mod me redundant, call me a fanboi, point out that I'm mistaking awesomeness with advancement of the genre - see if I care. Unreal Tournament owned my life for some time, and still periodically pops up to hire it for a few weeks. I'm not really into storylines, plots, or even spatially-oriented goals. I used to get sick to frigging death wandering around an empty level looking for the red card. UT was the first game (that I found) where I could tell it to put x number of bloodthirsty maniacs with y skill level in a room with me and get get our frag on. Best FPS evar.
I wrote that in my "full disclosure" comment as a way of saying I have a personal bias towards the game, not as a way of saying it was important - I think this is very obvious in the context I wrote it.
...is that the game WAS a huge leap forward for console FPS gaming. Much like one gamer said in the article, it introduced the FPS genre to a whole new generation of gamers who might otherwise have been playing Mario Party and platformers. I still pull it out for multiplayer goodness with my friends, just like we did for hours on end years ago. I've put more time into that one game than I have with any other console game - nay, any other game, period, except for my MMOs. To think that it *doesn't belong on this list is folly: it set the stage for a trough of other games, not the least of which was Perfect Dark and its new companion for the latest fare from Microsoft. Doom rightfully should have its place on this list (and it got an honorable mention, which I think is more than fair, but that's another rant), but not at the expense of Goldeneye.
(1) Doom (2) Half Life (3) Hexen 2
:)
All the rest are belong to these three
Definitely a FPS with the RPG element very successfully overlaid.
No gaming hall of fame is worth its salt without Deus Ex. Not RPG halls of fame or FPS. (Although The Elder Scrolls would utterly conquer any RPG hall of fame.)
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
I was thinking more about the Tom Clancy series that spawned the 'Tactile Shooter' Rainbow 6, Rogue Spear, Ghost Recon, Ravenshield etc.
Not saying that either Counter-Strike or FEAR changed the genre, but here's my take:
CS: Squad-based, limited time per match. Damage is realistic (relatively speaking) so teamwork, strategy (where to go, what your weapon's shot pattern is, etc), and good control are all vital to success. I suck at it, so I should know.
FEAR: With all effects on, it's like being in a firefight. Dust kicking up, sparks, explosions, enemies hopping over railings, flanking you, ragdoll physics. It's crazy good fun just for that. And the story...it beats HL and HL2 for actual plot. And it's totally creepy too. Even after you're done, you're still trying to figure out exactly what you've accomplished and what you're part of, and who she really is. Good stuff.
And DOOM > Wolfenstein3D
because UT2004 brought everything together: maturity of genre, absolute adrenaline-raising fun, balanced weapons, great team play mechanics (exemplified at the next level by Onslaught, originally "invented" by threewave CTF for Quake), it made connecting to games a snap, player models worked perfectly (IME), etc etc...
UT2004 should be in the halls of fame for getting everything right and balanced, and for looking good doing it.
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
I'm actually rather disappointed in Gamasutra. It's a site I've come to respect for deep, narrow insights into the 'guts' of game programming and development. Their "what went right/what went wrong" serious is still outstanding.
But this? It's more like "quantum leap" the TV show, you know, where it starts with the premise that the main character doesn't know shit about what he's supposed to be doing?
It's nothing more than a collection of submissions with apparently very little editor review and no explanation of how they came to their conclusions, such as they are. I have no idea how they picked things, but frankly this list has no more (and possibly less) credibility than a list of what Gabe & Tycho played last year.
I mean, they simply posted the (sometime anonymous) comments from people like:
"Tribes was one of the first titles that saw the popularization of teamplay and the 'capture the flag' scenario as a critical game element."
Um, you mean ASIDE from the plethora of Quake mods that focussed PRECISELY on this like, oh, Teamfortress (which predated Tribes by 3 years)? Fact check, anyone?
I won't diss Half-Life - it really WAS a quantum leap forward in the ARTISTIC presentation of an FPS storyline (eat that, Roger Ebert), but to suggest that it somehow edges out Doom as the genesis of the genre? What universe did they live in?
And FWIW, I'd argue that 'honorable mention' should go to Gamespy. Anyone remember the horrible days of early quake connections? Gamespy (the launcher, as opposed to the megalomaniacal portal-site-empire) was a quantum leap forward in multiplaying, IMO.
Gamasutra, that was lame.
-Styopa
Oh god, the presure chamber. That was the coolest effect ever. When your character blew up you actually felt like someone had put a blender in your head. Made me avoid that chamber at all costs, lol. Anyways, Unreal Tournament should definitly be on that list.
I would personally put Descent in over Quake. I remember trying to explain to a friend in a multiplayer game how to navigate to a certain spot, and just causing confusion. When he finally got there, turns out our "ships" were upside down to one another. The fact that there really was no universal up or down, just in relation to your ship, was great, and something I really haven't seen since. It was a pain to play with just a keyboard though.
I'm surprised that no mention was made of the Half Life mod community. Sure, Doom started the FPS modding in earnest, but it really flourished with HL.
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Where's Halo?
You constantly struggle for self improvement - and it shows.
Hooray for bad Engrish on fortune cookies
So, they tallied up the votes, then decided that the results were totally stupid, and put some "honorable mentions" at the front of the list, including:
Doom
System Shock (the first one)
Marathon
Deus Ex
Alien vs Predator
Descent
Tribes
I think I like the "honorable mentions" list better than the actual top-5 list. I wonder if part of the problem was people not voting for Doom because it was "too obvious", and the wanted to pick something different.
System Shock 2 doesn't really bring anything new, it's just really well-done.
But where's Bungie's Marathon? Robbed!
If Half-Life is on the list for having a compelling story, then Marathon deserves to be on the list for having a more compelling story than Half-Life years before HL came out. It's not a PC-only list, since Goldeneye is on it, but did they even consider Macintosh-exclusive games?
Comment of the year
don't forget Ken!
Gekido's Lair
MIDI Maze on the Atari ST (released in 1987) not only gave you the first FPS, but it also gave you 16 person Deathmatch by using the Midi ports on the ST to create a network of machines.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIDI_Maze/
Fifty watts per channel, baby cakes.
Ziggy predicts a 98.9% probability that these awards suck ass!
Also predicting a 89% probability that this thread will contain, in its entirety, posts talking about how their favourite game wasn't listed.
AL get me out of this thread!
*leaps into linux vs osx flamewar*
Oh boy...
I'll just use my special getting high powers one more time...
...this isn't a review at all. This isn't an editorial put together by a staff on a gamer site like IGN or GameSpy either.
This is a summary of a poll. The participants are game developers, and the poll has decidedly a developerish slant. None of the motivations are written by Gamasutra editors - it is all written by the game developers who participated in the poll. Being editors, the Gamasutra people have merely selected the motivations they found interesting. And not just for the poll winners, but also for other interesting and inovating FPSes too - thus including all the FPSes you mentioned, and then some (eg Marathon was early, and did really interesting things with weapons and explosions, which was duly mentioned).
Anyway, the comment about the futility of bitching about Slashdot poll results apply to bitching about Gamasutra polls too.
Insightfull, my ass.
Yes, I am a biological organism. All rumors to the contrary are just that, rumors.
This game was excellent.
The very best thing was it's freeform nature. All the ports I've tried to date, were more of a guided tour.
The discovery element to this game, done with the secuirty card device, made the whole experience for me. Playing the game, reading the hints from the computer consoles and finding the cards hooked the player solid, right out of the gate.
Nice ending too. Through hints, discovered and learned throughout the game, the player realizes they need to set the self-destruct and leave the ship in 2 minutes!
This whole thing was artfully done, with the security cards and hints placed in such a way the player would have to find them before progressing, yet enough freedom existed to feel like real discoveries and not guided tours.
Half-life does this too, but in a more obvious "spoon feed me please" way.
C'mon guys. Give the Renegage Games version a good play, with an eye toward these great elements, and port the fucker.
It's a great, if slow, experience on the Jag. On modern hardware, this game would be huge.
Blogging because I can...
It was released on December 21, 1994. That's 18 months before Quake. It's barely a year after Doom came out and three months fater Doom 2. What's it got? Deathmatches. Easy deathmatches. No hacks, tweaks, or anything. If the Macs were on an Appletalk network you could deathmatch. It was awesome. It had specials maps for deathmatches, even. What else? Rocket-jumping. Yeah, that it actually had up and down was an improvement over pretty much every other FPS at the time. And the story was amazing! There's still people arguing about it!
I imagine Carmack had all this thought out at the time, but the Bungie guys actually shipped product.
blarg.
There is only a *single* level in a single game *mod* that has ever made me feel ill while playing an FPS. It was in the mod Spatial Fear for UT (GREAT single-player mod, BTW). There's a level where you're in a city. There are no enemies, but you have to do some puzzle solving. It's kind of an otherworldly sort of level, and I get the impression that it was foreshadowing for a not-yet-created sequel.
I don't know if they screwed with the FOV settings for that level or what, but it gave me the worst headache. Ugh. I had to finish it over several sittings, just so I could get through it to play the rest of the game.
I have gotten a bit ill playing Descent for many hours... but just a tiny bit. The only time I have ever felt TRUE vertigo... was with Dark Forces: Jedi Knight. That Starwars game seriously kicked some butt. By far, the best of the "Dark Forces" series (Dark Forces, Jedi Knight, Jedi Academy, Jedi Outcast for the youngsters).
When you have a single GAME that defines a genere, it is hard to not put it in the #1 or #2 slot. For MANY years, a FPS game was called a Doom clone. Or, another "doom" game. There are not a lot of games like that, out there, in the FPS arena.
Doom clones - Pretty much any FPS game
Rainbow Six clones - pretty much any tactical shooter
Descent clone - 6-degrees of freedom games. (very tiny, niche market)
System Shock clone - FPS with an RPG element.
Not a lot there. Kind of surprised that SS2 was on the list, and not SS1 (I know, honorable mention... but still, it got bumped for its successor).
Haha, DFII:JK is the only multiplayer game I've ever really "owned" at.
:)
Tower and Drazen Isle custom maps rocked
Unreal Tournament ought to be in that list though too.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
According to Wikipedia, Marathon invented this. It's taken as a given now, and I can understand people forgetting, but... Doom didn't have this. In Doom, you had to have keys set to look up, look down, and center your view.
Yet, even Marathon didn't quite do it.
I can understand that, say, a flight sim kind of game (Descent?) might be more fully 3D, but I don't really start feeling cramped playing an FPS until it becomes 2.5D, either with the control scheme or the mapping. That would make Quake a big one for me, and not just because it was popular. (Also, I don't like flight sims.)
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
Several years ago, a friend of mine was stuck in a hospital for an exploratory op. My GF and I brought in a N64 (yes, checked out and approved by staff) and we played a few games, including GoldenEye. We eventually played with it set to insta-kill and slappers only. Oh, and my friend was doped up on morphine.
Damn, that was fun.
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Midimaze. I played midimaze for hours at an atari convention long before these other games even came out. midimaze on the atari ST was an awesome FPS. It's simplicity and elegance is STILL missing in the FPS market on PC.
Not that I don't play Urban Terror, Enemy Territory, or Quake 2 on the regular still, I do. They are all great games. How did quake 2 not end up on the list? Stupid article. These guys are about as informed on FPS as I am in brain surgery.
Note to self: DO NOT PERFORM BRAIN SURGERY!
I hold very few opinions. I hold information based on observation and fact. If you wish to disagree, please use facts.
AFAIK Deus Ex did nothing completely new, as it is younger than the other games listed by GP. But the overall quality was indeed exceptional, so I would rate it as outstanding example from a (previously) existing genre.
C - the footgun of programming languages
Goldeneye did invent levels with actual goals, per point reactions from shooting enemies, and created the standard for fast paced deathmatching.
On consoles, maybe. But it didn't do a thing that PC games hadn't done years earlier.
Great games both (esp. DEx), but "pushing the genre forward"?
Both Thief and Deus Ex had elements of SS in them, so while they were both brilliant games, I don't think they brought a huge amount of advancement to the whole genre.
Everything in moderation, including moderation itself
True, Goldeneye did a great job of adapting the FPS genre for a controller patently not designed for it.
I think other games had "goals" before Goldeneye, too - even Doom had coloured keycards/doors, switches and the like. I'm not sure what you mean by "per-point reactions" so I can't answer that one, but I think you'll find the standard for "fast-paced deathmatching" was set by the original Doom.
I never played GE through to the end (frankly, the controller was (and is) a shitty replacement for mouse and keyboard for FPSing), but the point is irrelevant - if the game brought anything new to the genre it'd be obvious a mile off, and you would have listed it.
Sorry, but polish doesn't equal innovation, and all GE did was polish pre-existing game mechanics, much like Deus Ex (to pick another frequent, but poor, suggestion).
Everything in moderation, including moderation itself