Your favorite game of the dark fps era (2004- 2007)

Mine is Half Life 2. S.T.A.L.K.E.R and F.E.A.R are about equal, and doom 3 is last place.

Which one of these do you prefer?

BioShock

Stalker, but why is Quake 4 missing from the poll?

Mine? These two.

Heck. I forgot all those on the poll after BF2 was released.

i havent played quake 4 before. if i could play it and form an opinion on it i would have added it to the poll.

What exactly is the "dark era"?  Are you referring specifically to the atmosphere or are you implying something else?

Anyway, Half-Life 2: Episode 2 released in 2007, so that.

But in terms of non-expansion titles, F.E.A.R. was my favorite of the bunch.  It still has what I consider to be the best gunplay in a shooter.

yes im talking about the atmosphere :) my favorite thing in a game. I love a dark atmosphere. Thats probably why i enjoy hiking on the mountains in the middle of the night :)

i havent played quake 4 before. if i could play it and form an opinion on it i would have added it to the poll.

gogoplexiorayo

You're not missing much.  Quake 4 is way too generic to be of any value to you right now.  It's a by the numbers corridor shooter that was dull when it came out and duller now with a lot of the advancements the genre has made over the last decade and a half since Quake was relevant.

yeah i did ignore the game when it came out... maybe it was the right thing to do...

You forgot about Far Cry 1, which was best in the series (this includes the 6th gen console Far Cry games), up until Far Cry 3 released.

Far Cry, Doom 3 and Half Life 2 are basically what i call the holy trinity of 2004. You've got Crytek's first game, and the beginning of the CryEngine. Then you've got the most iconic, influential FPS name on Earth getting resurrected with a third installment. And finally, the sequel to Valve's Half Life. Nothing touches 2004.

You forgot about Far Cry 1, which was best in the series (this includes the 6th gen console Far Cry games), up until Far Cry 3 released.

Far Cry, Doom 3 and Half Life 2 are basically what i call the holy trinity of 2004. You've got Crytek's first game, and the beginning of the CryEngine. Then you've got the most iconic, influential FPS name on Earth getting resurrected with a third installment. And finally, the sequel to Valve's Half Life. Nothing touches 2004.

Lucianu

And Painkiller.

yeah i also remember delta force black hawk down team sabre being released in january that year, which i played alot of multiplayer in. I saw Far cry, but i was so addicted to DFBHDTS then that i choose to ignore it. I also remember Joint Operations which i played ALL DAY LONG in the summer. Gosh Novalogic and pc gaming rocked back then!

And Painkiller.

Baranga

I forgot.. damn, that game was like a reinvigoration to pure arcade shooters. I'm calling it a tetralogy from this day forth. Oh wait.. there's also UT 2k4. This one is the absolute height of multiplayer shooters.

Damn. There were a lot of first person shooters released in 2004.

Stalker/Half Life 2 for singleplayer..... Unreal2k4 of course for multi

Out of those listed I voted for Half-Life 2, though I did enjoy the others.

Also, where is Condemned: Criminal Origins?  That game had a dark atmosphere, and I enjoyed it more than F.E.A.R. at the time.

Doom 3, but I would have voted for Chronicles of Riddick if it was listed.

DOOM 3 for me and HALF LIFE 2 right after if not before. idk hard to decide. fear was GREAT also. man good memories

Painkiller, the last truly great singleplayer FPS.

The hell do you mean by "dark fps era?"

The hell do you mean by "dark fps era?"

Goyoshi12

Don't make me choose between S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and HLF2.....

[QUOTE="Baranga"]

And Painkiller.

Lucianu

I forgot.. damn, that game was like a reinvigoration to pure arcade shooters. I'm calling it a tetralogy from this day forth. Oh wait.. there's also UT 2k4. This one is the absolute height of multiplayer shooters.

Damn. There were a lot of first person shooters released in 2004.

2004 was easily the best year for the shooter genre, and a strong contender for the title of best year in gaming.

would have voted for Chronicles of Riddick if it was listed.

SonOfChewbacca

I don't think I can decide between Stalker and HL2. both are in my top ten games of all time. 

HL2. I didnt get into Stalker until the Compete mod came out for it, so I have to take points away for that.

wtf... fear is #4 ? it's the best game by far, gameplay,story etc.

Stalker, but why is Quake 4 missing from the poll?

Baranga

Chronicles of Riddick was pretty much peerless when it was released. A truly refreshing mix of FPS stealth, brilliantly done FPS melee combat, great story, etc, etc. Pretty much everything I could want from an FPS. Perhaps the best movie tie-in game ever.

The original call of duty, i guess, because i never played fear, doom 3 was just cheap scares, and just plain cheap in general, and Half life 2 is just call of duty with some aliens and lame physics puzzles added in.

FEAR was pretty good. I loved that game. But I hear Stalker games are awesome. As for Half life 2, definitely a must play. But the extensions are so so.

Did anybody expect anything but HL2 to win this? Seriously?

Perhaps if the original FarCry was up there it would be a bit closer. It and the original Bioshock IMO are in the same league of greatness with HL2.

[QUOTE="Lucianu"]

[QUOTE="Baranga"]

And Painkiller.

the_bi99man

I forgot.. damn, that game was like a reinvigoration to pure arcade shooters. I'm calling it a tetralogy from this day forth. Oh wait.. there's also UT 2k4. This one is the absolute height of multiplayer shooters.

Damn. There were a lot of first person shooters released in 2004.

2004 was easily the best year for the shooter genre, and a strong contender for the title of best year in gaming.

Each of the four years 1997 - 2000 were at least as good as 2004 for PC Gaming. I would say 2004 is probably 5th best.

Out of those I would say FEAR. Just a fantastic game.

Painkiller is alright, but I've never been a fan of the old Serious Sam style shooters. 

vtmb.

I wonder why FEAR is so underrated. The gunplay and tension were just perfect.

I still play it every Halloween. That is how special FEAR is to me. 

I'll never understand the praise for FEAR; I think it's incredibly overrated and failed to do everything it aimed for.

On topic:

It's a very hard to single out a game as some of the best FPS ever made belong in this time period. I think I would be doing wrong if I chose only one game, so I'll just list my favorites:

• Unreal Tournament 2004 - Quite possibly the best rendition of this fantastic game; the core, skill-based gameplay was refined to it's best, and the additions of several incredibly fun gameplay modes made this one of the best MP games ever.

• Doom 3 - It may not hold the sacred status the first two games have today, and the tonal shift from the past titles is kind of inadequate, but Doom 3 is a fantastic game nonetheless; the atmosphere was dark and immersive, gunplay and shooting was done really well and still remains one of the best looking games ever made. It was a great audiovisual experience.

• Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay - Flat-out the best movie-to-game title ever made, and one of the best in the genre. It featured a stellar campaign and one of the best melee combat systems around.

• Quake - It's pretty incredible for a Quake game that it's selling point is the single-player campaign; action packed, high-octane and very memorable. It borrowed the best from "realistic" FPS while being thematically the same as it's over-the-top predecessors. 

• Painkiller - The best throwback to FPS of old, featuring some of the most satisfying weapons ever made.

Honorable mentions:

Condemned: Criminal Origins, Half Life 2, BioShock, Call of Duty 4, SWAT 4, Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth.

Also, I regret never playing Far Cry 1 and STALKER :( 

STALKER I suppose, but I really should play FEAR.

I didn't play these 4 but cal of duty was my favorite game ever.

I think FEAR did well in terms of creating a shooter where the shooting actually felt right. The clinks of the shell casings hitting the floor, the way enemies react to bullets hitting them, etc, all gave the gunplay a degree of impact that is still lacking in many shooters to this very day.