SW Choice for Best Shooter Series - and the winner is....

If theres any genre that has become a pariah in gaming, its the first and third person shooters. Weve all heard the complaints; there are too many of them, other genres becoming overlooked, and how its just become all too easy to make this genre a convenient scapegoat for the decline of gaming blah blah blah.

Well bollocks on that. While I do enjoy a multitude of genres, shooters are just as much fun and you know it!! (whether you know it or not ;) ) So to this I say lets give recognition to those titles that made their mark on gaming landscape, and as a series excel in their genre.

Im sure most of you are familiar with where it goes from here. 64 series will begin as contenders, but over the next 5 weeks of elimination, only ONE will remain to claim the crown for System Wars Choice of BEST SHOOTERS SERIES of all time. Yes this encompasses some of the early forerunners like Wolfenstein, DOOM, and Quake, pitted against the contemporary stars such as Call of Duty, Halo, Killzone, and Crysis.

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At the end of this round, the final count for all the finalists tally's to;

Halo: 55
DOOM: 17
Bioshock 11
Unreal: 4

And there you have it. Up against shooters from all generations, and with a landslide victory, Halo is crowned as the Greatest Shooter series of all time.

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THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT

As we are now on the Final Round, the rules are pretty simple. No more blank votes, no more double votes, no counter votes, no lists. There's only one choice to make this time. It comes down to Halo, Doom, Bioshock, or Unreal this time. From 64 titles this is where we finally crown the victor!!

And as has been standing since this tournament poll began, you still must have an account created before Aug 1 2012 to participate.

The results of Round 4

Halo vs HalfLife = 65/53
Counter Strike vs DOOM = 41/45
Timesplitters vs Bioshock = 33/61
Unreal vs SW Battlefront = 46/45

And a recap of all the previous rounds

[spoiler]
Round 1

Alien vs Predator vs ARMA = 24/72
Duke Nukem vs Killzone = 47/49
Brink vs The Darkness = 17/79
Halo vs Deus Ex = 58/38
Prey vs Halflife = 7/89
Call of Duty vs Ghost Recon = 59/37
Dead to Rights vs Team Fortress = 8/88
Battlefield vs Max Payne = 54/42
Chronicles of Riddick vs Lost Planet = 69/27
Painkiller vs Resistance = 44/52
Counter Strike vs Quake = 55/41
RainbowSix vs MAG = 84/12
Operation Flashpoint vs DOOM = 6/90
Perfect Dark vs SWAT = 72/24
No One Lives Forever vs Serious Sam = 35/61
Sniper Elite vs Mercenaries = 55/41
Timesplitters vs Army of Two = 76/20
Rage vs The Conduit = 80/16
Farcry vs Wolfenstein = 53/43
Delta Force vs Spec Ops = 39/57
Vanquish vs Crysis = 31/65
Gears of War vs Kane & Lynch = 90/6
Metro 2033 vs Bioshock = 25/71
Goldeneye vs Turok = 81/15
Soldier of Fortune vs Red Faction = 15/81
Stalker vs Tribes = 71/25
Homefront vs STar Wars Dark Forces = 49/47
FEAR vs Unreal = 46/50
Just Cause vs Timeshift = 86/10
Stranglehold vs SOCOM = 20/76
Star Wars Battlefront vs Medal of Honor = 63/33
Boderlands vs Black = 79/17

Round 2

ARMA vs Killzone = 42/33
The Darkness vs Halo = 9/67
HalfLife vs Call of Duty = 64/12
Team Fortress vs Battlefield = 41/35
Chronicles of Riddick vs Resistance = 48/29
Counter Strike vs Rainbow Six = 50/27
DOOM vs Perfect Dark = 56/20
Serious Sam vs Sniper Elite = 55/11
Timesplitters vs Rage = 52/23
Farcry vs Spec Ops = 66/5
Crysis vs Gears of War = 37/40
Bioshock vs Golden Eye = 50/26
Red Faction vs Stalker = 21/54
Homefront vs Unreal = 7/67
Just Cause vs SOCOM = 48/23
SW Battlefront vs Borderlands = 54/22

Round 3

ARMA vs Halo = 26/65
HalfLife vs Team Fortress = 58/30
Chronicles of Riddick vs Counter Strike = 26/61
DOOM vs Serious Sam = 78/9
Timesplitters vs Farcry = 45/43
Gears of War vs Bioshock = 42/51
Stalker vs Unreal = 41/45
Just Cause vs SW Battlefront = 30/58
[/spoiler]

ROUND 5 ENDS TUE Sep 11

Click here to see full sized chart

Now as it often gets asked in these things, how did the contenders get arranged in their starting positions. In the past I did that with the old fashioned names out of a box method. But as nobody saw how it unfolded, it seemed like it could never be done right. So this time I got the community involved in helping determine the opening roster, where this time you could all see firsthand the process in action. See this pre-game thread for how it went down.

So who will reign supreme? From the story driven to the intense multiplayer battles, your votes will decide!

My favourite mode used to be team death match. The free for alls tend to be way too chaotic, whereas playing in teams gives makes kills quite satisfying when you're able to coordinate your strikes with your mates to take down the opposition.

But when I got a taste of co-op survival mode, first with Horde in GeoW, then Firefight in ODST, I found a new passion. The game mode makes team work a real requirement if you want to make it through the increasingly difficult waves. Plus I just like the feel of having to hold your ground against growing numbers and the more challenging odds that brings as the game progresses.

So now that we're in the Final Round, I give my final vote to Halo.

It has the best overall package of single player campaign, complemented by 4 player co-op, and its robust offering of multiplayer. All of this greatly accentuated with it's community features that lets players share and collaborate.

And for a game that's so overrated, it sure is taking a long time for that "Halo Killer" to arrive ;)

Well Halo is my favorite series of all time, so this is an easy vote.

Halo.

Hate MP.

I'm not a fan of the overrated Halo but it's better than BioShock, another overrated FPS and Doom, Unreal. So Halo it is.

Half-Life should be in place of BioShock (as great as the first one is, the series is a one hit wonder until Infinite comes out and 2 was just a joke)

___

Halo is my choice

Halo

basically just because I want to watch sniper4321 lose it :lol:

btw BS that SWBF lost by one....

I just find myself not caring about any of these games. But Halo CE SP and Halo 3 MP were sure good.

Halo.

halo is the best game ever, so halo.

DOOM.

Halo is casual console garbage.

Halo.

I can't believe Star Wars BattleFront lost... :( My #1 choice... Go Bioshock.bbkkristian

DOOM. It is quite simple really.

Call of Duty. It's innovation, advanced technology in visuals, deep story-telling and lengthy campaign, and balanced and teamwork based online can't be topped. :P

Thank God Halo beat Half-Life.

Halo, unequivocally. Though Doom is close to my heart, Halo takes it.musicalmac

Why u not vote in any of the previous rounds? :(

Call of Duty. It's innovation, advanced technology in visuals, deep story-telling and lengthy campaign, and balanced and teamwork based online can't be topped. :P

speedfreak48t5p

ummm, maybe you should have another look at the chart. COD got eliminated in round 2 ;)

Very disappointed by the final match-up. I'll go with BioShock on the sole basis that the second one is one of my favourite shooters of this generation.

In the poll I voted for Objective, although I don't necessarily mean KOTH and stuff like that. My favourite modes are co-op based objectives, such as Terrorist Hunt in the old Rainbow Six games.

Doom!

I can't believe Halo beat Half-Life :x

Let's be honest... Halo is not the best, but it's the most popular.

As I'm usually objective with this kind of things, I'll go with Bioshock.

Halo

Halo

eh. all four of them have contributed to the genre in various ways. features and gameplay ideas aside, each still have been pretty crucial to the genre's success. the thing about bioshock is that its the youngest and perhaps really hasn't revolutionized the fps market like the others did, but bioshock is one of the last shooter series out there that aim to immerse you and convince you that video games are art. halo pushed the genre forward while capitalizing on what made unreal successful, the same with unreal pushing the genre forward after doom's success.

doom is relatively more revolutionary than any other game in the genre, but the series fizzled out in terms of true innovation. with that said, the series that has been consistently pushing for innovation- in terms of combat, exploration, atmosphere, and location- immersion, storytelling, and overall quality is undoubtedly bioshock. halo really set the bar for shooters with its debut and has continually been successful throughout the series' life, but the overall innovation has slowed down tremendously. if you boil it down, you've basically been a spartan/elite with the same old combat mechanics for 11 years. sure, its a great series, but its done nothing in terms of making games more of an art rather than being a yearly cash grab (the growing trend).

you may choose to deny this, but bioshock has the chance to become one of the most important series of all time for any genre given the degradation of quality throughout the world of first person shooters. if bioshock infinite is anything like the first two, it could really show people that games can be more than $60 pieces of software that are used as abnormal methods of screaming at other users during these so-called competitive online matches in which you kill said other users in the cheapest ways possible for points that people seem to care about too much

[QUOTE="speedfreak48t5p"]

Call of Duty. It's innovation, advanced technology in visuals, deep story-telling and lengthy campaign, and balanced and teamwork based online can't be topped. :P

AdobeArtist

ummm, maybe you should have another look at the chart. COD got eliminated in round 2 ;)

I like all modes, but team deathmatch does it for me in a pickle. It still lets me coordinate with people but still mindlessly blast away at the other guys. Good pick up and play mode minus the chaos of free for all.

As for these four games, I'm surprised that Half-Life lost. I'm even more surprised at how close UT and Battlefront were (although as a battle of multiplayer shooters it was kind of cool). I am not surprised by how close Doom and Counter Strike were, though I prefer Doom.

For me right now, there's only one game not deserving of being in the final four and that's BioShock. Infinite looks awesome, but the first game was a letdown and the sequel was a cashgrab.

Out of the three that are there I vote for Halo.

Each of the shooter installments in Halo have been spectacular. I love Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3 (my favorite shooter this gen), Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach.

As for Doom, I love the old-school games but Doom 3 didn't do it for me (I am replaying Quake 4 right now though)

As for Unreal, well UT and UT2k4 did it for me but the rest of the series is forgettable.

I choose Halo. If it wins I'll have to eat my words about how Halo never wins anything on SW. If it loses, I want it to lose to Doom or UT. BioShock's premise is cool, but the actual game design/shooting is just weak.

Ugh.

DOOM.

Halo

I think Bioshock 1 is better than any single game of Halo but thinking of the whole series against the other choices... Halo.

I vote for Halo.

Gotta go with Halo.

Halo.

Might as well just call it now.

I vote for DOOM.

Halo

I see SW has good tastes...:?

Vanquish.

I see SW has good tastes...:?

Vanquish.

Gxgear

Can't vote for a game eliminiated in the first round :P

[QUOTE="Gxgear"]

I see SW has good tastes...:?

Vanquish.

AdobeArtist

Can't vote for a game eliminiated in the first round :P

I know...but someone had to be the voice of reason around here.

[QUOTE="AdobeArtist"]

[QUOTE="Gxgear"]

I see SW has good tastes...:?

Vanquish.

Gxgear

Can't vote for a game eliminiated in the first round :P

I know...but someone had to be the voice of reason around here.

In which case you failed. I'm talking Hindenberg failure here :P

[QUOTE="Gxgear"]

[QUOTE="AdobeArtist"]

Can't vote for a game eliminiated in the first round :P

AdobeArtist

I know...but someone had to be the voice of reason around here.

In which case you failed. I'm talking Hindenberg failure here :P

Suresure, not that I'm trying to convince anyone here. I'd have more luck teaching monkeys Chinese calligraphy.

[QUOTE="AdobeArtist"]

[QUOTE="Gxgear"]

I see SW has good tastes...:?

Vanquish.

Gxgear

Can't vote for a game eliminiated in the first round :P

I know...but someone had to be the voice of reason around here.

I would have taken Vanquish to the final round if I could have. But you're just acting like a looney right now. :P

[QUOTE="AdobeArtist"]

[QUOTE="Gxgear"]

I see SW has good tastes...:?

Vanquish.

Gxgear

Can't vote for a game eliminiated in the first round :P

I know...but someone had to be the voice of reason around here.

[QUOTE="Gxgear"]

[QUOTE="AdobeArtist"]

Can't vote for a game eliminiated in the first round :P

NeonNinja

I know...but someone had to be the voice of reason around here.

I would have taken Vanquish to the final round if I could have. But you're just acting like a looney right now. :P

If you really believe that, then I'd fit right in wouldn't I?