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.
THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
* To be eligible to vote, your account must have been created before Aug 1 2012.
* Your ballots must be posted as numbered lists (1-32 for round 1, 1-16 for round 2, 1-8 for round 3, and so on).
* Each number must correspond to the chart, choosing only one game from each assigned number slot.
* Your ballots must be complete, with all slots voted on or it wont be counted
* You may change your votes at any time up to the cut off. If you do so, do NOT make a new post. EDIT your existing ballot.
BONUS RULE
For Round 2 I'm adding a bonus rule, which is that you may opt out of voting for two (and NO MORE THAN TWO) blocks. Keep your ballot with the full numbered list 1-16, and for the blocks you choose to non-vote, type in something like VOID, BLANK, or N/A.
So you wanna know the results from 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 ENDS TUE AUG 21
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!
** What about Metroid Prime? **
[spoiler] I also thought Id pre-emptively address another issue right away. Why certain series are excluded. I kind of expect with this that Metroid Prime will likely be brought up. The first point I need to get across is that this isnt a competition for shooters by individual title but youre voting by series. And Metroid began as a 2D platformer before it took a 3D first person angle. The same can be said of the first two Fallout games that were isometric RPGs before taking the FPS route.
But even if you argue that the Metroid Prime games are its own sub-series of the exploits of Samus, even though its in first person, doesnt make it a shooter any more than Portal or Mirrors Edge is that are also first person games. Metroid Prime is and always has been first person adventure and exploration, a 3D re-imagining of its 2D side scrolling roots. Yes you have a shooting mechanic to the game, but so too does GTA and MGS.
Where games are more than the sum of their parts, in MP using your tools to discover new areas of the world and other modes of puzzle solving are just as much a part of the design. Samus weapon itself is more a puzzle solving device rather than a gun relying on player reflex, where it has the feature to lock on to enemies and even specific target areas of enemies. Many of the boss fights are really puzzles disguised as combat, where figuring out which extension of the arm cannon can exploit a unique weakness in the boss as the means to victory, not raw firepower or skill based aiming. Similarly you can see how Fallout 3s VATs system circumvents traditional gunplay typically associated with FPS games.
So no, those two games would never be included in the roster. Besides that, other games were given consideration but limited spots of 64 meant some games just couldnt make the final cut. [/spoiler]
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