The evolution of online combat

How can "tactical" shooters (is this a nice way of saying slow-as-molasses 3rd person shooters?) possibly hold up to the likes of COD4 and Team Fortress 2?

Console online gaming has been around now for 7+ years. Ghost Recon and Rainbow had their time in the sun. There's no denying the past generation of multiplayer shooters was great, but there had better be some radical changes to the tactical genre, or it's going the way of Quake.

Rather than lumping any game with a gun under one banner and comparing them to one another, complicate matters and appreciate each title for it subtle/drastic nuances.

I for one love a slew of shooters (and excell at none of them :P ) My friend was convinced that once I played GRAW 2, I would never touch Halo again. Wrong. I love them both. I played GRAW when I wanted something more realistic and wanted to think tactics and die from single shots to the gut; I played Halo when I wanted to have that '8 vertical leap, kinetic shields and shoot plasma weapons. Both are great games and are two completely different styles of play, not simply "shooters" to compare to one another. Now I'm toggling between CoD4 (slightly more realistic) and Halo 3. I often play both in the same night and have two different kinds of fun!

I, for one, look forward to both styles (militaristic realsim and Sci-Fi incredibility) become moreso what they are so I can continue to build my catalog with great titles of differing styles of gameplay.

You see, to enjoy a tactical shooter, you need this thing called skill.

COD4, Halo etc, are just frag fests. Yeh you gotta be able to aim but really its just a free for all grenade throwing noob convention.

Id much rather play a online tactical shooter.
skivit

You've obviously never played another shooting game besides your tactical ones. It takes skill to play games like Quake, Tribes, and Team Fortress well. Not everyone can pick up on stuff like bunny hopping, strafe jumping, or rocket jumping as fast as one can learn to keep their crouch hotkey pressed and their finger off their trigger.

Both types of FPS games require skill, just in different ways.

[QUOTE="skivit"]You see, to enjoy a tactical shooter, you need this thing called skill.

COD4, Halo etc, are just frag fests. Yeh you gotta be able to aim but really its just a free for all grenade throwing noob convention.

Id much rather play a online tactical shooter.
Eseyze

You've obviously never played another shooting game besides your tactical ones. It takes skill to play games like Quake, Tribes, and Team Fortress well. Not everyone can pick up on stuff like bunny hopping, strafe jumping, or rocket jumping as fast as one can learn to keep their crouch hotkey pressed and their finger off their trigger.

Both types of FPS games require skill, just in different ways.

true

[QUOTE="skivit"]You see, to enjoy a tactical shooter, you need this thing called skill.

COD4, Halo etc, are just frag fests. Yeh you gotta be able to aim but really its just a free for all grenade throwing noob convention.

Id much rather play a online tactical shooter.
Eseyze

You've obviously never played another shooting game besides your tactical ones. It takes skill to play games like Quake, Tribes, and Team Fortress well. Not everyone can pick up on stuff like bunny hopping, strafe jumping, or rocket jumping as fast as one can learn to keep their crouch hotkey pressed and their finger off their trigger.

Both types of FPS games require skill, just in different ways.

My friend, ive been gaming for the past 14 years and have played every shooter under the sun. Check my achievements. I regularly play halo, team fortress 2, and COD4.

All i was saying is that the audience in tactical shooters i far mature to that of all the FPS's out there. Tactical games take tactics and stealth and skill, pure fact. If you dont use any of these your not going to get anywhere whereas games such as halo3, you dont need to have awesome skill to get kills.

You see, to enjoy a tactical shooter, you need this thing called skill.

COD4, Halo etc, are just frag fests. Yeh you gotta be able to aim but really its just a free for all grenade throwing noob convention.

Id much rather play a online tactical shooter.
skivit

Sorry buddy Halo 3 is leagues above COD 4 in terms of skill required in an actual match. You have to worry about team work in objective games, holding weapon areas, attack and sometimes defending, not to mention once you do get into a fire fight theres more then 1 bullet hitting your oponent you have to worrry about

[QUOTE="Eseyze"]

[QUOTE="skivit"]You see, to enjoy a tactical shooter, you need this thing called skill.

COD4, Halo etc, are just frag fests. Yeh you gotta be able to aim but really its just a free for all grenade throwing noob convention.

Id much rather play a online tactical shooter.
skivit

You've obviously never played another shooting game besides your tactical ones. It takes skill to play games like Quake, Tribes, and Team Fortress well. Not everyone can pick up on stuff like bunny hopping, strafe jumping, or rocket jumping as fast as one can learn to keep their crouch hotkey pressed and their finger off their trigger.

Both types of FPS games require skill, just in different ways.

My friend, ive been gaming for the past 14 years and have played every shooter under the sun. Check my achievements. I regularly play halo, team fortress 2, and COD4.

All i was saying is that the audience in tactical shooters i far mature to that of all the FPS's out there. Tactical games take tactics and stealth and skill, pure fact. If you dont use any of these your not going to get anywhere whereas games such as halo3, you dont need to have awesome skill to get kills.

I believe you all most repeated what you said the first time and added a little autobiography. You still don't understand that it takes as much skill, maybe even more to play gun 'n run games like Halo, etc... than playing RB6. Stealth, tactics, and skill is essential to every shooting game you will ever play whether you use any of it or not.

You've obviously never played another shooting game besides your tactical ones. It takes skill to play games like Quake, Tribes, and Team Fortress well.Eseyze

Yeah, funny you should mention Tribes. Tribes: Aerial Assault was one of my all-time favorite console online shooters. I thought Tribes would cause a revolution in the FPS world with its sweet mix of weapons, vehicles, armor, kits, maps and game types. I was sad to see it never came to the Xbox.

Anyway, I will say that tactical shooters have ruled from time to time, with Ghost Recon 2, GRAW, and Rainbow Six Vegas being some of the best games ever.

I guess the whole point I'm trying to make is this: GRAW 2 was so much more of the same, with virtually no change to the game, so it stagnated and suffered. RS:V was great for me until COD4 hit and I just couldn't go back. So is RS: Vegas 2 going to be somehow revolutionary in its gameplay, or are tactical shooters pretty much stuck in 2006, when they hit their peak?

Personally, I find Rainbow Six Vegas to be MILES better than COD 4, despite how good COD 4 is.ViscaBarcaInter

i agree.... cuz in CoD4 everything goes so fast... butin vegas u just cant run around unless u wanna get Pwned every time u respawn

You see, to enjoy a tactical shooter, you need this thing called skill.

COD4, Halo etc, are just frag fests. Yeh you gotta be able to aim but really its just a free for all grenade throwing noob convention.

Id much rather play a online tactical shooter.
skivit

if your getting killed by grenades in COD4, then thats your own fault

Each style of game such as tactical and run-n-gun takes skill. By no means is it the same kind of skill, but still skill.

Have you ever played vs a team in Halo that actually uses stratgey and tactics? They are most likely 3x better than most. Most teams to try to just run and gun and their best players usually end up with an even k/d ratio while you find the team that does use tactics and works as a team (which is a type of strategy) will be the people that have a 20/7 k/d ratio.

Tactics and Strategy come in many forms. They go as low as what weapons your team uses. If you play always with your friends or a usual team in Halo you will find what each player is good at and use their strengths.

No the game is tactical like Ghost Recon, America's Army, Rainbow 6, and some others, but i remember playing Ghost Recon 2 and besides from the tactics every game has it was you either camped or moved super slowly or you camped with a sniper rifle. Aside from that it was a run n gun fest. Guess what... i have seen and done all those things in Halo. Mabye not to the extent as in Ghost Recon, but have still done them.

Yes Halo or CoD4 isn't like Ghost Recon or Rainbow 6, but a lot of the guys you see run n gunning in Halo and CoD4 are usually the guys with close k/d ratios. I say close because i personally think 24/20 or 24/18 is close. A lot of the good players will take won't just run into a room unless they know they will get enough kills to make it worth it.

Each game takes skill in its own way.