My Top 10 FPS games

My Top 10 FPS games

I was lucky enough to grow up in two golden eras of first person shooter games. The first was in the mid to late 90's when FPS games first became mainstream popular and the second was in the late noughties at university when EVERYONE was playing Call of Duty in filthy rooms full of empty lager cans and discarded copies of Nuts magazine. Here is my personal top 10 FPS games of all time (please note, it's probably very different to your top 10). 

#10 - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - 2009 (Xbox 360).

This was the game that me and all my friends were playing when we were at university. It was incredibly polished but also had a pick up and play feel where a useless player (like me) could have just as much fun as a seasoned vet (like my housemates Ross and Haider). This is thought of as many as the best one in the series and I will always have a fond nostalgia for it due to the numerous hours spent playing this whilst pre drinking with my classic combo of a four pack of Red Stripe and a small bottle of Tesco Value Vodka (I feel sick just typing that) before going out and unsuccessfully talking to women in the wonderful nightlife of Northampton. 

#9 - Doom - 2016 (PS4).

A perfect reintroduction to a classic franchise. They got this game absolutely correct and managed to just avoid taking themselves too seriously. The pace of the game is mostly frantic but also has slower, eerier moments that manage to give the game that classic Doom feel. 

#8 - Wolfenstein 3D - 1992 (PC).

The game that started it all or, at least, the game that started the genre being the behemoth it became. When you compare to later FPS games it is...well, a bit crap. However, it was the first FPS game I ever played and I have many fond memories of putting the floppy disc into our DOS PC and killing a few Nazis. 

#7 - Killzone - 2004 (PS2).

The first Killzone is a bit of an underrated gem in my opinion. People with an Xbox had Halo and the rest of us with our PS2's had this. I really like the art style of it and the levels seemed mostly well designed. It managed to have a dark atmosphere without having any of the horror type elements that many other 'dark' FPS games relied on.

#6 - Doom II: Hell on Earth - 1994 (PC).

This took the original Doom and basically improved it on every front. The levels have more variation and gameplay requires a little more thought (although not much). There is a reason that Doom was so popular in the 90's and continues to be to this day and this game sums up all those reasons why. It's just good fun.

#5 - Quake - 1996 (PC).

I might write 'atmosphere' about 100 times in this blog post but this is yet another game that has tons of it. It was just a little bit better than the Doom games that preceded it and introduced us to more 3D graphics in an FPS game. It also has a NIN soundtrack that, whilst not being the type of music I enjoy, fits the game perfectly. 

#4 - Halo - 2001 (PC). 

Halo represented a huge jump in the polish of FPS games. It looked good, it was stylish and it just played beautifully. It also has one of my favourite arrays of weapons in the genre. It was probably the main reason a lot of people bought an Xbox (although I played it on PC) in the first place and helped introduce Microsoft to the games console market.

#3 - Unreal Tournament - 1999 (PC).

This game left such a big impression on so many people who played it in the late 90's and early noughties. Just a few months ago, I randomly started talking about it with a friend and we both instantly remembered the 'Facing Worlds' level and the hours we spent on that level alone firing at the opposite tower with rocket launchers, sniper rifles and the 'Redeemer'. To both have such an identical, specific memory despite never having played the game together and neither having played it for many years, it shows the impact that some of the perfect design in this game had on people. Or, more likely, maybe we're just really bloody sad.

#2 - Half Life 2 - 2004 (Xbox). 

For many years this was the 'thinking mans' FPS game. At least, that's what we liked to tell ourselves whilst we played this instead of studying for exams. It was one of the first games I played that had a genuinely intriguing story line and characters that seemed nuanced and you actually cared about. Coupled with the intelligent gameplay on offer, this is my second favourite FPS game of all time.

#1 - Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour - 2016 (PS4).

Duke Nukem 3D probably isn't the best FPS game of all time but it is definitely my favourite. I have so many memories of playing this on PC as a child, playing a second hand copy on my old Sega Saturn as a university student and then recently played the 'World Tour' version on my PS4. It has a brilliant style to it where it is basically a pastiche of cheesy action films of the 80's and 90's. It makes fun of the 'offensive' material it portrays by never pretending to be anything other than ludicrous, stupid and firmly tongue-in-cheek.

Anyway, which of your favourite FPS games did I miss out?

Social Media Memories.

Social Media Memories

I first discovered social media in around 2003 via a website called 'Face-pic'. Social media seemed a very different world back then. It was almost as if 'normal' people hadn't discovered it yet so it was full of weird and wonderful people with often bizarre pictures of themselves. I then moved onto Bebo, Myspace and, of course, the all powerful Facebook. Here are some are a few random memories have from the noughtie's era of social media.

#1 - Pokes were the ultimate flirting tactic. 

If a girl sent you a poke on Facebook it basically meant she wanted to marry you and have your babies. I joke but it did used to be a really common way of interacting with the opposite sex before completely fading into obscurity. Seriously, I remember people having full blown conversations about a someone poking them on Facebook. We were extremely romantic in 2007. 

#2 - Painstaking hours choosing the perfect Myspace song.

Myspace had a feature where you could set a song to start playing the moment someone went onto your page. Many people (including me, and you if you're honest with yourself) considered this an important first impression. You would have to choose a song that perfectly represented your personality and also started well because they might only spend a few seconds on your page. I showed everyone that I was highly unique by setting mine as 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'. 

#3 - 'Chav' culture on Bebo.

Every form of social media feels like it has a certain audience. Instagram is for young people who want to post attractive pictures of themselves, Facebook is for slightly older people who want to keep in touch with family and Twitter is for narcissists. Bebo always seemed to be predominantly for the kind of teens who would write 'cant read lol' or 'hate books' under the favourite books section and the favourite films section was just endless repetitions of 'Green Street' and 'Football Factory'. From my own home town of Welshpool there was even a page created for the 'Welshpool Massive' complete with completely unironic boasts such as 'we don't ask for respect, we demand it' and 'death to Newtown' (a nearby town to Welshpool). 

#4 - Public feuds on Facebook.

Is it just me or did Facebook used to be a lot more interesting than it is now because people just didn't hide anything back then? I remember people publicly calling out other people on Facebook over things such as cheating, stealing, lying and many other issues you can no longer watch on Jeremy Kyle. This would result in incredibly long winded debates occurring via comments on the original post from all the people involved. The drama seems to have now been traded for baby photo's and mental health awareness which is much more wholesome. 

#5 - The 'Top Friends' hierarchy of Myspace. 

Myspace had a feature where you could list your top friends. I think it was six overall. Choosing your top friends seemed like an important decision and seeing whether you had made other peoples top friends list was an often depressing past time. It didn't stop there though, you also had to think of the order you were going to place your top friends in. This is what we worried about before global warming went more mainstream. 

Anyway, what have I missed?