Santhenar:
Please, what exactly did HL2 do with the shooting genre?

Higher focus on narrative through fantastic facial expressions on the NPCs.
Added a new dimension to gameplay with the Gravity Gun.

....I gotta go with Metroid prime. Only thing that coukld make that game better would be if they added kraid. Why the bleep was he not in Corruption? You knew we wanted him Retro and you already had concept art. That and the world in Prime was amazing. Echoes and Corruption didn't have the feeling that you actually wanted to get lost and explore.

I'm surprised no-one's at least mentioned Deus Ex. I mean, I've never played that game myself but I've heard good things.

General Mostly Electrified Steel:
Serious post:

The first Metroid Prime. Best atmosphere of any of the Primes, IMO. And the menu music is the pinnacle of human culture. If you disagree, prepare to be crusadified.

I'd also have to go on to say the controls were pure and utter win. Hold down shoulder button to lock and flick through locks, and then circle strafe around what amounted to big, moving puzzles with venomous teeth of death.

It's a purer form of the Art of Shooter, if you ask me. Just your quick wit and quicker reflexes in a nightmare fairytale.

While I can't say it's the best ever (I only have a gamecube) I will say that it's the best FPS I've ever played. Loved that game, and they ruined it, the bastards. Oh well. Nintendo, hu?

Apologies to anyone offended that I don't have at least a PS2.

Minic:
I'm surprised no-one's at least mentioned Deus Ex. I mean, I've never played that game myself but I've heard good things.

Deus Ex would be a very legitimate choice seeing as how it's one of the greatest FPS ever made, but I heard the port was shit. (I only played it on PC)

That and Deus Ex 2 sucked massive dicks by being dumbed down for a broader audience on consoles.

Hard to choose between UT/Quake2/HL, all had great multiplayer and loads of nice mods/add-ons.

Edit: Erk just noticed title was console and I just said all PC games, ah well.

Halo 3 or bioshock for me Halo3 had better gunplay but Bioshock was much more atmospheric. HL2 is fun and all but after you've done the puzzles and had fun with the Grav-gun it's really bland. Judging from the initial run-throughs HL2 was a tiny bit better than Halo3 but Halo3 lasts much much longer.

Yeah Halo3 it has the best gun play.

Its the special Olympics!

/elitism

Time Splitters 3 or Bioshock

Time Splitters 3 is my third favorite multilayer game! I'm not sure how many people actualy know about the game though. For starters you can be a monkey, or a ninja monkey, or even a gingerbread man with a gun that shoots lightning!

Santhenar:

Please, what exactly did HL2 do with the shooting genre?

Well, it introduced physics. It introduced characters that you actually care about. It introduced the gravity gun. It created levels which can vary from claustrophobic horror fests to lonely road missions to beachfront assaults on combine bases. It introduced true atmosphere to a game, something that very few shooters have managed to compete with since (Bioshock and Fear are good examples, but they are pure horror which I believe is easier than creating a more varied experience). It also showed what most other shooters were incapable of - creating a complex plot that is told entirely through the viewpoint of the player.

Stepping outside of the train station to see a monstrous monolith, ripping apart a clouded sky, where the people are desperate, paranoid and controlled by a vicious totalitarian regime... Half-Life 2 was and is a masterpiece, whether you acknowledge it or not. How many games have physics now? Nearly all of them. Why?..... take a guess.

Anyway, as you might have guessed my vote goes to HL2 followed by Bioshock, Metroid and FEAR.

1.Bioshock

I usually judge on the single player and its Replayability. To me, Bioshock has the best single player experience. Would you kindly, lol.

2. Halo 3
The campaign may not be the best, but I think its great. The skulls with the metagame and the excellent Co-op makes it something I can play with my friends at any time. Theater kicks ass. Its something that every game should have.

3. Call of Duty 4
The game is really stale after the 1st playthrough, but the 1st time I played it, it was really epic. Nuclear explosion? **** yeah.

4. Half Life 2
Its been 3 years since I've played it. I don't remember much, but I know it has a killer SP. Playing through it again might change its rank, but...Gravity Gun ftw.

Santhenar:

twilight_dweller:
Portal isn't an FPS, it's a puzzle game.

In any case, I think Half-Life 2 is the best first person shooter, because it actually did something with the Shooting genre. And the Source engine was, and still is, a work of art.

Please, what exactly did HL2 do with the shooting genre?

I suppose one of the merits of HL2 is that it has a tense and gritty atmosphere, rather than an action movie approach to things that is so commonly found in FPS.

Doom and Half life respectively.
Halo gets an honourable mention for being super playable, and having an entertaining multiplayer.

cod 4 by far

Santhenar:
Am I the only person on Earth who actually thinks Half-Life 2 was somewhat rubbish? Probably.
Half-Life 1 was amazing though.
But I'd say the best FPS, nay one of the best games of all time has to be Timesplitters: Future Perfect - If you don't think it's awesome then you're obviously not doing it right.

Nope, I hate Half-Life 2 as well, loved the first game and all of it's expansions and I'm a fan of Episode 1 and 2 aswell....
Timesplitters 2 was my favourite of the last generation, as for this one? I reckon Call of Duty 4, it only lacks in one department (co-op) so it's pretty close to being perfect IMO.

OK this is a crime, noone has mentioned Perfect Dark, seriously, why has noone mentioned Perfect Dark? It did everything so much better than Goldeneye.

I also think Black was good too as was TimeSplitters: FP

Santhenar:
But I'd say the best FPS, nay one of the best games of all time has to be Timesplitters: Future Perfect - If you don't think it's awesome then you're obviously not doing it right.

Absolutely correct! Timesplitter games always have ruled and Future Perfect was brilliant and by far the best! Halo series is awesome as is the original Perfect Dark, especially it's multiplayer!

But.. but... FPS's on consoles?? WRY!?

Maybe it's just me, but I feel way more in character and engaged in the action - hell even more competent - with a mouse. With funny little analog sticks I just feel stupid. Not just because I suck at using them, but because without a mouse I find myself using "cheats" to make me shoot more stuff. By that I mean, for example, leaving the reticule at roughly the right height of someone's head. I can just strafe and run with my gun pointing in the same damn place all the time. If you were a space warrior, future terrorist, modern day soldier or even a masterful chef - would you lazily sidestep so that you gun points at the enemy - or would you be making shots at whatever stuck it's nasty head out at you?

I understand people might become excellent with a gamepad, but for me the best fps on a console would be one with a lightgun.

The best FPS for me is the FPS that i can convince my rabbid Nintendo-fan friend is not like all the others.

But i'd have to say CoD4, for obvious reasons.

DUCK HUNT

Why...why did you make this? You can see them coming...over the horizon! They are coming. Hordes of them. We cannot escape...the Fanboys are soon to arrive!
Btw, I really don't think there is a best shooter. They all have up's and down's.

EDIT: Just ignore this, once I thought about it, I figured what I said above is just kinda stupid, cause popular games are good too in certain cases.

Either Killer7 or Metriod Prime in my opinion.

Duke Nukem 3D

If you've never played it, then you seriously are missing out on one great game.
Just make sure you get the uncensored version.

[quote=shadowyoasis]Duke Nukem 3Dquote]

Yea DN3D was good. I also enjoyed one of the clones that came out with the monk-samurai dude who was pretty much a triad-rip off of Duke (not The Duke haha). What was it called....Shadow Warrior? agh can't remember.

Really for me the best is any of the Timesplitters series, but I guess out of the three: TS3 is the winner

Battlefield 2 anyone? Not that stupid Modern Combat one but the pure one on the glorious PC. My only problem with it is that to get the extra tier of weapons you have to get Special Forces expansion but the expansion is actually pretty good so it works out.

I'm voting for Half-life(yes i know the port was a bit shitty), while the sequel is great its not really a huge leap forward compared to it peers. HL introduced us to real world feel to level design, weapons that where not just found floating in the middle of a room after a boss fight (that is not a insult to Metroid Prime, I'd probably put that as my second choice).
interesting puzzles that didn't involve the key system that the its peers used, find blue key to open blue door etc...
It had a great sense of humour and drama. Also the weapons felt great, the magnum was a joy from shooting to reloading it.

oh and i think my third choice would be Timesplitters 2, the first was fun but had boring mission objectives.

When i do these 'best thingy ever' debates i always have to go for games that were great fun and actually made big changes to the genre

I've touted this game before, anyone played Star Wars Republic Commando? It was truly epic on a grand scale! Other than that I think Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay and XIII deserve honorable mentions.

'Really for me the best is any of the Timesplitters series, but I guess out of the three: TS3 is the winner.'
Am I the only on who thought the first was the best? Although the mapmaker on 3 was awesome.

The first one had the horrendous missions where all you did was collect a item then get to the exit, but the game still had enough class to make me get 2 and 3. Both the sequels really fleshed out the great gameplay with fun settings and objectives.

and to your other post jiffmcgriff why haven't they made the sequel to XIII i loved that game.

Too many people in this thread missed the bit where it said "on any CONSOLE". This disqualifies PC games. People don't keep saying Bioshock, CoD4, Goldeneye, and Halo because they're fanboys. They do so because there've only been about seven good console FPS's. And I hold to my statement that Half-Life 2 doesn't count, as the 360's version of the Orange Box is nothing compared to the PC version, where it clearly belongs.

- J

Santhenar:
Am I the only person on Earth who actually thinks Half-Life 2 was somewhat rubbish? Probably.
Half-Life 1 was amazing though.

Agreed, I enjoyed Half Life 2, but it wasn't the best game ever like everyone had been saying all this time.