I doubt i've got anyone agreeing with me on this one, but i can say without a doubt metroid prime 3. Incredibly tight controls combined with excellent level design.

Half-Life 2. Ok, I may be going with the crowd here, but I think you can make an exception, 'cos the crowd is correct.

Hmm, 117 posts huh. Feels special...

Cyclones

Though not officially classified as a shooter, I'd say the Metroid Prime series.

If you don't consider that a real shooter, then I wouldn't know. Only real shooter I've played on a console would be Halo 3, in a gamepod in a few stores. And I don't really find it special.

PhoxHound:
TimeSplitters: Future Perfect for the GameCube. Best multiplayer game ever created period.

I've had some of the best nights in with my friends cos of that game. Put all bots on, all Lazerous Mumble, Miniguns, Invisible and one hit kills on Ice level and see how long you can last (approx 5 seconds).
We had so much fun when they bought a kitten they called her Lazerous Mumble (She's known as Mumble though).

Also virus monkeys on the aztec level in TS 2 was great. We'd shout "To the bridge of Khazad Dum!" and sing the bit of music from the film then camp at the end of the bridge and hold out against a horde of flaming green monkeys.

Think the next one is on its way.

I'm going to say Far Cry Instincts Predator for the 360 only because you can create your own maps. I think I spend more time doing that then playing the game itself. As for the game, it was a lot funner before you get your powers. It starts off pretty intence and you have to set booby traps and steal your way into heaps of bases. As soon as you get your powers it turns to this gun crazy frenzy. Unbalanced and it throws every good mechanic it had out the windwow. Why bother tacticfully sneaking when you can just blast your way through and not worry about suffering harsh damage. But I still find it fun just for the start and the map maker.

For me its Goldeneye on the N64, it was the game which proved that FPS's could work properly on consoles when designed right. Most FPS games before (and many after come to think of it) were crippled because they were made like PC PFS games and the controls were just inadequate for the task.

Perfect Dark!(on N64) It's Goldeneye but better... Farsight was absolutely awesome! Unbalanced but fun as hell.

Metroid Prime 2-for overall single player (Prime 1 just sucked IMO), Black-for single player in a PURE FPS, Halo 2-for its multiplayer(not to fast, not to slow, well balanced and functional weapons).

Its hard for me to argue that the folks who put together Half-Life 2 don't know what they're doing. The game had a lot (boat segment, car segment, squad segment, bug-squad segment-favorite, great physics puzzles, physics based gun) but it didn't really help me enjoy it more than I do any other above average shooter.

Halo CE

I have a tough choice: 'splitters 2 or FP?
timesplitters 2
+awesome multiplayer
+great challenges
+great fun single player (though not very..deep)
+"the popcorn effect"
+awesome multiplayer (again)
-THAT DAMN MONKEY
-not much scope for different styles of play
'splitters FP
+better story mode
+funny cutscenes
+great mapmaker (love the rc cat!)
+better robots
+online play (though I had no intarwebs for it)
+the ghostgun an baseball bat and injecter...and sbp500
+robochimp
----EA trying to mess with the multiplayer
-slightly slower mp
-less of an "action movie feel"
so, FP it is

I'll give notable mentions for Halo and CoD4

Duke Nukem... Nuff said

Im generally lazy and cant be bothered to read past the 2nd page of posts...

In general, the xb killed the FPS genre for me it was saturated with it and multiplayer Halo 2 got tedious after the 300th game... But i have to say the best FPS game on any console has to be Timesplitters... but not the first one - that gave me motion sickness. The mapmaker needed more stuff, but it was the only multiplayer FPS that i actually enjoyed playing, you didnt have to think too much. Metroid Prime was interesting, but the "epic-ness" bored me to death

I have to disagree with anyone who claims that Black was a good game... The Ai really wasnt up to scratch and the explosions weren't enough to save the rotting corps that was the storyline.
The same thing applies to Far Cry insticts... "wow... look at the brilliant graphics *forgets gameplay, and glitches*"

oh... cant be forgetting Red Faction...

Depends on what you want, really.

I can't decide between 'em, so I'll put my picks up.

Halo 2
UT2004
Duke Nukem 3D
DOOM I
Serious Sam 2

Here we go again...

If it has to be one that's already out- Soldier of Fortune 3:Payback

If it's one thats coming out- Far Cry 2!!!

either bioshock or metroid prime
both have excellent level design and gameplay

BioShock or The Orange Box (I'm counting the 5 as one here).

Serious Sam.

im going to lay it all out there...
but first ground rules..
i liked HL but it is through and through a PC game thus it can not be picked
this includes all of Orange Box (portal is my favorite game ever)
for the same reason i count out CS (no pun intended)
"best" in my book means..
quality of game play (sp and mp)
replay value
and sheer amount of fun to be had

by these rules my number 1 over all pick is none other than the legendary and immortal HALO:Combat Evolved

it had absolutely everything anyone can ask for

AMAZING campaign both single and co-op both are challenging. all of the weapons were balanced well and although the person with the rockets or sniper or shotgun was someone to be feared these were not super weapons like in so many other games see as how each of these people could be defeated by most of the other weapons. and also the vehicle physics (which were amazing) spawned their own custom game types...which brings us to mp...

In my mind it had and has the best multiplayer EVAR i mean you just cant get any better than an all night 16 person LAN with massive epic battles of CTF on sidewinder or massive no shield sniper battles on hang-em-high. I have seen no other game where you get so much joy out of single epic frags like the infamous falling no scope sniper headshot for the win. and I believe it was the first game with sticky grenades not including mines in 007 and TS

As for replay value in single player I have played through that game so many times that I lost count about 3 years ago plus when you ad co-op its the kind of game that you can play for hours.

This game has been out since 2001 and it is still to this day one of my favorite games to play.

a few random little things to point out are the outstanding maps, the fact that they used the health system (i mean really what happened to health?), and the grenades just the fact that you could throw them like the genetically-altered-super-human-rapped-in-the-mjolnir-armor that you were.

Halo just offers so much and does not disappointed in any area at all

Now...all of that said there are many other FPS that i liked a lot but do not fear they wont get the same treatment as halo

So...in no particular order

For multiplayer i like:

1.Goldeneye/Perfect Dark:
basically the same game with a few difference but i like them each the same however they are past there prime and as was stated earlier in the thread they arent as fun anymore
2.Timespliters 2:
possibly one of the only games (pre-halo) the trumped goldeneye for sheer fun and craziness if I still owned it I would still play it. also half-way descent map-editor
3.Halo 3:
I really enjoy this game and i like playing online but too me its just not as good. Halo 2 isnt worthy to be shat on let alone played. in my opinion there just needs to be a Halo 1.5 that we can play online (basically halo for PC only not as laggy and without the PC)

For campaign i liked: (in addition to the above games which i liked for their sp as well)

1.Call of Duty 2:
i beat it on veteran and there is no greater sense of achievement in the world than salying the 1000's of Nazis it takes to do so. CoD3 is the same game just alot bloody harder and CoD4 was way way over hyped and underdelivered its the same as all the others only bad...and i the future with diff guns...i mean really who cares about a nuke. not me
2.Metroid Prime:
in my opinion and although its been stated several times this was one of the best console games out with some of the best gameplay and it look beautiful (great water effects)
3.Black:
Loads of fun to play through once or twice but i got a little old. Had great weapons and you could totally shoot grenades in mid flight which was FTW but loosing the remaining rounds in the mag when you reload is its biggest downside

XIII,Killer 7,Bioshock and Rainbow6 Vagas weren't bad either
and who could forget duckhunt the original FPS

In conclusion:
Halo:CE=super massive epic win of destiny
Halo 2 and CoD4=are the smelly bloody after birth of some great games

one last little tid bit has anyone ever heard of or played a game for the original X-box call Pariah?? that game was truly epic and gets my vote for "Best game no one ever played"

If you have comments, queries, want to argue you point with me, or know something i may have missed i welcome all comments and criticisms but for the love of all that is holy don't use the quote feature to copy my whole post.

I didn't really like half life 2. I'd have to go with black or red faction 2 maybe redneck rampage

half life 1
doom (origional)
timesplitters 2
cod4
goldeneye on n64

theres a fair few ya could list

Zombie Badger:
Perfect Dark. Name me one other game with a gun as great as the Farsight!

Unreal Tournament - The Redeemer
Turok 2 - The Cerebral Bore
Half-Life 2 - The Gravity Gun

There ya go, thats three right there.

Goldeneye on N64 as it was my first FPS and honestly nothing else is as good as your first FPS, and Gears of War as (OMG) I could use real tactics and win the battle just ask any of my friends lol I always own them.

yes I know GoW is third person but still I love it so much I had to include it.

Gears was alright it was fun the first 2 or 3 times you play it through but then it just got really boring and repetitive. i didnt play much multiplayer but i imagine it was fun

also is there anyone else out there that doesnt like CoD4??

jiffmcgriff:
'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.

Nope, although the second two are definitely improvements i still prefer the first one for some reason.

I see Serious Sam being mentioned, i loved 1 + 2 (on the pc though).
Played 'The Next Encounter' for ps2 and it was pretty sucky unfortunately.

Goldeneye and Perfect Dark stole most of my early teens, so it has to be them.

since I love the tactical FPS genre I'm going to say Rainbow 6-3 with Ghost Recon coming into a close second (just because I felt dumb having to give frantic orders with console controls) if we are talking about console versions of the games only, but if we are talking about PC versions of games that were on console then switch those 2 games around.

right consoles only then even though the PC is the king daddy of fps, i long for the day when they will let the pc gaming master race play against console players on the same servers, proper gaming mice vs analogue sticks, can you say 'shooting fish in a barrel?'

If this was pc i would say Bioshock and half-life but as i haven't played those on console i can't really, the best fps I have played on a console would probably have to be cod4

Black was just gun porn

Resistance got really old really quick even on co-op

Goldeneye or UT series :o

I meant any platform including pc

The begining and the end of HL:2 are gud but the middle is too slow paced