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RedComa

Who still loves singleplayer???

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So I'm working on YET another Doom binge. And every time I play singleplayer, I just can't get over how fun the levels are. You just can't find anything like it in today's games. I like the abstract, labyrinthine quality of the design, and finding keys, and teleporting, and walking into a new area and having a horde of monsters alerted to your presence. Today's game design is either about creating deathmatch arenas, or coming as close to realworld locations as possible. In a way, games have gotten too realistic, and aren't fun anymore. I'm talking about taking extra time to reload a gun, running out of stamina and getting injured worse, etc, etc. I don't mind the graphical improvements, but if I could just play levels, annihilate legions of monsters, and unlock doors with red, blue, and yellow keycards for the rest of my life, I'll be happy.

Having said all that, does anyone know of any modern-day games that still have this run-and-gun, shoot everything and find the exit formula? I need my fix, haha.

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SP is the only way I've ever played Doom, these past 15 years. Multiplayer is a diversion at best, a frustration at worst, for me. =P

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Halo 1 would have been better with faster running and better gun accuracy, and more varied levels.

Half Life 2 series would have been better with faster running and more varied enemies and more effective guns and aiming.

Many other FPS games could be better with a few or a lot of modifications... and faster running speed.

And universally, more frames per second. Maybe I'm not sure how modern games do with top-of-the-line computers, but 60 fps should be a minimum for framerate. How long now have games been targeting the 20-40 fps mark?


Overall, I think the best solution is to stick to Doom and it's ports and Mods made with Doom-style gameplay.

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RedComa said:

Having said all that, does anyone know of any modern-day games that still have this run-and-gun, shoot everything and find the exit formula? I need my fix, haha.

Definetly not modern, but if you're looking for run'n'gun games, check out Rise Of The Triad. It has very simple gameplay and is even more fast paced than Doom. That and gibs flying everywhere combined with the fact that 10 of the thirteen weapons are missile weapons :P

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I gues Serious Sam & Painkiller still counts as modern games, even if they are some years old.

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Yea I liked Painkiller, it was the first game I played with ragdoll physics and I LOVED it!! (My comp didn't, too much lol)

I think that's what sort of technology developers should focus on. Fun physics, nice looking graphics, and THAT'S IT. Games are games, if I want to play in the real world, I'll just go outside.

HL2 is fun though, it's the one game I'll forgive for having life-like level design. Because it makes up for it in story, and with the Havok engine/gravity gun. :)

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phi108 said:

And universally, more frames per second. Maybe I'm not sure how modern games do with top-of-the-line computers, but 60 fps should be a minimum for framerate. How long now have games been targeting the 20-40 fps mark?


Let's not forget that the Vanilla Doom engine is limited to 35fps.

The removal of this was a source port feature.

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Yes, but that was 16 years ago when more wasn't possible.

But today's games still run at the same choppy speed...

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I've only been playing sp these past couple years. Douchebags online can take their toll.

I think the problem is that highly advanced graphics and realistic locations are just more difficult to make a truly fun game out of. They're trying to make a convincing, believable world. In earlier games that was clearly not the goal because it wasn't possible. But now that an attempt is being made, it is harder to balance all of the elements and still make a thoroughly entertaining game.

In any case, I think there will always be that niche market for games in the Doom tradition, like Painkiller and Serious Sam.

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Reaper978 said:

In any case, I think there will always be that niche market for games in the Doom tradition, like Painkiller and Serious Sam.

I've never understood this comparison.

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I only play Single Player.

I actually got my first ZDaemon game going a few months ago. My opponent knew the map and had some clan tags next to his name so I assume he was a regular. He beat me, but I ended up getting about a third of the frags he did, including a great run where he just kept dying and dying and dying until he grabbed the rocket launcher. It was fun, but I'd rather stick to SP.

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I like some modern FPSs as much as Doom - Crysis, FEAR 1 and Far Cry 1 come to mind. These games were hyped for their graphics, but the gameplay was also great in my opinion.

For me, the main difference is in Doom, you've got a seemingly endless supply of great levels from the community that are often better than the original ones. In other games, pretty much all the mods are crap. Being a SP player, once I'm done with that new fancy 2009 FPS in 10-15 hours, my only option is to go back to Doom. Not a bad option, mind you. :)

Then you throw in the fact that Doom can be used on any computer and loads up in 2-3 seconds as opposed to the long loading times every modern game is plagued with.

... Anyway. Fanboyish rant ends here.

If your rig can handle it, I'd give Crysis a shot. With everything on Medium or Low to keep a constant 60+ FPS, it's a pretty fun and fastpaced game. If you want to run at Doomguy speed, editing the .cfg to make the runspeed mode cost no energy takes seconds, and while the cast of foes boils down to korean, alien, korean in nanoarmor, big alien, there are levels in which you'll fight hundreds of foes almost like Doom.

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single player ftw, srsly ;) though i enjoy some skulltag dm or coop as well, but single beats them hands down in terms of atmosphere in most cases. plus with multiplayer there's still the "it's such a good wad and no servers run it" issue.

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I used to play a lot of multiplayer Skulltag but these days it's pretty much single player all the way. All the pretty mods and wads work and I don't have to put up with cheats and big-mouths...I can also be lazy and lounge back with a controller and play console stylee!

To continue the OT: I couldn't agree more with regards to the framerates of most of todays games. Why aren't they all at least 60 fps (rhetorical!)? Drives me mad!

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I usually play Skulltag a lot, but recently it has been going very downhill, no one plays a wide variety of things anymore, you will only ever find players on the 'usual suspect' servers, no one is willing to try anything different or new, to the point where if I'm testing a new mod or map, no one will join for at least half an hour, or not at all. Also, 'tourneyfags', people who take games to seriously have been really taking their toll, you can't really play CTF anymore without being insulted, I'm finding myself playing single player a lot more these days

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The main reason why I don't play online is because of the losers insulting and/or spamming everyone in the game. It's just not fun at all for me. Though it was fun for a while when I first discovered Skulltag, I do not have the skill/best connection to win a game.

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I typically play SP and rarely play online, not that I don't find it very worthwhile and entertaining when you get on with a bunch of friends and not some random asshats from another corner of the web.

I feel I'm one of the few Doomers that finds modern shooters worthwhile, however. I admire Doom and similar games from its era for their brilliant simplicity, but the tried and true get-key-and-kill-monsters-and-get-key-and-kill monsters formula (a formula which has been adopted by hack-and-slash games, of all things) got old for me at least two years ago.

Given that a very large chunk of my life between 1996 and 2004 were spent playing thousands upon thousands of Doom WADs that have ultimately become a blur, it's no wonder I've come to look for a little bit more bang for the buck in later years.

That is certainly not to say that a vast majority of modern shooters aren't mediocre (and *certain* ones vastly overrated), but there are plenty worth playing IMO.

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Torn said:

I gues Serious Sam & Painkiller still counts as modern games, even if they are some years old.

Their level design is full of suck though. I mean. Really suck. Compared to them. The realistic shooter's maps in office buildings are exciting and diverse.

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I do like single player, and its main pro is that you can go at it at any moment you have the time, unlike multiplayer, where you need to coordinate with other people. Multiplayer tends to be even more fun, though, especially when setting it up with friends or people you play with regularly. Occasionally joining public servers doesn't hurt, of course, as the option is practically always open, although it's less "serious" (not that playing the game is serious business, in the first place) because server settings aren't always optimal, pings can be bad, and you don't generally know the people you're playing with that much. I don't generally have problems with people being assholes online (on ZDaemon); it happens only once in a while and it's not a big deal.

newt said:
Given that a very large chunk of my life between 1996 and 2004 were spent playing thousands upon thousands of Doom WADs that have ultimately become a blur, it's no wonder I've come to look for a little bit more bang for the buck in later years.

My fondness for the game increased not due to the number of WADs I played (even while I've played thousands, as well) but by concentrating mostly on some of the more interesting ones (due to game play reasons especially) while still keeping an eye open for new stuff or stuff I haven't checked. Just looking for new stuff to play on DOOM can get old, I agree, but finding good stuff and playing it more thoroughly is what makes it stick. Activities like multiplayer and demo recording or watching enhance this, of course.

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I play mostly single player. Multiplayer is on and off.

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I'm singleplayer only these days. I used to play a lot of deathmatch and coop somewhere around 2003-2004 but then got bored and when I came back to it, everyone was now spamming BFG and only playing wads that I personally hated, so I haven't really bothered with multiplayer anymore.

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Singleplayer all the way for me. I've got a kind of aversion for most multiplayer games, especially real-time ones since they never seem to compensate adequately for lag and fail to work as intended, save for very few exceptions.

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RedComa said:

Having said all that, does anyone know of any modern-day games that still have this run-and-gun, shoot everything and find the exit formula? I need my fix, haha.


http://www.cubeengine.com/cube.php4

Cube ONE not two. Cube 2 is just like modern FPSes.

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i dont find skulltag that bad in terms of players, but the same servers all the time gets tedious. i mostly play online, but now and then its nice to sit back and play classic doom at your own pace.

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Hell yeah! I heartily enjoy multiplayer (mainly coop, even on zDaemon), but single player will always be fun for me. It's just me, some ammo, a breastplate that protects my head, and a horde of baddies. What more could you want?

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Then you throw in the fact that Doom can be used on any computer and loads up in 2-3 seconds as opposed to the long loading times every modern game is plagued with.


That's one of the things I love about Doom. I can load it up in a couple of seconds, and play for 5 minutes, then leave. Most modern games, you need to know you have at least 30 minutes, probably more, to do much at all, since it takes so long just to get in the game and load your last save etc.

Plus, with Doom's great modding community, you'll probably never run out of new levels to play. There are always more people making great levels.

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Doom single player gameplay is so much fun for me because it seems to have its weapon and monster balancing down to a T (except for some of the frequently used custom monsters). Everything fits together smoothly even in difficult situations.

Last time I've tried multiplayer, I was still a keyboard-only player - so no idea about that.

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kristus said:

HOW is Sauerbraten like modern FPSes?


Well it's only looked at for the pimped-up graphics, everyone plays Instagib, the gameplay sux, and the developer wanted to remove singleplayer once he took over the original creator.

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