Deux Ex (2000)

There is a trend from peoples who used to be fervent FPS gamers to simply … look for better pastures, those days FPS games carry the following stigma:

• FPS games are played by younger players and/or “whiney kids”.
• FPS games are games of reflexes, with simple mechanics leaving little room for a higher level of play.
• FPS games are all about shooting other peoples in the face (immature concept?)

What i’m asking in this “yet another brainstorming topic from Kyrah” is what are your ideas to make the FPS game world “evolve” toward a more generalistic game style.
Of course we can’t really ignore the twitch combat origins of the genre, but is there some way to pull it out of the gutter it is currently in?

• Maybe we need a different aproach at the play interface and stop simply sticking a gun in the middle, implying that the game is mostly about mindless carnage?
• There are many other “key compodents” that got incorporated in FPS games, level systems, buy/sell systems, hell… even base management (who could forget battlezone?)

To me the FPS controls are all about immersion, it feels really good in a game when I can suspend my disbelief and feel like i’m actually seeing through my character’s eyes.

“Portal” showed a good example of a non violent aproach to FPS game design, but i have to say it’s only skirting around the problem, because you are still using a gun after all and it’s still glued to your viewpoint.

“Jurassic Park: Trespasser” Is quite the alien in the world of FPS games, it was largely in advance with it’s time when it came out but was riddled with bugs.
It used this rather strange “arm” based interface (you could move your hand in 3 dimentions, grab objects and manipulate them in freeform, being rocks, pushing crates, pulling doors open, or whielding a weapon), it’s the only FPS game to my knowledge to offer a sort of generic object handling that consider every object in the game world “equal” .
it’s really difficult to explain, here is a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiYSmiJQnOg

“Call of cthulhu: Dark corners of the earth” Was an fps mostly about exploration and managing your character’s sanity, you where encouraged to avoid confrontations mostly, your character being a bad shot, most weapons he would get wouldn’t be that effective to solve most situations. So lots of sneaking, and lots of fleeing, while trying not to look at traumatising things so you wouldn’t become mad.

I would have cited “Cryostasis” because the game is all about orienting yourself in a frozen ice breaker (i haven’t seen a game displaying frozen environement better than this one) stuck in antartical and managing your body warmth, unfortunately it’s still very much a classic fps game in that it is ponctuated almost regularly by fight sequences that leave you without breath (enemies are scary, really noisy, surprising you and you usually try to club them to death with a piece of rusty pipe, not really apropriate for someone who doesn’t like high blood pressure games)

Those are a few of the FPS that push the envelope that come to my mind, but the FPS niche is still widely dominated by counter strike clones and games like “modern warfare 2″

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[caption id="attachment_1682" align="aligncenter" width="530" caption="Deux Ex (2000)"][/caption] There is a trend from peoples who used to be fervent FPS gamers to simply ... look for better pastures, those days FPS games carry the following stigma:FPS games are played by younger players and/or "whiney kids". FPS games are games of reflexes, with simple mechanics leaving little room for a higher level of play. FPS games are all about shooting other peoples in the face (immature concept?)What i'm asking in this "yet another brainstorming topic from Kyrah" is what are your ideas to make the FPS game world "evolve" toward a more generalistic game style. Of course we can't really ignore the twitch combat origins of the genre, but is there some way to pull it out of the gutter it is currently in?Maybe we need a different aproach at the play interface and stop simply sticking a gun in the middle, implying that the game is mostly about mindless carnage? There are many other "key compodents" that got incorporated in FPS games, level systems, buy/sell systems, hell... even base management (who could forget battlezone?)To me the FPS controls are all about immersion, it feels really good in a game when I can suspend my disbelief and feel like i'm actually seeing through my character's eyes."Portal" showed a good example of a non violent aproach to FPS game design, but i have to say it's only skirting around the problem, because you are still using a gun after all and it's still glued to your viewpoint."Jurassic Park: Trespasser" Is quite the alien in the world of FPS games, it was largely in advance with it's time when it came out but was riddled with bugs. It used this rather strange "arm" based interface (you could move your hand in 3 dimentions, grab objects and manipulate them in freeform, being rocks, pushing crates, pulling doors open, or whielding a weapon), it's the only FPS game to my knowledge to offer a sort of generic object handling that consider every object in the game world "equal" . it's really difficult to explain, here is a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiYSmiJQnOg"Call of cthulhu: Dark corners of the earth" Was an fps mostly about exploration and managing your character's sanity, you where encouraged to avoid confrontations mostly, your character being a bad shot, most weapons he would get wouldn't be that effective to solve most situations. So lots of sneaking, and lots of fleeing, while trying not to look at traumatising things so you wouldn't become mad.I would have cited "Cryostasis" because the game is all about orienting yourself in a frozen ice breaker (i haven't seen a game displaying frozen environement better than this one) stuck in antartical and managing your body warmth, unfortunately it's still very much a classic fps game in that it is ponctuated almost regularly by fight sequences that leave you without breath (enemies are scary, really noisy, surprising you and you usually try to club them to death with a piece of rusty pipe, not really apropriate for someone who doesn't like high blood pressure games)Those are a few of the FPS that push the envelope that come to my mind, but the FPS niche is still widely dominated by counter strike clones and games like "modern warfare 2"Link to the original post on Torquepowered.com