I grew up in the 90s playing games like Wolfenstein 3D,Duke Nukem 3D,and the rest of the bunch.
I liked those games,I thought they were pretty fun.

But since the latest generation of consoles started,for some reason it became a kind of industry rule,that all FPS games coming out have to look and play too much like Halo and Call of Duty.
I don't hate these 2 games,I actually love Halo,and I respect Call of Duty for doing its own thing. But what I find disturbing is that everyone else imitates these 2 games too much. And it's even more disturbing that classic FPS franchises that had some originality and unique gameplay formulas they invented their own,scrap their originality just to become Halo and Call of Duty clones.

First we saw Perfect Dark Zero,a prequel to N64's Perfect Dark do that. Then Wolfenstein (2009) the very first FPS game ever,came out with health regeneration,cover-based shooting and iron sights. Then we saw Duke Nukem Forever coming out,and that game too sacrificed what made it special and became a Halo clone. The only franchise actually that keeps its originality and old-school feel and gameplay is the Serious Sam series. Just a single series is left that provides the gameplay some of us old ones loved.

Unfortunately though things are even more disturbing. Serious Sam 3 is an almost perfect game,with very decent and nice visuals,music,controls and gameplay which is fun,yet the developer studio Croteam didn't found any publisher to publish this game and had to publish it themselves,because it was "too much different than Call of Duty" to be published from big publishers. Where has the industry has come to ? Denying to publish a game because it isn't much of an imitation of another game ? That practically assumes originality a cons instead of a pro,which is against my beliefs.

I suddenly realized that the modern games industry hates me. If I try to play modern FPSs the way I got used to and loved,I get punished. If I try to run and gun I die because I didn't used the cover points. If I try to explore the maps,as I did to find secret areas in older games,the game shows me up a screen telling me that exploring is a crime and if I don't return to the pre-determined corridor the game will kill me just because. And then I learned that no publisher could be found to publish such a funny and decent game as SS3,because it's gameplay is too different than Call of Duty. The industry clearly doesn't want me to have fun,and I wonder why.
I don't have a problem with new games coming out and being new-school. But I have a problem with the thinking that if a game is too different than Call of Duty,it doesn't worth to be released.

I feel bad for that. I'd really like it to be more franchises out there that would offer me games that have the gameplay formula I love to play,but the industry seems to consider that a crime.
It seems there is no wonder that since the latest console generation my favorite genre started to slowly become RPGs instead of FPSs. I once loved FPSs. But the way they are now,they are not that much fun to me.
RPGs provide me more of what offered me fun in the FPSs of 90's. Namely,exploration,secrets,weapons that are more effective against specific kinds of enemies,and health packs system,even if it is disguised and health packs are named "potions".

But I still feel bad that the original FPS gameplay formula is dying...


What are your thoughts about this ? Do you love too classic FPS gameplay ? Do you miss it ?

It's long dead already,i actually loved the first call of duty,it was mostly historically accurate,but that they ditched too,for hollywood explosions and a super villain kinda thing,ever since CoD 4 came out,they're all like this.

Yeah, I wish there was still some love for shooters that reward the player for running and gunning like a maniac, nailing enemies to the walls, painting the maps red with blood and gore, firing insanely overpowered weapons into hordes of enemies and still managing to get swarmed by them, bosses as big as skyscraqers, etc. I like "realistic" shooters to a degree, but I miss the days of absurdity and just good ol' plain circle strafing fun.

I'm optimistic and as long as there is even a single franchise keeping it alive,I'll say that it's alive.
Serious Sam keeps it true. Problem is the studio can't find a publisher to cut discs and publish it on consoles,so it's a Steam-only game.
The developer studio doesn't have the money to publish the game on discs and on consoles themselves,and no publisher publish it because it isn't much like Call of Duty.

You should try http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjNEKnifT5M

He isn't in the trailer, but the game does have a boss as big as a skycraqer too.

Oh yeah, I'd get Bulletstorm in a heartbeat if I had the rig for it. That's the kind of shooter I love.

Counter strike Global offence is, perhaps, a bit old-school?

The new Counter Strike stays true to the feel of the Counter Strike series indeed,which is a sample of dignity.
But if you think about it,Counter Strike was never a truly "old school FPS",the way I put it,because what I'm talking about is mostly single player design. Counter Strike doesn't fall in the category where games Like Doom 1,2,Quake 1,2,Duke 3d,Wolf 3d,RTCW,fall.
It's basically a whole category by its own. (online multiplayer shooter)

A list with a few features that define the old-school gameplay formula are these:

* Player is allowed to carry as many guns as he can find
* Health meter and health packs
* Expansive maps that allow you to go anywhere in them,and promote exploration
* Secret areas and levels,to promote exploration and replay value
* Bosses

Counter Strike has these features that aren't exactly "old school":

* Multiplayer only
* Buying/Selling weapons
* Weapon upgrades
* Weapon limit

Yes, but RAGE actually was pretty close to the old school design. Apart from the health regeneration and defibrilator that prevent you from dying Doom3 and Quake 4 were also the of the old-school design, and i'm hoping Doom 4 will stick with that too.

Regardless, i'll always have classic Doom and it's innumerable mods

I love old school FPS games. In fact, Goldeney 007 still remains as one of my favorite FPS games of all time.

There are still good modern FPS games out there, but I do know what you mean with that every game is shaped after Call of Duty's FPS mechanics. It's just a natural progress. The genre evolves, and keeps changing, whether it's for the better or the worse.

I love Call of Duty, still do. It has its problems, but people relentlessly try to copy it and when over half of the crap out there are imitators, it can exhaust you of the original material as well.

There's nothing stopping me from replaying them and I don't have to buy the dumbed down modern take on fps.

So there's little problem for me.

I'm sorry I skipped Rage,because I read that its PC version had way too many problems,and I happen to only have a PC.
Doom 3 and Quake 4 where good though,but it's being so much time since they came out I forgot to include them in my first post. Doom 3 was like a launch title to the first Xbox,and now we are like 2 console generations later.