First Console Game To Do FPS "Right" - Goldeneye vs Halo

[Ack]

Question: what does one considering getting FPS "right"?

I mean, are we talking having massive sales? Because Turok: Dinosaur Hunter was the first third-party title to become a Player's Choice title on the Nintendo 64 and ended up selling 1.5 million copies.

At the time of their release, the localized pain reactions that you could find in the Turok titles and GoldenEye were pretty impressive(I mean dismemberment or shooting someone in a particular area and having them react to that body part being shot). And while GoldenEye's multiplayer may not have been what the scene was on PC, the devs made up for it by offering a variety of weapon and gameplay options. But hey, even before this Doom was being ported to everything under the sun. Your printer can run Doom.

It's hard to say which one got things "right" first, because FPS design on consoles was pretty much a steady increase from the likes of Doom until about Halo, which proved successful enough that it caused devs to shift their design focus to take consoles into account for previously PC-centric games. Unfortunately you could say this also started a stagnation for the genre on PC, because console FPS face certain limitations such as the need to account for lower directional sensitivities.

Ultimately you should ask yourself why you would ever want to play an FPS on a console, you filthy peasant. Come join the blessed chosen of the glorious PC master race.

[Gunstar Green]

Ultimately you should ask yourself why you would ever want to play an FPS on a console, you filthy peasant. Come join the blessed chosen of the glorious PC master race.

Death to all non-believers.

[fastbilly1]

Yall needed to play with Goldeneyes control schemes more. 2.1 is dual analog on two controllers.

[marurun]

Oral history of Halo got posted today, which likely includes something of interest.

This is a great article. I think it makes a strong case for Halo. Also, all this take of Halo has caused me to reminisce. Here's what I saw in 1999 that convinced me yet again that Bungie was the most creative company in business at the time.

https://youtu.be/6eZ2yvWl9nQ

[Xeogred]

Oral history of Halo got posted today, which likely includes something of interest.

This is a great article. I think it makes a strong case for Halo. Also, all this take of Halo has caused me to reminisce. Here's what I saw in 1999 that convinced me yet again that Bungie was the most creative company in business at the time.

https://youtu.be/6eZ2yvWl9nQ

And RIP Halo.

[racketboy]

Oral history of Halo got posted today, which likely includes something of interest.

Oh wow -- thanks for sharing!
I love pieces like this!

[racketboy]

Question: what does one considering getting FPS "right"?
...
Ultimately you should ask yourself why you would ever want to play an FPS on a console, you filthy peasant. Come join the blessed chosen of the glorious PC master race.

What I have in mind is what made the modern "mouse look" FPS game seem like it felt like it belonged on a console (at least to those that weren't die-hard PC gamers).

I think before Goldeneye and Halo, FPS on consoles felt like a compromise of sorts. Maybe that's too harsh, as I did enjoy 32X Doom. Although, it was mostly because I didn't have a PC to run it well at the time and I also enjoy the plug and play of a console. I don't know if that answers your question or not...

[marurun]

I really think Halo was the defining FPS for consoles. GoldenEye was OK, but it was more like a prototype. Hell, the Jaguar has Aliens vs Predator before even Goldeneye and it was well-reviewed and distinctly console-ish. Basically, many of the pieces were in play before Halo, but Halo is the first game that I feel got everything right. It was the first one to unify all these ideas into one cohesive package that was not only custom tailored to the console but competitive with the stuff on the PC market at the time. Also, Bungie are the masters of multiplayer. I know lots of folks loved GoldenEye multiplayer, but Halo tops it there, too. The Bungie folks have been doing super fun multiplayer since Marathon, and it shows in Halo.

[racketboy]

I really think Halo was the defining FPS for consoles. GoldenEye was OK, but it was more like a prototype. Hell, the Jaguar has Aliens vs Predator before even Goldeneye and it was well-reviewed and distinctly console-ish. Basically, many of the pieces were in play before Halo, but Halo is the first game that I feel got everything right. It was the first one to unify all these ideas into one cohesive package that was not only custom tailored to the console but competitive with the stuff on the PC market at the time. Also, Bungie are the masters of multiplayer. I know lots of folks loved GoldenEye multiplayer, but Halo tops it there, too. The Bungie folks have been doing super fun multiplayer since Marathon, and it shows in Halo.

Awe man -- I need to dig into AvP for the Jaguar. I remember seeing the ads for that thing back in the day and was drooling.

[isiolia]

Did AvP actually do anything new, or was it more just a well executed DOOM style FPS?

My impression is that most FPS games were more or less going for that model at the time. It was the mid/late 90s where we started to see a bigger shift away from that design, resulting in a ton of now-classic FPS games by the end of 2000.

What I find notable about Goldeneye is that it skews more towards the general design we'd see out of a lot of (better) PC based games, but predated them by a year or more.


Halo, on the other hand, is more part of the shift to an even greater focus on consoles by the industry as a whole.