Murder Simulators

As you could read by my last post I have a soft spot in my heart for fighting games. What's my other favorite genre?

What the sensationalist media types like to call, "Murder Simulators". Most call them First Person Shooters. I call them heaven.

The first FPS I played was "Faceball 2000" for the Gameboy. THE Gameboy. The 8-bit, grey brick ass Gameboy. That game was awesome. You were a 3-D ball with a smiley face on it. Your object was to move through a maze and shoot balls at the other smiley faces. There was no circle strafing. No free aim. No perks. Shit man, this was Gameboy how much do you think you could do? Faceball's loadout options consisted of your name, and what shape you wanted your smiley face (I was the cool Flattop one). For multiplayer, you needed the four player connect piece, and you hoped other guys on the playground bought the game.

A couple years later my boy hands me a "free" copy of Wolfenstein and that was it. I took down Mecha Hitler, and then it was on to the next one. Doom. Doom 2.

**Before I move on here, I want to say Doom is where I fell in love with my all time go to weapon in FPS games...the Shotgun. Man, blowing demons into bits up close and personal never got old. Now, in a pinch, whether it's Team Deathmatch or Career Mode, COD or Halo, whatever...hand me the shotgun baby. CLICK CLACK!
Ash from the all time classic movie "Army of Darkness" said it best, "See this? This... is my boomstick! -It's a twelve-gauge, double-barreled Remington. S-Mart's top of the line. You can find this in the sporting goods department..... It's got a walnut stock, cobalt-blue steel, and a hair trigger. That's right... shop smart: shop S-Mart... You got that?"  That's right Ash told you straight up. Hair trigger son. Sorry about that.**

Those games were sick, no question, but I have always been a console guy. I have enjoyed a good computer game now and then but I need a controller in my hands. So the joys of multiplayer FPS's were passing me by. Until one day like many of you I played the reason to OWN a N64: GOLDENEYE. Sorry Mario. I love ya' man, but if I wasn't takin dudes down in four player split screen madness in my dorm room, the N64 was off. I had a Playstation for god's sake, I'm not a savage.

Between Goldeneye and then Perfect Dark after that, I killed a lot of brain cells, missed a few classes, and broke a few controllers. That was the drug right there, and finally us console guys had a taste: visceral, strategic yet totally unpredictable. It was on.

Now if I even finish a "story mode" in our current crop of Shooters it's a mild miracle. I see it like this, if I'm not using my time hunting REAL opponents, it's a waste of time. There are perks to unlock, guns to buy, maps to master. If I want an excellent story in my Shooter, I'll play Fallout, or Deus Ex (7 more days AAAAAAAAAAAAA). I could care less if Malcom McDowell takes over the Helghast, or if Sam Worthington can make it out of that interrogation room to help Ice Cube. How many more games to till I get Scavenger Pro? Or that sick piece of armor? Or unlock that gun? That's what it's all about man.

Plus can I say, for all the blame mainstream media puts on video games, they are partly right. Do kids learn how to be better shooters or desensitize themselves playing Halo? Does it cause these heinous tragedies we are seeing all the time? No. But I'll tell ya'. For a guy that comes home from work stressed out, who still needs to leave all that in the car as you walk into the house and be Dad....FPS's are the best stress relief out there. You mean I can have a shooting spree every night and never go to jail? Sign me up.

Anyways for sake of argument, I have finished some Shooters "story modes" and found some of them great. I beat the entire Halo series and love that Space Opera. The only one I didn't complete was ODST, it got monotonous honestly, and COD 4 dropped so that was that! Medal of Honor (the original) for the Playstation was excellent. COD 4 was great in a Summer blockbuster kind of way. I never finished Modern Warfare 2. Does Gears of War count here? If so those are dope too. Can't wait for number 3.

I'm currently playing Killzone 3 on loop. I'll admit I got into the Playstation 3 a little late in the party. If it wasn't for a $1000 winning Super Bowl box this past year (nice 2 point conversion Pittsburgh) I probably wouldn't have at all. Now I'm regretting not getting one sooner. No, I'm not going to go into which system is better, blah, blah, blah. Who cares. But each system in the current generation has a it's strengths, and Killzone 3 for Ps3 is one of theirs. I love the character design for the Helghast, and the more gritty science fiction gets the better I like it. I missed the first two Killzones, and judging by the storyline of 3 I'm glad
I did. I was disappointed with the entire cliched affair. The Multiplayer for me has been a pleasant surprise  and I'm loving it. I wish they cribbed a few more things from Call Of Duty: Class customization, variety of modes (Free for all), and Halo: Forge (or at least some game customization), dual wielding, vehicle variety. But Killzones has it's own flavor and I'm all about it.

The soldiers and the guns they carry have a weighty feel to them, akin to Gears of War. In fact, with it's gritty setting, brutal melee attacks and the like, you wouldn't be far off to describe KZ as a "First Person Gears". I love how multiplayer forces you into classes and hopefully teamwork. Warzone is a mode I hope all my other favorite shooters copy. It's a long game that tosses 7 random modes at you at once. You move seamlessly from one mode to the next, and the play styles change with them. It's unique and mad fun.

So with Killzone being my "Murder Simulator" of choice for now, I wanted to leave you with a list of my Top 5 favorite Multiplayer FPS. So in no particular order:

1) Halo 2 - Best Halo of the bunch, and THE reason for me to get high speed Internet, let alone Xbox Live!
2) Perfect Dark - I could say Goldeneye here, but PD did everything better: Guns, modes, secondary functions, customization, it had it all.
3) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - Yes, the sexy choice here is COD 4, but Modern Warfare 2 did everything bigger and badder...for better or worse. Mostly better in my opinion. There were glitches and balancing issues, but I'm not MLG so I could care less. Can I roll with double shotguns and call in a stealth bomber airstike? Yes. Winner is me.
4) Shadowrun - This was a complete sleeper and a great game. It had a Counter Strike plus fantasy element unmatched in game I have played. Now if more people actually played it....
5) Gears of War 2 - Again, does this count? It will here. This game is the "Mortal Kombat" of shooters. Vulgar, brutal and unbelievably satisfying.

What do you guys think? Hit me up. Follow me on Twitter. Or get at me on XBL or PSN (it's all the same name player, floworcrash). I'll see ya.