Quake 4

Apparently I'm on a shooter tear. 5th time I've installed it and this time I'm playing. Half way through already, thumbs up mostly. Once again I'm late to the party. Dual core and widescreen support FTW, game looks fantastic for its age and runs amazingly.

The only complaint I have really are the vehicles. Its neat that it breaks up the gameplay with some variation and it reminds me a bit of Shogo M.A.D. but the implementation isn't that great. The machines just don't feel right IMO. Better off on foot killin' I say!

Now I have the original Painkiller box lying around somewhere....

I enjoyed Quake 4, although it might be the weakest of the Doom 3 Engine games.

Painkiller sucks bigtime (imo), don't waste your time. Look for a copy of Prey instead.

Yeah, I didn't like the vehicle thing, either. Grossed me out. Hated it in Half-Life 2 as well. Everything else about Quake 4 was rather neat (although I still think Q2 was better in terms of atmosphere). I liked Tech Strauss... Ludger Brink reborn.
Doom 3 was not Doom (at least not for me), so I was very disappointed when I played it back then. Nowadays I like it a lot better than I did back then; it's still not really Doom for me (too much System Shock in it), but it's a good game in its own right IMO.
Prey is pretty neat, reminded me a bit of Soul Reaver (due to gameplay mechanics) - but it's a bit short. I played just a demo of Painkiller and afterwards had no interest to play the full game.

JDR13 said:

Painkiller sucks bigtime (imo), don't waste your time. Look for a copy of Prey instead.

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What?! Painkiller ruled! It's deliberately old-school and has some cool guitar riffs going on when the action goes down.

Gotta play this some day....

Thaurin said:

What?! Painkiller ruled! It's deliberately old-school and has some cool guitar riffs going on when the action goes down.

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I got a troll warning when expressing my opinions on the game on gamefaqs.com.

With the expression "cool guitar riffs" I rather think of "Frets On Fire".

I just finished Quake 4 and it is definitely a worthy titles, but not in the league of FEAR or HL2. I thought towards they forgot the essence of the run-and-gun. Staying on the move with no time to save the game, dodging and strafing obstacles with the shotgun on hoards of soldiers... that's my idea of a good time! I don't like bullet sink min-bosses anywhere near as much and toward the end that's what you get in spades.

Its a quality game though and I enjoyed it, certainly some solid creative sequences!

As part of my FPS marathon here, I'm posting to say of the last several games I've played Quake 4 is the standout for gameplay in terms of fun factor. I'm installing Painkiller right now. Or I'm trying at least, so far my laptop doesn't like these ancient CDs...

Yay, Painkiller! I loved it for the panic against old school hordes of monsters and fantastic atmosphere. Some great imaginative weapons, too, like the painkiller and stake gun. Fun mini-games like shaking gems out of your enemies using the PK. Damn hard secrets and jumps, too. One of the few games I've replayed on harder difficulties just to access unlocked levels.

Thrasher said:

Yay, Painkiller! I loved it for the panic against old school hordes of monsters and fantastic atmosphere. Some great imaginative weapons, too, like the painkiller and stake gun. Fun mini-games like shaking gems out of your enemies using the PK. Damn hard secrets and jumps, too. One of the few games I've replayed on harder difficulties just to access unlocked levels.

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I was up till 2:30 playing freakin PAINKILLER last night! Got up at 5.... so tired ha ha

Ouch! At least you have a smile on your face (I hope)! Nothing much more fun than killing demons in imaginative ways.

Thrasher said:

Ouch! At least you have a smile on your face (I hope)! Nothing much more fun than killing demons in imaginative ways.

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The game is a hoot no doubt. I keep telling myself just a "few more minutes" and "one more checkpoint" or "I'll just see what this area looks like" and then....its 2:30AM LOL. Yes its great! I've owned it for years and I think I bought it on the day it was released. I'm glad I'm finally taking a crack at it. Mindless sure... fun, you bet!

Ha ha if you haven't seen this video "review" of Painkiller check it out. Absolutely no footage but it is hilarious!

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/57-Painkiller

I'm dying to play some every-man-for-himself deathmatch, I used to stay up for days playing Quake II & III, Soldier of Fortune(fun w/ C4!) and in the war-torn rubble of COD1 (which was the last one that I really got into). I havent played DM in almost a decade, and it's kinda calling my name lately.

I want the explosives freaks lobbing grenades all over the place, rocket launchers, campers perched high atop somewhere hidden that after I get sniped 5 times I go hunt them down, and subsequently camp out myself for a while until I get taken out, etc. Start out at the bottom the of the leaderboard every match, then after 4 hours youre fighting to keep the top. Total mayhem, fun stuff like in the old days of Quake II deathmatch.

I look at the crop of current FPS games and not sure where to go - I dont want to spend top dollar first and foremost, chances are I'll burn out in a couple days. And I dont want team or objective gameplay. I looked into getting COD1 on steam and it appears there's not much of a community. It probably would be laughable these days to put COD or SOF on a pc and go for deathmatch w/ people that have been playing the game since 2002. It undoubtedly looks like hell too.

I have Stalker on steam but havent installed it, does that have decent DM? Anyone got any recommendations?

I'm the same way Sammy, I used to play quite a bit of DM, but I haven't played in years. Some of my friends were really hooked on Quake 3, and had their own clan for a few years. I really enjoyed it for awhile, until it started getting a little overly competitive.

Not sure what the current rage is regarding FPS deathmatch. I've never heard anyone mention the multiplayer in Stalker, so I don't think that has much of a community. I know the Modern Warfare games are quite popular.

Sammy, don't go modern - play UT3. While I preferred the old ladder system over 3's story mode, regular MP deathmatch vs. bots is just as much fun as it used to be since the original UT. It's cheap nowadays. And graphics are still good.

Hey Todd, if you're still itching for more pain, definitely don't miss the Battle Out of Hell expansion. It has some of my favorite levels - like Loony Park, Leningrad (love the anthem playing in the background), and the fantastic Stone Pit, plus a nice selection of new weapons.

Thrasher said:

Hey Todd, if you're still itching for more pain, definitely don't miss the Battle Out of Hell expansion. It has some of my favorite levels - like Loony Park, Leningrad (love the anthem playing in the background), and the fantastic Stone Pit, plus a nice selection of new weapons.

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Oh I've got my eye on that! I'm around Chapter 3 map 3 and I'm just loving it. Its so much fun I'm going to go back and try the map challenges to get some cards. I haven't tried using any of them, but I understand I can revisit maps from the level "wheel" and it all counts toward my card inventory? It really is a cool game!

For multiplayer I used to run a Clan for the original Unreal. It was alot of fun, scheduling clan battles and doing ICQ and all that old shit, dealing with interclan drama etc. Hilarious. I tried UT3 and Quake 3 but I never was competitive. Anyway, that was 1998!

Yep, you can always go back and replay levels for the cards. A really big challenge is the five star chellenge. Get all 5 stars in all levels and become uber Daniel. LOL!