2004 - 2005 Is The BEST TWO-YEAR Span for First Person Shooters, EVER

Rankings can be fun, but only if we admit they're built on personal perspective

There's a difference between personal favorites and trying to establish some objective 'best ever' like it's fact
The list isn't a personal fav sort of thing, these are literally some of the highest regarded FPS games of all time, in span of two-years.
 
Last edited:
The list isn't a personal fav sort of thing, these are literally some of the highest regarded FPS games of all time, in span of two-years.
Even if those games are widely regarded as great, 'highest regarded' doesn't automatically equal 'best era ever' across the board

Critical acclaim still exists within cultural and technological context, and different generations will connect with different eras for different reasons

So yeah, it was a legendary run, but calling it the best still leans into subjective framing, even if the list is full of hits
 
Last edited:
I'll go with 1997-1998 please and thank you.

edit:

Blood_logo.jpg
Half-Life_Cover_Art.jpg

GoldenEye007box.jpg


And so many, many more like Turok 1 and 2, Quake 2, Shadow Warrior, Outlaws...
Rainbow Six
 
Killzone 1 is just a meh game. The best stuff was the vs bot (and multiplayer if you so had the luxury of having your PS2 near an Ethernet cable). Sony maintain it because they NEED to have something against Halo (and they somewhat succeded with KillZone 2 being awesome... for them to kill it imminently with KZ3).

But I agree with some people here, 2004-2005 was the prelude to absolute peak FPS in the following years with CoD 4, Halo 3, more Half-life 2, Crysis (people forget how GOOD this game is), Deus Ex Human Revolution, and a big etc.
 
Killzone 1 is just a meh game. The best stuff was the vs bot (and multiplayer if you so had the luxury of having your PS2 near an Ethernet cable). Sony maintain it because they NEED to have something against Halo (and they somewhat succeded with KillZone 2 being awesome... for them to kill it imminently with KZ3).

But I agree with some people here, 2004-2005 was the prelude to absolute peak FPS in the following years with CoD 4, Halo 3, more Half-life 2, Crysis (people forget how GOOD this game is), Deus Ex Human Revolution, and a big etc.
I would say 04-07 (maybe 08 as well) were a peak period for FPS games, especially in the AAA space.
 
Killzone 1 is just a meh game. The best stuff was the vs bot (and multiplayer if you so had the luxury of having your PS2 near an Ethernet cable). Sony maintain it because they NEED to have something against Halo (and they somewhat succeded with KillZone 2 being awesome... for them to kill it imminently with KZ3).

But I agree with some people here, 2004-2005 was the prelude to absolute peak FPS in the following years with CoD 4, Halo 3, more Half-life 2, Crysis (people forget how GOOD this game is), Deus Ex Human Revolution, and a big etc.
Yeah, it was crazy how fast the genre evolved during this time.

Then CoD 4 happened in 07 and the rest is history, in terms of the blueprint for modern FPS (for better or worse).
 
Last edited:
Half of these shooters sucked.
Yep. Those with potato controls on controllers + 30fps + low resolutions.

rodrigolfp rodrigolfp you don't wanna miss this one.
Console warriors...

giphy.gif


FPS on consoles are a joke (to PC players).
Ftfy.

Doom popularized it amongst nerds who played on PC.

Halo popularized it amongst the console nerds fooled by 2 aim assists.
Ftfy.
 
Last edited:
Yep. Those with potato controls on controllers + 30fps + low resolutions.


Console warriors...

giphy.gif



Ftfy.


Ftfy.
A lot of FPS.on consoles were 60 frames, at least during gen 6.

However, many FPS during gen 7 ran at 30 or sub 30 frames or at sub HD resolutions on consoles.

If you were playing on PC at the time, every gen 7 game was already being played at full HD/60 frames+ (if you had a rig capable of it).

How do I know?

Because I had one, and was apart of that era with a capable rig.
 
Last edited:
Oh, I forgot about Call of Duty, which ran at 720p@60 even on PS3/Xbox 360. Therefore the golden age of shooters started in 2005-2006.
Sweet summer child:

Call of Duty 3 = 1040x624 (2xAA)
Call of Duty: Black Ops = 1040x608 (2xAA)
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 = 880x720 (2xAA)
Call of Duty: Ghosts = 1024x600 (2xAA)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare = 1024x600 (2xAA)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 = 1024x600 (2xAA)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 = 1024x600 (2xAA)
Call of Duty: World at War = 1024x600 (2x AA)
 
Sweet summer child:

Call of Duty 3 = 1040x624 (2xAA)
Call of Duty: Black Ops = 1040x608 (2xAA)
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 = 880x720 (2xAA)
Call of Duty: Ghosts = 1024x600 (2xAA)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare = 1024x600 (2xAA)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 = 1024x600 (2xAA)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 = 1024x600 (2xAA)
Call of Duty: World at War = 1024x600 (2x AA)
At least they ran at 60 fps, unlike Halo or Battlefield.
 
Sweet summer child:

Call of Duty 3 = 1040x624 (2xAA)
Call of Duty: Black Ops = 1040x608 (2xAA)
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 = 880x720 (2xAA)
Call of Duty: Ghosts = 1024x600 (2xAA)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare = 1024x600 (2xAA)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 = 1024x600 (2xAA)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 = 1024x600 (2xAA)
Call of Duty: World at War = 1024x600 (2x AA)
No one cared. Most people were still playing on vacuum tube tvs when MW2 dropped. A 720p plasma was considered state of the art.

anigif_sub-buzz-6341-1523318400-1.gif


The decision to make them 60fps was a game changer though.
 
Last edited:
No one cared. Most people were still playing on vacuum tube tvs when MW2 dropped. A 720p plasma was considered state of the art.

anigif_sub-buzz-6341-1523318400-1.gif


The decision to make them 60fps was a game changer though.
Exactly, a lot of people during the time of those early CoDs didn't even have full HD TVs.

This means the low resolution, would not have been noticeable as much.

What they did notice and enjoy was, the smoothness of CoD games running at 60 frames.
 
FEAR 1 and Half Life 2 are the 2 best for me so i have to agree, Doom 3, COD 2, Riddick and Far Cry were really good too. i enjoyed MOH Pacific Assault as well which came out in 2004.
 
Last edited:
FEAR 1 and Half Life 2 are the 2 best for me so i have to agree, Doom 3, COD 2, Riddick and Far Cry were really good as well.
FEAR's gun play and the intensity of the fire fights are nearly unmatched, 20 years later.

Cool fact: The design of the AI in FEAR was done by an MIT student, who created a unique implementation of the games AI for his PhD.

The AI is really strong in that game, they will flank you and try out to put strategy you.
 
Last edited:
I was about to be a hater but your opener was First Encounter Assault Recon........soooooooo.

WIN!
 
Exactly, a lot of people during the time of those early CoDs didn't even have full HD TVs.

This means the low resolution, would not have been noticeable as much.

What they did notice and enjoy was, the smoothness of CoD games running at 60 frames.
I remember that wonderful component cable that came with the 360...

I was lucky enough to come into a bit of money in early 2009 (was 15 at the time) and went out to buy a huge 32 inch LCD for my room and a 360 that had a native HDMI port... And I don't regret that for a second, some of the greatest memories of my childhood came out of those purchases.
 
I played so much Black Arrow man that was one of my favorite games ever. That was when people actually communicated as a team and we didn't hear (granted I was a late teen then) a bunch of screaming idiots. Man I miss that time
 
I played so much Black Arrow man that was one of my favorite games ever. That was when people actually communicated as a team and we didn't hear (granted I was a late teen then) a bunch of screaming idiots. Man I miss that time
I remember that time too, everybody back then was using mics and going at it at the time since online gaming was still new on consoles.

A cool element to those Rainbow Six games is that you could command your squad in the campaign, with voice controls using the mic.

We don't see this kind of experimentation in gaming anymore.
 
FEAR's gun play and the intensity of the fire fights are nearly unmatched, 20 years later.

Cool fact: The design of the AI in FEAR was done by an MIT student, who created a unique implementation of the games AI for his PhD.

The AI is really strong in that game, they will flank you and try out to put strategy you.
Yep, couldn't agree more, no one has done it better for me, FEAR 1 is still the best gun play with the slow mo, great atmosphere and story too.
 
Last edited:
Consoles in general, have always had to make sacrifices in favor of fidelity.

Many PS4/XOne games ran at sub 1080P to, which by 2015-2016 was considered an "old" or low resolution.
Fidelity of graphics while being infidel to game play and controls and sometimes image quality. 🤷‍♂️
 
What did you think about FEAR 2/3?
I didn't like them, FEAR 2 because of a dispute between Monolith and Vivendi at the time, they couldn't use the Pointman and used other characters other than Alma and the game was less open and like a corridor shooter, and felt more restricted and the story wasn't as good.

And FEAR 3 was very mid, no where near the quality of the previous 2 for me, FEAR 1 is the goat lol.
 
Last edited:
I didn't like them, FEAR 2 because of a dispute between Monolith and Vivendi at the time, they couldn't use the Pointman and used other characters other than Alma and the game was less open and like a corridor shooter, and felt more restricted and the story wasn't as good.

And FEAR 3 was very mid, no where near the quality of the previous 2 for me, FEAR 1 is the goat lol.
Agreed, the series went on a steep decline after the 1st.
 
Goldenye and Perfect Dark are important, but to say they are as important as this...

images


is comical.

Halo literally popularized FPS among the general public more than any otther game.

Quake, UT, CS 1.6, GoldenEye, Perfect Dark were all big deals to people who already gamed.

Halo CE had more of an impact than all those games combined.

Fans-of-the-game-Halo-2-stand-in-line-before-midnight-at-the-Toys-%E2%80%98R-Us-store-in-Times-Square-November-8-2004-in-New-York-City-scaled.jpg

EB5LlhnXUAEBOY7.jpg


No game in 97-98 was capable of generating the level of hype that Halo 2 did, in 2004.

Does any game generate this kinda hype anymore outside of like maybe Grand Theft Auto?

Cuz yeah peak Halo was some other shit.
 
I would say 04-07 (maybe 08 as well) were a peak period for FPS games, especially in the AAA space.

In my opinion the thing goes deeper than just FPS: games become a multi billion dollar mainstream thing in that era, and with such corpos move in and demanded even more sales and audience. This can only led to one thing, standardization. Every CEO wanted to have the next CoD so the only way to do so was by copying whatever was trending (see 343 Halo's). Now it is live services with stores like Fortnite, but we already moved form "Everything has to be like CoD', to "Everything has to have champions with loot boxes like Overwatch". to "Everything has to be as competitive and e-sport as possible like LoL" to our current dying trend: live services.

And another way to illustrate this can be the game controllers: in the DC, NGC, Xbox and PS2 era every controller has something way different. This would move to the X360, PS3 and Wii era as well. But now every controller is very similar, the most revolutionizing thing in these past years is the PS4 track pad, but in order to actually use it you have to plug your controller to PC and use it on Steam, because no dev adds anything to the PS4/5 games to use this (besides being a bigger "select" button)

Does any game generate this kinda hype anymore outside of like maybe Grand Theft Auto?

Cuz yeah peak Halo was some other shit.

I miss midnight released, you can meet see and share moments with people. My last one was Tears of the Kingdom midnight release and it was amazing, all the hype and people waiting for 00:00 so they can get their copy. In contrast my "midnight release" of DooM Eternal was waiting for the "play" button to turn green on Steam. It is truly a tragic community thing that was lost in order for convenience (and more margin for the companies ofc)/
 
Does any game generate this kinda hype anymore outside of like maybe Grand Theft Auto?

Cuz yeah peak Halo was some other shit.
Peak Halo 1 and 2 were the awesome days where it rivaled even GTA Vice City and San Andreas.

Not a new Halo 7 won't even get 1/3 the hype of GTA VI.

Not sure what happened, maybe it's because the Floods were gone or maybe it's just people naturally tired of the overall Halo story.

Timesplitters I felt could have done better with a sequel to 3.
 
Last edited:
Some good ones. But this period also marked the end of the single player fps game for me ...with Crysis (2 years later) being the only exception I can recall.

I really don't think I've played a sp fps game since. They just lost their luster. IN the end they basically became 3d Space Invaders. Just killing endless waves of enemies over and over and over. Some relatively newer sp shooter games rely on the story to distract you from the fact you're playing 3d Space Invaders. But that was never enough for me.
 
Last edited:
Peak Halo 1 and 2 were the awesome days where it rivaled even GTA Vice City and San Andreas.
Not a new Halo 7 won't even get 1/3 the hype of GTA VI.
Not sure what happened, maybe it's because the Floods were gone or maybe it's just people naturally tired of the overall Halo story.
Timesplitters I felt could have done better with a sequel to 3.

Halo 1 not so much.

But didnt Halo 2, 3 and Reach all basically close off time square over night cuz those games all had midnight launches.
I cant remember the last time I saw a game having that kind of hype.



Halo just fell off, Halo 4 was towards the end of the generation and kinda felt forced and Halo 5 was on Xbox One........nuff said.
Dont even get me started on halo Infinites buildup.
 
In my opinion the thing goes deeper than just FPS: games become a multi billion dollar mainstream thing in that era, and with such corpos move in and demanded even more sales and audience. This can only led to one thing, standardization. Every CEO wanted to have the next CoD so the only way to do so was by copying whatever was trending (see 343 Halo's). Now it is live services with stores like Fortnite, but we already moved form "Everything has to be like CoD', to "Everything has to have champions with loot boxes like Overwatch". to "Everything has to be as competitive and e-sport as possible like LoL" to our current dying trend: live services.

And another way to illustrate this can be the game controllers: in the DC, NGC, Xbox and PS2 era every controller has something way different. This would move to the X360, PS3 and Wii era as well. But now every controller is very similar, the most revolutionizing thing in these past years is the PS4 track pad, but in order to actually use it you have to plug your controller to PC and use it on Steam, because no dev adds anything to the PS4/5 games to use this (besides being a bigger "select" button)



I miss midnight released, you can meet see and share moments with people. My last one was Tears of the Kingdom midnight release and it was amazing, all the hype and people waiting for 00:00 so they can get their copy. In contrast my "midnight release" of DooM Eternal was waiting for the "play" button to turn green on Steam. It is truly a tragic community thing that was lost in order for convenience (and more margin for the companies ofc)/
Damn, well said.
 
Peak Halo 1 and 2 were the awesome days where it rivaled even GTA Vice City and San Andreas.

Not a new Halo 7 won't even get 1/3 the hype of GTA VI.

Not sure what happened, maybe it's because the Floods were gone or maybe it's just people naturally tired of the overall Halo story.

Timesplitters I felt could have done better with a sequel to 3.
For a lot of people, Halo ended at 3 (arguably Reach).

Similar to how for a lot of people Gears ended at 3.
 
Some good ones. But this period also marked the end of the single player fps game for me ...with Crysis (2 years later) being the only exception I can recall.

I really don't think I've played a sp fps game since. They just lost their luster. IN the end they basically became 3d Space Invaders. Just killing endless waves of enemies over and over and over. Some relatively newer sp shooter games rely on the story to distract you from the fact you're playing 3d Space Invaders. But that was never enough for me.
Single player FPS became rare because companies believe there is money to be made from Multiplayer focused ones.
 
that and because players themselves gravitated towards the mp part of shooters.
Yeah, for whatever reason gamers were gravitating towards these experiences more so companies followed.

Hopefully we get more of a balance in the AAA space, for FPS games.

Not every MP focused game will blow up, and companies are slowly realizing this.

It's taking a while though.

😂
 
Top Bottom