So... Free FPS games? And what's America's Army like?

[Azazel]

Now that I've taught my wife to play WoW, she's got a tiny bit of gaming ability. Since I'm getting bored of WoW, and I like shooting people, the logical next step is to teacher her to play FPS games.

Rather than shelling out for a second copy of BF2, or buying the latest, greatest thing that won't run on my(soon-to-be-hers) machine, I'm looking for a multiplayer FPS that still has people playing it, I already own, or is free.

Since almost all of the FPS games I own 2 copies of are too old and crusty to have anyone playing them anymore, (, etc) I'm thinking something free will have people on, since there's no shortage of players for free stuff out there.


Poor Options:
RTCWolf
BF1942/DC
AvP/2
Q3:A
JK2


Low Options:
Day of Defeat (not bad, but a bit tricky for a n00b, also aren't most of the DoD gamers on DoD: S now?)
Counter-Strike (pretty much same as above)

Better Options:
Wolfenstein: ET (if people are still playing this?)
UT: 2003 (possible option)
Quake 4 (I could buy a second copy cheap, but not till we see if she can get into FPS)


But, one I've never properly played has been AA. I tried it once, long ago, but never bothered to get past training. That was also about 45 incanations of the game ago. I'm very interested to hear what people here who have played it think of it.

[Chimpy]

The original Quake is free, and just about any computer that actually runs a web browser today can run it just fine.

Why not teach her on the standard by which all FPS have been desinged in the last decade?  :-D

[HaemishM]

I like Warrock well enough for a "free" to play Battlefield type shooter. It can be buggy, so I certainly wouldn't pay money for it, but it's not bad for when I want to play and the servers are down.

[Morfiend]

Q3A is pretty awesome, and you already own it. You might want to consider running out and picking up NOLF2. Im pretty sure its bargin bin now. Its a fun game, with decent story, stylish graphics and has a girl for the main character (Its important to them). You could put it on easy and let her go at it.

[Strazos]

I'd be VERY surprised if you could find NOLF2 in a store anywhere. Great game though.

Also, while there are still plenty of people playing Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, I don't think it's a great choice for a newbie to cut their teeth on, so to speak.

I would start with some single player stuff. The bots in any of the UT games would be very helpful.

[Kail]

You might want to consider running out and picking up NOLF2. Im pretty sure its bargin bin now. Its a fun game, with decent story, stylish graphics and has a girl for the main character (Its important to them). You could put it on easy and let her go at it.

The multiplayer is a bit wierd, though.  No deathmatch (at least, not right out of the box); instead you get something like four or five multiplayer co-op missions.  They're fun to run through once or twice (and you could easily burn through all of them in an evening), but if you're looking for a multiplayer game, I don't know how much staying power NOLF2 has.

I believe Tribes 2 is free, now, and I can't reccomend that game enough.  Kind of steep learning curve, though.

[caladein]

Wolfenstein: ET (if people are still playing this?)

Enemy Territory is still decently popular, at least according to Xfire. Having played tons of ET way back, I second Strazos by saying it's not the easiest game to get started in on.

I'd probably have her play some UT 200X with bots just so gets a hang of FPSs as a genre, but I wouldn't play multiplayer with it at first. Team-based games (like ET), while confusing, are still going to help cushion the twitch learning curve. Besides, if she's played in a battleground in WoW, she's probably got the gist of most team-based objectives.

[Mortriden]

I would strongly recommend staying away from AA.  It's not very forgiving for a new player and suffers from a lot map "exploits" for lack of a better term.  Such as being under grenade fire immediately after you spawn. 

I'm drooling over your inclusion of AVP2 though.  God I love that game.  My copy went tits up and I haven't found a copy in the area to replace it.  Buggy net code and all, I love me some Lifecycle.

[Fabricated]

http://www.warsow.net/

Warsow is basically Q3A (same engine, same weapons pretty much) with a few twists, "professional" quake 3 physics, and a cel-shaded view.

[Megrim]

I'm thinking along the same vein as a few people in this thread, in that it's probably not a great idea to got straight for multiplayer fps. Try some single-player stuff, see if she hooks onto it and go from there. You'd be hard pressed to find a current fps which is 'newbie friendly'. The only thing i can think of, that's still being played, would be BF2/2142.

Stuff like AvP2/NOLF have great stories to go with the gameplay, so you might try something like that (as has already been said). iirc Unreal 2 was pretty good.

To be honest though, and i wish you all the best with this, but as a general rule few girls actively get into first person shooters because of the "frag the weak, hurdle the dead" mentality. Story would probably be the way to go.

[Azazel]

Q3A is pretty awesome, and you already own it. You might want to consider running out and picking up NOLF2. Im pretty sure its bargin bin now. Its a fun game, with decent story, stylish graphics and has a girl for the main character (Its important to them). You could put it on easy and let her go at it.

I actually have 3 legit copies of NOLF2.

I'm thinking multiplayer because of the "sit next to each other and PVP together" factor, as she's unlikely to load up and play anything solo (besides Guitar Hero). Something with a co-op campaign could also work well. For MP, I'm thinking team-based rather then FFA, so at least we are cooperating and playing together. So it follows on from WoW's PVP which we've done a bit of.

The problem with Q3A is the same as that with AVP - old game so (probably) not many playing, though if Q3A has a co-op mode versus bots it could work well enough. I also have Team Arena too. I should check and see if UT has something like that as well.

Hm, maybe the first Star Wars Battlefront, as that ran ok in co-op mode against bots which were very, um, noob-friendly. Was the second one anything like that?

I'll go check out Warsow and Warock. Browser-based Q1? I'll have to take a look at that for notalgia's sake. I played that back when I had a Mac!

Tribes 2 free now? I have a copy of that sitting here which I never got around to playing or installing it because my idiot nephew saw it, installed it and registered it with some fucking retarded username and password and lost the bit of paper. Mmm the benefis of legit software. Tribes: Vengeance is cheap now though, too...

[Kail]

Hm, maybe the first Star Wars Battlefront, as that ran ok in co-op mode against bots which were very, um, noob-friendly. Was the second one anything like that?

Yeah, it's very similar.  Slightly tweaked map and unit balance, new "hero" uber units (Mace Windu, Han, Boba Fett, Grevious, et cetera) to infuriate you, some new modes, but otherwise similar (even has a lot of the same maps).  The bots are still typical stormtroopers.  If you've got an XBox, you can split-screen it with a single copy, too.

[Merusk]

I would strongly recommend staying away from AA.  It's not very forgiving for a new player and suffers from a lot map "exploits" for lack of a better term.  Such as being under grenade fire immediately after you spawn. 

AA was a fun game when it first came out. However, since it desires to simulate real combat effectively, you find that it really sucks to be a foot soldier very quickly.

If it had some kind of randomizer for the maps, it'd be much better.  The problem Mortriden is describing isn't an exploit, it's a combination of 'real' physics and real grenade modeling along with four year-old maps.

What happens is, the person with the M203 has been playing for 4 years, and knows exactly where to run to, and then where to aim to land grenades on any spot of the map.  Your only hope of surviving is that your 203 guy gets theirs before they get you.

Adding in wind speed and direction would help a bit, with tossing the 'nades off of exact target, but I don't know that it's something the engine is capable of.

I loved the game for a while there.  No fucking bunny hopping, nice weapons, fairly quick rounds, the capability to complete the mission and end the round quick (which always pissed-off the FPS-tards who thought it was just run-n-gun.. they'd kill 3/4 of your team and still lose. heh.)  It's just so old at this point it's not worth picking up as a newbie.

[KyanMehwulfe]

That's precisely why I lost interest in America's Army. I'm fine with the core gameplay, but the multiplayer has become so refined and mastered. It outright killed any sense of randomness or chance on some maps; it was like an outright law that if you walked at X location Y seconds into the game, you'd be hit with a grenade, and same went for the entire alphabet of corners, hills, and hiding spots.

Enemy Territory is still pretty active, I'll echo. I seem to download and play it for a couple weeks once or twice a year. The map design in particular is well paced and focused; it's the core reason for Quake War's has any deep-rooted development following thus far.

[Sky]

What happens is, the person with the M203 has been playing for 4 years, and knows exactly where to run to, and then where to aim to land grenades on any spot of the map. 

This is the weakness of every damned online fps in existence.

[Yegolev]

What happens is, the person with the M203 has been playing for 4 years, and knows exactly where to run to, and then where to aim to land grenades on any spot of the map.

This is the weakness of every damned online fps in existence.

Hellgate!

I am still pretty sure Hellgate is going to suck.

[Azazel]

So, after trying an install of the first Star Wars Battlefront which screwed up on the older PC, I finally loaded up Day of Defeat on both machines (1 steam account came with my ancient HL1, the other with the all-singing HL2 Steam upgrade package that came with my GFX card).

She wasn't especially good, but she was getting kills. I, in fact was her first kill since the server stuck us on opposing sides. I certainly wasn't expecting DoD to be an opening FPS. Now I'm thinking I might buy the retail DoD:S to tack onto that account. TF:S might be interesting..

[TheWalrus]

If she likes stories, FEAR would be a great starter. Probably be prepared for a couple of screams tho.

Edit: spelling gods.