[Skunkabilly]

OK...

I've replayed Ghost Recon for the umpteenth time now. Rainbow Six is too hard and stressful.

I'm looking for a lighthearted shooter (first person or third person) that's fun but has good guns and gun handling.

No cheesy guns like in GTA3, but not something that gives me a heart attack like playing Rainbow Six. I love the guns in RS3 (esp the Benelli, best shotgun patterning in any pc game ever) but it's just too hard to be fun.

Is SOF2 any good? Are the guns realistic but game relatively easy and fun?

[SoCalGeek]

Well, i would (obviously) avoid counter-strike like the plague, but one of it's mods called DOD (Day of Defeat) is pretty good, IIRC. It's the same general idea as CS, but WW2 era and infinitely more realistic.

[spacemanspiff]

i wish i could offer an opinion on SOF2, but my video card is crappy and on the lowest settings i cant get that game to play without suffering tons of lag.

the first SOF game was alright, not too easy, but i wasnt impressed with the weapons. it did offer some interesting multi-player fun, but downloading new custom maps was a chore.

i've heard a lot of people say great things about Halo, and Call of Duty, but i'm sticking with MOHAA for now. i'm halfway through the Spearhead expansion, but the game wont save my progress in this level and it takes me 15-20 minutes to get back to the furthest point i've made it.
Spearhead has a great artillery piece, i forget the name, loads up with 5 or 6 shells, great for taking out half tracks. and there are anti-aircraft guns you can use as well.

lately i've had an itch to go back and play some more Blackhawk Down, but i really dont like the limitations of the car-15 in that game. i prefer to always use sniper rifles.

[SkunkApe]

If you like online multiplayer games and have a good (low ping) internet connection, try "Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory".

Its a WWII-based first person shooter. And believe it or not, its free (its a long story why).

http://games.activision.com/games/wolfenstein/

Its very popular and loads of fun. I love the sound the Garand makes when the empty clip ejects.

[Zer000]

I just played through Call of Duty, and it is a really great game. The sound is very immersive and the team dynamics are great. I'd highly recommend it. Only con, not enough BAR time. :D

[David4516]

Try RTCW. Single player is okay, but Multi-plyaer is AWSOME!

http://wolf.nofrag.com/images/rtcw-special_edition-box.jpg

[Sven]

Most playable game out there in my opinion at this time is Battlefield 1942 from Electronic Arts.

This game leans a bit toward the arcade side, but that makes it more "light-hearted".... you aren't committed to a 2 hour session when you sit down, as each game lasts about 30 minutes on average.

Still, you are shooting people, and the enemies gargle when you shoot them, which isn't 'light hearted', anyway you slice it. Tactics matter in this game, as you will learn quickly if you walk into enemy view. The game has great ballistics - you have to overhold on certain weapons, shots take time to travel, etc.

The weapons are realistic and reloads take the right amount of time. Snipers can both snipe as well as call artillery, engineers can lay mines or explosive packs (also can fix stuff), anti-armour have bazookas, etc.

The wounding model is that you stay full speed even if 99% injured.

I am sold on this franchise hook, line and sinker and have purchased the Desert Combat (Gulf War), Road To Rome (WWII) and Future Weapons (WWII fantasy) expansion packs. These cheap or free add-ons bring additional maps, weapons, features and vehicles to both the singleplayer and online games. The planes are fun, and in some you take off from aircraft carriers.... of course, you can also drive or man AA guns if enemy planes are coming in and bombing... you get the idea, lots of options on how you want to play.

There are ALWAYS novel things happening in the online game. Every time I play, something new and crazy happens. Last night, I was parachuting out of a bomber I'd been flying, and landed on a church roof. Unfortunately, the roof was too steeply angled and - as I may have in real life - I slid off the church roof, 4 stories down and died...

...only to be reincarnated in 14 seconds. BTW, my previous favorite game was Counter Strike, if that helps you gauge my bias.

[Calmwater]

Lighthearted makes me think of NOLF, kind of campy but full of giggles and guns.
Halo has wonderful visuals at times - too short.
Call of Duty does have great sound. You can often identify the weapon being used on you from a distance.
XIII looks to be fun from the demo.
Looking forward to the more realistic physics of games like Stalker:Oblivion Lost.

[Kharn]

What about America's Army (www.americasarmy.com)?
There's a good number of different guns:
M4, M4A1, M16A2, M203, SOPMOD (M4 with all the user-selectable attachment goodies, including M203, Gemtech can, Harris bipod, 4x ACOG, Reflex & Aimpoint), SPR (AR platform sniper rifle, not sure if its .223 or .308, this player also gets an M9 pistol), M24, M82 .50 (Barrett, only makes a rare appearance), M249, AK47, AK74, Krinkov (either bare or with user-selectable attachments equilvalent to the SOPMOD's), some silenced Russian sniper rifle (Valdez VS?), RPK and RPG.

You can barely hit stuff when firing from the hip, and when using iron sights you have to worry about breathing (using a bipod helps a LOT), reloads are done either tactically ( mag swap with retention & slap) or from empty. Guns can also jam (its a little rare though), and you lose a round of ammo every time you fix a jam.

Another cool thing is you have to undergo training before you can play on certain levels, everyone must at least qualify with the M16, then do a familiarization fire with the m249, m203, frags and smoke grenades, run an obstacle course and do some MOUT training before they can play online. Jump school, sniper school (only available if you get Expert on the rifle range), medic school and Special Forces school are all available if you want to be able to do neater and cooler things than just the very basic levels.

MILES gear is used on some levels for force-on-force training, other times its the real deal doing everything from gaining control of an oil pumping station to destroying a blackhawk and rescuing the pilot ala BHD, to assassinating (or extracting/protecting, depending on the side) a VIP in a hospital full of doctors, nurses and patients.

Best part? Its FREE! You can download it or get a CD from your local Army recruiter.

The only downside? The 650 meg download.

Kharn

[HogRider]

I second "Americas Army". The only game I play now.

[cslinger]

Return to Castle Wolfenstein is good.

Call of duty is excellent in it's mix of fun vs realism. No sim but just about like playing through Band of Brothers and Enemy at The Gates.

No One Lives Forever gets my vote though. What a wonderful game. It actually makes you want to take your time because of the sharp wit and writing. Take the time to sneak up on the guards and listen to their conversations. The gun play is fun and she cocks an AK-47 like she should so it gets a thumbs up in my book.

Chris

[Nightcrawler]

No One Lives Forever 2 is the funniest game I have ever played. I was howling during the big "chase" in India. Play the game, you'll see what I mean.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein had a GREAT plot. If only it was more realistic, like Call of Duty, it would've been PERFECT, in my opinion.

Call of Duty is NOT light heated, but it's not super-realistic like R6III is, either. Play it on Veteran if you don't like health pickups.

[Andrew Wyatt]

AA is infuriating, as you have to make a large time commitment to it to use all the cool stuff. Red orchestra is a pretty fantastic shooter, IMHO.

[BTR]

NOLF 1 and 2, defintely... very fun, interesting firearms.

[George Hill]

No One Lives Forever 2

Imagine an Austin Powers FPS game... then make Austin a girl.

Loads of fun.

[Camel]

AA is infuriating, as you have to make a large time commitment to it to use all the cool stuff.

You can pass all the training in 2-3 hours. All of it takes about an hour except for SF escape and evasion, that can take a while to master. If you want to play SF missions you have to make 15 honor. That should take a week or two of casual gaming. But while you're waiting you can play the missions as Indigenous Forces.

The best part is the realism. For example the RPG has backblast so you have to be real careful when you let loose with a rocket that noody is standing behind you.

some silenced Russian sniper rifle (Valdez VS?),
I think the one you mean is the VSS Vintorez.

[Skunkabilly]

Oh...I'm on dial-up :o

[shooten]

Socom II is awesome but it's not light-hearted. There's a lot of competition on-line.

On a side note, I wish America's Army had a PS2 version. I gave up buying "gamer PC's" a long time ago.

Scott

[BenW]

For just a quick 30 minutes of de-stressing once in a while after work, I like to play James Bond Nightfire in multiplayer mode. Use either conventional or sniper weapons for a more realistic weapons handling experience (though I love using the AIMS-20). I particularly like using the sniper rifles.

[Black Snowman]

Infiltration Mod for Unreal Tournament and Battlefield 1942 get my vote. Playing offline Battlefield has the better bots and you can jump in vehicles which can be quite fun.

Maybe Call of Duty. Haven't picked it up but the demos can tide you over for quite a while.

[Sean Smith]

Unlike the first SOF, SOF2 has real-world weapons that are (fairly) realistic. But mostly the game is about brainless carnage. About the most gore you are going to find in a first-person shooter.

No One Lives Forever 1 and 2 were SUPERB, and had some good laughs to boot. Guns were sorta-but-not-especially realistic, mainly geared towards fun. "Say hello to the Angry Kitty!!!" *BOOOOOM* :D

I don't know if you can call Deus Ex particularly "realistic," but it was a great game and would probalby cost $15 now. The one game I'm REALLY looking forward to is DX2: Invisible War.

[Z_Infidel]

SoF 2 has pretty good guns, no futuristic weapons. Pretty good gameplay, not too difficult. Some strectches get a bit repetitive. The jungle and hospital sections are very good. Make sure you install the patch.

For third person, try Max Payne or Max Payne 2. Film noir style.

Call of Duty is excellent if you like war-themed games - one of my favorites. It has some very intense moments.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein is a good game. Not overly realistic but a good story and lots of good weapons. Very good level design. The premise is that Hitler's fascination with the occult actually produced results and your job is to thwart them. The AI is pretty good also - especially the German paratroopers.

Have you tried the Ghost Recon expansions? They are pretty good.

A good game that is a little older is the Opposing Force expansion for Half Life. You play as a soldier, lots of firefights. You can buy the version that includes Op For and Blue Shift and it contains an upgrade to the game engine that improves the graphics and weapons models significantly.

Why anyone decided to make a Black Hawk Down game is beyond me. The battle wasn't that long ago, and involved mostly units in the Special Operations community so not a lot of anonymity in the characters I would think. The families of the soldiers we lost have feelings, for God's sake. Sigh...

[Gunhead]

"Light hearted" and "good gun handling" is two opposite things.

For me, the best light hearted action game is Max Payne 1-2.

You get the best gun handling in America's Army (it's a free US army game!):

www.americasarmy.com

The second best is R6: Raven Shield.

SOF2 is the king of the gore, but the gun handling just sucks.

[SeaG]

I've been playing a game called Silent Storm. Its a turn based tactical game set in WWII. It has tons of weapons and a very impressive 3D engine. The engine allows for neat stuff like bullet penetration and destroyable buildings.

There are some negatives like the lack of damage inflicted by grenades and shoulder fired weapons. There are still a few bugs that are being fixed and the game ends with a sci-fi twist. Voice acting is very bad but you can turn it off. The good news is they included an editor and alot of people are working on mods.

The demo is out now and the full US version isn't slated to be released untill 1st quarter of next year. The game was developed in Russia and released in most of Europe. I purchased an imported UK version from GoGamer incase someone decides they want to buy it now instead of wait. Might be worth a look if you enjoyed X-com or the Jagged Alliance series.

[Pendragon]

No One Lives Forever, if not mentioned, is very fun.

Its half Austin Powers, half James Bond only the protagonist is a woman.

The guns do not have real names, but they did pretty well overall with the gun fighting. There are even some cool guns that probably exist in limited quantity - a .45 silenced rifle is neat. The revolver is a lot of fun too. There are lots of gadgets and some VERY unique levels - including falling out of a plane without a chute and an underwater level with sharks and spearguns. Also - some levels require stealth in several places - there are options to try and distract the enemies and lure them away from where you are and you get to overhear a lot of hilarious dialog (like thugs talking about which evil organization has the best dental plan, etc)

Its a couple years old - very good if you dont have the latest PC - I got NOLF2, but on my AMD 1800 with a Geforce 4 Ti4600, it was sluggish.

[atek3]

second Sven's BF1942.
Always novel stuff.
I wanted the german fighter and so did my team mate, but he hopped in it first and started flying at me. So I hopped to avoid getting run over and landed on the wing! So I laid prone on the wing of a fighter. As it flew over their base I fired my panzershrek while my teammate was strafing, it was a pretty funny sight.
Oh, play desert combat (the modern mod), its way better. Joy is piloting the Hughes Attack choppers, so much fun.

atek3

[Sven]

Yes, Desert Combat 0.7 is out, and the realism/playability is much improved. Great new maps with urban scenarios, etc.

[Mulliga]

Day of Defeat is quite good. The designers obviously studied WWII and its weapons, and, while they aren't perfect, it's a good simulacrum of WWII fighting (more realistic than most games, but still some leeway).

Light-hearted? Most PC shooters are pretty grim. Try "No One Lives Forever" (absurd gun handling, but it's a James Bond spoof, so no harm done).

[Werewolf]

Hitman 2

Lighthearted - not really.

1) Wide range of weapons
2) Emphasizes brains, tactics and stealth over brute force massive firepower hand eye coordination click fest
3) Realistic enough that when using a sniper rifle the telescopic sight picture moves in rythym with your on screen character's breathing (some folks may be rock steady but I can see that sight picture moving even with a 4X scope in real life)
4) Challenge increases as you progress thru the game
5) The hits are against guys that deserve it so for me at least there was no moral issue like having to bump off the president or something

Missions can take 30 mins to a couple of hours.
Decent story line

[Zundfolge]

If you already own a copy of UnrealTournament then the best gun handling in any game out there is available in a mod called Infiltration (http://infiltration.sentrystudios.net/).

Infiltration is seriously the most realistic gun handling I've ever come across in a game. No goofy floating crosshair ... you aim with the iron sights on the weapons. No bunnyhopping or running at 30MPH for hours at a time ... there's a stamina system (based on weight of your gear, how much running and jumping you do and your health). Cool features like leaning around corners ... controling your breathing (especially useful for the Sniper Rifles) ... kneeling and going prone (both increase your accuracy) all the weapons are real world weapons with sounds taken from the real thing (no suppressed guns that sound like goofy hollywood silencers). Plus a built in range so you can put a few rounds downrange on a rainy day :)

The game was built around multi player, but the single player games are pretty good too.

Its a heafty download, but it can be ordered on CD for $12.95 (but keep in mind you need to have a copy of UnrealTournament).
EDIT: Hell Skunk ... I could probably be persuaded to burn a copy of it for you if necessary


Here's their small teaser video ... only about 5meg (theres other better movies in the media section of the Infiltration site)
http://infiltration.sentrystudios.net/files/pafiledb.php?action=download&id=169

[lessthan]

I'll second Zundfolge re: the Infiltration mod for Unreal Tournament. Awesome game. I waste many evenings playing multiplayer online matches (GD server usually).

[VeT|Us]

Day of Defeat, HL-mod.
Really sweet M1 Garand, BAR, etc. One shot with the Mauser, Garand, or any other of the highpower rifles in that game will kill you.
Good enough graphics and tremendous gameplay.
I can play the map that depicts D-day for hours.

Other than that, watch out for Battlefield: Vietnam.
Thats what Im waiting for. M16, M14, F4 Phantom, Mortars, Tanks, hueys, everything will be jammed into that game!

[BHPshooter]

Skunk -- Are you talking about only PC games, or are you open to other platforms?

I played Return to Castle Wolfenstein on PC, and it was great. On XBOX, it's better. There are more levels, more guns, better videos.

I'm in the middle of Rainbow Six 3 (Alcatraz level) on XBOX. It's not very hard on XBOX. I have a harder time on PC with controls.

If you have a console, the Medal of Honor games are pretty good. They're probably the least gory, and therefore most lighthearted, of any shooter.

I can't really recommend more than that since my PC sucks, and I can't play any modern games anymore.

Wes

[Tierhog]

I have played Call of Duty, Americas Army, Max Payne and several others. I usually play it through once and then go back from the beginning and CHEAT. Find some online cheats and you can have any weapon with max ammo. Other cheats let you be invisible, but that's no fun unless you're an assassin. Don't cheat when playing online, you'll get booted and not invited back. Its your game, play it the way you want. But be fair to your teammates and you'll have a blast. Unless you're on dial up...:uhoh:

[Camel]

Americas Army - Realistic as online FPS games get. Can be played on a moderate machine and plans are to keep the game going with updates untile at least 2007. Free and provided by the US Army. Downsides are that there is no respawn during the round so if you die in the first minute you could be looking at a 9 minute wait if the round drags out. To do all the cool stuff (Sniper, medic, SF, airborne) you need to pass training missions that can take a little while (Longest is SF Escape and Evade. It took me about 2 hours to figure it out.). The training missions and wait times do help to weed out the 1337-D34ThKi114 type people who dont have a long enough attention span to play.

BF1942 - Realistic isnt a word Id use. The weapons are done well but the gameplay itself is more "fun" than "real". A very good game to unwind from the R6 stress.

Max Payne 2 - Not exactly realistic either. Its like playing a movie, the badguys go flying when they get shot and the plot is pretty deep. The game has a very film noir feel but sometimes it gets so "noir" it just seems funny. "My heart was dark like a dark rainy street of darkness" BANG *Crook goes flying over a piano* :D

[jamz]

I can't add anything else, other than I loved No One lives forever 1, but just got bored halfway through NOLF2. Go figure.

Call of Duty is the best shooter of all of them IMHO, especially if you know your WWII history. It has an "excitement" level similar to that of the Rainbow Six series, in that you feel that "you are there". (Of course, the R6 games are my absolute favorite, especially multiplayer.)

Oh, and Americas Army is only good if you can dedicate the time to it. A lot of people play it like, 24/7 it seems, and they know all the tricks. I played it for a week or so, and as a n00b, I would get whacked more or less instatly from unknown locations. I only got a few people myself.

-James

[QuarterBoreGunner]

What no 'Max Payne'? The first one was incredible; 'Max Payne 2' has an extremely high hardware requirement, but is worth it.

I can't add anything else, other than I loved No One lives forever 1, but just got bored halfway through NOLF2. Go figure.

Me too. I loved the first one, but the fact that you couldn't clear a level (bad guys KEEP RESPAWNING) was odd.

[Skunkabilly]

Any fan of Red Dawn ought to pick up Freedom Fighters. IT's only $20 and pretty fun. WOLVERINES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not very realistic, but very fun.

[JoeWang]

Like Sven said:

Yes, Desert Combat 0.7 is out, and the realism/playability is much improved. Great new maps with urban scenarios, etc.

Urban, desert, mixed, air, land, sea, infantry, holy cow, you guys haven't played Desert Combat?

Plus: you have lead intelligently, the rounds' damage vary with distance and so does accuracy. New version has built in hacker-killer for the cheaters.

You can pick up a Battlefied 1942 discs on e-bay shipped for $10 and download DC for free. You do need a rig to play, min. 2.4 Gig, 512 mb mem and a 128+ MB video card. Surround sound is nice too.

Battlefield Vietnam is coming out late March. Complete graphics engine rewrite. Then again, this is going to be a good year: Half-Life 2, Far Cry, BF:V, Soldner: Secret Wars.

w00t.

I'm too old for this stuff. :evil:

[cookhj]

come on skunk, rainbow six was too hard? i've beat all of them and personally, the newest one, raven shield, is the easiest, except for the last level. ghost recon was MUCH harder, and blackhawk down was even harder still.

call of duty was too easy. great game play, awesome graphics, just too darn easy. i beat the game in 8 hours; and i'm no gaming nerd. i only play games every once in a while.

medal of honor: allied assault was easy as well, but a tad harder than call of duty.

probably the best, but hardest 1st person shooter (even though it's sci-fi) was jedi outcast. the levels are insanely long and some parts are damn near impossible, but the action and the lightsaber fighting is incredible. i played, and beat, dark forces II: jedi knight, the predecessor to jedi outcast, and that game was far easier and some of the parts of that game were quite testing.

basically, if you want an easy game, go with MOHAA or COD; they're insanely easy on the easy setting, but the gameplay is still good.

[George Hill]

NO ONE LIVES FOREVER 2

That fits the bill.

[Sactown]

I've been playing Call of Duty since it's release. Super fun. Great for when you wanna just sit down and hose folks with the thompson, ppsh, or mp40. It's been even better since they nerfed the bunnyhoppers and snipers. M1 Garand is still my fave.