In cooperation with Flying Wild Hog, TPG is offering three (3) Steam codes for Hard Reset. In recent years, the unadulterated joy has been taken out of the FPS genre.  Titles like Hard Reset and Serious Sam 3: BFE are few and far between with most releases either being realistic military or RPG hybrids.  This is not to say the later are not good games, but there is something about feverishly running around a map or level with hoards of enemies following close behind to remind us how much fun it is to play a FPS.

To enter this contest, simply use the comment section below to post your favorite over-the-top PC FPS (Painkiller, Serious Sam, Doom, Quake, Unreal Tournament) and your most memorable moment within that game.  If you do not have a favorite FPS, you can substitute an over-the-top action game like Just Cause 2 so long as it was released on the PC.  If you already have a copy of Hard Reset, this would be a perfect time to acquire another to give as a gift for the upcoming holiday season.

Also, be sure to read our interview with Flying Wild Hog.

The Rules:

  • No Profanity
  • One entry, per person, per e-mail address, per IP
  • 48 Hours Only
  • Post your first name and last initial
  • Post your favorite FPS and your favorite moment within that game
  • Try keeping entries to a few paragraphs

This contest has now ended.  Thanks to everyone who participated.  We have some great stories here so it will be difficult to only choose 3.  The winners are David Q, Tom K. and Shashank.  Steam keys have now been sent out.

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  • Aaron B

    Knights Of The Old Republic is my favorite Star Wars games by far. I remember having to upgrade my computer just to play it smoothly, but it was worth it. The graphics (at the time) blew me away and once I had a lightsaber in my hand and a few force powers up my sleeve, I was kicking Sith butt all over the galaxy and taking names. The story, environments, and companions were top notch as well. The most memorable moment that stands out in my mind was the part of the game where I realized that this horrible Sith lord (Revan) that I had been learning about all throughout my travels was actually me. I then had to make a choice to remain a good Jedi or turn to the dark side. Up until that point, I had never played an RPG with that kind of good/evil choice system before and I really wasn’t expecting such a dramatic twist in the story line. Over the years, I ended out playing that game at least three more times so I could experience all the combinations of Jedi types / light-side vs dark-side dialog options / force powers etc. A truly epic game….

  • Nickolas E

    My favorite FPS has to be Call Of Duty 2. I can still remember the times I played with friends when we did bashing competitions. We were constantly running around each other trying to bash each other. It looked ridiculous, but it was a lot of fun.

    • http://truepcgaming.com Adam Ames

      COD2, in my opinion, is far and away the best in the series.

    • Tom K

      This was one of my favourite lan games, and still is to be honest.

  • Tom K

    Trying to remember nearly 10 years ago when I was still (fairly) good at Q3A and UT99 is going to be a struggle but I’ll give it a shot.

    Q3A- Memorable moment would probably have to be during a (1v1) duel on the infamous dm6, I was losing 6-1 with a couple of minutes left In the round (yeah, it’s going to be one of those stories!), simply being outplayed, I was unsure if I could turn it around and getting anxious.

    At this point I was trying to keep both the ra and mega timed, so I at least had that going for me. Right then I was strafing from upper ground YA through RL spawn to the RA spawn after a rail battle and still fairly stacked, anticipating him coming through choke hoping to amush me while I was waiting for the RA, I spam a rocket across to choke as I figured he would stick to the higher ground as well. It connects damn near perfectly, and he immediately turns around appearing like he’s retreating so I figured this had to be my chance.. I drop down and see him falling also, It sounds cliché but it almost felt it was occuring in slow motion (or timscale .1 I should say heh) spamming my rail bind furiously as he also tried to catch me with a cheeky rail but failed to realise I had dropped so it was a clear miss, so as his railgun was in cooldown I picked him off with my last available rail (yeah really!). So there we have it I was at 6-2, smile binds were immediately spammed in chat, I always felt that was a kind of nod and mark of respect to each other. From then on I continued to control RA and Mega, as well RL and LG, continously trying to pick him off from a relatively safe distance with the LG and finishing with rails, while still keeping the upper ground around RL spawn and ended up finishing at 8-7 in my favour just a few seconds before the timelimit was reached, Yeah! I literally jumped out of my chair, that was the first time I ever felt that way about a game.

    It’s probably not the greatest story ever but it’s true and it was during a pretty difficult time, making me realise that sometimes I do have the ability to make changes and turn things around. and now I want to play Quake again.

    • http://truepcgaming.com Adam Ames

      It is amazing how something as simple as a game can be used in terms of living your life. Great story too. :)

      • Tom K

        Cheers! Reading it back there are mistakes and too much focus on technical stuff but that main paragraph is only really a few seconds in time (heavily condensed) and I figured if I described the beginning and aftermath too it would be ridiculously long (and boring hah) especially since once I started to remember, It all came back to me.

        Still, I enjoyed it. So thanks for reminding me of that and all the other moments I wanted to mention!

      • Tom K

        Just in case you didn’t get my email, Thanks again! I’m already an hour or so into HR and loving it, the engine is so incredibly pretty too.

  • Alex L.

    Half Life 1, the plot was awesome although multiplayer is pretty much dead now.

    The ending of the game was most memorable, don’t want to spoil it but the boss fight was epic and the twist in the end was cool.

    The other boss fights are pretty good too but once you figure out a strategy, you’re pretty much set. I just hate getting lost in that game, can’t seem to figure out where to go sometimes and it gets pretty annoying.

    • http://truepcgaming.com Adam Ames

      I have the same problem in other older games I play. I have played through certain levels more than once, and yet, I still get myself lost.

      • Alex L.

        yep, I still get lost in recent games. Like Portal 2, I got stuck at a point cuz I could see the small tile where I should shoot a portal. Good thing games usually have a map or some sort of way to tell the player where they should go now.

    • Noah Baxter

      I was still pretty young when I first played HL, maybe 10 or 11. Back then I felt really stupid because I always got lost just navigating Black Mesa, even before I got into the action. I’m so glad I decided to go back and finish it later on in life because, wow… that game, man. I’ve finished it 3 times now, and I still crap my pants whenever I have to confront an Itchyosaur. Then there’s the addition of mods (both official and unofficial) that extend it even further, and just… wow.
      In my opinion, it’s one of the greatest games ever released.

      • Alex L.

        Same, I never had the patience to finish it and I kept dying when I was 10, played CS instead. The game is pretty long, even compared to the games today. Still, I got addicted to it after going back a few years later,

        Can’t wait for the Black Mesa Source mod (remake of Half Life) to come, they’ve been working on it for years. The screenshots looks fantastic.

  • http://twitter.com/secretclean Josh (@secretclean)

    My favorite over-the-top FPS is Unreal Tournament 3. It was the first UT game to have an actual story, and the visceral style of the Unreal Engine really brought the map and characters to life. The weapons were a little better, sure, but the graphical overhaul was what really blew me away. And there are a plethora of modes with seemingly endless amounts of content to explore. The Black patch added even more carnage with the Titan mod, and I enjoyed that immensely as well. I also enjoyed the story behind the Campaign mode. Having a real story with real villains makes UT3 so much more engrossing than its predecessors. It’s generally a great game.

    My favorite non-scripted moment in the game happened while I was playing in an offline match against Masterful bots in a custom anti-camper map with a speed hack on, and I happened to get a crazy amount of super-lucky kills. I won the match while turning and firing my rocket launcher while jumping backwards, so the rocket curved around a corner and killed someone else. The whole match is on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bqadPVAG_Y (it was late so my reactions are pretty slow!)

    My name is Josh M. Thanks for the contest!

    • http://truepcgaming.com Adam Ames

      Thanks for the link, Josh. Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good. :) Thanks for the link.

    • Alex L.

      I thought UT3 was too linear. I like UT2 more cuz it has more game modes, weapons and its generally better for mulitplayer IMO.

  • vasilis

    “Hm, this game seems pretty crazy, graphics are kick ass too.

    Wait, wtf, two bombs and no head…

    aaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAA”

    awesome

  • http://www.curiouser.org Anthony H

    I’ve completed Quake 1, and played a lot of multiplayer, but funnily enough my most memorable moments with it were not playing, but watching.

    I watched so many speed runs of that game, all following different rules: Fastest time finding all of the secrets and killing all enemies, fastest co-op time, fastest time as a fiend, fastest time while ignoring everything else.

    Watching the levels you plodded through get destroyed by a person who doesn’t seem to have a care in the world about the monster heads he’s stepping on was amazing, and near-unbelievable.

    • http://truepcgaming.com Adam Ames

      Do you remember any Speed Runs in particular you enjoyed?

  • Kenny

    I would say playing Goldeneye N64 back in the day. We could kill some hours (and Mt..Dew) with that game :D

    • http://truepcgaming.com Adam Ames

      I played a bit of Golden Eye back in the day as well.

  • Shashank V

    Cs1.6 ftw! it taught me the fps alphabet. the game was like a drug, it had made me sacrifise atleast some 10% annual aggregate during my school every year, i never regret it though. i can still feel those hours of immense entertainment even now virtually.

    i was addicted to the game, like whenever i’m chatting to someone i start the sentence with “y” or “u”, the say and say team buttons in cs! cs is the one that comes to my mind when i read the word counter or when my teacher says about half-life in the class. the terms rounds, ammo etc joined my regular language. whenever i see some random numbers separated by dots or any ip address, the cs console box appears before my eyes. and i yell the names of the guns the bad boys use when watching movies with my friends.

    that game was never-ending and every moment was entertaining. i used feel the game like a simulator while playing rather than an action fps, like i was a soldier sent on a mission to a place called dust to eliminate the hosiles. the best moments i remember is when i played the game from 10am to 7pm in the local lan centre along with my friends and we all ended with scores of 500+ kills, and i’m on top of the frag board!

    but i never got a chance to play the game professionally, in some tournaments or leagues, i never tried actually, i like playing with friends. i could write a book, if someone asked me tell about cs and how it impacted my life. :)

    i’m very happy that i could share my love with cs here. thanks tpg.

    • http://truepcgaming.com Adam Ames

      I appreciate the comment and your story. I never got into CS, but I had a few friends that did and they describe an experience similar to yours.

    • Noah Baxter

      That is awesome. I’m a CS fan myself (though I prefer CS:S), and have many a fond memory of playing it with my ICT class at the polytechnic I went to.
      Our tutor was a war Vet, so he’d often come into the class during lunch hours to give some of the players a hard time about the weapons they used. He was particularly hard on the kids that used the Styer :P

      I absolutely dig your passion for the game, you’ve reminded me why I used to love it so much. Thanks for sharing!

      • Shashank V

        haha your tutor was really awesome.
        i think cs i a more dangerously addicting than heroin or alcohol.

      • Noah Baxter

        I’m inclined to agree. That same year saw groups of us cram together for last minute study sessions, because we spent too much time playing CS instead of doing work.
        I regret nothing :P

  • http://www.paticik.com Efe Cinar

    I like all the FPS games but Call of Duty 2 is definitely my all time favourite. I started playing first Call of Duty with my friends, then we had organized a team and begun to participate in cups and events you know. We weren’t that good but we were having a lot of fun anyway. Then Call of Duty 2 came and of course we jumped to that one. This time we were the dominators, won almost every online and LAN tourney in Turkey for 3-4 years. Though this hardcore dedication cost me a few years in college, but I’ve never regretted and I’ll never regret. Guys from this team are still my best friends even though we stopped playing competitively once Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare came out. I can’t have fun when playing these new generation Call of Duty titles targeted for consoles, maybe I got older I don’t know. Wish there was a bigger and a more profitable market for PC gaming and developers who didn’t turn turn their backs (hey Mr. Carmack, how’re you today?).

    You can check out my ancient Call of Duty 2 frag movie from here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILiT7ROEIRM or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgDHSwz_teY&feature=watch_response (same video with different color scheme and music)

    Thanks for the great giveaways TPG!

    • Tom K

      Can’t say I was a fan of either music choice but the frags speak for themselves! well done (=

  • Manfred E

    My favorite memory about an over top fps game is about the first Serious Sam game. At that time i had a really weak pc but at a lan weekend at a friend of mine i could play it in its full glory (it had fantastic graphics). We blasted through the game in coop in alsmost a nonstop sesson and i remember how i couldnt believe someone would create such a gigantic end-boss :D

  • Deniz

    Not favorite but i like Postal 2..Yes it can be disturbing some of its scenes..But i like it:D I’m waiting for Postal 3 now:)
    Actually i have too many memorable moments about Postal 2 but one of them is;
    When I realised you can combine cat and shotgun, i said “WTF” and then “Ewww”
    Also i have a memorable moment about scissors..
    I threw a scissors and i didn’t expect, it bounced back to me..

  • http://gravatar.com/rafaelgazola Rafa_9000

    I like all FPS games i have played in my life…but my favorite who i love is Borderlands, the FPS + RPG is PERFECT!!!The graphics are very cool and very beautifull, good gameplay, and very funny.

  • http://www.1112.net/lastpage.html Frank K.

    My favourite First Person Shooter game is…*drumm roll* BatttleField 2.

    I love the epic moments that occur from time to time. Like jumping off a jet, killing a person in the air and landing into the exact same car he drove(happened once and is officially the most epic moment in my gaming history :) ) and those cool ERYX/SRAW kills where you shoot a rocket from a big distance to a car and look that it’s going to miss. But then you get a hit and the car explodes and flies of the road like in movies(happens more often and yeah, most of my coolest moments happen to cars, because they are so vulnerable :) ). I imagine BFBC2 and BF3 are even better(visually, atleast, if not in any other way) but I haven’t got the privilige to play it yet.

    I hope the BattleField series will never disable the nifty ability to jump in and out of the vechiles. If they don’t it’ll remain my favourite game forvever!(If “Hard Reset” won’t change it, ofcourse :) )

    Good luck and all the best to this community. May you game forever in unceasing joy,
    Frank K.

    • Noah Baxter

      The Battlefield series: the gift that keeps on giving. Your stories of slaughter warm my soul.

      In return, here’s the LoopZook. I imagine a lot of you have seen it before, but it’s a must-watch for Battlefield fans (and yet-to-be fans):
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-wFI9vTqto

      It’s hard to describe the elation that can come from them to those that haven’t experienced it, but I think videos like this express the awesomeness quite well.

      By the by, you imagine well: Bad Company 2 is absolutely radical online. I’ve yet to play BF3 myself, but I’ve heard enough praise to guess that it’s a pretty solid improvement.

  • Disco

    My favourite is Team Fortress 2, because it promotes more cooperation and movement than other multiplayer FPSes. Probably my favourite moment was dueling a friend of mine, where we were both Demomen and the round was coming to a close with me winning the duel by one. He manages to kill me, which would have tied it up, but the his team managed to win the round right before I died, meaning his kill didn’t count. :D

  • Domineeto

    My favorite FPS moment is from E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy, which is a very confusing/complex game but there are fantastic elements if you can put the UI issues aside. I was popping some headshots on some distant enemies and noticed some closer targets running towards me, I was on top of an overpass type structure and they where under me, so I switched to my sword and launched myself off the overpass into 3-4 enemies (which can easily kill you even on normal difficulty) in the air I charged up a powerful sword strike and lobbed off a head before landing and upon landing, used an ability that spawns some AI controlled squad mates to aid you in battle. We quickly dispatched the last few enemies before they had a chance to turn around.

    The best part about these types of experiences is that they aren’t scripted, although it feels like something that would have not been possible without being a scripted sequence, it felt like something directly from a movie. In my mind, instead of just running and jumping off the overpass, I did a swan dive and finished off with a front-flip while slicing through the tender neck of my foe. I felt like a totally awesome guy afterwards.

    • Dominic F.

      Oops, hopefully my entry isn’t void, I forgot to use my first name and last initial.

      • http://truepcgaming.com Adam Ames

        No worries, Dominic. Your post is still valid. Thanks for your story. We published two reviews on EYE where Mike disliked the game and Noah loved it.

      • Noah Baxter

        I totally see where you’re coming from. Running around the walkways of New Eden was pretty damned satisfying. You actually feel like a cyborg free runner when you’re leaping over streets and crashing down upon your enemies, as though you were some kind of merciless, robotic angel of death…
        Sorry, I got a little carried away there. It’s pretty awesome though.

  • Ron B

    Terra Nova by Looking Glass, the first mission. The combined “Aliens” drop-ship vibe and the absolutely dead-on Heinlein Starship Troopers vibe (the way Starship Troopers was MEANT to be, not the abortion they made of it in the movie) was just overwhelming – I felt like I was THERE, scouting out the pirate base. OK, I know, Wikipedia calls it a tactical FPS, but for me nothing has beaten the versimilitude of that first mission before or since.

  • Noah Baxter

    — As a member of TPG this is most certainly not an entry. I just can’t help but get into the spirit of this contest —

    Like many of you I’ve got a myriad of experiences to draw from, so I’ll just detail the most recent. I just finished up a game of Left 4 Dead 2 versus some friends (which I’d consider an over-the-top FPS for sure), and this is how it ended:

    My team makes it to the very end of the Swamp Fever finale, when a rather vicious tank shows up (its death-dealing hands courtesy of my best friend). He methodically cuts us down as I come up with a game plan, which comes to fruition as “BOLT, DAMN IT, BOLT!”
    I’m running for dear life when a fresh wave of zombies surges out with me. *CLICK* NO! NOT NOW!
    I’m out of ammo, and my chainsaw can’t stop them from slowing me down. Slowing me down just enough for the friendly neighbourhood Tank to catch up, that is.
    BAM! A brutal pummeling leaves me wounded, hobbling my way to the boat that would take me to safety. BAM! I get knocked to the bay. I’m inching closer to the end, closer, clos- BAM! The relentless fists of my friend send me flying across to the dock. He’s flinging me to my destination! I could have this! My character is barely crawling to the finish line, but behind the screen I’m yelling raucously, like an overzealous spectator. I’m right there, the boat is a foot away! I jump to clear the bannister, I’m PRACTICALLY *IN* THE DAMN BOAT AND I’M- BAM! My body crumples. I let forth a long, loud obscenity, then weep silently. The boat, my salvation… so close yet so far away. Fade to the scores as my friend beats my corpse raw.

    The opposition: 1512. They’d been leading for the whole campaign, there was no way we had won. But wait! What’s this?! My team scored 1523! At the very last moment we’d pulled it out of the bag! Pyrrhic though it was, we were hailed as the victors. Guts, glory… well, mostly just guts, but this is what we live (and often) die for.

    Again this isn’t an entry, but even if it was it wouldn’t compare to what you guys have to say. Seriously, the stories you all have to tell are always awesome, and I’m stoked to see that so many people love their games as much as I do. Keep it up!

  • Wane J

    I’m surprise nobody mentioned Portal or Portal 2. Its my favorite fps game since its also a puzzle game. I’m sick of playing repetitive fps games (e.g. bulletstorm), its hard to play through because it gets boring. Sure, there are good fps games (e.g. BF3, Bioshock) but Portal/Portal2 is the first fps game I’ve seen that’s entirely a puzzle game as well with a great plot.

  • http://villvaragamer.se Mattias H

    My absolute favourite is Painkiller. I still play it now and then because I havent really found another FPS with that sheer joy in the gameplay. No physics puzzles, No keycards to unlock doors…simply put, no nonsense.. just pure fun run & gun shooting.

    My favourite moment playing Painkiller was the first time I found the stake-gun and started nailing enemys to the floor, roof walls and eachother.. hilarious!

    • Noah Baxter

      My man-pride weeps because I still haven’t played Painkiller, but I adore those moments. They’re all too rare in today’s shooters.

      I remember the first time I found a shrink-ray in Duke3D, and dear me was I giddy. Same with the BFG9K, UT’s Redeemer and Quake’s Lightning gun, I was struck with awe at how powerful and OTT they were. I’m more than happy for games like Hard Reset to enter the FPS pool if it means we’ll see more of these ridiculous weapons.

  • http://gravatar.com/surplusmonarch David Q

    My favorite is Quake.

    Though I have many great memories between the base gameplay and the numerous mods, my favorite comes from a 20 minute one on one deathmatch on e1m2, Castle of the Damned by John Romero. People remember Quake (if they stopped playing it for some bizarre reason) for its frenetic deathmatch action, but they don’t so quickly recall the thick atmosphere behind it which sinks through in between rocket explosions.

    Playing with a friend who was comparable in skill, often superior I took the tactic of non-exploitative deathmatch. For 15 minutes I avoided him. I managed to stay out of line of sight, grabbing up weapons, ammo and armor – even the quad. But I kept away from him. Periodically he would message, “Are you here?”, “Yes.” I would reply. I moved slowly on stairs to avoid thumping. I would ease gently into water. I would stand on the cusp of the nail shooter trap for the duration of time it would take me to walk through it, and then simply back off and idle for a moment. Every sound I created, I would follow up with an absence or a contradictory tone.

    Then while listening closely to his movements, I stepped through the doorway from the main bridge into the silver key door room, right as he was about to reach the radius to open the door himself, and sent a rocket straight into his face. I juggled and gibbed him. 10 seconds later he messaged, “You scared the hell out of me! Man I’m shaking. Agh!” I then resumed normal gameplay, hunting him down with that glorious Quake fervor. He barely scratched me in the final 5 minutes and even killed himself a few times in his rattled state.

    For 20 minutes, Quake was both my favorite FPS, and my favorite horror story only I got to be the monster.

    • Noah Baxter

      Haha, that was great!
      I can sympathise with your friend though, poor dude. I played a lot of AVP2 a few years back, which lends itself to similar deaths (the kind that make you jump back and hyperventilate). My mates always took great delight in creeping their facehuggers around me, so I’d be flipping out in a rattled state of my own. This was more often than not followed by my grotesque impregnation… *shudders*
      Anyway, good stuff!

  • carl jamson

    for me its battlefield 1942 , jumping off a plane while its about to crash over the enemy ship flight deck is the best moment.