Since the advent of First Person Shooter games on console systems, there have been a number of design trends that have negatively influenced the development of the FPS genre, some of these changes to first person shooters were necessary to adapt them to a console setting, while others are arguably arbitrary but have nonetheless become design trends. In brief these trends are regenerating health, iron sights, a limited weapon inventory, reduced weapon variety with a greater focus on hitscan weapons, slow pace of movement, low jump height, linear or front-focused level design, enemy homogenization, and reduced weapon accuracy. It is debatable why these trends have come to pass, from production costs to follow the leader styles of marketing, but their negative influence is undeniable.
Remember the days of four-player couch co-op? The Wealth of Geeks team certainly does. This list brings us back to the golden years of the original Xbox with the best four-player games that were available.
Have you ever looked at a modern first-person shooter and wondered "How did we get here?" Wealth of Geeks performs a deep dive into the genre, including some of the most influential games, from the very first FPS from the cross-genre experiences that changed the game entirely.
There have been plenty of great villains in video games over the years. Now it's time for the VGU crew to name a few of their favorites.
FPS genre is saturated. Ruined, I wouldn't go that far. FC 3, Bioshock, Halo games, Borderlands, Metro 2033/Last Light are very good FPS (among others) that shine in their own ways. Not to forget the upcoming Killzone Shadow Fall, Titan Fall and Destiny, which (from what we've been shown so far) seem to offer compelling experiences as well.
It was the concept of defining a genre based on the actual gameplay that ruined FPS. The very description immediately narrows the possibilities. 'It's in first person and you need guns.' If it had been FPP (First Person Perspective), then the genre would have been less defined and the possibilities would have been endless. Platformers escaped the crippling definition by rebranding themselves as 'adventures'. Uncharted is the best example, and Tomb Raider is the worse example, where they simply added guns and never really put much thought into the narrative.
COD + children ruined FPS games...
COD is what ruined FPS and other game that tried to imitate COD.
Saturated, yes, ruined...no, not when we still have franchises like Halo, Killzone and Battlefield.