Great when, specifically?

By now we’ve all seen the clip of Splitgate 2 dev Ian Proulx on Summer Game Fest a couple weeks ago promoting his newest endeavor. If you missed Summer Game Fest, chances are you’ve at least seen the clip of his introduction and the trailer floating around on social media. In the weeks since, there's also been the non-apology, followed by the slightly-less-non-but-still-not-an-apology. While I’ve seen little discourse about the game itself (not ideal) I’ve seen plenty of chatter about Proulx’s introduction. The talk ranges from angry hot takes to genuine defense to good old apathy.

What struck me immediately can be boiled down to: why you mad, bro? I’ve watched the less than 3 minute intro and trailer several times now, and I want to break my reaction into a few parts. The first being: What is keeping Ian from playing “great” games (it’s certainly not scarcity)?

With hundreds of games being released annually across multiple platforms, there has to be a “great" game in there somewhere. Hell, even in a lifetime you have a one in ten thousand chance of being struck by lightning, surely those aren’t dissimilar odds. Are we really to believe that not a single company, including those who shared the stage with Ian that night, can produce a great game? Ian’s pitch is basically, I want a couch game for me and my bros because, “I grew up playing Halo. I’m tired of playing the same Call of Duty every year."

That sounds fine, and I agree that there is an overwhelming expanse of underwhelming, cishet, frat-guy, couch-bro games to choose from. So, I was interested, and I hoped Proulx showed me more.

But before we get to Splitgate 2, let me say, there is nothing wrong with wanting or playing that kind of game.

Full disclosure: at the start of the pandemic, my brother and I became embarrassingly invested in playing every Gears of War game back-to-back, so I understand the draw for a brain-off, fun shooter. There is a place for these games, but let’s acknowledge that place takes up a lot of real estate in the gaming world — one could argue a disproportionately large space, but that’s not for now.

So if Ian isn’t into the “same” Call of Duty games, and these games are not great, what constitutes a great game?

This got me thinking: if you had to name the game that got you into FPS, could you? Was it only one game that turned you on to FPS, or was it several? Did your first game end up being your favorite FPS? Have your tastes changed, or do you stick to the same format? Briefly acknowledging that super creative and unique hat of Ian’s, what made your favorite FPS great?

That's a bingo

The first FPS I ever played was Wolfenstein 3D on our family PC. I can still see me and my brother, sitting huddled around the hulking computer, shooting brownshirts. Basking in the recent glow of the cinematic release of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, my brother and I were both totally as cool as Indie while we shot down Nazis with cutting edge computer graphics.