Serious Sam: Peak of the FPS?

Our "pub" where you can post about things completely Off Topic or about non-silent PC issues.

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee

Post Reply
thejamppa
Posts: 3142
Joined: Mon Feb 26, 2007 9:20 am
Location: Missing in Finnish wilderness, howling to moon with wolf brethren and walking with brother bears
Contact:

Serious Sam: Peak of the FPS?

Post by thejamppa » Sun Mar 23, 2008 6:26 am

I do play decently games. That's why I have my game rig. However out of dozens and dozens of FPS I've played, none of them has really impressed me. F.E.A.R. was exception in long time... It was good game but not "fun" to play.

However recently I got my hands on very old game: Serious Sam. It was used as benchmark game during GeForce 4-series and so forth. So its old game.

But: Its so fun to play. Graphics are very good considering that most todays PC gamers hadn't even started gaming yet when it was released in 2001. But considering this is old game, it still has something that I've missed in all FPS:

Lot's of enemies. Nothing is more fun that have co-operative mode and have 3 guys with miniguns shooting massive horder of 200 or 300 skreets stampeded on you. You easily can get 500+ kills per level. You can mow down wave after wave after wave enemies.

I mean no game has been this much of fun that I've played. Alone or with fiends. Its old but still having massive amount of enemies is something not seen in modern games. Maybe dozen or two dozen at once like in Far Cry at the best. Not hundreds at the once as in Serious Sam.

And that co-operative story mode: Man, PC-gamemakers have really forgotten this: Death match and capture the flag are boring. There is still peoples who want to play together, in co-operative mode. Now that is fun.

I wish we had more games like serious sam: Fun to play with, alone or team ( co-operative especially ) massive amount enemies and more bullets than brain cells to mow the enemy down wave after wave.

To be honest... Far Cry felt rather boring after Serious Sam...

psklenar
Posts: 50
Joined: Wed Jan 19, 2005 6:37 am
Location: Southern New England, USA

Post by psklenar » Sun Mar 23, 2008 7:24 am

thejamppa,

You're dead on the money ... Co-op team play is the best. I have a group of friends with whom I get together with every other month or so for a small LAN party (4 to 6 of us). We do play some deathmatch, but we all strongly prefer to play co-op as a team vs the computer. Something we started doing years ago on the original Doom. Serious Sam & Serious Sam II were right there, a lot of fun and nice graphics. We also like to play the AoE games (usually Conquerors) as a team against computer players. At our last session, where there were six of us, we tried something new ... three two player player teams against two computer players (on the same team). Our two player teams divided up the labor ... one fighting the battles (including building troops) and exploring and the other handling the building, research and upgrades. It was definitely different and quite fun.

The "newest" co-op (vs a PC player/team) FPS we've found, that will run on our lowest end gaming machine, is Delta Force Extreme.

It's too bad that s/w authors have forgotten about this audience. <sigh>
pat----

psiu
Posts: 1201
Joined: Tue Aug 23, 2005 1:53 pm
Location: SE MI

Post by psiu » Sun Mar 23, 2008 8:53 am

During my first go-around in college, we managed to get Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, and Civ II in the PC lab (Pentium 100 and 486's) and I had Doom II for the Mac which we put on the 4 shiny Powermacs in the graphic design lab.

Me and one of my buddies went thru Doom II in co-op mode on Nightmare and that was a BLAST.

The mac lab was always the best--graphics classes only met 2 twice a week so we could go in, turn the lights out, crank up the Alice In Chains, Metallica, White Zombie, etc, and play D2 for hours on end, blinking at the evil sun when we staggered out.

thejamppa
Posts: 3142
Joined: Mon Feb 26, 2007 9:20 am
Location: Missing in Finnish wilderness, howling to moon with wolf brethren and walking with brother bears
Contact:

Post by thejamppa » Sun Mar 23, 2008 9:05 am

I have three computer lan in my home. I usually use Serious Sam ( original one ) Command and Conquer Generals and Quake 2 for Co-op multiplaying. Getting co-op's is really hard.


Damn Bungie for removing Co-Op from Halo's PC version...

So far we've played Serious Sam three times thru in Co-Op mode and its always as fun. Yeah, Far Cry was awesome looking... But still your basic FPS. That could have got so much better with Co-Op...

Matija
Posts: 780
Joined: Sat Mar 17, 2007 3:17 am
Location: Croatia

Post by Matija » Sun Mar 23, 2008 9:41 am

Perhaps you'd enjoy a co-op RTS?

What about CoD, BF, AA?

thejamppa
Posts: 3142
Joined: Mon Feb 26, 2007 9:20 am
Location: Missing in Finnish wilderness, howling to moon with wolf brethren and walking with brother bears
Contact:

Post by thejamppa » Sun Mar 23, 2008 10:01 am

Matija wrote:Perhaps you'd enjoy a co-op RTS?

What about CoD, BF, AA?
very likely. I have to try them sometimes ^^

psklenar
Posts: 50
Joined: Wed Jan 19, 2005 6:37 am
Location: Southern New England, USA

Post by psklenar » Sun Mar 23, 2008 10:54 am

Matija wrote:Perhaps you'd enjoy a co-op RTS?

What about CoD, BF, AA?
The CoD series & AA (when I last look) allow team play against other teams, not as a human team against a computer team.

BF does allow sort of human vs machine team play ... but it's not mission oriented like the Serious Sam, Delta Force and Doom games were. It's more like Human vs Computer Team Deathmatch. Which isn't to say it's not fun ... it's just not a real human co-op type.

Another on that I just remembered my group enjoys a lot ... Battlezone II. Fully functional with four players. Slightly degraded functionality with five and usually fatal issues with six. With five players, everything works, except that one of the humans will not be selectable to assign equipment to. Usually not a big deal because there's always someone (often me) who would rather go out and harass the enemy let the others capture resource pools and build up the team bases and resources. With six players, almost, but not quite, always at least one player will lock up upon trying to join the game. <shrug>

Still, it's an old game, but it's eminently playable and thoroughly enjoyable as a team vs computer game. It's also very tweakable so you can make sure it's not too easy. :)

pat----

ame
Posts: 488
Joined: Tue Jul 10, 2007 10:35 pm
Location: Israel

Post by ame » Sun Mar 23, 2008 11:11 am

as soon as you mentioned lots of enemies it instantly triggered some doom doom2 and duke nukem flashbacks.
Thats why I was disapointed with doom3 - I expected an overwhelming # of enemies and got very few - and dumb ones too :cry:
ever since UT2004 my favorite games are team multiplayers they are like co-op only vs other humans. and its still hard to beat running over 4 guys at once with a hovercraft and knowing that 4 real people are really pissed now. :twisted:

JazzJackRabbit
Posts: 1386
Joined: Fri Jun 18, 2004 6:53 pm

Post by JazzJackRabbit » Sun Mar 23, 2008 11:21 am

Yeah, I remember Serious Sam. I wasted hours playing it. Was very fun playing coop at maximum difficulty level, even with just some random guys on the internet. The network code was actually quite good. I started playing Serious Sam the second encounter but never finished it though. Never played Serious Sam 2. Still Serious Sam holds a dear place in my heart.

BTW if you enjoyed Serious Sam you might enjoy PainKiller. Another game from Eastern Europe (A pattern here? Serious Sam was developed in EU as well). A typical level in PainKiller is smaller than in Serious Sam, but still plenty of enemies, fun gameplay, fun weapons, I love stakegun.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Painkiller ... eo_game%29

thejamppa
Posts: 3142
Joined: Mon Feb 26, 2007 9:20 am
Location: Missing in Finnish wilderness, howling to moon with wolf brethren and walking with brother bears
Contact:

Post by thejamppa » Sun Mar 23, 2008 1:56 pm

I have original Battlefield I in here somewhere ( Gosh, now I dropped some peoples off their chairs ) never got 2nd one yet. I must try Doom 2. yeah, I am one of those peoples who never tried Doom 2. I albeit have Doom 3 on shelf. I never played it yet. I bought 24 games in finnish version of eBay. Cost me 30 €'s with postal feeds.

That included Doom 3. Operation Typhoon Rising, which also has team co-op but not mission orientated just team deathmatch bot vs. humans...

Serious Sam 2 was disapointment as it didn't had co-op mode. other than that, it was pretty ok shoot out. Lot's of laughs but quite regular shoot out. There were mass' but somehow it just didn't felt like first Sam. Lot's of machine based sequences and nervous breaking labyrinth run against the time.

First Serious Sam is probably peak of the fun FPS shooters. I still remember how Sam went into Pyramide and statrted to wishling Indiana Jones theme...

Cerb
Posts: 391
Joined: Tue Apr 13, 2004 6:36 pm
Location: GA (US)

Post by Cerb » Sun Mar 23, 2008 2:20 pm

Yup, Serious Sam rocked hard. It was the first game where I could really tell the difference all that Z-culling stuff did when I went to a new card (that arena towards the end with all the bull things :)).

What set Serious Sam's graphics apart from the rest at the time was that they didn't try to go for a cinematic look, or a realistic look, but made everything match. It all fit together in a way that wasn't done by technology until Doom 3.

Starsiege: Tribes, and Serious Sam: The First Encounter represented peaks in PC gaming that we haven't seen a return to (for all its success, Halo cries in a corner and cuts itself, wishing it could have been as good as Tribes). They were just plain fun.

thejamppa
Posts: 3142
Joined: Mon Feb 26, 2007 9:20 am
Location: Missing in Finnish wilderness, howling to moon with wolf brethren and walking with brother bears
Contact:

Post by thejamppa » Sun Mar 23, 2008 4:20 pm

Like in all industry, eventually fun is out and fun becames mandatory. This has happend in game industry. All the ideas are basicly used so originality is hardly left.

But good game should be fun. You can play fun games time after time. However, game makers are not concerned howmany times you can play the game. They're concern that you just buy it.

I mean Crysis is great looking game and probably nice to play thru once or twice. But is it fun game? Does it make you smirk or laugh when you discover something... Like Duke Nukem's skeleton hanging on Swamp like in Serious Sam 2?

or completely cheesy comments of Sam in First Encounter? Or all the hidden spoof's and hints in Fallout's... Like the downed Star Trek Shuttle crashed in desert with entire Star Trek crew lying dead around it...

Wibla
Friend of SPCR
Posts: 779
Joined: Sun Jun 03, 2007 12:03 am
Location: Norway

Post by Wibla » Mon Mar 24, 2008 4:56 am

Multiplayer co-op is really what I miss from alot of the newer games.. especially CoD4,which is a really good game, it would be that much better with mp co-op... meh.

JazzJackRabbit
Posts: 1386
Joined: Fri Jun 18, 2004 6:53 pm

Post by JazzJackRabbit » Mon Mar 24, 2008 10:01 am

thejamppa wrote:Does it make you smirk or laugh when you discover something... Like Duke Nukem's skeleton hanging on Swamp like in Serious Sam 2?
Kind of amuzing considering 3DRealms used to make fun of DoomGuy in Duke Nukem: "that's one doomed space marine" and all. What would be really funny is if Duke Nukem Forever came out and they put couple of jokes on Crysis/Doom/Serious Sam. One can only dream...

psklenar
Posts: 50
Joined: Wed Jan 19, 2005 6:37 am
Location: Southern New England, USA

Post by psklenar » Mon Mar 24, 2008 10:13 am

JazzJackRabbit wrote:... What would be really funny is if Duke Nukem Forever came out and they put couple of jokes on Crysis/Doom/Serious Sam. One can only dream...
hehe ... yeah, I suspect the only place those of use not in the coding room will ever see DUke Nukem Forever will be in our dreams. :lol:

pat----

thejamppa
Posts: 3142
Joined: Mon Feb 26, 2007 9:20 am
Location: Missing in Finnish wilderness, howling to moon with wolf brethren and walking with brother bears
Contact:

Post by thejamppa » Mon Mar 24, 2008 12:44 pm

Duke Nukem will come and kick Crysis' butt!!! *runs off crying*

quikkie
Posts: 235
Joined: Tue Sep 20, 2005 5:21 am
Location: Soham, UK

Post by quikkie » Tue Apr 01, 2008 7:56 am

/looks at bookshelf
I have serious sam first encounter, second encounter and 2

all of which I've played co-op with a trans-atlantic buddy of mine and we ALWAYS have a blast.

True, FEAR and Crysis look pretty but I like to play games with people (and mostly people I know).

Blacktree
Posts: 33
Joined: Tue Jul 10, 2007 8:59 am
Location: USA
Contact:

Post by Blacktree » Sun Apr 20, 2008 9:32 pm

thejamppa wrote: Serious Sam 2 was disapointment as it didn't had co-op mode. other than that, it was pretty ok shoot out. Lot's of laughs but quite regular shoot out. There were mass' but somehow it just didn't felt like first Sam. Lot's of machine based sequences and nervous breaking labyrinth run against the time.
Serious Sam 2 DOES have co-op mode. But anyway, yeah I loved the mindless blasting and sarcastic humor in the Serious Sam series. My friends and I would give ourselves unlimited ammo and put hundreds of enemies on the screen... and just blast away.

I agree more games need multiplayer co-op. My friends and I always joke that most games are made for people who have no friends.

By the way, there's a multiplayer co-op mod for Half-Life 2 called "Synergy". It's really good. If you like Quake 2 co-op, you might like Synergy.

Derfel
Posts: 39
Joined: Thu Jan 04, 2007 6:44 am
Location: Bristol U.K.

Post by Derfel » Mon Apr 21, 2008 2:48 am

There are very good coop mods for some more modern games, doom 3 - last man standing is a bit like serious sam (lots of enemies) plus you can play the normal single player campaign in co-op. A similar mod for half life 2 is Follow Freeman.

seraphyn
Posts: 322
Joined: Wed Nov 28, 2007 1:26 pm
Location: Netherlands

Post by seraphyn » Mon Apr 21, 2008 3:00 am

If you don't mind the graphics, Vietcong (1, not 2) coop in hardcore mode is the best coop fun i had in years. Though not hundreds of enemies, not having a crosshair, health bar nor knowing how much ammo left made it an awesome experience.

Post Reply