Poll Results: Best Shooter Game Series

So my poll results have been sat there a while now; I'm certainly not that surprised that Call of Duty came out on top. Without trying to sound too biased or elitist, its pretty much sure around 80% of those votes were casual gamers, probably console gamers at that. CoD4:MW1 and CoD2 however, especially at a competitive level were the shiz, even just to watch.

Tailing behind in second by only 4 votes was Half-Life, a PC gamer favourite. Many HL1 players are also huge CS 1.6 fans, as this started as a mod for HL1 back in the day. I'm sure they would have smashed its way to the top of the pile with ease had I tied it into 1 option.

Unsurprisingly the Counter Strike series is up in the top 3, but only at 3rd. If you think you're an FPS gamer, especially from CoD or a similar style game, then try this if you haven't. Bonus points for being a console gamer, I guarantee you will rage and probably quit, whilst blaming the game for being "broken" or too hard.

Poll Results:

Half Life 33 (20%)

Counter Strike 25 (15%)

Battlefield 8 (5%)

Call of Duty 37 (23%)

Quake 8 (5%)

Unreal Tournament 7 (4%)

F.E.A.R 0 (0%)
Metal Gear Solid 11 (6%)

Resident Evil 9 (5%)

Halo 21 (13%) 

*RANT WARNING*

In summary Call of Duty is in no way a bad game, I just think its modern incarnations are very much mass-marketed sell outs. Having played every game thoroughly in this top 3, I have a pretty experienced opinion of each. (I mean I've played for 100's of hours, and in the case of HL and especially CS - for 1000's.)

This may be the die-hard critic coming out in me, but there is just a general lack of quality in 99% of the games hitting the market these days, it's gotten to the point where I rarely even bother to watch the trailer of a game, never-mind even get excited for it. When you've had your hopes crushed time again by game developers who fail to deliver, you very much so become once bitten and twice shy.

It seems some console gamers never learn (or will play any rehashed bull), and it seems its usually PC gamers who become the cynical if not slightly bitter gamers after all this, but with the freedom and variety PC has over console, I suppose we become to expect better - or at least know what is GOOD; most of us have anyway.

I'm not hopping on the old-school or hate wagon because its the cool or out-there thing to do, it's just how it is from my experience.

I know this post became more of a rant and about personal opinion rather than the results of this poll; but I suppose thats the point of a blog, and why I conduct such polls. After all, I'm not a newspaper, and I don't have to be unbiased or even fair if I don't want to. Although I do try and keep my posts informative, my own opinion and I at least try to keep it as fair as I can.

I saw a few comments asking for other series that should have been included, and some that maybe even shouldn't. Although a couple of them I did agree deserved to be in the poll, these were the instant ones that stuck in my mind - and thats for a reason. With the above paragraph in-mind; this is my blog and I'll cry if I want too.

I just wanted to a gauge an opinion from you all, and thanks for taking time to vote. I should have kept the poll open longer really, but even with the small voting sample - I think that this represents the gaming market today rather accurately. This of course being that there is pockets of what you would call hardcore, die hard or even old school gamers spread out across a whole manner of games, genres and plaftorms. Whilst these have steadily been replaced or pushed out over the years by a pretty generic block of mind-numbed gamers that have reared their heads in recent years. And I'm going to describe these new-age gamers with the coined word "Casual Gamers". Not so much your Gran or Mother playing with their Wii; but more the 13 year olds squeaking into microphones over Xbox Live. Hell, if I was their age maybe I'd have been sucked so easily into this consumer-pit. I'm not saying every console gamer is casual, and not every PC gamer isn't a casual. This just seems to be the general trend, but with brand loyalty and preference to a general platform, some just stick to what they know, and as the saying goes: if it ain't broke don't fix it.

I won't be surprised at the flames I'll get for people that have bothered to read this far, (hell - this post was just meant to be a short post about the results) but when reading bare in mind that I've tried almost every game genre. I've been from console to console (especially when I was young, and hell I loved them) but over time it seemed I gained a more and more refined taste in what was entertaining, especially as I was treat to some utter gems in gaming over the years - ones that even with crap graphics are still fun to play now (and not just because of the nostalgic value either). It seems a lot of these gems have been lost and are becoming increasingly rarer to find, across the entire game-world in general, not just on one system.

Haters gunna hate, but maybe I have a niche taste in games, or maybe I'm just hard to please these days - but as far as I can see games just aren't that good even when they're supposedly getting better. With the few exceptions that rear their faces from the litter of runts, they just don't make 'em like they used to.

I don't claim to be an old-school gamer, as theres plenty of gamers that have been playing much longer than I've even been alive. I'm a 90's child, and even though that makes me young, I'm sure theres plenty that agree with my point of view. Just because I'm young doesn't mean I don't know whats fun, I suppose that comes with playing games as quickly as you learn to pick up a controller or use a keyboard.

I'll leave it at that because I'm tired and my keyboard is crying for mercy.. and the fact I probably couldn't cover any more even if I wanted too. Thanks for reading and look out for my future posts, polls and EPIC RANTS, I guess!