Do you prefer tactical or fragfest style FPSes?
 

Tactical is games like Counter-Strike, Rainbow Six, or Operation Flashpoint, where one bullet can kill you and respawn times are generally not instant. Fragfest is Quake, Unreal Tournament, HLDM and their kin, where you can take a rocket hit to the chest and keep ticking, and there are lasers and other such things. Basically, what degree of realism do you prefer? Also, as a side question, where do we put Halo in these classifications? Myself, I strongly prefer tactical FPSes. I find them to be a little more suspenseful, since if anyone gets the drop on you, you won't be shooting back, and situations like that.

I wasn't sure of the defenitions before entering the topic, but now that I read, FRAGFEST EASILY. Especially when half the challenge is dodging bullets and not just accuracy in shooting them, those games tend to be far more exciting for me (though less suspenseful like you said, but I don't care).

There are many cases where the addition of a Sniper Rifle can DETERMINE whether a game is tactical or not. Oftentimes, these are popular weapons because people just love getting headshots, and therefore they are even added to games that would be claimed Fragfests without them. Sniping usually means one hit kills, and this immediately brings up tension when you are on the receving side. Can't say I'm fond of them.

I prefer fragfest games. Mainly because when a play against a skilled player, they don't kill me within a second of him sighting me. It puts less hardcore players on an equal footing. Plus the weapons in fragfests tend to be far more accurate, allowing me to better hit my targets with a weapon other than the sniper rifle.
Funny this is my cousin can kill me consistently at Counter-Strike, but he is worse than me at Unreal Tournament. I guess I flourish in games where a single shot to the arm doesn't kill you :)

I prefer fragfest games as well. They seem more fun-filled than tactical games. Stuff like Doom 64, Quake 2, Area 51, and House of the Dead 2 kept me occupied for quite awhile.

The thing is with CS, when you die, you're out of the action for the rest of the round. You don't respawn. CS would be much more fun if you could respawn, the easier you can die, the quicker you should come back to life. Plain and simple.

Fragfest. Unreal Tournament 2004 rocks. I've played a couple tactical FPSs, but I prefer having to actively dodge and run backwards while firing as opposed to planning my next assault.

However, there are times, even in UT2K4, where I prefer to be sniping. When I'm in a sniper sort of mood, Sniper Elite goes in the PS2.

I also tend to enjoy fragfest types more. It's always interesting when a couple of friends come around to play some Halo matches, and you end up having a lot of good times in the process.

If I wanted to play any type of tactical game, there are games in other genres like Galactic Civilizations 2 or the non-MMO Warcraft games. For party/multiplayer FPS games however, fragfest is the way to go.

I generally can't stand any of that crap that goes on in Tom Clancy games, where one bullet in the toe will kill you, or a gust of wind, but firing off a few rounds in the enemies face at point blank won't matter. It's very realistic! I don't know how they are online, probably the same thing I guess, except everyone has to avoid the autumn breeze.

Mark me down for mindless big gun FPS', plz.

I'm more of a frag fest gamer, but I think CS has a nice balance of fun and strategy at the same time and you can appreciate the weapons you carry instead of A MASSIVE RAILGUN DUN DUN DUN. I don't have anything against futuristic or sci-fi type weapons, but I like weapons modelled after real weapons instead as I at least have a better appreciation for the weapon I'm using. Basically with CS, as many online gamers have already played, you can usually you can survive more than one shot, unless an obvious one-shot head shot.

Rainbow Six is too realistic in a sense that it takes away some of the fun because you can't quite be as carefree. Some people love ultra realism, but I find this over-the-top frustrating as you tend to look at your dead body A LOT longer than an average CS game, I find.

Wow, am I the only tactical player here? I like my actions to actually account for something. I like having to use my head before running into somewhere where I can get blown to high heaven. My preferred style is tactical. My all time favorite FPS games are of course the OLD Tom Clancy games, where tactics actually meant something (None of this arcade style shit that Ubisoft puts out now, thanks to making the games for consoles, and putting PC on the back burner)

I used to have loads and loads of fun playing the original Ghost Recon. Everything was planned, and strategic, especially inside of my clan. Nothing like an urban battle taking place where every step counts. Same with Rogue Spear and Raven Shield. Teamwork was actually essential.

Not that I don't enjoy a good fragfest game myself (BF2, CoD2, FEAR). But what I found interesting is that being a tactical gamer, and going into one of these games gives me a huge advantage in what's supposed to be a mindless frag fest. It's especially helpful in BF2 if you have a good squad who are more into tactics then running into shit. Remember, tactics doesn't always mean realism in terms of gameplay.

I prefer Natural Selection. Which is basically both, except the "tactics" are real tactics instead of just making your character insanely weak. You're required to work as a team and plan out your strategy instead of just immediately running off to die as soon as you respawn. If you walk off on your own, you WILL die, no question about it. But, if you know what the rest of the team is doing and where most of the enemy team is, you can come up with a method for assisting your team as well as you can. And honestly, there's nothing more fun than sneaking into totally unoccupied enemy base, attack one piece of equipment, and end up drawing the entire freaking enemy team to you. It's even more fun if you can manage to take out one or two of them before they slaughter you.

Frag fests. Definately.

It's not to say I don't think, but as someone here has already pointed out I wouldn't want to play a game where you die in one shot and because it is "realistic". Games are virtual. They'll never be real.

So give me that frag that reaches physically impossible body bag numbers!

Frag fests are my best friend as well. Although, I have never played any actual tactical games, except for a cheap demo of "Rainbow 6" or something like that.
Once I get started on Unreal Tournament 2004, it is very hard for me to stop. The mayhem is addictive.

I remember trying to play Counterstrike: Source and getting my ass kicked. How do people even play that, it's like I can't even get off a shot before I'm just dead.

I'm a much more efficient killer when I can take a few shots and live.

Mixed feelings on this.

The only FPS games I play frequently are Call of Duty 2 and Red Orchestra. The latter is a very realistic WW2 FPS, where bullets only travel so far and only one or two shots can kill you. Certain parts of your body can also be injured, as getting hit in the legs will severely cripple your walking speed or floor you altogether. If you're blasted with a grenade at a certain range limbs will turn to blood stubs. The controls are are all pretty ...detailed, for lack of a better word. You must manually reload your gun, there are different keys for different stances, etc. But once you get used to it after a day or two of gaming, it's really a unique and fun experience. TEAMWORK IS A MUST. In order to accurately pilot a tank, you need at least two additional people working it.

Call of Duty 2 is what I'd consider more of a fragfest (though not quite). Unlike Red Orchestra, your character already runs pretty fast and automatically reloads when empty without having to click a button. Characters also take more damage, but not a whole lot. This is most noticeable in Team Deathmatches online even though servers may have different settings.

I personally can't stand playing games like Unreal and even F.E.A.R. (online) because of the crazy, ultra-fast action. I can't tell what's going on and I just end up getting irritated.

Arcade Style usually equals Fragfest.

Anyway, I think games like HALO actually stands in the middle, cause it's very easy to die in less than 2 seconds against a guy with a Pistol or what not.

As for the "Natural Selection", I think that was my initial responce to "Tactical" before I entered this topic, and still what I go by whenever someone says "Tactical".

Damn I remember playing this arcade game called "Grid" or something that was pure awesome. Just pure shooting and dodging.

I prefer Fragfests by a long shot. I do like a bit of realism in my games. For example, when i was playing Black today, i got an RPG fired right at me, yet i didn't die, i had like half my health left. That seemed a bit stupd to me. If that was to really happen in real life, i would have ended up like that guy in Black Hawk Down (i think that's the right film). However, i prefer frag fests because i'm not the best at FPS games, i usualy just wade in there and use up all my health packs and stuff so if i was to play a tactical one, i would die instantly.

I like both, although I some times get really annoyed at how long it takes to kill things in fragfest style games. Some times people just won't die.

No shit? Why do you think I mentioned the shitty arcade style games that Ubi soft puts out?

I'm all for Fragfest here too, as I just don't like waiting after I die. I can see why a lot of people would prefer tactical shooters however, as the kills tend to be more meaningful, and there tends to be more teamwork and communication.

God, I know. I bought Lockdown and I was like "What is this?" Especially since in the commercials they emphasised the teamwork element, but that's nowhere to be found online. It's just a bunch of doofuses running around with MP7s and killing everything they see. No fun at all. That's the one unfortunate thing about tactical FPSes, hardly anyone actually does use their head, everyone just goes lone wolf and tries to kill as many enemies as possible. The only time you get to use tactics is when you're in a clan, and you have to be good at the lone-wolf style to do that anyhow. It's bogus.

Fragfest, easily. Infact, the smaller the map and the more players there are the better. First map in Quake 3 with 16 players? Virtual Orgy. Spending 10 minutes planning and playing hide and seek isn't skill, it's a question of who gets bored and goes suicide first. Surviving ten other guys who want to nail your ass to the wall and dodging 99 percent of the 67879289742983741191972978342947923 bullets aimed at you while owning the shit out of them? THAT is skill. (it's also called as "Ikaruga" in single player mode.)

And I much enjoy playing as an unrealistic Rambo who can soak up 13 clips and still wave around rocket launchers with one hand then a camper with terrain paint tattos who dies in 2 shots. If I would want realistic war experience I would go to Iraq instead of playing video games.

It all depends. If I'm playing offline and by myself I prefer tactical games. But the problem with playing tactical games online is that they almost never end up being tactical anymore. I've always had trouble finding good tactical partners in games. Like for instance in Splinter Cell: Chaos theory. No one ever stays in shadows or sneaks on their enemies, they just run into a room and start shooting away, and run on to the next room.

I definitely lean more on the fragfest side, since my favorite FPS is Unreal Tournament. But I will play both styles of FPS. The tactical ones, like maneve mentioned, I usually only offline. Online though, I pretty much just plays the fragfests.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMONSTER KILL!

Unreal Tournament fan....so I guess I have to go with Teh Fraggy.