A future for FPS games?

As I’m sure most are aware a contender for game of the year has recently been released worldwide, in the form of Battlefield 3. The game developed by DICE has been released across various platforms and has received over 60 awards.

Could this be the game that finally knocks Call of Duty off of its FPS throne?

In my opinion no, and then maybe. The no stems from the console market, I feel that the CoD series has such a following and brand name it will be hard to displace, it has after all become a household name. I do have to admit that this isn’t an arena that I am particularly concerned with as consoles are experiencing good growth at the moment, as is their competitive scene as demonstrated by the MLG and the like.

My preferred platform and therefore area of focus is the PC. Whilst certain titles are prospering within eSports on the computer, namely Starcraft 2, First Person Shooters are having a hard time holding themselves above water. This saddens me as they are the games which I grew up playing and made me become interested in eSports in the first place. My history being in Tactical Ops (UT mod), r6:Raven Shield, Joint Ops, Battlefield 2, COD4 and CSS to name but a few, you can see where my desire for a new and competitive FPS to take the lead stems from.

The keyword in the above sentence is competitive. The current leaders in the eSports FPS world are Counterstrike 1.6 and Call of Duty 4:Modern Warfare, both great titles don’t get me wrong. They are however, dated, this is to be expected due to them being released in 2003 and 2007 respectively.

Obviously there have been other games following up from both titles, with CS1.6 having Counterstrike:Source and COD4 having multiple installments MW2, Black Ops and BF3′s contender for game of the year, MW3 following shortly. Now that’s not to say any of these games are bad, on the contrary, CSS is one of my favourite games, or at least it was until recently. It however struggled to pull many of 1.6′s highly loyal and competitive players away. For the two call of duty games it was the same, neither game had the competitive edge and were accused of being too strongly based around public play, overpowered kill-streak rewards and downloadable content.

Having given BF3 some play time I do thoroughly enjoy it, and graphically it is one of the best FPS games out there, with the Frostbite2 engine impressing. If given a chance I do feel this could help FPS based games grow in eSports, as the high level of detail provides great watching from a spectator point of view, unlike the older and blocky CS1.6, for example.

For me personally the game not only looks good, but it also feels good. Even if the game doesn’t itself make it to be a top competitive title within the eSports scene then I can at least hope that it acts as a benchmark; and that it provides a warning to it’s competitors who can perhaps be accused of resting on their laurels and hoping that it would be their brand name that sold copies, and not quality nor substance.