What was the first third person shooter?
Third-person shooter
"Tomb Raider" (1996) by Eidos Interactive (now Square Enix Europe) is claimed by some commentators as a third-person shooter, and Jonathan S. Harbour of the University of Advancing Technology argues that it's "largely responsible for the popularity of this genre". Other commentators have considered it influential on later third person shooters such as "BloodRayne" (2002), "The Contra Adventure" (1998), "MDK" (1997), "" (1998), "Burning Rangers" (1998), and "" (2000). The game eschewed the popular first person perspective of games such as "Doom", instead making use of "third person" viewpoints, wide 3D environments and a control system inspired by "Prince of Persia". "Mega Man Legends" (1997) by Capcom is another early 3D third person shooter which took a different approach to the genre, mixing this with a role-playing game influence. Around the same time, "Deathtrap Dungeon" (1998) by Eidos Interactive and "MediEvil" (1998) by SCE Cambridge Studio (then "Millennium Interactive") were some of the first 3D games in the genre to include third person shooter influences in a fantasy setting, with fictional or alternative weapons achieving the same effect as a gun for the player. "Die Hard Trilogy" (1998) by Fox Interactive was met with critical acclaim at the time of its release, and the section of the game based around the first "Die Hard" film in the trilogy was another early take on a 3D third person shooter.
Olympus OM-3
The Olympus OM-3 is a manual camera without automatic exposure modes, and an entirely mechanical shutter. Introduced in 1983, the OM-3 was the first of a new series of professional camera bodies designed to update the OM-1 and OM-2. These new bodies, which continued with the more popular OM-4, included a number of refinements over their predecessors. Perhaps the most significant changes made were to the metering system. The OM-3 and OM-4 featured multi-spot metering in addition to the centre-weighted metering on the earlier bodies. This allowed the user to take a number of spot meter readings, all of which were used by the camera to calculate the correct exposure. The system also featured "highlight" and "shadow" buttons which allowed the photographer to identify parts of a scene that should be exposed as white or black respectively. The metering system used a liquid crystal display in place of the older match needle design of the OM-1 and OM-2.
List of Top Gun video games
Mobile game publisher Hands-On Mobile (formerly named Mforma) have published three mobile phone games based around "Top Gun". The first two were top-down scrolling arcade shooters. The third game takes a different approach as a third-person perspective game, similar to Sega's "After Burner" games.
First-person shooter
The earliest two documented first-person shooter video games are "Maze War" and "Spasim." "Maze War" was originally developed in 1973 by Greg Thompson, Steve Colley and Howard Palmer, high-school students in a NASA work-study program trying to develop a program to help visualize fluid dynamics for spacecraft designs. The work became a maze game presented to the player in the first-person, and later included support for a second player and the ability to shoot the other player to win the game. Thompson took the game's code with him to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where with help from Dave Lebling to create an eight-player version that could be played over ARPANET, computer-run players using artificial intelligence, customizable maps, online scoreboards and a spectator mode. "Spasim" had a documented debut at the University of Illinois in 1974. The game was a rudimentary space flight simulator for up to 32 players, featuring a first-person perspective. Both games were distinct from modern first-person shooters, involving simple tile-based movement where the player could only move from square to square and turn in 90-degree increments. Such games spawned games that used similar visuals to display the player as part of a maze (such as "" in 1979), and were loosely called "rat's eye view" games, since they gave the appears of a rat running through a maze. Another crucial early game that influenced first-person shooters was "Wayout", that while featuring the player trying to escape a maze, it used ray casting to render the maze, simulating visually how each wall segment would be rendered relative to the player's position and facing angle, allowing more freeform movement compared to "Maze War" and "Spasim".
Digital 3D
In July 1995, Nintendo released the Virtual Boy, built around a 3D viewer held closely to users' eyes, acting like a pair of goggles. Both left and right eye images were red, and put strain on players' eyes; the system was a failure and was discontinued the following year. In December 2008, several third party developers for the PlayStation 3 announced they would work toward bringing Stereoscopic 3D gaming to major gaming consoles using their own technology. In the coming months, both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 will be capable of 3D imaging via 3D TV and system/hardware updates. On June 15, 2010 at the E3 Expo, Nintendo unveiled the Nintendo 3DS, the successor to the Nintendo DS series of handheld consoles. It is the first gaming console to allow 3D viewing without the need for 3D glasses or an equivalent.
GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)
Video game journalists have praised "GoldenEye 007" for proving that it is possible to create a "fun" first-person shooter experience on a console in both single-player and multiplayer modes; when the game was released, the first-person shooter was primarily a genre for PC gamers. Journalists noted that the game "opened the genre to a completely new market" and that it was "the first big console [first-person shooter] that truly got it right." The game has subsequently become credited alongside Shiny Entertainment's "MDK" for pioneering and popularising the now-standard inclusion of scoped sniper rifles in video games. The game's use of context-sensitive hit locations on enemies added a realism that was previously unseen in video games, though the "Quake" computer mod "Team Fortress" already featured locational damage like headshots.
Precision-guided firearm
The three main technologies employed for long-range shooting—the bolt-action rifle, telescopic rifle scope and machined cartridge ammunition—were developed in the nineteenth century. The first bolt-action rifle was produced in 1824 by the German firearms inventor Johann Nicolaus von Dreyse. The first documented telescopic rifle sight was developed between 1835 and 1840 by the American Morgan James. Machined metal-cased cartridge ammunition was first adopted by the British in 1867.
Nazis in fiction
"Wolfenstein" emerged in 1981 and focuses on the escape of a POW in a Nazi POW camp. Wolfenstein 3D was released in 1992 for MS-DOS and arguably popularized the franchise, as well as the first-person shooter video game. The game is from the perspective of an American POW, William "B.J." Blazkowicz in WWII as he escapes several floors through opening various doors to find food and ammunition, but also to come across Aryan Nazi guards and violent German Shepherds. The game was considered a financial success, gathered awards, and is remembered as the first shooter game with rudimentary visual effects.
2.5D
In 1979, Nintendo debuted "Radar Scope", a shoot 'em up that introduced a three-dimensional third-person perspective to the genre, imitated years later by shooters such as Konami's "Juno First" and Activision's "Beamrider". In 1980, Atari's "Battlezone" was a breakthrough for pseudo-3D gaming, recreating a 3D perspective with unprecedented realism, though the gameplay was still planar. It was followed up that same year by "Red Baron", which used scaling vector images to create a forward scrolling rail shooter.
Resident Evil
A trilogy of GunCon-compatible light gun games known as the "Gun Survivor" series featured first-person gameplay. The first, "Resident Evil Survivor", was released in 2000 for the PlayStation and PC but received mediocre reviews. The subsequent games, "" and "", fared somewhat better. "Dead Aim" is the fourth "Gun Survivor" game in Japan, with "Gun Survivor 3" being the "Dino Crisis" spin-off "Dino Stalker". In a similar vein, the "Chronicles" series features first-person gameplay, albeit on an on-rails path. "" was released in 2007 for the Wii, with a follow-up, "" released in 2009 (both were later ported to the PlayStation 3 in 2012).
Virtua Fighter 3
"Virtua Fighter 3" was the launch title for the arcade board Model 3 from Sega. Developed by Yu Suzuki's Sega AM2, it was a revolutionary game from a technical standpoint, with its detailed graphics earning widespread praise. Characters' eyes appeared to track the opponent's position, their muscles could flex and relax, and the fighting arenas featured stairs and slopes. The game also introduced the ability to move in three dimensions to the series with the dodge move, a feature that was apparently added fairly late in development, as Suzuki said in an interview held during the third quarter of 1995: "The fact that the game is 2D from the player's perspective probably won't change in "VF3". If the viewpoint changes rapidly during gameplay, the player can't concentrate on the game, and it's difficult to keep up with the situation your character is in, as in ["Battle Arena Toshinden"]." In addition, he stated later in the same interview that he intended to keep "Virtua Figher 3" a three-button game like its predecessors.
Friday the 13th Part III
Georgetown Productions, who had produced the previous two installments in the "Friday the 13th" series, was initially involved in the pre-production of "Part III", agreeing with distributor Paramount Pictures to shoot the film with 3-D cameras, making it the first Paramount film produced in 3-D since "Jivaro (film)" in 1954. Paramount leased two 3-Depix cameras from the photography company Marks Polarized Corporation to shoot the film. Simultaneously, Paramount executive Al Lo Presti was researching current 3-D camera technology with the intention of developing a 3-D lens to be owned and used exclusively by Paramount.
Maverick Hunter
Unlike other "Mega Man X" titles, "Maverick Hunter" was a first-person shooter. The genre was chosen in response to the rising interest in first-person shooter games in the west. The gameplay would have adhered to core "Mega Man X" concepts; the ability to take and utilize the powers of enemies, his dash, and his X-Buster were all to be redesigned. His weapon designs were made to be more realistic than earlier "Mega Man X" titles. Instead of his arm transforming into a cannon, his armor transforms to create a gun. Additionally, his charged attack would launch a missile instead of launching a larger energy blast. Melee attacks would cause the game to switch to a third-person perspective for the attack. X's ability to steal abilities from others would have been expanded to allow the combination of abilities and the use of temporary weapons, such as bombs or tank turrets, from fallen enemies. The stolen abilities could also be used to exploit weaknesses in certain enemies. Platform elements such as his wall jump from the "Mega Man X" games would have been "re-imagined in new ways." The game was also planned to have branching paths and upgrades to find throughout.
David A. Smith (computer scientist)
In 1987, Smith created "The Colony," the very first 3D interactive game and precursor to today's first-person shooters. The game was developed for the Apple Macintosh and soon won the "Best Adventure Game of the Year" award from MacWorld Magazine. In 1989, Smith used the technologies developed for the game to create a virtual set and virtual camera system that was used by James Cameron for the movie "The Abyss". Based upon this experience, Smith founded Virtus Corporation in 1990 and developed Virtus Walkthrough, the first real-time 3D design application for personal computers. Smith also co-founded several other companies including Red Storm Entertainment with Tom Clancy, Timeline Computer Entertainment with Michael Crichton, and Neomar, a wireless enterprise infrastructure company.
Nikon F3
The Nikon F3 was Nikon's third professional single-lens reflex camera body, preceded by the F and F2. Introduced in 1980, it had manual and semi-automatic exposure control whereby the camera would select the correct shutter speed (aperture priority automation). The Nikon F3 series cameras had the most model variations of any Nikon F camera. It was also the first of numerous Nikon F-series cameras to be styled by Italian designer Giorgetto Giugiaro, and to include a red stripe on the handgrip – a feature that would later become (with variants of stripes and various other shapes) a signature feature of many Nikon cameras.
First-person shooter engine
This period saw the introduction of the first video cards with Transform, clipping, and lighting (T&L). The first card with this innovative technology was the GeForce 256. This card was superior to what 3dfx had to offer at the time, namely Voodoo3, which only fell short because the lack of T&L. Companies such as Matrox with their G400, and S3 with their Savage4 were forced to withdraw from the 3D gaming market during this time period. One year later, ATI released their Radeon 7200, a true competing graphics card line.
SWAT: Target Liberty
SWAT: Target Liberty is a third-person shooter video game developed by 3G Studios and published by Sierra Entertainment exclusively for PlayStation Portable.
The Terminator: Future Shock
The Terminator: Future Shock is a first-person shooter video game based on "The Terminator" fictional universes developed and published by Bethesda Softworks in 1995. It was one of the first games in the first-person shooter genre to feature true, fully texture-mapped 3D environments and enemies, and pioneered the use of mouse-look control.
3×3 Eyes
Nihon Create had developed three games for the "3×3 Eyes" and ported to several consoles. The first video game developed by Nihon Create titled, was released on PC-9801, FM Towns, PC-Engine, Windows 3.1, and Windows 95. The second video game developed by Nihon Create titled was released on Windows 95, PlayStation, and Sega Saturn. The third video game developed by Nihon Create titled was released on Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP and PlayStation. The three games were collected in a 4-disc DVD box set titled "3×3 Eyes Memorial" on December 13, 2002.
Cover system
"Kill.Switch" is credited as the first game to feature the cover system as its core game mechanic, and introduced the blind fire mechanic to the cover system. It was also the earliest third-person shooter that required a button press to initiate the action of taking cover. This was the only game at the time to allow the in-game avatar to lean out and shoot, vault over cover, or blind fire during the cover sequence. This cover system was nicknamed 'Offensive Cover System' (OCS) by the developers. While this was considered a change in the shooter genre, reviewer Ricky Tucker felt that the game relied too heavily on the cover system with little other gameplay focus. He also said that the game felt "more like a prototype than a game" and didn't see any outstanding moments for the game despite the innovative cover design.
Nikon F3
Finally there was the rarely seen 'F3AF', a model which included an autofocus (AF) pentaprism finder (DX-1) capable of autofocusing with two special AF Nikkor lenses—the first of their kind, which included focus motors in the lens bodies. Those lenses were the AF-80mm f/2.8 Nikkor and the AF-200mm f/3.5 Nikkor. It was the first autofocus camera to be produced by Nikon, in 1983.
Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3
Similar to its predecessors, "Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3" is a first-person tactical shooter game. It is designed to be less linear than "Ghost Warrior" and "Ghost Warrior 2", since the title is the first in the series to feature an open world environment, which can be freely explored by the player. The game's world is scattered with different activities and side missions which are known as "war crimes". These can be completed by the player if they are not playing the main missions. According to CI Games, the title is designed to be accessible for both players who are new to the franchise or the genre, while tactical enough for more hardcore players.
Super Mario 64
"Super Mario 64" is the first game to have a "free" camera that can be controlled independently of the character. Most 3D games from the time use a first-person perspective, or a camera that is fixed in position relative to the player's character, or to the level. To create freedom of exploration, and more fluid control in a 3D world, the designers created a dynamic system in which the video camera is operated by the in-game character Lakitu. The camera system would become the standard for 3D platform games in the future. "Nintendo Power" stated the camera-control scheme is what transitioned platform games into three dimensions, and that the game, along with "", "blazed trails" into the 3D era. Along with camera control, the game also innovated in its implementation of movement. "Edge" stated the game changed "gamers' expectations of 3D movement forever". The Nintendo 64's analog stick allows for more precise and wide-ranging character movements than the digital D-pads of other consoles, and "Super Mario 64" uses this in a way that was unique for its time. At the time, 3D games generally allowed for controls in which the player could either control the character in relation to a fixed camera angle or in relation to the character's perspective. "Super Mario 64"s controls are fully analog, and interpret a 360-degree range of motion into navigation through a 3D space relative to the camera. The analog stick also allows for precise control over subtleties such as the speed at which Mario runs. "Super Mario 64" was one of the first games to implement the system.
Immersive sim
"" (1992) is considered the first game to demonstrate the necessary elements of an immersive sim according to Spector and others. It built upon "Ultima VI"s gameplay and added in the first-person perspective, predating "Wolfenstein 3D", the game that launched first-person shooters, by a few months. The first-person view helped to cement the impression that the player was part of the game's world that they had full control of, and completing the impression of immersion. Spector recalled that he had thought to himself "Do you not realize that the entire world just changed?" on seeing the initial demo for "Ultima Underworld". Other early examples include "System Shock" (1994) and its sequel "System Shock 2" (1999), "Thief: The Dark Project" (1998) and its sequel "Thief II" (2000), "Deus Ex" (2000), and "Arx Fatalis" (2002). However, at the same time, more action-oriented games with strong narrative elements that followed from "Wolfenstein 3D", like "Doom" (1993) and "Half-Life" (1998), drew larger commercial sales, making it difficult to gain publisher interest.
Face Raiders
"Face Raiders" is a single player, augmented reality, shooter game that uses the handheld's gyroscopic controls and cameras. It was first released with the Nintendo 3DS and has been preloaded on all devices in the family. The game is an extended tech demo with a total of two modes and nine levels. Six of these are the primary experience for players, with the three stages in the secondary mode designed to be shown friends unfamiliar with the game. After taking pictures of people's faces, the game uses the faces to create enemies that attack the player, who must shoot them. The background of the game is the rear camera's viewpoint, which enemies will break through and hide behind. As people walk by in the background, the game takes their pictures, adding to the faces the player must shoot, and adding to the player's score. There are also combos for repeating an action, which multiply the score every time (e.g. if the player hits enemies in the mouth continuously). There are butterflies which can be hit in order to refill health and bombs to collect to be used to destroy all enemies on the screen. At the end of each stage, the player battles a boss. When the boss is defeated, its helmet will transform into an afro. Local high scores are record on a leaderboard. And there is advice on the level select screen by pressing Y you can hear some helpful advice and you can turn on surprise snaps which take photos for you on levels.
Shooting at the 1988 Summer Olympics – Men's 50 metre rifle three positions
Men's 50 metre rifle three positions (then known as "small-bore free rifle") was one of the thirteen shooting events at the 1988 Summer Olympics. It was the first Olympic three positions competition to feature final shooting. Alister Allan set a new Olympic record in the qualification round but lost the final to his countryman Malcolm Cooper, who thus defended his title from Los Angeles.
Video game genre
Descriptive names of genres take into account the goals of the game, the protagonist and even the perspective offered to the player. For example, a first-person shooter is a game that is played from a first-person perspective and involves the practice of shooting. The term "subgenre" may be used to refer to a category within a genre to further specify the genre of the game under discussion. Whereas "shooter game" is a genre name, "first-person shooter" and "third-person shooter" are common subgenres of the shooter genre. Other examples of such prefixes are real-time, turn based, top-down and side-scrolling.
Army Men: Air Attack
Army Men: Air Attack (Army Men: Air Combat for the Nintendo 64 and Game Boy Color versions) is a third-person shooter video game developed and published by The 3DO Company for PlayStation, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Color and Microsoft Windows. The game focuses on aerial combat and features the same protagonist, Cpt. William Blade. It is one of the first "Army Men" games to be powered by a 3D engine where terrain and units are rendered in real-time.
The 3rd Birthday
"The 3rd Birthday" is a third-person role-playing shooter. The player controls series protagonist Aya Brea through rendered-to-scale environments in from a third person perspective. The game plays out as a series of missions, between which Aya rests at the Counter Twisted Investigation headquarters, which acts as the game's main hub. In the hub, Aya can receive briefings for missions, view additional documents, buy and customize new weapons. She also has the option to transport back there should she die during a mission. The game can be saved both at the hub and in safe zones within missions. At the end of each mission, Aya is given a grade based on performance, enemies killed, and the number of times she died. Depending on her score, she will earn differing amounts of Bounty Points, a currency used to customize weapons and repair protective gear in the hub area.
First-person shooter
Based on the James Bond film, Rare's "GoldenEye 007" was released in 1997, and as of 2004 it was the best-selling Nintendo 64 game in the United States. It was the first landmark console first-person shooter and was highly acclaimed for its atmospheric single-player levels and well designed multiplayer maps. It featured a sniper rifle, the ability to perform head-shots, and the incorporation of stealth elements; (and all these aspects were also used in the game's spiritual sequel "Perfect Dark") as well as "Virtua Cop"-inspired features such as reloading, position-dependent hit reaction animations, penalties for killing innocents, and an aiming system allowing players to aim at a precise spot on the screen.
First-person shooter
"Doom" has been considered the most important first-person shooter ever made. It was highly influential not only on subsequent shooter games but on video gaming in general, and has been available on almost every video gaming system since. Multiplayer gaming, which is now integral to the first-person shooter genre, was first achieved successfully on a large scale with "Doom". While its combination of gory violence, dark humor and hellish imagery garnered acclaim from critics, these attributes also generated criticism from religious groups, with other commentators labelling the game a "murder simulator." There was further controversy when it emerged that the perpetrators of the Columbine High School massacre were fans of the game; the families of several victims later unsuccessfully attempted to sue numerous video game companies - among them id Software - which the families claimed inspired the massacre. In 1994, Raven Software released "Heretic", which used a modified version of the "Doom" engine that allowed for vertical aiming, an inventory system to store and select items, and gibs.
Chrome (video game)
"Chrome" is a first-person shooter, and most of the gameplay involves traversing 3D environments by foot and fighting human enemies with an array of ranged weapons. Occasionally, the player has to solve simple puzzles and find keys that allow to enter new areas. What made "Chrome" stand out upon its release was that a large part of the game's action takes place in vast open areas, providing some tactical freedom to the player. The player is also able to utilize six different kinds of vehicles that allow for fast movement and provide protection as well as heavy weaponry in some cases. Another feature that was not common at the time was the ability to slightly zoom in with every kind of weapon.
2.5D
"Zaxxon", a shooter introduced by Sega in 1982, was the first game to use isometric axonometric projection, from which its name is derived. Though Zaxxon's playing field is semantically 3D, the game has many constraints which classify it as 2.5D: a fixed point of view, scene composition from sprites, and movements such as bullet shots restricted to straight lines along the axes. It was also one of the first video games to display shadows. The following year, Sega released the first pseudo-3D isometric platformer, "Congo Bongo". Another early pseudo-3D platform game released that year was Konami's "Antarctic Adventure", where the player controls a penguin in a forward-scrolling third-person perspective while having to jump over pits and obstacles. It was one of the earliest pseudo-3D games available on a computer, released for the MSX in 1983. That same year, Irem's "Moon Patrol" was a side-scrolling run & gun platform-shooter that introduced the use of layered parallax scrolling to give a pseudo-3D effect. In 1985, "Space Harrier" introduced Sega's "Super Scaler" technology that allowed pseudo-3D sprite-scaling at high frame rates, with the ability to scale 32,000 sprites and fill a moving landscape with them.
Die Hard Trilogy
"Die Hard" is a third-person shooter. The player battles terrorists and rescues hostages in the Nakatomi Plaza, which is the setting of the first film in the series.
First-person shooter
At the E3 game show in 1999, Bungie unveiled a real-time strategy game called ""; at the following E3, an overhauled third-person shooter version was displayed. In 2000, Bungie was bought by Microsoft. "Halo" was then revamped and released as a first-person shooter; it was one of the launch titles for the Xbox console. It was a runaway critical and commercial success, and is considered a premier console first-person shooter. It featured narrative and storyline reminiscent of Bungie's earlier Marathon series but now told largely through in-game dialog and cut scenes. It also received acclaim for its characters, both the protagonist, Master Chief and its alien antagonists. The sequel, "Halo 2" (2004), brought the popularity of online-gaming to the console market through the medium of Xbox Live, on which it was the most played game for almost two years.
Doom (franchise)
"Doom" is considered to be one of the pioneering first-person shooter games, introducing to IBM-compatible computers features such as 3D graphics, third-dimension spatiality, networked multiplayer gameplay, and support for player-created modifications with the "Doom" WAD format. Since the release of "Doom" in 1993, the series has spawned numerous sequels, expansion packs, and a film.
Red Dead
In each game in the franchise, the player takes the role of an outlaw in the waning years of the American Old West. All three titles are third-person shooters (although "Red Dead Redemption 2" also gives you the option to play in first-person) yet there are crucial differences between them. The first game in the series follows a linear storyline with fixed, limited locations. "Red Dead Redemption" however provides the player with an open world setting and gives them various options for exploration, random encounters and side-missions. "Red Dead Redemption 2" is the biggest and most immersive of the three, providing far more options and activities for the player than in its previous titles. Combat and gunplay are a fundamental part in the franchise; players can cover, blind-fire, free-aim and can get into physical altercations with enemies. A large number of weapons are introduced in all three games, typically rifles and revolvers. Horses, stagecoaches and trains are the primary methods of transportation in all three games due to the period in which they are set.
Alien Breed 3D
Alien Breed 3D is the fourth game in Team17's "Alien Breed" franchise, a series of science-fiction-themed shooters largely inspired by the "Alien" films. It was published in 1995 by Ocean Software, and it is the first first-person shooter in the series. It is the first game that Team17 did not self-publish.
List of freeware first-person shooters
This is a list of some of the most popular freeware and free and open-source software first-person shooter games.
Some free-to-play online first-person shooters use a client–server model, in which only the client is available for free. They may be associated with business models such as optional microtransactions or in-game advertising. Some of these may be MMOFPS, MMOTPS or MMORPG games.
Periscope (arcade game)
"Jet Rocket" was a combat flight-simulator featuring cockpit controls that could move the player aircraft around a landscape displayed on a screen and shoot missiles onto targets that explode when hit. It featured shooting and flight movement in a 3D environment from a first-person perspective, a precursor to first-person vehicle combat video games such as "Battlezone" (1980) and "Hovertank 3D" (1991), and the first-person shooter genre.
Shooter game
Third-person shooters are characterized by a third-person camera view that fully displays the player character in his/her surroundings. Notable examples of the genre include the "Tomb Raider" series, "Syphon Filter", "Max Payne", "SOCOM", "", "Resident Evil 4", "Gears of War", "Splatoon", and "Fortnite". Third person shooter mechanics are often incorporated into open-world adventure and sandbox games, including the "Elder Scrolls" series and the "Grand Theft Auto" franchise.
H-Hour: World's Elite
H-Hour is a cross shooter between third person and first person. The third person viewpoint allows players to view their character and grants an advantage in situational awareness. The first person view grants the player with only a reticle and adjusts the field of view so that he has the experience of being in the thick of it and a naturally heightened “zoomed in” perspective that provides a natural experience.
Virtua Fighter
"Virtua Fighter" played a crucial role in popularizing 3D polygon graphics. The success of the "Virtua Fighter" series resulted in Guinness World Records awarding the series seven world records in "Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition 2008", including "First Polygon Based Fighting Game", "First 3D Fighting Game", and "First Fighting Game for a 32-bit Console". 1UP listed "Virtua Fighter" as one of the 50 most important games of all time, crediting it for creating the 3D fighting game genre, and more generally, demonstrating the potential of 3D polygon human characters (as the first to implement them in a useful way), showing the potential of realistic gameplay (introducing a character physics system and realistic character animations for the time), and introducing fighting game concepts such as the ring-out and the block button. "Virtua Fighter 2" on the Sega Model 2 introduced the use of texture-mapped 3D characters, and motion capture animation technology. "Virtua Fighter 3" on the Sega Model 3 further advanced real-time graphics technology, with "Computer and Video Games" in 1996 comparing it to CGI and referring to it as "the most astounding display of video game graphic muscle ever in the history of this industry." In 1997, "Next Generation" stated that "Virtua Fighter" had supplanted "Street Fighter" as the premier fighting game series.
Free look
Fully 3D first-person games with restricted free look had appeared as early as 1992 on the PC, allowing the player to look up and down, although vision was controlled by dedicated keys rather than the mouse. At the time it was still cutting-edge technology and didn't become widespread until the age of 3D accelerators. "", released in March 1992, as well as the later "System Shock" (which was made on the same engine), allowed the player to manipulate the camera, looking left, right, up or down by using dedicated keys or by using the mouse to click on the edges of the screen.
First-person shooter engine
There are two possible claimants for the first FPS, "Maze War" and "Spasim". "Maze War" was developed in 1973 and involved a single player making his way through a maze of corridors rendered using a fixed perspective. Multiplayer capabilities, where players attempted to shoot each other, were added later and were networked in 1974. "Spasim" was originally developed in 1974 and involved players moving through a wire-frame 3D universe. "Spasim" could be played by up to 32 players on the PLATO network.
First-person shooter
Like most shooter games, first-person shooters involve an avatar, one or more ranged weapons, and a varying number of enemies. Because they take place in a 3D environment, these games tend to be somewhat more realistic than 2D shooter games, and have more accurate representations of gravity, lighting, sound and collisions. First-person shooters played on personal computers are most often controlled with a combination of a keyboard and mouse. This system has been claimed as superior to that found in console games, which frequently use two analog sticks: one used for running and sidestepping, the other for looking and aiming. It is common to display the character's hands and weaponry in the main view, with a head-up display showing health, ammunition and location details. Often, it is possible to overlay a map of the surrounding area.
SWAT 3: Close Quarters Battle
As the first first-person shooter of the "Police Quest" series, "SWAT 3" received a new game engine with cell and portal technologies for simulation of environments and advanced AI and ballistics. The developers spent some time consulting with LAPD SWAT, including a real-life SWAT element leader and LAPD SWAT founder Daryl Gates in order to create an accurate, realistic simulation. Most of the animations in the game were motion captured from a real-life SWAT officer. Unlike many other first-person shooter games, "SWAT3" places an emphasis on realistic police methods and tactics, including proper room clearance, use of less-lethal weaponry, ordering compliance and arresting enemies rather than shooting on sight, and differentiating between authorized and unauthorized use of lethal force.
Triple Hunt
Triple Hunt is a shooter-style arcade game developed by Atari and released in April 1977. Triple Hunt's main feature is its mounted light gun, which is used to shoot at the screen on a separate cabinet. Each Triple Hunt unit houses three changeable games; Witch Hunt, Hit The Bear, and Raccoon Hunt. The game graphics are displayed over the background graphics, and when a monitor mask is placed on the screen, the graphics 'disappear' behind the mask. Since the gun is light operated, the shots would not go through the mask, and did not count. It was first introduced at the Third Annual Distributor Meeting banquet on March 22, 1977.
Kobayashi Maru
The first mission of the first-person shooter, "", developed by Raven Software and published by Activision in 2000, is considered Ensign Munro's (the player character's) "Kobayashi Maru" by Commander Tuvok.
First-person (gaming)
Amidst a flurry of faux-3D first person maze games where the player was locked into one of four orientations, like "Spectre", "3D Monster Maze", "Phantom Slayer", and "Dungeons of Daggorath", came the 1982 release of Paul Edelstein's "Wayout" from Sirius Software. Not a shooter, it has smooth, arbitrary movement that came from what was later labeled a raycasting engine, giving it a visual fluidity seen in future games "MIDI Maze" and "Wolfenstein 3D". It was followed in 1983 by the split-screen "Capture the Flag", allowing two players at once, and foreshadowing a common gameplay mode for 3D games of the 1990s.
Pie in the Sky (game engine)
"Chub Gam 3D" is claimed to be one of the earliest freeware first person shooter games. The game features the adventures of a Harrier jet pilot after his plane crashes and is invited in by the eccentric creatures Chub and Rex. However, rather than settling down for the night as asked, the pilot discovers Rex's shocking secret project. The game is claimed to have won a number of awards, the only traceable one being its inclusion as one of MPI World's "Top 52 Free Games of '98". A director's cut was later released by ChubGamSoft with several improvements, including cutscenes. and it was supposedly sold in Brazil.
Grand Theft Auto III
Players use melee attacks, firearms and explosives to fight enemies. The firearms include weapons such as the Micro Uzi, an M16 rifle and a flamethrower. The game's three-dimension environment allows a first-person view while aiming with the sniper rifle, rocket launcher and the M16 rifle. In addition, the game's combat was reworked to allow players to commit drive-by shootings by facing sideways in a vehicle. The game gives players a wide variety of weapon options—they can be purchased from local firearms dealers, found on the ground, retrieved from dead enemies, or found around the city.
While robbing a bank in Liberty City, criminal Claude is shot and betrayed by his girlfriend and accomplice Catalina (Cynthia Farrell), who escapes with an unnamed Colombian gangster. Claude survives but is arrested and sentenced to ten years in prison. While being transported in a prison van, Claude and fellow prisoner 8-Ball (Guru) are inadvertently freed after an attack on the police convoy by Colombian men to retrieve the elderly third prisoner. 8-Ball later introduces Claude to the Leone Mafia crime family; "Sex Club 7" owner Luigi Goterelli (Joe Pantoliano), Don Salvatore Leone (Frank Vincent), his Capo Toni Cipriani (Michael Madsen), and the Don's son Joey Leone (Michael Rapaport). During work for the family, Claude finds himself fighting the Colombians, led by Catalina and the Colombian man, in proliferating a new drug, SPANK. After destroying the Colombians' ship, Salvatore attempts to have Claude killed with a booby-trapped car, but Salvatore's trophy wife Maria (Debi Mazar), who Claude was instructed to drive around for one mission and who has taken a liking to him, saves him just in time. She admits that, during a fight with Salvatore, she told him about having an affair with Claude. Together with her friend Asuka Kasen (Lianna Pai), they flee Portland for Staunton Island.
Third Person (band)
Third Person was an improvising trio formed in 1990 in New York City, led by cellist Tom Cora and drummer Samm Bennett. Each performance featured an invited guest: A third person. Guests included guitarist Marc Ribot, harpist Zeena Parkins, clarinet player Don Byron and saxophone players George Cartwright and Kazutoki Umezu and many others.
Resident Evil: Dead Aim
Resident Evil: Dead Aim, known as in Japan, is the fourth release in a series of light gun shooter video games by Capcom. It is also the first in the franchise to feature first-person shooting alongside the third-person movement seen in its predecessors in the "Resident Evil" series. It was developed by Cavia.
Looker
Though spare in visual effects, the film is notable for being the first commercial film to attempt to make a realistic computer-generated character, for the model named Cindy. It was also the first film to create three-dimensional (3D) shading with a computer, months before the release of the better-known "Tron".
Narration
In video games, a first-person perspective is used most often in the first-person shooter genre, such as in "Doom", or in simulations (racing games, flight simulation games, and such). Third-person perspectives on characters are typically used in all other games. Since the arrival of 3D computer graphics in games it is often possible for the player to switch between first- and third-person perspectives at will; this is usually done to improve spatial awareness, but can also improve the accuracy of weapons use in generally third-person games such as the "Metal Gear Solid" franchise.
David Berkowitz
The first shooting attributed to the Son of Sam occurred in the Pelham Bay area of the Bronx. At about 1:10 a.m. on July 29, 1976, Donna Lauria, 18, and her friend Jody Valenti, 19, were sitting in Valenti's Oldsmobile, discussing their evening at Peachtree's, a New Rochelle discotheque. Lauria opened the car door to leave and noticed a man quickly approaching the car. Startled and angered by the man's sudden appearance, she said, "Now what is this ..." The man produced a pistol from the paper bag that he carried and crouched. He braced one elbow on his knee, aimed his weapon with both hands, and fired. Lauria was struck by one bullet that killed her instantly. Valenti was shot in her thigh, and a third bullet missed both women. The shooter turned and walked away quickly.
Resident Evil 4
"Resident Evil 4" is regarded as one of the most influential games of the 2000s decade, due to its influence in redefining the third-person shooter genre by introducing a "reliance on offset camera angles that fail to obscure the action". The new gameplay alterations and immersive style appealed to many not previously familiar with the series. The over-the-shoulder viewpoint introduced in "Resident Evil 4" has later become standard in third-person shooters, including games ranging from "Gears of War" to "". It has also become a standard "precision aim" feature for action games in general, with examples ranging from "Dead Space" and "Grand Theft Auto" to the "Ratchet & Clank Future" series and "Fallout".
Arsys Software
"Wibarm" (1986), stylized as "WiBArM" (ウィバーン), is an early role-playing shooter released by Arsys Software for the NEC PC-88 computer in Japan and ported to MS-DOS for Western release by Brøderbund. It combines run and gun shooter gameplay with role-playing video game elements, and was also the first action role-playing game to feature 3D polygonal graphics. In "Wibarm", the player controls a transformable mecha robot that can shift between walking mode, a tank, and a flying jet. The viewpoint switches between several different perspectives: a 2D top-down perspective while flying, a side-scrolling view during on-foot outdoor exploration, a fully 3D polygonal third-person perspective inside buildings, and arena-style 2D shoot 'em up battles during boss encounters.
First-person shooter
"Spasim" led to more detailed combat flight simulators and eventually to a tank simulator, developed for the U.S. Army, in the later 1970s. These games were not available to consumers, however, and it was not until 1980 that a tank video game, "Battlezone", was released in arcades. A version of the game was released in 1983 for home computers and became the first successful mass-market game featuring a first-person viewpoint and wireframe 3D graphics, presented using a vector graphics display.
Halo 3
"Halo 3" is a shooter game where players primarily experience gameplay from a first-person perspective. Much of the gameplay takes place on foot, but also includes segments focused on vehicular combat. The balance of weapons and objects in the game was adjusted to better adhere to the "Golden Triangle of "Halo"": these are weapons, grenades, and melee attacks, which are available to a player in most situations. Players may dual-wield some weapons, forgoing the use of grenades and melee attacks in favor of the combined firepower of two weapons. Many weapons available in previous installments of the series return with minor cosmetic and power alterations. Unlike previous installments, the player's secondary weapon is visible on their player model, holstered or slung across the player's back.
Alex Seropian
For the next Bungie title, 1993's "Pathways Into Darkness", Seropian hired a third team member for graphics work. The game was the first three-dimensional texture-mapped game on the Mac and the first true first-person shooter. By 1994 Bungie had grown to a staff of six and had moved into a rundown Chicago office—a converted former religious school located in front of a crack house. Their next title, "Marathon", began development as a sequel to "Pathways" but grew larger. On release it won several awards and established Bungie as the top Mac game developer.
Devil's Third
While the camera is usually set to follow Ivan, the player character, the camera shifts into a first person perspective when aiming. Unlike many modern third-person shooters, it does not adopt an over-the-shoulder approach, instead opting for a more traditional camera that is directly behind the character, save for when ducking behind cover. Melee combat consists of chaining together a series of attacks, often followed with a cinematic takedown. In addition, melee weapons can be swapped, thrown at enemies, and stolen mid-counter.
Point Blank (1994 video game)
Point Blank, known as , or in Japan, is a series of first-person shooter games developed by Namco for the arcade, PlayStation and Nintendo DS; the trilogy was first released in arcade in 1994 and was later ported onto the PlayStation. Point Blank DS was released in 2006 for the Nintendo DS featuring 40 challenges from the original series - and the original "Point Blank" was the seventh lightgun game released by Namco, after "Shoot Away", both "Golly! Ghost!" and "Steel Gunner" (1990–91) and "Lucky & Wild" (1992), the last one requiring the first player to drive as well as operate the lightgun.
List of video game genres
Since the 1990s, shooters, most notably first-person shooters, have become widely successful in video gaming, accounting for a large percentage of video game sales. "Wolfenstein 3D", created by Id Software and released in 1992, was credited for pioneering gameplay and graphics elements incorporated by many other shooters. Also developed by Id and published one year after Wolfenstein 3D's release, "Doom" is broadly considered to be one of the most influential games in video gaming history. Other successful shooter series include "Half-Life", a widely acclaimed and commercially successful series noted for its influence on contemporary shooters; and the "Call of Duty" franchise, with more than 175 million sales across all its titles.
First-person shooter
Most shooters in this period were developed for IBM PC compatible computers. On the Macintosh side, Bungie released its first shooter, "Pathways into Darkness" in 1993, which featured more adventure and narrative elements alongside first-person shooter gameplay. "Pathways" had been inspired by "Wolfenstein 3D", and bore out of an attempt to take their previous top-down dungeon exploration game "" into a 3D setting. In the subsequent year, Bungie released "Marathon", which streamlined concepts from "Pathways" by eliminate role-playing elements in favor of the shooter action. "Marathon" was successful leading to two sequels to form the "Marathon Trilogy", and "Marathon" the standard for first-person shooters on that platform. "Marathon" pioneered or was an early adopter of several new features such as freelook, dual-wielded and dual-function weapons, versatile multiplayer modes (such as King of the Hill, Kill the Man with the Ball, and cooperative play), and friendly non-player characters (NPC)s. The "Marathon" games also had a strong emphasis on storytelling in addition to the action, which would continue in Bungie's future projects, "Halo" and "Destiny".
First-person shooter
Though not the first of its kind, "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six" started a popular trend of tactical first-person shooters in 1998. It featured a team-based, realistic design and themes based around counter-terrorism, requiring missions to be planned before execution and in it, a single hit was sometimes enough to kill a character. "Medal of Honor", released in 1999, started a long running proliferation of first-person shooters set during World War II.
Action role-playing game
More recent shooter-based RPGs include Imageepoch's post-apocapytic "Black Rock Shooter" (2011)"," which employs both first-person and third-person shooter elements, and Square Enix's "Final Fantasy XV" (2016)"," which features both hack and slash and third-person shooter elements.
Descent 3
Like its predecessors "Descent" and "Descent II", "Descent 3" is a six degrees of freedom shooter where the player controls a flying ship from a first-person perspective in zero-gravity. It is differentiated from standard first-person shooters in that it allows the player to move and rotate in any 3D direction. Specifically, the player is free to move forward/backward, up/down, left/right, and rotate in three perpendicular axes, often termed pitch, yaw, and roll. Aboard the ship, the player can shoot enemies, turn on the ship's afterburners to temporarily increase its acceleration and speed, and fire flares or turn on the ship's headlight to explore darkened areas.
XIII (video game)
"XIII" is a first-person shooter with elements of stealth and action in certain missions. The game centers on the main character, named XIII, who has awakened with amnesia. He uses a variety of weapons and gadgets to uncover the mystery of his identity throughout the 13 chapters and 34 missions. The characters and weaponry in "XIII" are cel-shaded, giving a deliberately comic book style appearance, including onomatopoeic words contained in bubbles for sound effects. It uses the Unreal Engine 2, the most recent engine at that time, as it was "really strong for level design" and allowed development "across all platforms using one engine". The graphics were compared with "Jet Set Radio Future" and "Auto Modellista". The developer felt that the appearance reflected the comic book and innovated in its portrayal of violence; even blood splatters are shown in a cartoon manner.
Armed and Dangerous (video game)
"Armed and Dangerous" is a third-person shooter action game, the camera hovering behind Roman, the player character, at all times. The game is played mostly on foot, with most levels incorporating usable gun emplacements, although there are some base defense levels where the player is inside a movable gun turret mounted on rails on top of a defensive wall; these levels are played in first-person.
Duke Nukem
The third game of the series was the first-person shooter (FPS) titled "Duke Nukem 3D" and was released during 1996. Like most FPS games of the day, "Duke Nukem 3D" featured three-dimensional environments with two-dimensional sprites standing in for weapons, enemies, and breakable background objects. "Duke Nukem 3D" was released for MS-DOS, Mac OS, PlayStation, Sega Saturn, game.com, Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, Nintendo 64, and later re-released during 2008 for Xbox Live Arcade, and for iOS and Nokia N900 during 2009. "Duke Nukem 3D" has more than a dozen expansion packs.
First-person (gaming)
While light gun shooters often have a first-person perspective, they are distinct from first-person shooters, which use conventional input devices for movement. It is not clear exactly when the earliest such first-person shooter video game was created. There are two claimants, "Spasim" and "Maze War". The uncertainty about which was first stems from the lack of any accurate dates for the development of "Maze War"—even its developer cannot remember exactly. In contrast, the development of "Spasim" is much better documented and the dates more certain. The initial development of "Maze War" probably occurred in the summer of 1973. A single player made their way through a simple maze of corridors rendered using fixed perspective. Multiplayer capabilities, with players attempting to shoot each other, were probably added later in 1973 (two machines linked via a serial connection) and in the summer of 1974 (fully networked).
First-person shooter engine
"Hovertank 3D", from id Software, was the first to use this technique in 1990, but was still not using textures, a capability which was added shortly after on "Catacomb 3D" (1991), then with the Wolfenstein 3D engine which was later used for several other games. "Catacomb 3D" was also the first game to show the player's hand on-screen, furthering the implication of the player into the character's role.
History of video games
In 1996, 3dfx Interactive released the Voodoo chipset, leading to the first affordable 3D accelerator cards for personal computers. These devoted 3D rendering daughterboards performed a portion of the computations and memory-handling required for more-detailed three-dimensional graphics (mainly texture filtering), allowing for more-detailed graphics than would be possible if the CPU were required to handle both game logic and all the graphical tasks. First-person shooters (FPS) were among the first to take advantage of this new technology. While other games would also make use of it, the FPS would become the main driving force behind the development of new 3D hardware, and the yardstick by which its performance would be measured, usually quantified as the number of frames per second rendered for a given scene in a given game.
Shoot 'em up
Shoot 'em ups such as SNK's "Ikari Warriors" (1986) featuring characters on foot, rather than spacecraft, became popular in the mid-1980s in the wake of action movies such as "." The origins of this type go back to "Sheriff" by Nintendo, released in 1979. Taito's "Front Line" (1982) established the upwards-scrolling formula later popularized by "Commando," in 1985. "Commando" also drew comparisons to Rambo and indeed contemporary critics considered military themes and protagonists similar to Rambo or Schwarzenegger prerequisites for a shoot 'em up, as opposed to an action-adventure game. In 1986, Arsys Software released "WiBArm", a shooter that switched between a 2D side-scrolling view in outdoor areas to a fully 3D polygonal third-person perspective inside buildings, while bosses were fought in an arena-style 2D battle, with the game featuring a variety of weapons and equipment. In 1987, Square's "3-D WorldRunner" was an early stereoscopic 3-D shooter played from a third-person perspective, followed later that year by its sequel "JJ", and the following year by "Space Harrier 3-D" which used the SegaScope 3-D shutter glasses. That same year, Sega's "Thunder Blade" switched between both a top-down view and a third-person view, and introduced the use of force feedback, where the joystick vibrates. Also in 1987, Konami created "Contra" as an coin-op arcade game that was particularly acclaimed for its multi-directional aiming and two player cooperative gameplay. However, by the early 1990s and the popularity of 16-bit consoles, the scrolling shooter genre was overcrowded, with developers struggling to make their games stand out (one exception being the inventive "Gunstar Heroes," by Treasure).
First-person shooter engine
FromSoftware released "King's Field", a full polygon free roaming first-person real-time action title for the Sony PlayStation in December 1994. Sega's 32X release "Metal Head" was a first-person shooter mecha simulation game that used fully texture-mapped, 3D polygonal graphics. A year prior, Exact released the Sharp X68000 computer game "Geograph Seal", a fully 3D polygonal first-person shooter that employed platform game mechanics and had most of the action take place in free-roaming outdoor environments rather than the corridor labyrinths of "Wolfenstein 3D". The following year, Exact released its successor for the PlayStation console, "Jumping Flash!", which used the same game engine but adapted it to place more emphasis on the platforming rather than the shooting. The "Jumping Flash!" series continued to use the same engine.
The Colony (video game)
Previous first-person perspective games of the era used precomputed views, such as "The Sentinel", or fixed-perspective graphics, such as "Phantom Slayer". "The Colony" was one of the first games of its kind to let the player move freely while rendering graphics in real time. It was also the first 3D game to let the player drive a vehicle.
First-person shooter
First-person shooter (FPS) is a video game genre centered around gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective; that is, the player experiences the action through the eyes of the protagonist. The genre shares common traits with other shooter games, which in turn makes it fall under the heading action game. Since the genre's inception, advanced 3D and pseudo-3D graphics have challenged hardware development, and multiplayer gaming has been integral.
First-person shooter engine
"Dark Forces", released in 1995 by LucasArts, has been regarded as one of the first "true 3-D" first-person shooter games. Its engine, the Jedi Engine, was one of the first engines to support an environment in three dimensions: areas can exist next to each other in all three planes, including on top of each other (such as stories in a building). Though most of the objects in "Dark Forces" are sprites, the game does include support for textured 3D-rendered objects. Another game regarded as one of the first true 3D first-person shooter is Parallax Software's 1994 shooter "Descent".
Third Dimensional Murder
With the success of the first two shorts, Smith consulted J.M. Nikolaus in the camera department at MGM. Nikolaus went to studio manager E. J. Mannix who gave Nikolaus a budget of "about $3,000" to create a stereoscopic camera rig. After some trial and error, Nickolaus created a camera using two Bell & Howell 35mm cameras with specially matched lenses made by Bauch and Lomb. The lenses were 2¾ inches apart and were shot into prisms. George Sidney directed the short. (Sidney later directed the 3-D feature for MGM, "Kiss Me Kate".)
3D camcorder
The first 3D pocket camcorder is the Fujifilm FinePix Real 3D W1. It has two lenses but only one processor so can be slow when processing 3D.
Light gun
These games evolved throughout subsequent decades, culminating in Sega's "Periscope", the company's first successful game released in 1966, which required the player to target cardboard ships. "Periscope" was an early electro-mechanical game, and the first arcade game to cost a quarter per play. Sega's 1969 game "Missile" featured electronic sound and a moving film strip to represent the targets on a projection screen, and their 1972 game "Killer Shark" featured a mounted light gun that shot at targets whose movement and reactions were displayed using back image projection onto a screen. Nintendo released the Beam Gun in 1970 and the Laser Clay Shooting System in 1973, followed in 1974 by the arcade game "Wild Gunman", which used video projection to display the target on the screen. In 1975, Sega released the early co-operative light gun shooters "Balloon Gun" and "Bullet Mark".
Gravity Bone
Most of the original first-person shooter elements were removed by the third revision of the game, which incorporated a more spy-oriented style of gameplay, with the player "trying to quietly take out enemies and not be seen." Chung commented that he reworked the game several more times to fit his vision: "It kept on just changing and changing and changing until it got into a more story-oriented direction." He stated that he did not feel comfortable developing "Gravity Bone" as a first-person shooter game, and kept adding "bits and bits of more and more unconventional" elements as a result. He explained that he "got stuck on this idea of the hero never fires a gun, but he just has a bunch of tools on his belt, like a power drill or a can of pressurized Freon, a screwdriver. I thought that was kind of funny and interesting."
SWAT 3: Close Quarters Battle
"SWAT 3" is a tactical team-based first person shooter played cooperatively with computer or human-controlled teammates, as a five-man Police SWAT element. The game is divided into missions, representing separate SWAT deployments to various crisis situations. Mission environments are typically indoors, necessitating room-to-room CQB tactics. Operations include hostage rescue, armed standoffs and bomb disposal. Enemies, referred to as 'suspects', include individuals, disorganised small groups and trained, politically motivated terrorists.
Breath of Fire III
"Breath of Fire III" is a traditional console role-playing game that requires the player to accomplish story-based objectives while battling enemy creatures in a number of fantasy environments. Presented from an overhead isometric viewpoint, the player may rotate the game's camera in any direction around the central character, as well as tilt it up or down to see over or under impeding objects. When traveling through the game's environment, each character can perform a unique special ability that allows the player to solve puzzles or destroy objects, as well as gain access to otherwise hidden areas. As the first PlayStation "Breath of Fire" title, the game uses three-dimensional graphics for scenery, buildings, and other objects, while still retaining two-dimensional sprites for characters.
Third-person shooter
The boundaries between third-person and first-person shooters are not always clear. For example, many third-person shooters allow the player to use a first-person viewpoint for challenges that require precise aiming. The first-person shooter "" was actually designed as a third-person shooter, but added a first-person perspective to improve the interface for aiming and shooting. The game switches to a third-person viewpoint when the avatar is piloting a vehicle, and this combination of first-person for aiming and third-person for driving has since been used in other games. "Metroid Prime" is another first-person shooter that switches to a third-person perspective when rolling around the environment using the morph ball. Alexander R. Galloway writes that the "real-time, over-the-shoulder tracking shots of Gus Van Sant's "Elephant" evoke third-person shooter games like "Max Payne", a close cousin of the FPS".
Virtua Fighter (video game)
Some of the Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) staff involved in the creation of the original PlayStation video game console credit "Virtua Fighter" as inspiration for the PlayStation's 3D graphics hardware. According to SCE's former producer Ryoji Akagawa and chairman Shigeo Maruyama, the PlayStation was originally being considered as a 2D focused hardware, and it was not until the success of "Virtua Fighter" in the arcades that they decided to design the PlayStation as a 3D focused hardware. Toby Gard also cited "Virtua Fighter" as an influence on the use of polygon characters—and the creation of Lara Croft—in "Tomb Raider": "It became clear to me watching people play "Virtua Fighter", which was kind of the first big 3D-character console game, that even though there were only two female characters in the lineup, in almost every game I saw being played, someone was picking one of the two females." John Romero also cited "Virtua Fighter" as a major influence on the creation of 3D first-person shooter "Quake". Team Ico's Fumito Ueda also cited "Virtua Fighter" as an influence on his animation work.
Apache 3
Apache 3 is a 3D scrolling shoot 'em up arcade game released by Tatsumi (and Data East in North America) in 1988. Players control a yellow AH-64 Apache helicopter with weapons and shoot everything in the air and on the ground.
Breath of Fire III
Breath of Fire III is a role-playing video game developed and published by Capcom originally for the PlayStation console as part of the "Breath of Fire" series. Initially released in Japan on September 11, 1997, the game was later released in North America and Europe in 1998. It is the first game in the franchise to feature three-dimensional graphics and voice acting. The title was developed by director Makoto Ikehara and features a unique jazz-inspired soundtrack by company composers Yoshino Aoki and Akari Kaida. On August 25, 2005, the game was ported and released for the PlayStation Portable handheld system in Japan, and was also released in Europe on February 3, 2006.
Spasim
Bowery claims that "Spasim" had "quite a following" on the PLATO network and that there was "a late night cult" that was devoted to the game, though the emphasis in the second version of strategy over combat cut the playerbase in half. "Spasim" is potentially the first 3D first-person game ever made; at one point Bowery had a standing offer of $500 to any person who could find proof of an earlier such game, or $200 for an earlier game that mathematically modeled population versus resource availability and included space resources. The other possible contender for the title is "Maze War", a maze game which ran on two connected computers at NASA in 1973 and was expanded to a full multiplayer game some time in 1974. "Spasim" is considered, along with "Maze War", to be one of the "joint ancestors" of the first-person shooter genre, due to uncertainty over the relative release dates.
Max Payne 3
"Max Payne 3" is a third-person shooter in which the player assumes the role of its titular character, Max Payne. A new feature to the series, introduced in "Max Payne 3", is the cover system, which allows players to gain a tactical advantage, and avoid taking damage from enemies. To progress through the linear story, players take on enemies throughout levels. The game features interactive cutscenes which transition seamlessly into continuing gameplay; there are no loading screens across gameplay and cutscenes.
Far Cry 3
"Far Cry 3" is a first-person shooter, which also features role-playing game elements including experience points, skill trees, and a crafting system. The player has the ability to take cover behind objects to break enemies' lines of sight and to peek around and over cover and blindfire. The player has the ability to perform silent takedowns by performing melee attacks from above, below, or close behind. The game's narrative director, Jason Vandenberghe, said that the story mode map is around ten times larger than the game's previous installments. Players are given the ability to survey and plan out their attacks with stealth takedown combinations and tag enemies with the camera in order to track their movement once they break the player's line of sight.
Kill Switch (video game)
The most distinguishing characteristic of "Kill Switch" is its cover system, a mechanic that has the player character taking cover behind objects and around corners in a manner similar to Namco's own "Time Crisis" series of light gun shooters as well as Koei's third-person shooter "WinBack" and Hideo Kojima's stealth game "". However, "Kill Switch" was the first third-person shooter to feature the cover system as its core game mechanic, though Gears of War would popularize it.
Video game graphics
Third person refers to a graphical perspective rendered from a view that is some distance away (usually behind and slightly above) from the player's character. This viewpoint allows players to see a more strongly characterized avatar, and is most common in action and action-adventure games. This viewpoint poses some difficulties, however, in that when the player turns or stands with his back to a wall, the camera may jerk or end up in awkward positions. Developers have tried to alleviate this issue by implementing intelligent camera systems, or by giving the player control over the camera. There are three primary types of third-person camera systems: "fixed camera systems" in which the camera positions are set during the game creation; "tracking camera systems" in which the camera simply follows the player's character; and "interactive camera systems" that are under the player's control.
First-person shooter
1998's "Half-Life"—along with its 2004 sequel "Half-Life 2"—enhanced the narrative and puzzle elements. In 1999, the "Half-Life" mod "Counter-Strike" was released and, together with "Doom", is perhaps one of the most influential first-person shooters. "GoldenEye 007", released in 1997, was a landmark first-person shooter for home consoles, while the "Halo" series heightened the console's commercial and critical appeal as a platform for first-person shooter titles. In the 21st century, the first-person shooter is the most commercially viable video game genre, and in 2016, shooters accounted for over 27% of all video game sales. Several first-person shooters have been popular games for eSports and competitive gaming competitions as well.
First-person (gaming)
In 1990, SNK released beat 'em ups with a first-person perspective: the hack & slash game "Crossed Swords", and the fighting & shooting game "Super Spy". In late 1991, the fledgling id Software released "Catacomb 3D", which introduced the concept of showing the player's hand on-screen, strengthening the illusion that the player is viewing the world through the character's eyes.
Omega Force
"WinBack", released in 1999 for the Nintendo 64, pioneered the cover-based third-person shooter, inspiring titles such as "Kill Switch" and "". It also featured an early rendition of the laser sight mechanic, which would later be seen in titles such as "Resident Evil 4". The cover system has since become a staple of the third-person shooter genre.
Commandos 3: Destination Berlin
Commandos 3: Destination Berlin is a real-time tactics video game, the third installment of the "Commandos" series. It is developed by Pyro Studios and published by Eidos Interactive. The game is the first in the series to use a true 3D engine, and the last to use real-time tactics before being converted to a first-person shooter genre.
First-person shooter engine
A first-person shooter engine is a video game engine specialized for simulating 3D environments for use in a first-person shooter video game. First-person refers to the view where the players see the world from the eyes of their characters. Shooter refers to games which revolve primarily around wielding firearms and killing other entities in the game world, either non-player characters or other players.
Breath of Fire III
"Breath of Fire III" was developed by members of Capcom's Development Studio 3, including director Makato Ikehara and producers Yoshinori Takenaka and Hironobu Takeshita. The game was the first in the series to feature three-dimensional environments, which were used in conjunction with hand-drawn character sprites designed by series artist Tatsuya Yoshikawa. Yoshikawa created multiple designs for many of the game's characters during production, with some in-game character sprites such as young Ryu and Teepo and adult Nina not matching their final promotional artwork. Before its release in Japan, "Breath of Fire III" was preceded by a promotional trailer that appeared on a demo disc of "Resident Evil 2" that came bundled with the Japanese version of "Resident Evil: Director's Cut". Capcom USA announced in August 1997 that the title would receive an English localization in North America, with the release date originally set for January 1998, which would eventually get pushed back to the following March. In Europe, the game was published through French publisher Infogrames (Instead of Capcom's main European partner Virgin Interactive) and was released in October 1998.
In June 2005, Capcom announced that it would be porting "Breath of Fire III" to the PlayStation Portable handheld system alongside a similar port of "Mega Man Legends", with both to be released the following August. The port features a new title logo graphic, and was re-programmed to make use of the handheld's native 16:9 widescreen display. An expanded version of the title's fishing minigame is also included, which can be shared with another PlayStation Portable owner using the system's GameShare function, with the Japanese release including a full-color fishing guidebook as a bonus. An English version of the port was later made available exclusively in Europe in February 2006, which contained the same translation as the original PlayStation release.