Discussion What's your most favorite GAMING GENRE ? **General game Discussion thread**

Page 9 - Seeking answers? Join the Tom's Hardware community: where nearly two million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
Hello everyone !

As the title says, which is your most favorite Gaming GENRE ? And, what all games do you actually play, be it any genre, or a mixture of 2 genres ?

Some examples of genres: Action game, Action role-playing game, SIMs like City-building or a Flight game, First-person shooter, Tactical role-playing game, Third-person shooter, Tactical shooter, "Platform game", Racing video game, Real-time strategy, Massively multiplayer online first-person shooter game, 2D Fighting games, Stealth game, Sim racing, and Role-playing video game among others.

Mine is mostly First-person Shooters, with some third-person action Games, like Gears of War 4, Mass Effect 3, DEAD SPACE, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2, JUST CAUSE. Though, FPS has always remained my topmost priority.

I'm not an actual gamer though, very casual. But I've been playing FPS games since the good old days of DOOM, QUAKE, HEXEN, HERETIC, DUKE Nukem 3D, Wolfenstein, Soldier Of fortune, PAINKILLER, HALF LIFE, F.E.A.R, Call Of Duty series, Battlefield series and few others.

These are my list of games owned by me, all LEGIT, not pirated. This list is not exhaustive though. Some are lesser-known titles though.

ALIEN RAGE. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_Rage

Aliens versus Predator 2.

Alpha Prime (excellent FPS, by an indie DEV studio). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Prime

Area 51. I love this shooter. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_51_(2005_video_game)

Battlefield 3, 4, 5, Hardline, BF: BAD company 2.

BIOSHOCK 1 and 2.

Bordelands 1 and 2.

BREED. A good old-school FPS. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breed_(video_game)

Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30, earned in Blood, and Hell's Highway !

BULLETSTORM.

CALL of DUTY series (starting from the fist game till BLACK OPS).

CALL OF JUAREZ.

CHASER ! This is my most favorite FPS of all time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaser_(video_game)

The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena.

Clive Barker's Jericho ! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clive_Barker's_Jericho

Contract J.A.C.K. Hell Yes, lol !

CRYSIS 1, 2 and 3.

DOOM, DOOM 2 and 3, BFG edition and DOOM (2016).

Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition.

DYING LIGHT.

F.E.A.R. series.

FAR CRY series !

HALF LIFE series.

Halo: Combat Evolved.

Hard Reset. This game is TOO tough for me, I had to use Cheats/Trainers to beat it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_Reset

HERETIC, HEXEN.

MEDAL OF HONOR series.

No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way. I like Cate Archer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_One_Lives_Forever_2:_A_Spy_in_H.A.R.M.'s_Way

PAINKILLER series.

PREY (only the first title which came out in 2006).

Project Snowblind ! This is my MOST favorite FPS. You guys must try playing this shooter.


QUAKE 1, 2, 4.

RAGE 1 and 2.

RED FACTION 2.

Section 8: Prejudice. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_8:_Prejudice

SERIOUS SAM series, All the games released till now. And, yes I'm SERIOUS !

Shadow Warrior 1 and 2.

SiN Episodes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SiN_Episodes

Soldier of Fortune series.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, Clear SKY.

SWAT 4.

Titanfall 2.

TIMESHIFT ! I love this game. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TimeShift

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2.

TRIBES Vengeance. This game is really good. Strong STORY campaign. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribes:_Vengeance

Unreal II: The Awakening.

Wolfenstein: The New Order and The Old Blood.


Thanks for reading, NICK. :)
 
Last edited:
Yeah, even I'm against this Epic Games store/EGS. I don't understand why all Game developers are going for EPIC exclusive deals. Just because of Money, since the developers are going to get a greater share/profit from EPIC, unlike STEAM. This sucks.

But why drop support for STEAM ? This is ridiculous. We have to wait for 6 months or even a YEAR to play the EGS-exclusive on STEAM, when it releases on this platform. I"m skeptical to try EGS. I won't support this recent move from developers.

STEAM has always been the main PC gaming platform. Not releasing the Game on STEAM is a very bad and selfish move from the publisher/developer, IMO.

Its not the cut actually. and not developers for the most part. Publishers are picking it but Epic is literally paying them money to not use Steam and also using "Revenue Guarantee", basically if the publisher expects $100 million in sales but it only hits $80 million on EGS Epic will find a way to make up for it. Basically if the game sucks this makes sure that consumers can no longer vote with their wallets. If Epic keeps this up it will basically allow a game dev to put out crap and not care.

Its not because its a better platform. They still can't match Steam on features and bigger developers already get a much better cut than normal due to higher sales on Steam. Its greed from publishers and dirty fighting from Epic.
 
This is PURE nostalgia ! Just playing this Game for the fifth time. One of the best old-school FPS of all time !


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2GLB-rhttk
 

KrystalChelsea

Commendable
Jul 22, 2017
3
0
1,510
I'm currently addicted to playing PUBG mobile game. But the game is paid in PC edition so I have to sideload its APK file and run on an emulator to play. It's quite slow but half a loaf is better than none, right?
 
I've been playing DOOM ETERNAL lately, and oh boy, this game actually rocks. Having a blast. Already beaten this game twice, but the game is tough, and the ammo is scarce, so you need to rely on Glory Kills to fill up ammo and other stuff.

Being playing around with these Cheat Codes makes the game even more addictive. Graphics are also cool, and all the textures are high-res, including enemy polygon count...

There are many CVARS and CMDS which we can enable and use via the console. :p

But MOST importantly, before doing anything, please make a BACKUP of the saved Games and the entire Profile Folder, and other user settings.

This is very very important, since enabling cheats might disable the game to continue further. Always Make a backup for each checkpoint if possible.

These CHEAT codes given below are just for fun. If you don't like this game, then simply don't play it. The game is too scripted though.

I've been experimenting with a LOT of DEV console commands to test/check the Game, and also to replay any LEVEL of my choice. It's cool witnessing these commands, but I prefer DOOM 2016's gameplay more than ETERNAL.

I'm Not that much happy and satisfied with ETERNAL, to be honest. Expected much more from this new doom Game. But anyways, try the following cheat codes just for fun.

God, ----- God mode for the doom player.
Notarget, ------ enemies completely ignore the player.
noclip, ------ player can walk through walls and objects, and fly around the whole MAP.
g_infiniteAmmo 1, unlimited ammo for all guns.
infiniteHealth 1
noPlayerDeath
noPlayerKil
l

g_weaponkick 0
= No weapon recoil
pm_allowInfiniteDoubleJumps 1 = Infinite jumps for the player.

gibalicious - gib everything.
giveAllMaxedOutWeapons - Gives the player ALL the weapons fully upgraded with masteries.
giveCheatCode - Gives a specific cheat code
givePlayerAllSuitMods - Gives the player all the suit mods
handsPlayAdditiveAnim - cause the first person player hands to play an additive anim
handsTestHitReaction - play a hit reaction anim on the first person hands
healAI - heals all AI in the level
killMonsters - removes all monsters.
g_enableGore 2-------This will totally disable gore/gibs. The default value is 0, as well as 1. 2 completely disables this.

give weapon/player/unmaykr----Gives the UNMAYKR weapon to the player since the beginning.

To get the CRUCIBLE, type the following commands:
give weapon/player/Crucible
judgementmeter_infinite 1
------for infinite crucible energy.

Blood Punch code:
p_infiniteBloodPunch 1
powerStrikeMeter_Enable 1
powerStrikeMeter_Infinite 1


Always allow the REVENANT enemy to fly round-----

revenant_infiniteJetpack 1. Default value is obviously 0.

Disable corpses/gibs from fading out
------------------
Set the following cvars:
ai_death_FadeDelay 99999999
breakable_NoFadeAndRemove 1
gore_neverFadeAndRemove 1

-------------------

With this corpses/gibs should stay on screen for about 24 hours before fading away, now you can really rip and tear!

(for some placebo-tier gibbing :)
dp_deadHideDemonTime 86400000
dp_deadRemoveDemonTime 86400000
ai_MaxCorpses 1000
corpse_optimzationStartTime 86400000
corpseManager_MaxEntities 200
gore_maxLivingGoreEnts 1000
corpse_useEntityPool 0
g_entityPoolMode 0


To boundary break the game and explore the map try this::

Set r_useUmbraCulling to 0, then enter "noclip" to freely break the bounds of the game and noclip wherever you like!.

There are many many more CODES I've been using and experimenting....
 
Last edited:
I have been playing Forza Horizon 4 a lot over the past week or 2. Almost exclusively this game.

I love open world racing games.
I also play beam NG since it falls into this catagory.
Heck even GTA can kinda classify as open world and racing.

I got XBOX game pass for a few months with my GPU so I'm enjoying it while it lasts.
 
BTW, for some strange weird reason, this entire thread was actually marked as SOLVED, and the title changed to the "Question" category, instead of Discussion and Info, LOL.

I'm pretty sure the last time I checked this thread, everything was normal IMO. But now this topic was marked as solved, and @jimmysmitty's post was awarded as the best answer, haha ! So I had to unmark the reply. :)

I'm 100% sure I did not mark this topic as solved, because it's a general discussion thread. Why will I ? But for some strange reason it did happen. Don't know though.

Confusing times we live in....
 
Already beaten this game twice, but the game is tough, and the ammo is scarce, so you need to rely on Glory Kills to fill up ammo and other stuff.
Actually Glory Kills give you health, the chainsaw gives you ammo. You can also supplement ammo a fair bit by getting the suit perk that makes barrels you explode drop a bit of ammo. It's not a ton they drop, but if you shoot all barrels in the area it adds up. The flame belch also gives you armor, and it's easy to forget not to use it. One of the Runes I believe also makes blood punches drop health, and it only takes 2 glory kills to fill it.

The game can indeed be intimidating at first. There's really no time to stop and ponder what your next move will be. I'm having lots of fun lately just using the Super Shotgun meathook to latch onto to enemies and swing way over them to evade them where you can. It's something I learned from watching speedruns.

Here's Zero Master beating it on Ultra Nightmare 100% in one non stop session in just under 3 hours. It's in 4k, and his combat and navigation are very smooth and flowing. Some of the navigation shortcuts he does are jaw dropping, and he often uses the meathook to do them.

 
Actually Glory Kills give you health, the chainsaw gives you ammo. You can also supplement ammo a fair bit by getting the suit perk that makes barrels you explode drop a bit of ammo. It's not a ton they drop, but if you shoot all barrels in the area it adds up. The flame belch also gives you armor, and it's easy to forget not to use it. One of the Runes I believe also makes blood punches drop health, and it only takes 2 glory kills to fill it.

<snip>

Oh yeah. My bad. Got confused between chainsaw and glory kills, lol. And yes for the Armor, flame belch is the tool to use. I've been experimenting with the Ice Bomb as well.

It's pretty cool witnessing enemies remain "frozen" in one place. For some reason the "meathook" feature doesn't work properly on some enemies, imo. Overall, DOOM eternal's combat is tough when compared to DOOM 2016.

I have also watched some of the speedrun playthroughs posted on YT. Pretty cool to see how they beat the game in a very short time. I'm a slow-paced player though. Check out this article and Video. Few ID software DEVs react on this speedrun video.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH2-oM7IWpY&feature=emb_logo
 
Check out this article and Video. Few ID software DEVs react on this speedrun video.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH2-oM7IWpY&feature=emb_logo
Quite honestly, I never think of the speedruns that excessively use physics exploits to skip huge chunks of gameplay to be acceptable. I also think it's a bit hypocritical of sites like speedrun.com to lay out tons of rules, only to let people that spend more time finding glitches than mastering gameplay to sit at the top of their leadereboards. In fact, right in their rules it says cheat codes are disallowed, yet Xamide clearly shows at one point he's using the cheat to unlock all weapons with mastery, and all equipment, and he even explains the cheat being used to make the Heavy MG glitch and fire precision bolts at micro missile speed. Yet they have him at the top of their leaderboard.

It's also ugly to watch that stuff and makes the otherwise beautiful game world they've constructed look quite messy. Give Zero Master's 4K , sub 3 hour run a try if you haven't. It's much nicer to look at and involves a ton more skill. You can also learn some cool shortcuts that most anyone can do, and without using glitches.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Metal Messiah.
I too hate "speedruns"....I don't actually see any point in doing a fast gameplay walkthrough, using hacks and exploits.

Doing all this, takes away the game's immersion, and it can even crash the game permanently. Not sure whether doing all this through exploits is actually legal or not ?
 
I too hate "speedruns"....I don't actually see any point in doing a fast gameplay walkthrough, using hacks and exploits.

Doing all this, takes away the game's immersion, and it can even crash the game permanently. Not sure whether doing all this through exploits is actually legal or not ?
It's not at all that I hate speedruns, like I said, I learn a lot from the ones I DO watch. It doesn't even bother me much that people do speedruns via glitches, because it's a different social circle that I don't pay attention to. What bothers me though is that they get accolades for skipping through the easy way, even using cheats, which puts them at the top of speedrun leaderboards and makes defining what a legit speedrun is a joke.

It's even worse that the glitch and cheat crowd totally skew public perception of what a legit speedrun is. REAL speedrunning in games like Doom Eternal is very exhausting and takes tons of skill. THOSE are the guys whom should be at the top of the leaderboards. It's absurd that a site like speedrun.com says they spend hours examining the legitimacy of speedrun video submissions, only to let people show that they use cheats right in their video. These guys are a joke, and they've dishonored REAL speedrunners with this crap by catering to fakers.

The worlds of these two types of players don't even compare. Glitch speedruners play on the easiest modes, and rarely even engage in combat. Speedrunners whom fight through every battle typically play on the hardest mode, and even go for 100% level completion. One is the king of his own kid sandbox, the other the king of all Doom players. I don't know how anyone can take speedrun.com seriously.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Metal Messiah.
What bothers me though is that they get accolades for skipping through the easy way, even using cheats, which puts them at the top of speedrun leaderboards and makes defining what a legit speedrun is a joke.

It's even worse that the glitch and cheat crowd totally skew public perception of what a legit speedrun is. REAL speedrunning in games like Doom Eternal is very exhausting and takes tons of skill. THOSE are the guys whom should be at the top of the leaderboards. It's absurd that a site like speedrun.com says they spend hours examining the legitimacy of speedrun video submissions, only to let people show that they use cheats right in their video. These guys are a joke, and they've dishonored REAL speedrunners with this crap by catering to fakers.

That's true. I totally agree on this point.
 

JeckeL

Distinguished
Jul 19, 2009
743
26
19,165
That's true. I totally agree on this point.

Yea I only really enjoy glitchless speedruns. I like to see someone who's actually mastered a game such as doom 2016/eternal, the dark souls games, etc, play through the game rather than just clip through walls and walk out of bounds to skip giant chunks of the game. Admittedly though, glitchless runs can be pretty long...... like some final fantasy, zelda, etc games take upwards of 10 hours lol.....
 
  • Like
Reactions: Metal Messiah.
I have been playing Doom Eternal as well. Been dying a lot more than the previous iteration of this venerable title. I find that mastering the controls of long jumps way too tedious and difficult without really adding to the game's content. Did I mention dying A LOT?

This game is actually tough if you compare it with DOOM 2016. The combat has been changed and the player now needs to rely on Glory Kills, and the chainsaw to gather resources.

Sometimes this can get frustrating. Also, the introduction of the Parkour Movement has totally changed how DOOM series needs to be played. The player now has to rely on LOT of long/short jumps, dash as well as grappling of ledges, just like Dying Light and Tomb raider gameplay formula.

This isn't old-school classic DOOM though. Doom 2016 was better than Eternal, at least when it comes to gameplay. But Graphics-wise Eternal is far much better.

Those long constant jumps are pretty much frustrating and repetitive to the say the least. Not sure what the DEVs were thinking with Eternal, but the introduction of this whole parkour gameplay has changed the way Doom needs to be played.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: COLGeek
This game is actually tough if you compare it with DOOM 2016. The combat has been changed and the player now needs to rely on Glory Kills, and the chainsaw to gather resources.

Those long constant jumps are pretty much frustrating...
The main thing once you get the instinct of regularly using chainsaw, belch, and glory kills, is knowing where the tough enemies are and avoiding getting trapped. There's some battles that they come at you with so much all you can do is escape and reassess the situation sometimes. The upside is, later in the game you'll have access to the BFG and Crucible, and timing their use is key, especially when an Archvile spawns in.

The platforming is minor by comparison. Don't forget you can always load the last checkpoint if you accumulate too much health loss from missed jumps. Most of getting the hang of it is learning the spacing between jumps and dashes.
 
Can you guys beat this baddie easily in DOOM ETERNAL, aka Marauder ! ? It's a damn tough and frustrating Boss fight though....

In the beginning I had a pretty tough time beating this enemy, had to load that same checkpoint 5-6 times. I was on the verge of using Cheat codes to finish this guy, but luckily he somehow died quickly, lol. ;)

Found some guides posted on the internet on how to beat this guy.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-03-27-doom-eternal-marauder-beat-fast-7021


UItum7J.jpg
 
Most players on higher difficulty modes use quick switching of weapons to pummel tougher enemies, especially ones that give you a narrow window of vulnerability like the Marauder. This is because you can get in way more shots quick switching because it bypasses the reloading time and animation.

Most use the Ballista or Super Shotgun on the Marauder, and it's a common strategy to get in at least one shot from each in one window. Players with faster reflexes and/or super low input lag displays can often get in three shots with those weapons. What neither of those guides say, because they may not even know, is that the only time he sends his wolf is if you or another enemy shoot his shield, so timing is very key.

The Marauder can be a bit unpredictable with his movements though. On Hurt Me Plenty mode I beat him in about 16 seconds from the time I engaged him to the glory kill finish using just the Ballista non charged in Arbalest mode. I got in a grenade after my first shot too though at the end of his vulnerability window, which stunned him a bit. He kept charging straight at me though, which makes it way easier. It's MUCH harder when he does a quick dash to the side to flank you.

I've often times gotten in two shots with the Ballista, which begs the question whether quick switching helps if you are 62 like me and don't have the reflexes or low input lag display (mine's about 33 ms, so roughly 2 frames vs 1) to pull off 3 shots. Worse yet, I find often times the quick swap key, which is basically just tapping vs holding the weapon wheel key, will insert some random weapon (usually the Super Shotgun or Combat Shotgun) instead of cycling back and forth between the last two weapons equipped.

There are places like the big room in Nekravol where you have to shoot 4 objectives that are only accessible for so long before a Pain Elemental does serious damage to you, so there I like to switch between a Ballista charged shot and a Rocket Launcher single shot. I've also had cases where out of the blue in the heat of a battle, my weapon will change mods with no animation showing. I say this because at times I accidentally hit F and I'll see the mod change animation, but in this case the video capture shows no such animation or mod change sound. It's really annoying when you're counting on being able to use Heat Blast on a Mastery level Plasma Rifle, because you don't get the blast or the extra fire power for a short duration thereafter. The only way to avoid it it seems is to not even use mod stations except for the mods you DO use.

On my Nightmare attempt I'll probably not pick up Auto Shotgun, Microwave Beam, or Remote Detonation. The only weapons I use both modes on are the Heavy Cannon, Ballista, and Chaingun. That said, I'm going to try binding mod switch to the mouse scroll button to see if it helps. I suppose it's possible the mod switch animation doesn't show sometimes if you're extremely close to an enemy, which I was.

Marauder in 16 sec on HMP

Same fight on UV in about 17 sec using Ballista/SSG switching

Boss Fight on HMP in about 2:36, which is typical your first try when you don't know what weapons and tactics to use.

Boss Fight on UV in about 24 sec (apologies for video quality, it was either a driver problem or not having waited long enough for the prior Instant Replay to write.

Below is the video where I had weapon and mod switch problems. To some degree the weapon witch problem can be worked around if you test after selecting your two weapons if it's swapping between them. Thus it's only reliable for fights that are more predictable you prepare for ahead of time The only thing I can try on the mod switching is bind it to another key/button.

The weapon switch problem occurs at 3:57. The mod switch problem occurs at 9:30. I made an effort to try tricks I've seen from speedrunners where you use the SSG Meathook to bypass enemies by swinging over them, or access high places quickly. Ironically though I didn't even realize the high spot I swung to had an armor cache I could have used after the fight. The Marauder battle at the 14:25 mark was tough for me first play through, as it takes place in a a small area and you have to deal with a Whiplash as well. Here it took about 22 sec using Ballista/SSG switching. It helps immensely to have your freeze bomb ready for the Whiplash.

 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Metal Messiah.
@Frag Maniac,

Pretty good Videos...Kudos...I really like the way you have played and beaten this "Marauder" boss within minutes/seconds. :D Cool. You just play like a PRO.

I'm going to try all this out. BTW, does the player has access to the "Ballista" weapon when he first encounters this BOSS ?

I think "ballista" comes later on ? :unsure:
 
Last edited:
I'm going to try all this out. BTW, does the player has access to the "Ballista" weapon when he first encounters this BOSS ?

I think "ballista" comes later on ? :unsure:
Yes both Ballista and Super Shotgun are available before the first encounter with the Marauder. You pick up the SSG in the 3rd mission Cultist Base, via the Revenant Drone. You pick up the Ballista after the 4th mission Doom Hunter Base when you get back to the Fortress of Doom (Vega will notify you).

The first appearance of the Marauder isn't until the end of the 6th mission ARC Complex.

Thanks for the kind words, but I've often felt quite awkward playing this game, and still do at times until I've played a mission to death to re-familiarize myself with the spawn ins. My memory is only getting worse as I get older.

For those quick enough, there's even a way to keep the Marauder stunned by dashing behind him and shooting him in the back each time after the first green eyed shot that stuns him. I tried it numerous times and failed though.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Metal Messiah.
I think dashing behind this BOSS and shooting him in the back is going to be kind of tough though, lol.
Well it certainly was for me on Ultra Violence, though some make it look easy.

I would recommend trying quick swapping SSG and Ballista if he's been a struggle for you. I sometimes manage to get in 3 shots now per attack. It helps a lot to bind the weapon wheel key to something you don't have to use with your movement keys hand. I bound it to one of my mouse thumb buttons.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Metal Messiah.