ALL TIME HITS

Considered the best first-person shooter to date, Half-Life changed the way developers and gamers thought about the genre, and its influence is still strong today. Through a series of subtle and artistic design decisions, Half-Life creates a reality that is self-contained, believable, and thoroughly engaging. As scientist Gordon Freeman, you are involved in an experiment that goes awry and soon, aliens are everywhere. In this nightmare come to life, you must fight your way out of the mayhem that surrounds you.

GameSpot's action game of the year 1999 is widely regarded as one the best first-person shooters to date. Unreal Tournament strips away most of the single-player game in favor of fast and furious multiplayer combat. It has great-looking textures, interesting environments, and consistently strong level design, not to mention a variety of weapons and game types. Best of all, it still looks and plays great today.

Since its release at the very end of 1998, Starsiege Tribes has remained one of the single most popular multiplayer shooters available. Its innovative gameplay emphasizes team tactics, deliberate strategies, and territorial conflicts set across very expansive environments. In spite of the release of Tribes 2 earlier this year, many players still prefer the original for its extremely smooth frame-rates and solid networking code.

In this campy and humorous take on '60s spy themes, you play as Cate Archer, a smart and sassy operative who must undertake missions that take her all over the world. From its stylish, colorful level designs to its comical dialogue, and from its impressive enemy artificial intelligence to its stealth features, No One Lives Forever appeared almost out of nowhere and earned widespread critical acclaim and our best action game of the year awar.

Aliens vs. Predator may be a traditional shooter, but its success lies in its re-creation of the sense of dread from the sci-fi movies and its rendering of three distinct viewpoints: the human marine, the predator, and the alien. You can control any of these in either the game's single-player or multiplayer modes. Aliens vs. Predator would definitely a good addition to your action collection, especially if you're a fan of the movies.

Everyone remembers Quake, so what could be better than the game that made deathmatch a household word? Quake II. Id Software took some elements and perhaps a few lessons from the original and shaped the sequel to provide levels quite varied in terms of architectural composition, style, and setting, and they include plenty of opportunities for ambush, sniping, and close-quarter encounters that make deathmatch so fun.

Descent 3 is the most successful, most visually impressive installment in the innovative series, in which you pilot a nimble anti-gravity craft through a series of winding, dangerous environments. The game includes excellent single-player levels, as well as a full set of multiplayer options. Moreover, Descent 3 is gore-free and can be enjoyed by younger players. Last but not least, Descent 3 marks the return of guidebot, your trusty sidekick who helps you navigate the levels.

One of the most famous characters in first-person shooters gained his popularity in this game where over-the-top weapons and action, coupled with a raunchy sense of humor, entertained players who were hungry for something different and unusual. Once you have played this classic, you'll never forget Duke, and it's the perfect game to tide you over as you wait for the next Duke game, Duke Nukem Forever, to be released this fall.

Upon its release, Quake caught some criticism for its lack of story and its use of earthy colors, but it was nevertheless a landmark game that showed off the possibilities of hardware-accelerated graphics and a fast and brilliant multiplayer game. It's remained a formative experience for a generation of adrenaline-addicted action gamers. Quake is a true classic that started a legacy, and it absolutely belongs in the library of every serious first-person shooter collector.