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Discussion Switch FPS Appreciation & Recommendation Thread

manfromthedam

manfromthedam

Semi Undercover Game Music Guy
First thread! 💪

One of the biggest Switch surprises to me is the prominence of (first person) shooters on Switch. Ever since Doom 2016 pioneered the space on Switch there's been so many quality releases on the platform, from retro on one hand to Crysis on the other.

As someone who can't get enough of old-school PC FPS (Unreal Tournament '99 comes to mind) but doesn't feel like sitting behind the PC for my gaming, Switch has been a blessing. My favourites:

  • Quake Remastered: impeccable enemy design, reams of content, decent port (despite some inexplicable framerate issues here and there).
  • Doom 2016: The seminal single-player arena shooter. Shoutout to Eternal for not messing it up too much, and adding some neat mechanics and fantastic levels. Both ports are chef's kiss.
  • Neon White: endorphin incarnate. Fast, elegant, colourful and vertical. Great port. Awful but skippable narrative.

Any recommendations from you, Fami? Shooters I enjoy most are fast-paced, vertical and non-military.
 
Never thought i could play Crysis, Bioshock and Doom on a Nintendo console. Additional on a portable HD Handheld too...

To make it pitch perfect give me Metroid Prime and Halo Trilogie ;-)
 
mazi said:
doom 2016 on switch is magnificent, really enjoyed it. should play eternal one of these days.
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You won't regret it, but I'd advice a). to skip all the cutscenes, because the story completely misses the mark especially compared to 2016's supreme tone, and b). drop the difficulty down at least a step from the one you played 2016 at. Eternal is much more unforgiving, and not always in a fair way.

Other than that, it's a blast.
 
boris_feinbrand said:
Eh. Couldn't even bring myself to finish it. Personally I'd stay away from it.

For me the classic Doom releases, including 3 and 64 along with Quake are the highlights. The borderland ports are also great if you like that sort of looter shooter.
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If he like doom 2016 on Switch, Eternal is a must play under my opinion
 
Ojoloco said:
If he like doom 2016 on Switch, Eternal is a must play under my opinion
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Love Doom 2016. Own it on PC and Switch and have over 90 hours in each version.

Couldn't stomach Eternals needlessly convoluted combat and predictable and tiresome encounter design. By the time I reached the final bosses I was so over it I just dropped it and never returned.

Second biggest purchase regret in years, only behind Age of Calamity.
 
boris_feinbrand said:
For me the classic Doom releases, including 3 and 64 along with Quake are the highlights. The borderland ports are also great if you like that sort of looter shooter.
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I adore Quake, but the original Doom games are a little too rudimentary for me. Cautiously interested in Doom 3 though - how does it compare to Quake? I know back in the day it wasn't considered that great a game with the flashlight, slow tempo and monster closets.
 
Only really played Doom 2016 as far as FPS games on Switch go, which was fanatastic.

While gyro really helps it’s not that comfortable to use when I play handheld (which is like 90% of the time), so I tend to stick to KB+M for any first person games. Not that I play a lot of them in the first place.
 
manfromthedam said:
I adore Quake, but the original Doom games are a little too rudimentary for me. Cautiously interested in Doom 3 though - how does it compare to Quake? I know back in the day it wasn't considered that great a game with the flashlight, slow tempo and monster closets.
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Doom 3 has more in common with Half Life/Resident Evil than the OG Doom or Quake games. It has a linear story progression with cutscenes and audio logs as opposed to level based structure per se. It's a first person horror shooter. The BFG re-release made the game much better, by allowing you to have both flashlight and weapon at the same time.

The Switch release of Doom3 and it's expansions is great and I actually enjoyed it more than the OG on PC back then. (Granted my PC at the time almost crapped out trying to run the game lol)
 
meatbag said:
While gyro really helps it’s not that comfortable to use when I play handheld (which is like 90% of the time), so I tend to stick to KB+M for any first person games. Not that I play a lot of them in the first place.
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Yeah, I'd agree to an extent. I played Doom Eternal in tabletop mode with the Pro Controller. Other FPS games can be fine in handheld - Quake for example. Maybe that game needed less fine aim adjustments than Eternal or 2016.

boris_feinbrand said:
The Switch release of Doom3 and it's expansions is great and I actually enjoyed it more than the OG on PC back then. (Granted my PC at the time almost crapped out trying to run the game lol)
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Hmm, so if I just want to jump around quickly and mow down demons, skipping the narrative, this is probably not for me. A shame because the port seems to be great.
 
manfromthedam said:
Yeah, I'd agree to an extent. I played Doom Eternal in tabletop mode with the Pro Controller. Other FPS games can be fine in handheld - Quake for example. Maybe that game needed less fine aim adjustments than Eternal or 2016.


Hmm, so if I just want to jump around quickly and mow down demons, skipping the narrative, this is probably not for me. A shame because the port seems to be great.
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Nah that's still fine. The story gets out of your way pretty fast. It's not as obnoxious as in Eternal.
Besides you can ignore most of the optional logs anyway so you are only stuck watching some short cutscenes.
 
why first person specifically 😔

(jk, splatoon deserves its own thread)

Neon White is great, I played it on PC but I heard it plays well on Switch too.
 
Lucyfer said:
why first person specifically 😔

(jk, splatoon deserves its own thread)

Neon White is great, I played it on PC but I heard it plays well on Switch too.
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Good question. I'm not particularly against third person, just have had most experience with first-person. I really enjoy the way the scenery passes by with a first-person perspective, and you have all screen real estate devoted to the environment.
 
Wish there were recommendations of FPS games with online multiplayer. It's why I was so excited about a potential Halo port, even if it was just the first game instead of the MCC, or the GoldenEye remaster if the world didn't go to shit.

As it stands I feel like the only game that came close to capturing the experience I wanted was Morphie's Law, but I believe that's a third person shooter.

I really hope TimeSplitters makes a comeback before long since the announcement Free Radical Design was spun up again back in May 2021
 
Brofield said:
Wish there were recommendations of FPS games with online multiplayer. It's why I was so excited about a potential Halo port, even if it was just the first game instead of the MCC, or the GoldenEye remaster if the world didn't go to shit.

As it stands I feel like the only game that came close to capturing the experience I wanted was Morphie's Law, but I believe that's a third person shooter.

I really hope TimeSplitters makes a comeback before long since the announcement Free Radical Design was spun up again back in May 2021
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Quake has amazing online MP on Switch. So does Turok2. In fact I need to really return to its horde mode.
 
boris_feinbrand said:
The Switch release of Doom3 and it's expansions is great and I actually enjoyed it more than the OG on PC back then. (Granted my PC at the time almost crapped out trying to run the game lol)
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Doom 3 is actually a good demo for FPS on switch because you can pick it up for $3 on sales.

I purchased that and Bioshock, which gave me enough of an experience to tell that I find it incredibly difficult to play FPS games on the switch lite.
 
Koyota said:
Doom 3 is actually a good demo for FPS on switch because you can pick it up for $3 on sales.

I purchased that and Bioshock, which gave me enough of an experience to tell that I find it incredibly difficult to play FPS games on the switch lite.
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Oh yeah absolutely. Also runs like a champ and the stencil shadow look has aged amazingly well and looks outstanding on the portable screen.
 
On top of the games already listed Call Of Jaurez: Gunslinger and Bulletstorm are both incredible.

The Crysis games are not quite as good but technically and visually very impressive by Switch standards,
 
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I have all of the Doom releases on Switch, and they are all great. The originals are all very good ports, and they added a ton of mods that you can play in them as well. There's a ton of content there. Doom 3 is great, but it's not a typical Doom. It's more focused on the atmosphere, but I honestly think it gets better with age. I like it more now then I did when it came out, and I bought a brand new pc just to play it when it first released. Doom Eternal is just fantastic, but be warned, it's gets damn hard. Especially the first DLC chapter. Honestly though, I think it's the best shooter to come out in years.

The Metro games are some of my favorite games of all time, and they play absolutely wonderfully on the Switch. One thing to note, Metro Last Light is censored on Switch. It doesn't affect anything in terms of, well, anything really, but I noticed it and I couldn't find out why it was censored. I think it was something to do with being based on the Japanese PS4 version, but I couldn't find anything definitive. Again though, it doesn't matter and the Switch is my preferred way to play Metro. Bring on Exodus dammit!

The Turok games are fantastic as well. Nightdive did everything I wanted with them: kept them the exact same content wise, bumped up resolution, cleaned the textures, added some QOL stuff like objective markers and dual stick controls, and gyro aiming. I was actually able to complete Turok without using any cheats or any guides. I'm currently working my way through 2 as well, and it's a much less confusing play. It can still be confusing though, some of the levels are mazes, but it's much easier to get around.

I also want to recommend a couple others that I won't go into as much detail with. Duke Nukem has a ton of content and it's also a great port. Ion Fury is a great throwback to games like Duke Nukem, and I highly recommend it. Project Warlock is a lot of fun. It took me a while to get into it, but once I figured out how things work and a better strategy, it really opened up to me and I had a great time with it. I went from getting killed within minutes to making it through 4-5 levels barely losing any health. Dusk is also a wonderful throwback shooter, and it mostly resembles Quake, with a ton of Blood influences.
 
I loved Dusk on PC and it was one of the key factors in the retro fps revival. I haven’t played the Switch port, but by all accounts (literally just the Digital Foundry video) it’s very solid and I bet gyro helps a ton for fast boomer shooters.
 
boris_feinbrand said:
Love Doom 2016. Own it on PC and Switch and have over 90 hours in each version.

Couldn't stomach Eternals needlessly convoluted combat and predictable and tiresome encounter design. By the time I reached the final bosses I was so over it I just dropped it and never returned.

Second biggest purchase regret in years, only behind Age of Calamity.
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well it's a shame you didn't like it.
 
Slappywag said:
I have all of the Doom releases on Switch, and they are all great. The originals are all very good ports, and they added a ton of mods that you can play in them as well. There's a ton of content there. Doom 3 is great, but it's not a typical Doom. It's more focused on the atmosphere, but I honestly think it gets better with age. I like it more now then I did when it came out, and I bought a brand new pc just to play it when it first released. Doom Eternal is just fantastic, but be warned, it's gets damn hard. Especially the first DLC chapter. Honestly though, I think it's the best shooter to come out in years.

The Metro games are some of my favorite games of all time, and they play absolutely wonderfully on the Switch. One thing to note, Metro Last Light is censored on Switch. It doesn't affect anything in terms of, well, anything really, but I noticed it and I couldn't find out why it was censored. I think it was something to do with being based on the Japanese PS4 version, but I couldn't find anything definitive. Again though, it doesn't matter and the Switch is my preferred way to play Metro. Bring on Exodus dammit!

The Turok games are fantastic as well. Nightdive did everything I wanted with them: kept them the exact same content wise, bumped up resolution, cleaned the textures, added some QOL stuff like objective markers and dual stick controls, and gyro aiming. I was actually able to complete Turok without using any cheats or any guides. I'm currently working my way through 2 as well, and it's a much less confusing play. It can still be confusing though, some of the levels are mazes, but it's much easier to get around.

I also want to recommend a couple others that I won't go into as much detail with. Duke Nukem has a ton of content and it's also a great port. Ion Fury is a great throwback to games like Duke Nukem, and I highly recommend it. Project Warlock is a lot of fun. It took me a while to get into it, but once I figured out how things work and a better strategy, it really opened up to me and I had a great time with it. I went from getting killed within minutes to making it through 4-5 levels barely losing any health. Dusk is also a wonderful throwback shooter, and it mostly resembles Quake, with a ton of Blood influences.
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Thanks for the recommendations, didn't know a few of those!

I'm not big on narrative in games and want to get to the action quick. Which of your picks would suit that? Metro looks impressive but seems to have been bitten by the Walking And Talking school of shooter design spider :p .
 
manfromthedam said:
Thanks for the recommendations, didn't know a few of those!

I'm not big on narrative in games and want to get to the action quick. Which of your picks would suit that? Metro looks impressive but seems to have been bitten by the Walking And Talking school of shooter design spider :p .
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Definitely Ion Fury and Project Warlock. They just jump right in. Duke Nukem goes along with those, as those golden era shooters just jump you right in and tell the story as it goes. Turok does as well. The first game has a couple of cutscenes, but it's not much. The story plays out as you go. Turok 2 has more cutscenes, but it's mostly just shooting and puzzle solving. These are lighter on action then the others I mentioned, but it still gives a pretty good challenge and it's also basically gun porn. I probably should have mentioned that with Turok. The guns are what put the game from good to great. There are some fantastic weapons, and one of them is legendary. You may know which one I'm talking about, but if not, I don't want to spoil it for you. It's in Turok 2 btw. Good luck with these and I hope you find some good games for you!
 
Borderlands 1, 2 and the Pre-Sequel are all on Switch and a pretty good ports all things considered. Having one of my fav games of all time (Borderlands 2) in portable format is quite juicy all told.

Been enjoying some of the retro releases too, like the Turok games and Quake.
 
Slappywag said:
Definitely Ion Fury and Project Warlock. They just jump right in. Duke Nukem goes along with those, as those golden era shooters just jump you right in and tell the story as it goes. Turok does as well. The first game has a couple of cutscenes, but it's not much. The story plays out as you go. Turok 2 has more cutscenes, but it's mostly just shooting and puzzle solving. These are lighter on action then the others I mentioned, but it still gives a pretty good challenge and it's also basically gun porn. I probably should have mentioned that with Turok. The guns are what put the game from good to great. There are some fantastic weapons, and one of them is legendary. You may know which one I'm talking about, but if not, I don't want to spoil it for you. It's in Turok 2 btw. Good luck with these and I hope you find some good games for you!
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Thanks so much for the recommendations. Never played Duke Nukem, but I enjoyed Quake so much last year (had never played it before!) that I'm convinced some games age like wine. Will give that a try, as well as Turok and maybe Warlock Doom 3! Will reserve Ion Fury for if I enjoy Duke Nukem.
 
manfromthedam said:
Thanks so much for the recommendations. Never played Duke Nukem, but I enjoyed Quake so much last year (had never played it before!) that I'm convinced some games age like wine. Will give that a try, as well as Turok and maybe Warlock Doom 3! Will reserve Ion Fury for if I enjoy Duke Nukem.
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Good call on all of those! I'm 39 and I've been gaming since Wolfenstien was first released, so you can ask this old man anything about those retro shooters lol. I still remember loading these games up on multiple floppy discs, or tying up the phone line while trying to play Doom with my friends. There's some good stuff out there and I hope that I've helped you find some new fun! Also, what a fun thread. Everyone has lots of good suggestions that I didn't even know! Thanks for that OP!!
 
DOOM 64.

Such a different vibe but still a great shooter. Immaculate port that even does N64 three-point texture filtering correctly. I personally disabled gyro aim on it and DOOM '93 though, feels weird. Meanwhile, gyro aim on DOOM '16 and Eternal are perfect.

Allow me to post my preemptive appreciation for a theoretical Half Life 2 port, as well. Well, not theoretical since it got softmodded into the Portal port! Please Valve.
 
Serif said:
DOOM 64.

Such a different vibe but still a great shooter. Immaculate port that even does N64 three-point texture filtering correctly. I personally disabled gyro aim on it and DOOM '93 though, feels weird. Meanwhile, gyro aim on DOOM '16 and Eternal are perfect.

Allow me to post my preemptive appreciation for a theoretical Half Life 2 port, as well. Well, not theoretical since it got softmodded into the Portal port! Please Valve.
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Got 64 for free with Eternal, but couldn't get into it. Got lost very quickly 😅. I don't really jive with classic Doom, probably because of the lack of verticality. Being able to jump around, see crossing paths and stuff like that makes classic FPS extra fun to me.

Half-life 2 I'd play for sure! Super interesting vibes in that game.
 
Ojoloco said:
well it's a shame you didn't like it.
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Tell me about it. Doom 2016 is one of my all time top 10 games. It's basically perfect. I was extremely let down by Eternal. I know people liked the new combat loop, but for me it was much more restrictive and felt like busy work rather than fun.

That being said, the Switch port is extremely well done and runs much more steady than 2016.
So I can at least recommend it on its technical merits.

Also, the game definitely has its moments. And the new glory kills are an absolute riot.
 
boris_feinbrand said:
Tell me about it. Doom 2016 is one of my all time top 10 games. It's basically perfect. I was extremely let down by Eternal. I know people liked the new combat loop, but for me it was much more restrictive and felt like busy work rather than fun.

That being said, the Switch port is extremely well done and runs much more steady than 2016.
So I can at least recommend it on its technical merits.

Also, the game definitely has its moments. And the new glory kills are an absolute riot.
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I completely agree with you. Eternal dropped the ball hard on narrative and player expression. Having "good answers" (MARAUDER, Pinky, Cacodemon) is not fun to me. It's story writers also do not understand at all what made 2016's great.

Ultimately what made it fun for me was skipping all cutscenes and dropping the difficulty one step. My first ultraviolence run was frustrating, but dropping the difficulty afterwards made it much better. I ultimately completed a Nightmare run and now consider it a good game, but 2016 still has the crown for being more freeform in it's challenge.

Glory kills I'm not too fond of. They break the flow, and also having the chainsaw is redundant.
 
Dusk is absolutely essential for anyone with any fondness at all for old school shooters.

It perfectly nails the vibe of the Doom and Quake era, runs and controls as smooth as silk, and is just great fun all around.
 
Anyone got experience with Strange Brigade? Have heard that studio does great Switch ports. It's third-person though.
curl-6 said:
Dusk is absolutely essential for anyone with any fondness at all for old school shooters.

It perfectly nails the vibe of the Doom and Quake era, runs and controls as smooth as silk, and is just great fun all around.
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You know, I bought it upon it's Switch release but it didn't really click with me. It might be the level design. Will have to give it another try.
bixente said:
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Wut, never heard of this but it looks real good :O . Getting some nice FEAR vibes. So far this thread has been a success!
 
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I'm goign to add the sniper elite series here. Even though you control it in 3rd person all the sniping and shooting is in firts person and its very good. You can even modify the difficulty to make it very arcade or more real for the shooting physics
 
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is a masterpiece. Looks amazing on the Switch, you can't even believe it's a Switch game on docked mode. Has a great story, gameplay is good, difficult can be both forgiving and challenging. I highly recommend y'all to try it. Gyro aiming rules too!!

Doom Eternal is on the last day of a very good sale on Brazilian eShop, I have enough funds to buy it or it + the dlcs. I don't know if I buy it or not. I was saving to either get a Nintendo 1st party game(SM3DW+BF or any Xenoblade whenever they go on sale) or Shin Megami Tensei V (whenever it gets another sale, tho I might get it on Argentine eShop as it's cheaper), but Doom Eternal sounds like a game I can have hours of fun with and maybe play with friends. The thing stopping me is 33gb tho.
 
ermitron2 said:
I'm goign to add the sniper elite series here. Even though you control it in 3rd person all the sniping and shooting is in firts person and its very good. You can even modify the difficulty to make it very arcade or more real for the shooting physics
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Any experience with Strange Brigade, from the same dev (I think)? That one looked like it could be arcady fun.
Chaos Theory said:
Overwatch is the best, and arguably only good FPS on Switch.
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Would love to hear your arguments :p . If you mean multi-player then sure.
Marce-chan said:
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is a masterpiece. Looks amazing on the Switch, you can't even believe it's a Switch game on docked mode. Has a great story, gameplay is good, difficult can be both forgiving and challenging. I highly recommend y'all to try it. Gyro aiming rules too!!

Doom Eternal is on the last day of a very good sale on Brazilian eShop, I have enough funds to buy it or it + the dlcs. I don't know if I buy it or not. I was saving to either get a Nintendo 1st party game(SM3DW+BF or any Xenoblade whenever they go on sale) or Shin Megami Tensei V (whenever it gets another sale, tho I might get it on Argentine eShop as it's cheaper), but Doom Eternal sounds like a game I can have hours of fun with and maybe play with friends. The thing stopping me is 33gb tho.
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Wolf 2 had some dubious difficulty and level design quirks right? Those might be ironed out. How much of a run-and-gun skipping cutscenes kinda game is it? I love Machine Games' Quake level pack.

Eternal is great, but the DLCs are only for those who finished it and wanted more. It can be kinda of an exhausting game, so I'm not sure if you like it enough to want more after finishing the base game =P . Multiplayer is a different beast entirely, and I don't have experience with that mode ("Battlemode").
 
manfromthedam said:
Wolf 2 had some dubious difficulty and level design quirks right? Those might be ironed out. How much of a run-and-gun skipping cutscenes kinda game is it? I love Machine Games' Quake level pack.

Eternal is great, but the DLCs are only for those who finished it and wanted more. It can be kinda of an exhausting game, so I'm not sure if you like it enough to want more after finishing the base game =P . Multiplayer is a different beast entirely, and I don't have experience with that mode ("Battlemode").
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I wasn't ironic looool. I didn't really feel like the game was unbalanced or something like that. BUT the last missions were kinda waaaayyyy harder than everything before, so you turn the difficulty down one level and you just go through and end the game, so I can see why it was criticized. I rented the game so I went as fast as I could to finish it in 7 days lol(then rented one more week).

I have to choose whether I'll get the game or not lol. Will watch some more reviews.
 
manfromthedam said:
Would love to hear your arguments :p . If you mean multi-player then sure.
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Hmm, true, at least Bioshock 1 and 2, Bulletstorm and Turok exist on Switch if you're really desperate for an FPS. Otherwise, I'm not a big fan of boomer shooters such as DOOM or Quake; Crysis is style over substance; Apex is a failed port; and while Void Bastards and Journey to a Savage Planet seemed to have ok ideas, they're ultimately 5/6 out of 10 games.

Overwatch is leagues above everything else, and it's kind of sad.
 
Chaos Theory said:
Hmm, true, at least Bioshock 1 and 2, Bulletstorm and Turok exist on Switch if you're really desperate for an FPS. Otherwise, I'm not a big fan of boomer shooters such as DOOM or Quake; Crysis is style over substance; Apex is a failed port; and while Void Bastards and Journey to a Savage Planet seemed to have ok ideas, they're ultimately 5/6 out of 10 games.

Overwatch is leagues above everything else, and it's kind of sad.
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Oh, old-school FPS (boomer shooter blergh, i'm 34 for christ sake :p) is the kind of shooter I'm kinda explicitly interested in so I think our tastes diverge here.
 
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I would buy all three Bioshock games if they would have gyro controls. I don't get why they don't have it.

Any opinions on Crysis games on Switch?

It is not really fully a shooter but I have to bring up Alien Isolation. Great port of a great game. It perfectly brings Alien movies to video games.
 
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