Roll The List #5: Kyle’s Take 1

Head to Head Cult Video Game Shooter

Often Dalton and I seem to agree. We like the same junk food, hobbies, and we share our taste in women… because we both like them. This week we battle over why Dalton’s favorite cult shooter farmhouse, Counter-strike, is bad. In reality, any game is better Counter-Strike and I’ll get into the reason why shortly. However,  in the spirit of the season (or just the list), I choose my favorite shooter as well. Without further adu here is why the Unreal Tournament franchise is better than the Counter-strike franchise.

Let’s start off with presented milieu of the each games and how well they fit in. Dalton and I both played Counter-Strike a lot, just like many of the other people in our generation who call ourselves gamers. Counter-strike pits a team of counter-terrorists against a team of terrorists trying to perform various terrorist style deeds.

Unreal Tournament is a sci-fi shooter game that pits individuals or teams of individuals against each other in a bloody super death match of death. The problem here is that even though the environment for both of these games is so different they both play the exact same way. In Unreal Tournament expect you kill to death ratio to be about 1. The game is so fast pace that you will probably die a lot. However, this does not make it any less fun. Dying, respawing, and getting revenge is the fun part of Unreal Tournament. Double kills, triple kills, and killing sprees started in this game. It is awesome, fast pace, and exciting and yes… just yes.

Unfortunately, Counter-Strike plays a very similar way. This is unfortunate because you would expect a more tactical team based play, but no, you die a lot and your plans usually don’t work. Not living up to the presented style of game is one main reason Unreal Tournament is better but let’s get a bit more specific.

When you are playing Counter-Strike you get to choose your weapon layout. This was a big deal because many games were still using the pick-up-the-stuff-off-the-people-you-kill mechanic. However, the guns don’t work exactly the way you would ever expect. If anyone reading this has ever played Counter-Strike they know I am talking about the Uzi.

THIS FUCKING GUN:

Whoever programmed this game must have been sadistic. An Uzi has not ever been known for its accuracy. I am fairly sure that there is just a percentage chance every bullet fired from this gun will get you a head-shot kill. Compare this to the Flak Cannon from Unreal Tournament. This gun is just the best because it is like a super shotgun. It fires red hot shrapnel to murder everything in front of you.

The Flak Cannon feels like it should do, partially because it doesn’t exist in real life. The Uzi is 9mm sub-machine gun that feels like it uses a d20 and is stacking critical hit effects… that was a bit nerdy let me try again. The Uzi is a 9mm sub-machine gun that feels like it has a fixed percentage chance to insta-kill people. This is dumb, period.

Counter-Strike is not inherently a bad game it is just not the game you think you are going to play. Unreal Tournament has no issues being what it has told you it was going to be. That is my concise head to head this week. Good luck and don’t forget to tell me how wrong I am :).