by infantpipoc
Best first person action, best shooters and best action game across VGA, VGX and TGA
Ever since id Software put out Wolfenstien 3D way back when, video games started to show their worlds through the scopes of guns. With such limited yet immersive perspective, first-person shooters, not pornography, were pushing PC hardware forward back in 1990s. The momentum continued in the aughts until over-the-shoulder orthodoxy arrived.
Spike Video Game Awards started at a time when momentum for FPS was still around in 2003, hence the category called Best First Person Action Game. Yet this category evolved as industry landscape changed. After Spike TV pulled out and developers started to show real time twitch focused from other perspective, the “long-gone” category Best Action Game returned in the year 2016 and awaits its 10th winner here in the year 2025. With or without guns, here are the best action games for Keighley and pals.
Showing 1-10 of 22 items
Best First Person Action Spike Video Game Awards 2003 Outgunned Battlefield 1942: Secret Weapons of WWII, Chrome, Halo: Combat Evolved for PC, PlanetSide, Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield, Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Tides of War, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Island Thunder and XIII The Call of Duty franchise was blessed from its very inception. T rating for the first installment is among those. Not to forget the innovation it brought into the genre since it was among the earliest twitchy shooter that let one aim the sight. And clearly this monkey shaped trophy helped. Though putting it up against 3 expansion packs, a PC port and something yours truly never even heard of before, it’s bit too easy.
Best First Person Action Spike Video Game Awards 2004 Outgunned Doom 3, Far Cry, Half-Life 2 and Unreal Tournament 2004 I do not see Halo 2 as the killer app for the original Xbox console since the bloody thing just dropped dead 4 years into its life cycle. Instead, it’s the killer app for the Xbox Live online service since said service is still alive (Cannot in good conscience call it “well”.) today. It must be those who started the habit of “’one more round’ on Xbox Live until four in morning” with Halo 2 gasped at Gears of War losing Game of the Year in a couple of years.
Best First Person Action Spike Video Game Awards 2005 Outgunned Call of Duty 2, Far Cry Instincts, Battlefield 2 and Perfect Dark Zero Greg Kasavin called First Encounter Assault Recon “the best first-person combat” in 2010 and that man worked on this very category’s winner of 2020. The combination of satisfying weapons, conning enemy AI and slow-motion, this truly is the last hurrah of FPS before over-the-shoulder came and stirred shit up. Well, the dull ghost corridors soon before credits roll aside, I might add.
Best Shooter Spike Video Game Awards 2006 Outgunned Black, Prey (2006), Half Life 2: Episode One and Call of Duty 3 Console war fueling time! While more Playstation exclusives won at the Keighley’s, the award shows really only had bent their rules for titles put out by Microsoft. The Game Awards did so in 2020 with the ridiculously named “Best Sim/Staegy Game” category, while VGA did so more reasonably with “Best Shooter” in 2006. Funny. While we mostly associate “left trigger, right trigger” with first-person shooters, this early acolyte of over-the-shoulder orthodoxy was the one really popularized the control scheme even beyond the shooter genre.
Best Shooter Spike Video Game Awards 2007 Outgunned BioShock, Halo 3 and The Orange Box I always think the very first Modern Warfare ate the third Halo’s lunch in 2007. Turns out a monkey shaped trophy is among the courses. Also, one cannot help but think how VGA has spread the myth of “multiplayer games are taking over from singleplayer” while 2 singleplayer games with lengthy stories were nominated and lost.
Best Shooter Spike Video Game Awards 2008 Outgunned Far Cry 2, Resistance 2 and Left 4 Dead Keighley’s can sometimes be a creature of habit, and 2008 is among such times when sequel to genre category winner won as well. It’s not to say that Gears 2 did not deserve it as this sequel opened the flood gate for improvements. Player character can be picked up by friendly NPC and continue the fight even when playing solo being one of the bigger ones. No wonder Jeff Grestmann loathed Gears of Wars Ultimate for not bringing all those mechanics into the first game.
Best Shooter Spike Video Game Awards 2009 Outgunned Halo 3: ODST, Killzone 2 and Left 4 Dead 2 This creature’s habit stroke again. This was also the beginning of a COD fish’s 3 years long win streak. Too bad the same fish got a reputation of being sticky to its formula since then.
Best Shooter Spike Video Game Awards 2010 Outgunned Battlefield: Bad Company 2, BioShock 2 and Halo: Reach This might be the only time I got 2 dogs in this fight, as I played a lot of multiplayer matches in both Bad Company 2 and Reach in 2010. But habit was a strong thing, and Spike TV did want to help in the spreading of the COD myth.
Best Shooter Spike Video Game Awards 2011 Outgunned Battlefield 3, Gears of War 3 and RAGE Got to help out the new developers, heh, Mr. Keighley?
Best Shooter Spike Video Game Awards 2012 Outgunned Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Halo 4 and Max Payne 3 The only time a looter-shooter won a Keighley’s for best shooter. Cannot fault for it having the most amount of guns, except most of those are not fun to shoot.