Car/FPS games

Lots of games today are sandbox games where you can drive a car, shoot people, run around and do just what you feel like doing, but what was the first game you played where you could actually get out of your car run around and shoot people?

Read about Redline 2 today, and I remembered Redline, that was the first driving/FPS game I played. Was pretty good IIRC, atleast by my 1999 standards. Also, Driver 2 where you could actually get out of the car was a pretty big thing. Or Battlefield 1942, where you had an immense freedom, drive cars, motorcycles, tanks, airplanes, submarines, destroyers, remote controlled rockets... Made a few headlines back in the days because of that freedom, now we expect it from all FPS games.

 

Technocop in 1989 or 1990 was a really shit Mega Drive game that let you drive your car then get out and shoot people :nod:

Yakumo

 

I was talking about FPS games with lots of freedom though, like precursors to sandbox games.

 

Would Body Harvest count?

If we're bending the rules then Blaster Master beats that by a year or two

 

Sure would! Almost forgotten about Body Harvest, but it was one of my fav games for N64. It's actually a very good example of a precursor to the modern sandbox games, as it was created by DMA.

 

If we're talking about precursors of GTA style sandbox games, Quarantine definitely deserves a mention too.

 

I remember the first time I played Operation Flashpoint, that game had an incredible amount of freedom compared to any other FPS I had ever played up until that point: there was a huge map in every mission with no artificial limits and you could use all sorts of vehicles (this was before BF1942, for example). Feels weird to think that it's already been 10 years since that.
Nowadays I couldn't care less about realistic military FPSes...or FPS games in general.

 

Zelda on the NES was the first sand box game..you could also shoot swords at people, pretty unique.

 

If we're going to spread the umbrella that broadly, Elite for the Beeb or even Adventure (the original PDP-10 text adventure) probably count as "sandbox".

 

that's right, there's plenty of sand in those boxes by now. They're unplayable by today's standards

 

This has been released on the Amiga 500 also if my memory serves me right, had a lot of gore back then.

 

I went on a bit of a text adventure stint a while back just to find out what it was all about, pretty sure I sampled Adventure but I can't remember much about it. Anyway I wouldn't describe them as "unplayable" but they're definitely their own entity away from graphical gaming.

Elite is pretty rough today, though, sure.

 

I remember the days that I'd sit in an empty room with the its most interesting aspect being a blinking cursor on a monochrome screen. Certainly anything that barely qualified as a "game", ie a pass time to challenge and entertain was instantly fun.

The more you experience though the more you refine your taste and up your standards I guess.. The only memorable typing adventure game I liked was Softporn which I played AFTER having finished Leisure Suit Larry 1.

 

Since the question asked about a game that would feature both first person shooter view and the ability to able to drive vehicles, It would probably come down to Battlefield 1942. That was the first game I played that featured both first person and the ability to drive vehicles and such. The first game that I played that featured driving cars and just walking around in general, would be the first Grand Theft Auto. I was immediately hooked when it came out, I can still remember, it was one hell of a game, even though most people (mainly critics) said the game was too violent, still had a lot of fun with it.

The best one in my opinion would of have been either Grand Theft Auto: III or Vice City, both great games both featured great story driven campaign but most importantly both were fun to play in general, the new Grand Theft Auto IV just didn't cut it for me, it got boring too soon and it felt like the campaign dragged on for quite a bit, and there weren't many memorable moments like in III, Vice City or even San Andreas. Too much realism was put in, that lost some points in my book. The two downloadable content packs weren't that good either they had some good aspects in it like the parachute or the selection of new weapons but that was only in Ballad of Gay Tony. I don't know about others I just felt too restricted in IV, felt nothing like other Grand Theft Auto's, and I'm not talking about the engine or the graphics or the multiplayer, just the general fun you used to have when causing chaos across Vice City or the old Liberty City, the things you normally wouldn't do in real life. Hopefully Rockstar will listen to the output of the community and implement some improvements in the new Grand Theft Auto.

The most fun I ever had with a game that featured both fun and free roaming would be Just Cause 2, all I have to say - best sandbox type game out for a console. (Well for me, anyway).

 

Ever wondered why Vice City has a C64 loading screen homage? there where probably earlier games too before that but i'm too young to remember them.

http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,13382/

 

Wasn't it Vice City that had the retro loader at the start?

 

Man...Miami Vice was such a terrible game.

 

I don't know, Elite Plus for PC and Amiga is relatively playable. Personally, I'm still a huge fan of Frontier: Elite II, and find it still very playable (although any newcomers should find a copy of the manual and read the tutorial. I know one guy who didn't and ended up totally baffled because it is quite icon-driven.)

 

I loved Frontier when I was a kid. Though I can barely remember what it plays like now, to be honest.

Apparently Elite Plus came out seven years after the original, so I'm not entirely surprised it fixed things up a bit

 

People putting Battlefield 1942 (as great as it is) over Tribes makes me sad Shazbot