A visual history of first-person shooters in 3 carnage-filled minutes

We’d never go full Tipper Gore on anyone and argue in favor of video game censorship by claiming they corrupt our impressionable youth, but you gotta admit, it is a bit strange how much we’ve always loved inhabiting virtual bodies made explicitly to kill and violently maim our digital enemies. Don’t believe us? Well, take a trip down a very bloody memory lane with this excellent montage of some of video games’ best first-person shooters.

Troubling? Maybe. Badass? Absolutely. Beginning with 1973's Maze War, this three-minute compilation by YouTuber 4096 hits some of the genre’s explosive highs, such as Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Doom, Quake, 007 GoldenEye, going all the way up to 2013's Battlefield 4. What’s more, there’s some ingenious editing going on that splices each clip together to make it look like you’re blasting your way through a single, graphically-improving game level. If nothing else, it also highlights the bare essentials of any exciting FPS experience—corridors, creative bad guys, and a whole lot of firepower.

Of course, the crash course in virtual shoot ‘em up’s is in no way exhaustive (What? No love for Duck Hunt?), but it is pretty fascinating to see just how much time and effort has gone into improving the mechanics of getting away with wanton murder.

[via Boing Boing]

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