Favourite Frags: The Best FPS Weapons Ever

A writer has his special pen. A gamer has his special gun, not the “noobgun,” banned into the eternal hell of PC doom, where it rests alongside Daikatana. Not the weird thing the guys with hacks use, no – the gun which we are proud to use in th case of online gaming or the gun that made the game more awesome in single player. You all remember the tales that begin with: “Oh, yeah, so he jumps out of the corner, right in front of me, the newb, but then, I...” and the ending depends on what your play style is. So, let's enjoy some fond memories as we recall the greatest FPS weapons of all-time.

The one you always have. The option of not wasting ammo. The box-breaker, the door smasher. The one that sometimes lets you run faster. Most of you will now think: Oh, the glorious crowbar! The chainsaw! The knife! The whole Condemned game! But then, think a bit. Yes, they're all awesome weapons and they all deserve to be mentioned, but were they implemented correctly? Which weapon of all the melee attacks is so effective, that it actually is used online, and not just to goof or show off? The answer is simple.

Anything you could use by pressing V by default in the Call of Duty series. My pick, then, from all of it, would be the Bayonett upgrade from CoD5. It is silent, quick and deadly. Doesn't show up in the radar and kills in one hit. But the best part is that noobs can't use it properly, because it takes some skill to time it right, so you even feel proud, while being effective.

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Pistols fall into this category, although we've seen many especially weird or extraordinary variants in the genre. I skimmed through many a weapon's description trying to jog fond memories of keeping a kill streak going long after you run out of ammunition for your primary and resort to a pistol, or preferably, hand cannon. I found one recurring thing, one pistol that is so famous in FPS gaming that nothing could take it's place.

The Desert Eagle. The defining game, in this case, would be Counter-Strike: which ever version you perefer, although it has made appearance in way too many FPS games to count. Holds only 7 bullets, reload time is longer than the time needed to wash an elephant, and very inaccurate, but who cares? With 3 bullets, you can kill anything. Two, if aimed in the head. One, if the character was wounded. Use at your own risk, and enjoy the consequences. (I am going to disagree: not many guns get their own multiplayer mode, let alone are featured in a major motion picture title. How can 007's Golden Gun, between pedigree and one-shot one-kill efficacy, not get the nod? - Ed.)

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Whatever you play, there they are. You always get to shoot them: pump-action or automatic, sawed-off or combat, with shells of everyting from lead to alien plamsa. Nothing has stopped game developers from putting the shotgun (or at least an odd extra-terrestrial contraption with a low rate of fire, short range, and high damage) in EVERY FPS GAME I've ever seen. But which of them is the best, you ask?

Why the one that tosses frag grenades as a secondary fire option – with drumroll, welcome the Flak Cannon from the Unreal Tournament series! This one in particular is from the 2004 version. While it is not technically a shotgun, it looks like a shotgun, feels like a shotgun and does what a really unreal shotgun must do – like shooting the slugs around corners or tossing the giant grenade of destruction upon your enemies. And it is deadlier than anything else, when up close and personal. My “Flak Monkey” bretheren will surely understand me.