"FPS" stands for "First Person Shooter" so if the game is third-person, it can't be an FPS. 

I forgot about Kingpin, which I'm currently playing again again -- and I guess Rune would fall under TPS, but daamn, it's good. 

honestly, what�s so great about this game ? There are some good ideas like the Pawn-O-Matic, but:

-levels are really really small, I guess because of the sucky AI which couldn�t handle larger maps

-the weapons are unusable (realism lol)

-the sidekicks are stupid and annoying as hell, standing in your way half of the time

-in "real" mode (...) I�ve never seen more annoying cheating bots, no matter how one sneaks up on them, they nail you one millisecond after you fire, and kill you with one shot while you need to unload half your ammo to kill them.

But the swearing is kewl, yo. 

1. Quake / Doom
(the gameplay of those two can�t and won�t be replicated with modern graphical demands)
2. Quake 3
3. Quake 2
4. Duke 3D
5. AvP 1/2
(one of the few really scary games I know)
6. Serious Sam
7. Heretic / HeXen
8. SiN
9. NOLF
(one of few FPS with good story)
10. Wolfenstein 3D 

maps be small, but they are well made. 

Quake
Jedi Knight
(Deus Ex)
QuakeWorld
Quake 3
Call of Duty
Half-Life
Undying (unfortunately I never got far and now lost the disc, it was creepy as hell though)
Painkiller (kinda)

I really enjoyed Wolf3D, Heretic and Hexen as well as Doom earlier. Never touched them again though.
At the moment I play Dark Forces, woah. RTCW was nice until I got stuck and lost interest.

I want to play KISS and the good levels in Daikatana (where they are?). Also I should play System Shock 1+2. 

eps 2 and 3 are what you want. 

I started playing System Shock II... and it looked ~very~ moody/scary. It demanded learning a new game interface though, which stopped me playing it... "Don't have time to play with [myself -DN3d]" every friggin new interface. Thats partly what makes Q1 a classic ;>

Re Duke sequels - Yeah, your right Z. but i don't think Brossaud was on board. And the ones I saw never had Duke-Speak quite right either. %< 

I agree about the bots and all, but I really enjoy the design and style of the game -- and have always had a soft spot for it =D 

mostly for the story, which is a strange way to choose a FPS... 

In the top of 'TOP 10 FPS' must be id' product (Doom1,2 or Quake1) in any case 

Doom and Quake go without saying, but after they fired most of thier designers the games took a turn for the worse.

I'd much prefer to play Quake I than any of the others and I didn't like Doom3 at all; cheesy gameplay, tedious repitition of actions and not what we were expecting after playing the beta - which was incredible. 

FLORIAN 

it's been six years since this thread started, anyone want to revise their top-10 lists? Surely there have been some good FPS games since 2002.

I would at least find a spot for Team Fortress 2 on there somewhere. 

my 10 current favourite fps games, no particular order ;)

Quake
Half-Life 2 (+ episodes)
Left 4 Dead
Call of Duty 4
Doom 2
Half-Life
Wolfenstein ET
Bioshock
Unreal Torunament
Duke 3D

And I suppose an honourable mention must go to Prey, because its one of the few fps games I played through twice ;) 

Also, CoD4 somewhere...

For the ending of the SP plot as much as the awesome multiplayer 

Same as before for the top 3. Would be adding Far Cry, HL2, and others below them. Oh and probably L4D too, coop FTW. 

Quake
The Ultimate Doom
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic
Heretic
Far Cry
Q3A
Unreal/UT
Quake2
Catacombs 3d (nostalgia spot)
Duke3d 

Dues Ex
No One Lives Forever
Far Cry
Fear
Quake
Doom 2
System Shock 2
Quake 3 Arena
Duke3D
Prey

Honorable Mentions: Unreal, Blood, System Shock, Rise of The Triad, MOH: Allied Assault, Dues Ex: Invisible War (doesn't measure up to the first, but still better than most), Quake 4 

Half Life 1
Quake
Quake LIVE (at the moment im loving this)
Quake 2
Doom 3
AVP1
Deus Ex: Invisible War (sorry but I liked it better)
HL2
UT3
Blood 

Deus Ex: Invisible War (sorry but I liked it better)

no apologies necessary. The critics were much too harsh. I forgot to mention Half Life and the add on, er, brain fart, not Blue Shift, but the other one, as honorable mentions.

Am I the only one who found many sections of HL2 tedious, and the gravity gun gimmicky? I admit I got about an hours worth of fun from the GG, but come on . . . 

Malice, The Reckoning. 

Am I the only one who found many sections of HL2 tedious, and the gravity gun gimmicky?

Yes ;)