I started playing Wolfenstein Enemy Territory a year or so back, which is the first time I've ever played multiplayer shooters -- it's quite fun, on the other hand it feels slightly dated now, and I'd like to try some new games just to see what there is. I play fairly casually, on average once every two weeks -- sometimes much more often, sometimes not for a month or two. I see that games like BF4 are all the rage at the moment, however I'm not too keen on running after whatever the latest most popular game happens to be, especially since I'm not playing particularly seriously. I'm after games that have been around for a while, since those ones are likely to be around for quite a while longer so I can play as little or as often as I want without having to buy newer games / relearning games (and buying new hardware to keep up) etc. Ideally I'm after games that allow you to host your own servers (which means the publisher doesn't/can't just shut down the game), which at least BF3 and BF4 wouldn't allow. So, what slightly older shooters are there that are still popular and as fun as ET, allow you to host your own servers, and would run well on my hardware? Looks like BF2 or BF2142 might be an option, but what are the most active older games still around? Key hardware info: FX-8350 with a HD7750, @ 1920x1200.
Click on Community activity (the wavey graph) on the Steam home page, it will list the most popular games being played on Steam at the moment.
Counter Strike: Source is still a popular FPS to play. I must have accumulated over 400 hours playing that game since buying it. It isn't your "so called BF4/COD" title but it's definitely worth looking at some game play videos.
Pretty sure the original Unreal Tournament (UT99) has a number of active servers, with the ability to host your own matches if you want.
As a fairly recent convert I'd recommend a Counter Strike game, don't need much oomph to play and lots of players
I can vouch for CS Source, one of my favourite multiplayers ever. Didn't really like the new one though..
Yeah love that expansion! There's a Dice test server which does regular map rotations and goes onto vietnam maps too, and I don't even have it but it still lets me play lol.