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[milo christiansen]

Mass Effect 1.

At first they seem really crappy, but with a bit of practice they are actually better than the assault rifles at anything other than extreme range. Get a little skill in shotguns and you will never need another weapon skill.

This topic also goes well with another pet peeve of mine, "sniper rifles" that treat 100 yards as long range. You can shoot accurately at that range (and farther) with plain iron sights, much less a low power scope! Sniper rifles should not really come into play before 200 yards minimum, which is why most games should not have sniper rifles at all (a good assult rifle is all you need at "long" game ranges).

[Blaze]

I see Doom's shotguns mentioned a bunch, but I feel that there's a special space for Golden Souls II's double shotgun. It's nowhere near the gore level of BD's versions, but it's got a charm all on its own.

Then there's a tossup between Call of Juarez: Gunslinger's "Bob Ollinger's Shotgun" and Bulletstorm's "Boneduster"; but I like the CoJ's shotgun a bit more. Sure the Boneduster will disintegrate anything you point it at, but excessive violence is Bulletstorm's thing. CoJ's shotgun will bisect what you point it at, and then send both halves flying across the room.

It's just straight up hard to bear Unreal's Flak Cannon though, I'd take it over anything else barring the Redeemer perhaps.

[karhell]

No love for Painkiller's shotgun/freezeray combo ?

[0x517A5D]

A videogame shotgun should be about closeup combat and timing.  One well-aimed, well-timed shot should turn your target into a rain of blood.

But a miss or a miss-timed shot should get you hurt.  Put you into defense mode.  Make you backpedal and recover.

Most of the shotguns don't have that.  The fire rate's too fast, they hold too many shells, they have too tight of a pattern, the shot stays lethal too far out from the barrel.  Easy modo.

So I'll stick with the Doom II Super Shotgun.

The aesthetics are great, too.  Looks right, sounds right, feels right.

[Blargityblarg]

The Killing Floor games have had historically quite good shotguns.

[puke]

Rainbow Six 1 and 2.  Pre-Vegas.

Was a very good tactical simulation, all the weapons felt right.  .45's had more stopping power than 9mm, the various rifles all did the right things.

They had a few shotguns in the various games, but the ones I remember were the Benelli M1 which I have actually used, and I used to own an M3.  The game version seemed to behave correctly to me, as far as range and accuracy.  Of course I never shot any tangos with mine, but I think I can still speak to how it should handle.

One of the things video games always do comically, is reloading tube magazines.  either it is completely abstracted to a generic reloading action / sound effect, or it is absurdly fast.  The first two R6 games did a fair job at getting it right.

Let me tell you something, doing tactical reloads with a 12 gauge is some fiddly shit.  Watch some 3-gun matches on youtube to get an idea about exactly what goes on.  People use all kinds of funny contrivances, from belt pouches to vest rigs to side-saddles.  The higher end have these two-cartridge-per-slot side saddle setups where you pull two at a time and it doubles the speed of your reloading.  There are lots of decisions you can make about when to select a slug or a different type of shot.  You might be transferring cartridges between your vest and the side saddle so that you can get at them faster when you need them...

Capturing that in a videogame would be slightly less difficult than doing it in real life, but it is still something that the vast majority of game players dont want to fuck with.  It is worth setting for a little abstraction in these things.

[Carlos Gustavos]

Marathon had a nice shotgun. Double-barreled, one-handed and spun around to reload with style. Use two at the same time to boggle the mind. I think it was useful at not just short range, similar to Quake's shotgun, but I don't really remember.

https://youtu.be/8cXitbENwro

[Aedel]

Clearly the best shotgun is the the Peacekeeper's. Show me another shotgun that can shoot an entire building down and out melee an energy katana.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Snark aside I enjoy the shotgun in Rainbow Six Siege. Not sure how good it holds up against other games though.

[itisnotlogical]

I think Quake's shotgun was useful at quite a distance. However, it didn't do quite as much damage, so the nailgun was best for taking out really dangerous enemies like Shamblers and Vores.

[Cheedows]

I haven't played the second Payday, but in the first I absolutely loved the Reinbeck.  In hindsight it did have a bit of spread but it is totally possible to pop off SWAT helmets with ironsights from a fair distance, it just felt so satisfying to use.

[TheBiggerFish]

Huh.

[Neonivek]

A videogame shotgun should be about closeup combat and timing.

This is where I differ. A good videogame shotgun is one that isn't a melee weapon. One that is genuinely a shotgun, and the whole "super close range weapon" has been the rut shotguns have been in for a while.

[MrRoboto75]

I haven't played the second Payday, but in the first I absolutely loved the Reinbeck.  In hindsight it did have a bit of spread but it is totally possible to pop off SWAT helmets with ironsights from a fair distance, it just felt so satisfying to use.

Payday shotguns (at least in the sequel) are kinda odd.  You actually only need to hit with one pellet to do the max damage of the gun.  The two double barrels in 2 could easily one-shot from across the room.  Especially if you gave them flechette rounds.

[Cthulhu]

Shotguns where great in soldier of fortune, with the locational damage. I don't remember how they did at longer distance however.

I came here to say this.  The shotgun in soldier of fortune 2 has the exact proper feel of a shotgun.  I don't remember how the range was but it's meaty as hell with the game's damage model.

[puke]

Shotguns where great in soldier of fortune, with the locational damage. I don't remember how they did at longer distance however.

I came here to say this.  The shotgun in soldier of fortune 2 has the exact proper feel of a shotgun.  I don't remember how the range was but it's meaty as hell with the game's damage model.

Is that the one that had a correct "reloading sound" but the guy could put the cartridges in so fast it sounded like a machinegun?

Also one of the first games I remember with exit wound blowout effects.. added little bits of 3d geometry to the models after you shot them?