hehe... I read this thread title and the first thing that popped to mind was a Fisher Price "Quake" playset, complete with sacrifice pit and gibbing.

Couple of things that actually applies to all FPS.

Practice - Even if it's running through the campaigns. In RB6:vegas you can play terrorist hunt maps so you just run through killing the bad guys. Start out at the low skill level and work your way up. Once that becomes easy at the harder levels try it again working on just doing head shots (or combo shots like grenade/shotgun blast or the noob combo in Halo). Mainly getting to the point where you can take a target down with smallest number of shots.

Learn the evironment - Learn the maps. One of the biggest edge you can have is anticipation of anothers actions. If you know the maps backwards/forwards you know where all the little nook and crannies are you reduce being surprised and can actually guess where the targets will be.

Practice - can't stress it enough.

A lot of older GameCube stuff:

Metroid Prime might be a good FPS to start out with. It'll teach you a lot of the tactics of strafe & fire without the need to actually aim. Also, James Bond: Nightfire is a fun FPS that isn't too difficult and Serious Sam certainly has plenty to shoot at.

I cut me FPS teeth with Descent, Quake, and Half-Life back in the day. Unfortunately, none of those have been ported to the GC or PS3.

Hm, I would really, really like to suggest Halo, because it is exactly what you are asking for (and WAS exactly what you are describing for a great many people). However, since you probably don't want to buy an Xbox 360, that makes suggesting Halo a bit hard.

The problem you are facing is not made easy solvable by the systems you own. The FPS games that are available for the Wii, well, they're either lousy ports (CoD3) or lousy to begin with (Red Steel). You certainly should pick up RE4 for the Wii if you haven't played it elsewhere, but the skills you learn there really won't translate much to a standard shooter, be it either first or third person. And with regard to the PS3, well, I personally feel that the PS3 controller (and the PS2 controller before it) are crap for FPS games, as the contstruction of the sticks doesn't offer the amount of resistance I need to get control over most games' acceleration gradients. (I'm sure that there are those who will argue with me, but that's my opinion.)

That said, I suppose Resistance would make a decent training ground. Honestly, I wasn't too crazy about it as a game, but it wasn't bad by any means. The Darkness is also fairly easy, but that's mostly because you get powers in the game that are very, very easy to abuse. Of course, the ability to turn on a huge amount of auto-aim also helps. Still, while the game is very fun and definitely worth playing, it's really not going to serve your purposes of getting comfortable with an FPS.

The thing is, though, like every multiplatform FPS in this generation and the last, I choose to the play the Darkness on the Xbox. Having a good controller is a huge part of feeling in control in an FPS and the Xbox (and 360) controller just feel better to me for FPS games. So really, even though you probably don't want to hear it, you best bet would be to pick up a 360, a copy of Halo 1, and a copy of Gears of War. The Halo 1 single player campaign on easy difficulty really does play like a training camp for console FPS, and with Gears of War you'll be able to play its campaign mode in online co-op, and be able to have a buddy play along with you and coach you. Also, Gears multiplayer is entirely team based and has a huge following amongst Goodjers, so it should be less frustration to pick up as a new player than many shooters would be.

Oh, sh*t yeah! Serious Sam is the place to start.

I think the James bond titles for PS2, if they *are* back compatible, would be a good start. But I will whole-heartedly agree with Halo, if you can get your hands on an original xbox on the cheap. Those two franchises have the smoothest (and still used) controls to educate yourself with, in my opinion.

well, looking at IGN's PS2 page, their highest rated (scoring an 8/10 or higher) shooters were:

Red Faction II
TimeSplitters 2
Red Faction
TimeSplitters: Future Perfect
Project: Snowblind
Quake III: Revolution
Black
Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30
TimeSplitters
Unreal Tournament
Medal of Honor European Assault
James Bond 007: NightFire
Call of Duty 3
Call of Duty 2: Big Red One
Medal of Honor: Rising Sun
Medal of Honor: Frontline

Personally, I don't really know why you're so hesitant to just dive into one of these games. Most of the story driven ones aren't THAT difficult... you just have to jump in and PLAY. The "deathmatch" style games always leave me cold, but you're probably not going to be playing those anyway.

I'd recomment giving the TIMESPLITTERS series a try... although I'd skip the first one.

The problem with Timsplitters is the control won't help him with any other FPS. They use that annoying waggly hand where the screen only moves when the gun is titled in that direction. It was a good control scheme back in the days of GoldenEye and Perfect dark when their wasn't an alternative.

The two Call of Duty games that you mentioned are pretty easy to get into though. Didn't Call of Duty 3 come out on the PS3? That may also be something worth renting.

Timesplitters was cool with 2 players.

Hey dude, try the new Resident Evil for Wii, supposedly it's a shooter now?

To hell with this stuff. If you are starting, you should start where most of us started. Wolf 3D, DOOM, and Quake. The id triple threat. You could probably run them on your microwave at this point.

Once you get that killer instinct firmly embedded, then you can worry about the rest. Seriously, the point of FPS games is to kill your enemies, and in those three games that's the ONLY objective. No plot or puzzles or character development to get in the way of the blasting.

Most of the best FPS players I've played against started with these and I think it ingrains a sense of purpose into the back of your head along with the idea that player characters in games are week.

Once you can take down a twin mini gun toting mechanized Hitler, your buddies from college will seem like preschoolers.

Remember the first rule of FPS's. The only way to kill something this f*cking nuts.

Is to go f*cking nuts on it.

DOES NOT COMPUTE

Compute this Llama.

Personally, I've always enjoyed the Call of Duty series. I played it on the XBOX, so not sure how the PS2 ports were.

.... and...

Did I mention I finished CoD2 on Veteran? Did I? Did I? Yeah, one more thread to make me do the CoD2 Veteran Happy Dance! (i'm dancing, i'm dancing......)

I would've guessed 250W would be a bit much for a cat, if underpowered for a modern PC. But he clearly seems to be enjoying it.

It's really interesting to me that the top-selling console of the previous generation had such a poor selection of shooters. I picked up the PS3 for a few reasons -- fear of the 360's red rings and other problems; Blu Ray; and the PS2's enormous back catalogue. It's surprising to me that although there are lots of shooters in that catalogue, they're largely considered inferior. I'm glad that shooters aren't my main thing, or I'd be pretty disappointed. Still, Unreal Tournament looks pretty wonderful...