Anyone ever messed around with any of the various engines out there (such as Source) or anything like the FPS Creator?
I'm wondering which would be best for a complete and utter beginner. While source looks all nice and powerful, it seems way too fiddly for the likes of me. But then, while FPS Creator appears nice and easy, the final product it can create (based on several games I tried made with it) is less than stellar and fairly slow (not to mention the controls are basic to say the least).
But I've had an idea for a style of FPS for a while now that I'd like to see if it's feasible by creating a sort of tech demo.
Things to bear in mind:
Other than PHP, I have no coding knowledge.
I'm not that great at creating artistic assets (as any who has seen a certain site can attest to).
I'd like something that is fairly easy to pick up but that isn't going to show it too much...

Try something basic... like the id Tech 3.

The various Unreal engines have all had content creators. The Unreal games have seen more content created for them than any other FPS series. Which is a testament to their ease of use. They have also spawned no end of mods that are completely different to what the engine was intended for. If you want a flexible, powerful FPS engine, then that's the most logical choice.

FPS Creater sucked. I prefer an RPG engine, but then again I am a nerd.

Speaking of id Tech, I don't understand the complaints behind id Tech 4. I think people who give the excuse that id Tech 4 is difficult to handle are just scaring themselves away because of all the technical mumbo jumbo. TBH I find id Tech 4 one of the easiest, most flexible engines to work with. I may not be able to produce a game as pretty as ETQW (for its time), but it's really one of the most robust engines I've ever worked with, from normal mapping to the scripting system.

I've never tried that. I like to play around with game engines (why pay money for Garry's Mod to screw with the Source engine when you can do it for free?), but id Tech 4 scared me off because I saw all those things about it. It's not GPL, is it?

id Tech 4 is GPL, yes.

Maybe I can offer help. What scared you off?

Not yet it's not. After the release of Rage it will be (most likely). Wolfenstein and Brink both use it, by the way.

Try pretty much everything not found in id Tech 3. Mapping, highlighting, improved shading, all that stuff and more is just insane. There's some tutorials on the Internets, but I think I'll stick with playing around with the previous one.

I started off with this site:
www.doom3world.org/phpbb2/index.php
Very helpful site, they practically cover most of the basics when starting off with id Tech 4. It's a shame most people don't actually know about that site.
Mapping is relatively easy. In fact, it's very user-friendly. I've managed to create a dropship interior before, as well as some lonely hallways and what-not. Pretty flexible. Don't let it scare you, take my word for it when I say it's really much less scary than what your mind tells you. No shit man, I'm not Jedi mind tricking you
As for normal mapping, this is where the fun starts. All you need is a normal map plugin that works with Photoshop. It will automatically convert your diffuse textures into normal/bump maps. It's so easy to use, you can easily create a normal map that looks good in-game within 5 minutes.
Check out doom3world. Very good site.

Check out doom3world. Very good site.
So you're saying that an id tech engine would be a good place to start for a complete beginner? I mean the last time I attempted to mess around with something like this was the early 1990s (and no, I don't remember what engine it was).

Yup. I've messed with a few engines before, including the supposedly "godlike difficult" Dark Engine (System Shock 2), but never really gotten far with them. I did some mapping on Dark Engine and BF1942 before, but the furthest I got was with Doom 3. I never managed to get my models in, but because Doom 3's native model support was .LWO (Lightwave), it was through the tutorials on doom3world.org and some that I found via Google that I managed to get into modelling.
As for mapping, Doom 3's mapper is very easy to use. Once you get past the basics of learning to play around with brushes aka the walls/boxes/basic geometry and messing with their size, shape, curvature etc, it's very easy to use. I would liken it to my experiences of playing with LEGO as a child - build your very own realm, simply by dragging and dropping and aligning properly. Of course, there's always the mental hurdle that you have to get past, that keeps whispering repeatedly in your mind on how id Tech 4 is difficult to use because others say so. Screw that, do it like me and go check up the hordes of tutorials on doom3world. You can thank me for it later :)
For texturing, if you have any knowledge of texturing in Photoshop, you can easily do some nice textures, and use Nvidia's Normal Map plugin to convert them. You don't even need an Nvidia card, just download it straight from its website and it's ready to be used with Photoshop.
Similarly, to import textures into the game, all you need to know is handling the id Tech shaders, which are nothing more than mere text files to tell the game how to display them on screen, and to point out where the textures are located. This part was the most confusing, especially due to lack of tutorials, but it is a very basic concept that's not hard to grasp. Basically, id Tech handles shaders in text files. The cool thing is that since the game is not hardcoded to call for texture files in specific locations, you can basically have the textures in any folder, within the game directory. The game is being programmed to have several shaders, like specular mapping and glowing and what-not - that's all you have to remember. A basic shader text file's structure goes along the lines of: specify directory of texture/normal map/specular map > specify what dx9 shaders they use. That's it. Not difficult at all.
I hope that helps a bit, and encourages you to take up modding with id Tech 4. Really, even a modding noob like myself can produce results there.

Well to show the level off noobness that I am at, I can't even work out where to get access to the engine from, I certainly don't have the licensing fee and I'm sure that there must be a way for modders to access it for free, but is it through a game that uses it; or a separate download?
The answer is probably dead simple, but it's half 3 in the morning and my brain is finally shutting down for the night =P

Unreal editors are supplied with the games.