I am looking for something that will get my brain going quickly. I don't want anything with too steep a learning curve though cough Starcraft cough. FPS are the low hanging fruit. Things like HL2 Deathmatch are about what I am looking for. I am not opposed to other styles though, FPS are just the first thing that come to mind when I think about fast paced games. Does anyone have any suggestions?
geometry wars 3?
Quake comes to mind. And speaking of Quake, the guys making Strafe released a speed run level you can download a while back. It's a nice fast paced little shooter. Super Meat Boy is a nice fast paced (and tough as balls) platformer, if that's something you're interested in. And of course, you can pick pretty much any shooter with a death match mode. Back when I used to play CS a lot, I would warm up on a "respawn on killer's death" style death match server.
For those who are interested in this topic as well, I forgot that I like Waves (available on steam) for my fast paced game fix (along with some FPS as well). I am still interested in what people have to say though. Let's hear some more.
Hotline Miami. Difficult but achievable and can be crazy fast or at your pace. You decide how you want to play the maps.
Starwars Republic Commando (on hard+)
Quake 1, Quake 2, Quake 3 Arena
Lichdom Battle Mage
Shadow Warrior
Rise of Triad
Blood 2
Duke Nukem 3d
Unreal
Fear
Brutal Doom
Doom 3
and many others that i don't remember at this moment.
I don't know if this is what you're after but I really like the Mirrors Edge games. They are basically first person free-running with some sort of story behind it. The game has beautiful graphics and it seems fast paced to me.
Try Dirty Bomb.
It is made by the creators of previously popular arena shooters such as Doom, Quake, and Wolfenstein.
It is in closed beta and I got a key. It is very fun, the run speed is fast and there is a little parkour too.
Apply for a Dirty Bomb Closed Beta Key