Shooters are sort of an odd thing for me. I never considered myself a hard core shooter player. Sure, I bought Halo and played most of the big name shooters, but generally only did so casually. Since I can remember getting into gaming most of my “passion” for games was towards simulation games. Man, I can’t tell you the number of sky scrapers I built in SimTower, or villages destroyed by earthquakes in SimCity. That being said, I’m apparently fairly good at shooters. I’ve got very good reflexes and in some cases (Bad Company 2) actually surpassed all my shooter playing friends. Regardless if I’m good or not, or if they really are my “thing”, there are a BUNCH of them coming out this year, and I’m excited. So here’s the (chronological) list:
Sniper Ghost Warrior — June 8, 2010
Just ran across Sniper Ghost Warrior last night. I don’t know too much about it since there aren’t any real reviews online, but the price point is good ($40 vs standard $60) and the videos look fairly decent. It is from a no-name developer, but that doesn’t mean it will be bad. I’m quite a fan of sniping, especially the physics puzzle of gravity/wind/distance/time. I’m quite good at it in Bad Company 2 (though it really only takes the time/distance and gravity into effect). The hyper realism of this sniper game (including heartbeats) could prove to be extremely interesting.
Halo Reach — September 1, 2010
What more needs to be said for Halo Reach? It is the newest installment of the Halo franchise. If you liked the previous games, you’ll like this one. If you didn’t before, you probably wont like this one. Personally, I own all the Halo video games, including Halo Wars (the RTS). I’ve also got all the books. I enjoy the games and I really enjoy the canon. Halo Reach is already out in Beta, so if you have Halo 3:ODST Firefly, you can get in and try out the multiplayer. It looks a lot like Halo 3 to me, but more refined. All in all, the few times I’ve played it, it has been enjoyable and the new mechanics/weapons are fun.
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Future Soldier — October 1, 2010
Another Tom Clancy game which really has nothing to do with him more than it has his name on it, Ghost Recon Future Soldier is the next generation of Ghost Recon game, following GRAW and GRAW2. While I don’t think I’ll go back and play either GRAW, I did enjoy them when they came out. I find the slightly future war fighters enjoyable. Really I haven’t seen anything about GRFS, since it is fairly far out, but I have hope for it.
Medal Of Honor — October 12, 2010
Ah, Medal Of Honor, a series which I don’t think I’ve played any of the games on… until now. I watched their first trailer for this and it looks super cool, granted the trailer contained basically no game play, but it was very well put together. The main reason why I’m going to play this one? Modern fighting. I’m sorry, but between Call of Duty (all of them), Battlefield all of them) and some of the other series — I’ve fought in every major battle since the invention of gun powder. Oh, and every semi-major to somewhat minor battle of WWI and WWII. Modern = Good. Old = Been there, done that. Plus, I much prefer having new guns, scopes, and all sorts of cool toys.
Call of Duty: Black Ops — November 9, 2010
I’m on the fence about Call of Duty: Black Ops. On the plus side, it is a cool premise that if properly executed will be totally awesome. On the down side, it is made by Treyarch, the same bunch of screwups that made Call Of Duty 5: World At War (aka Jack Bauer At War). I really want this to be a good game, but I don’t have a ton of faith in Treyarch. COD5 was by far the worst COD game to date, at the same time COD games tend to be on the better side of the game spectrum. Maybe I was just upset they screwed up the franchise.
In the end? I have them all on pre-order. I can always cancel them if news/reviews point out that they are going to suck. In the mean time I can get the best possible deal from Amazon. I only hope that Bad Company 2 gets some new maps before I get truly bored of it. I need something to keep me going until Halo (Because I don’t think Sniper’s multiplayer is going to be much, if anything). The only truly depressing bit of knowledge from this list? Next year is gonna have jack squat for good shooters.