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Top 3 Modern 1st Person Shooter Video Games to Check Out

Updated on December 3, 2013

Is Call Of Duty Ghosts the best 1st person shooter game today?

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1. Call of Duty: Ghosts (A Review)

The entire Call of Duty franchise is one of the most successful in the gaming industry. So much so that it is almost a given that any new title will be well-received. Call of Duty Ghosts managed to make more than US$1-billion in the first 24 hours of being on sale, but is it as good as the previous titles?


Gamers can ridicule all they want, but one fact remains true – Call of Duty is incredibly successful, and that isn’t about to change. Sure, there are laughter and jokes about new versions only being expensive map-packs, but developer Infinity Ward has added a whole bunch of new features to their latest title, Call of Duty: Ghosts, to keep players coming back.


The Ghosts aspect of the title is a new direction for the franchise, taking the series into a fourth direction – with the original World War II games, Modern Warfare series and Black Ops being the first three. So from that aspect, the developer already had a great basis to work from.


In terms of plot, the Ghosts are an elite squad of fighters who go in undercover to do the military’s dirty work. When a former Ghost returns to the scene, they soon realise the he is out to eliminate them all – and he must be stopped.


Making use of the familiar general mechanics from the entire franchise, one thing that Ghosts does add is a playable dog named Riley. While he doesn’t feature as a main character, it is the first time that gamers will be able to control a non-human to fight in battles. Riley, a German Shepard, has the ability to sniff out enemies and viciously attack them – clearing the path for the player to proceed – all controlled by the player. He has a number of other gadgets strapped to his body as well, which will help players spot and track enemies.


In terms of graphics, returning players to the franchise will notice a significant boost to the visuals, yet be familiar with the graphical style from the previous games. The same can be said about the control scheme, and that is also something that draws players back into the franchise


– the familiarity.


The controls have pretty much stayed the same since the last iteration, a tried-and-tested formula that players know absolutely works. It all comes together with a gripping plot, but while the controls and graphics stayed almost the same, at times there are some exciting set pieces in the title and it will provide for a number of hours of action-packed fun.


But no game is perfect, and Ghosts certainly isn’t immune to that idea. A problem that plagues almost all shooter titles is the linear way of telling a story and forcing the player to be at specific points during battle, or to trigger a set-piece. Players will often be forced to return to a previous spot if they have wandered too far ahead of the non-playable characters (NPCs).


This is also evident during scripted dialogues, as the NPC characters will block the path of the player – forcing them to listen to the conversations. It is not always a bad thing, but it sometimes feels like the secondary characters in the title have no sense of urgency. It’s not really a major issue, but Infinity Ward also decided to depart from the usual mini-map in the corner of the HUD for player to keep track of enemies and to orientate themselves. It can cause a bit of confusion sometime, as most FPS title still incorporate this aspect.


For players on lower difficulties, there is usually a snapping function for aiming at enemies, but in Ghosts it seems to be a bit shoddy. The player will snap to an enemy’s last location, and if the enemy is moving around, it will mean that the snapping will always be slightly off.


The lack of a mini-map and enemy-snapping that is not entirely accurate can cause a bit of frustration for players, but as mentioned Ghosts is at heart and soul exactly what the Call of Duty franchise has been all these years. There are some sections that are incredibly tough to get through, but once completed, it feels like it was all worth it.


Minor issues aside, Call of Duty: Ghosts should be on the shelf of every Call of Duty fan. For those who have yet to play any of the CoD titles, Ghosts is an excellent place to start. While the main single-player campaign is not very long, clocking in at just over four hours if players game at a steady pace, the real value for money lies in the multiplayer modes, which is sure to keep gamers busy for hours.


The multiplayer for Ghosts consists of a rather unique set of new aspects and mechanics. Taking a page from rival Battlefield, areas of maps in Ghosts can now be altered or destroyed, and new weapons have been added. The multiplayer experience can be divided into three separate categories: the main Multiplayer section; Squads; and Multiplayer. The main multiplayer section is exactly what players would expect, as it houses popular modes such as Team Deathmatch, Search and Destroy and Domination, as well as new ones like Search and Rescue, Cranked and Blitz.

Squads is a mode that can be describes as an offline yet online multiplayer mode. Gamers will be able to form squads with AI characters and train with them through a number of modes and maps. A squad consists of ten different customizable characters, and will join the player in tackling other online players and their squads. While gamers still have to be online to access the main multiplayer section, Squads can be played by gamers against an entire bot squad –offline.

Within Squads there are also different modes, such as Squad Assault, Safeguard, Safeguard Infinite, Squad vs Squad, and Wargame – all requiring different tactics and weapons to execute. Some of the modes can be a bit confusing and repetitive, but it’s a great learning experience for new players. And anything that players do in multiplayer, be it Squads or Extinction, contributes towards their online rank.

Extinction is a new multiplayer experience where up to four players band together against various types of aliens in a base-defending survival style map. Players won’t be thrown into the deep end, as they will be able to choose from four different class types, with unique traits and customizable loadouts. As with the other multiplayer modes, it also contributes towards their online rank, and players can level up their classes, unlocking more weapons and equipment for their loadouts.


While Squads is a bit redundant and Extinction is a welcome distraction, the main grit of the multiplayer will always be in the sanctioned part of the experience. It’s where the traditional multiplayer lies, and it will be the mode most visited by players. The entire package for Ghosts is as solid as the franchise, and it’s refreshing to see that publisher Activision has the foresight to add a new concept to the series. Players of previous titles will truly enjoy Ghosts, while there is no better place to kick off a new experience.

Titanfall: Official E3 Gameplay Demo

3 out of 5 stars from 1 rating of Titanfall

2. Titanfall (A Review)

In what was probably one the most highly-publicised gaming industry walk-outs of 2010, former Infinity Ward employees Jason West and Vince Zampella left the game developer after being accused of “breaches of contract and insubordination”. To cut a long story very short, the pair went on to form Respawn Entertainment, to develop their own titles.


Three years after their dramatic exit from Infinity Ward, gamers were salivating to see what they have been working on, and at Microsoft’s E3 2013 press conference Respawn announced their debut title, Titanfall.


While it’s not a revolutionary step, the title employs mechanics that Infinity Ward fans might not be familiar with, in the sense that the first-person shooter video game makes use of online multiplayer-only matches. The title revolves around players on a war-torn planet who have to fight off enemies with the help of mech-style Titans and their pilots.


The studio said that with Titanfall, they want to bring “scale, verticality, and story” to firstperson shooter multiplayer gaming, and added that players will get to see many elements traditionally reserved for single-player campaigns incorporated into the game. While there might not be a solid plot as with single-player titles, the general goal is for players to complete team-based objectives as free-running pilots or inside agile mech-style Titans. Players will also be able to choose their faction – fight with the Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation (IMC), or be a rebel and join the Militia. But players won’t simply be able to start the match in a Titan; they need to work for it. A time will be displayed as to when a Titan will be deployed, but if players manage to kill the opposing forces, the timer will reduce –spawning a Titan much more quickly.


Players will get to choose their Titan at the beginning of each map, and it has also been revealed that there are multiple types of Titans, each with unique abilities and animations. It is sure to make a huge difference in the game, especially since Titans can be hijacked by enemy players. But with all the chaos there has to be a bit of order, and the matches are over when a team reaches the other team’s evacuation dropship.


Titanfall is sure to change the way in which single-player and multiplayer games are developed, as Titanfall took over 60 awards at its E3 2013 reveal, including a record-breaking six E3 Critics Awards. It might not be everybody’s cup of tea, but fans have been looking forward to Titanfall since its announcement – and there is no stopping the excitement.

3. Rambo: The Video Game (A Preview)

When Rambo: First Blood hit cinemas in 1982 it shocked and divided audiences over its stark portrayal of a man torn apart by his experiences of war, struggling with demons that have left him alienated from the world around him. It was as much a psychological thriller as it was an action film, and to this day is lauded as one of the most memorable films of the ‘80s. The next two sequels… well not so much. And while you might think that franchise is as dead as Richard Crenna, publisher Reef Entertainment and polish developer Treyon are determined to resurrect it for at least one more gore-soaked outing.


Rambo: The Video Game aims to take players through the major events of the first three films, from the mountainous terrain of Hope, Washington to the arid deserts of Afghanistan. While the game will ostensibly follow the narrative of the films, the trailers show a title that isn’t likely to be focussed on strong plot delivery.


Just how Rambo will be played is a bit of mystery. Resembling nothing more than a rail-shooter in the style of Time Crisis or Virtua Cop, albeit with comically large heads, the official website promises to mix things up with “fixed-perspective infiltrations”, “mini-missions”, “multiple paths” and the ever incurable “third-person, quick-time-events sequences”. How this will all mesh together is an unknown, but expect a liberal accompaniment of blood.


While nostalgia is often a powerful force in the market, it’s fair to argue that some things are better left to the rose-tinted past. Whether Rambo holds true for this remains to be seen, but Treyon needs to give the game some serious polish before its release next year.

Summary

Title
Companies
Consoles
Comments
Rambo The Video Game
Developer: Treyon Publisher: Reef Entertainment Distributer: TBC
PC - XBOX 360 - PS3
What should be a rather simple title at its core, lots of work needs to be done before the game hits the shelves
Titanfall
Developer: Respawn Entertainment Publisher: Electronic Arts Distributer: EA South Africa
PC - XBox 360 - XO
Mechs are very popular, and Titanfall shouldn’t disappoint.
Call of Duty: Ghosts
Developer: Infinity Ward Publisher: Activision Distributer: Megarom
PC - XBOX - 360 - XO - PS3 - PS4 - Wii U
Taking the franchise in a new direction, things are about to heat up.

My game site HERE

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