2 new FPS's in 2 months

Addiction, nah. Just a passion. A few weeks ago I bought Half Life 2. I completed that game in a few days. Great game, but no replay value. Progressing through the levels somewhat confusing. You don’t exactly know where to head sometimes. And then the story line is vague and a little hard to follow. The game play is great and the two flaws I found where that the game is over as soon as it gets really good, and second is that there aren’t areas for you to take full advantage of the larger (the ones you get late in the game) weapons. My two favorite things are the laser guided rocket launcher and being able to pick up saw blades with the Gravity Gun and launch them through the enemy of your choice, pick it up and do it again. Everyone who loves FPS’s must play this game to completion.

Since then I bought Burnout 3 Takedown. I’ve completed about 50% of that one. Very fun arcade style game, but I became bored with it. I need to take a break and come back to it.

Now, last night I picked up Black. This game has created it’s own little niche in the FPS market. Not a sneaking style but not just run-n-gun style either. It takes a little finesse to make it all work. The beauty of the game is not the well placement of things to hide behind. It is the things the (actually pretty smart) bad guys hide behind. Someone stands behind some crates, just mow down the crate till he’s either filled with splinters or bullets. Making the sure shot isn’t required and not recommended. Since you have an abundance of ammo and there’s a guy nailing you from the top of a wooden tower. Don’t try to take him out, instead swiss cheese the base of the tower till it collapses and takes out that guy and a few more. The true destruction that you can create with a AK47 and a SPAS is incomparable. Cars, buildings, crates can be your offensive friend. You can go through the game just popping the bad guys but using your noggin to come up with a creative way of using the environment to your advantage is where Black really shines. In the second mission you have to hold your ground in a worn down farm house. There’s a group of guys hiding out in a building. You have a huge stack of bullets handy, just pummel the thin wall in the area where the guys are hiding. You’ll see a couple guys running around through the windows. You feel like your in an Arnold movie, either the wall falls in or the building is barely standing and the bad guys aren’t. The game has a lot of secondary objectives that unlock a few things. Also you can take multiple routes, so I can see how it would almost be a different game every time.

P.S. shooting the bad guy isn’t the goal. Just shoot everything!