FPS Games - PC Top 3

The Short and Sweet

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Best overall game for Single player and Multiplayer

Plus Side
Infinity Ward pulled out all the stops in creating this COD title. The developer returns to offering great game play and non player character AI. The single player offering is short but the action is some of the best played on the PC or console to date.

Bad Side
The only real detraction is the use of enemy spawning. Enemy spawns detract from some strategic maneuvering such as flanking. You must clear out enemies in succession or you'll never clear a point. This is a minor point given that the game overall offers great overall story and game play.

Unreal Tournament 3

Plus Side
The game at its core is reminiscent of the original UT title. Very frenetic game play with plenty of visual visceral carnage unleashed from explosive weapons. Weapons feel right and the player motion and speed just feel right.

Vehicles also feel right. This could have gone horribly wrong, but Epic has engineered a level of balance in game play that makes using vehicles effective without being overpowering. The use of hover boards for those choosing to be foot soldiers is ideal for larger maps and culminates into some very intense CTF and VCTF matches.

Bad Side
Epic/Midway released the game too early to meet the holiday sales. It's clear and evident that the enemy AI is not always doing what one would expect. Excellent AI is one of Epics hallmarks, but in UT3, they dropped a few points.

No single player game worth noting. Single play can best be described as a group of training levels with silly war/battle explanations for CTF. C'mon its capture the flag.

Epic also has reduced the User Interface to a sub standard level that limits customization. It is definitely "consolized". Epic has said they will rework it but it is unknown when.

Sadly UT3, is in need of some patches. Even though the core is solid, the game falls short in content and a polished delivery.

Crysis

Plus Side
Crytek the developer of Crysis has upped the ante once again. If you have a PC that can play Crysis, you will be treated to some exception visuals and physics not see in PC gaming before. Crysis is big step above what Far Cry showcased years ago. Single play in the jungle environment is top notch as most every element in the game has physics applied to it.

There are some huge levels of action, where combat is stellar and I found myself reloading these levels just to see how they would play differently.

Bad Side
In the end, Crysis plays more like a visual upgrade than anything else. It fails along the same lines that Far Cry did. Once you enter a closed environment, the appeal is somewhat lost and the story starts to unravel losing any potential to keep the player riveted.

Multiplayer not unlike Far Cry is more a less a visual appendage to the single player campaign. Much of the physics and destroyable elements are locked into DX10 servers and players. Needless to say, few people have bought into Vista as a gaming system so we are treated to basic multiplayer gaming with nothing to write home about. Considering the hardware needed to run Crysis, its no wonder the sales haven't broke the 100.000 mark.