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A lot of you guys are smarter than me: you advance-ordered the Xbox 360 and you're probably playing Perfect Dark Zero or Call of Duty 2 in glorious 720p. I'm killing time by finishing off Far Cry Instincts and Timesplitters: Future Perfect. Far Cry Instincts is really an impressive game, showing off some of the best graphics I've ever seen on the Xbox. According to Peter Hartlaub at the SF Chronicle, the game is better than anything on the 360. I took advantage of a recent Gamefly promotion to buy Timesplitters: Future Perfect. While not anywhere near Far Cry or Halo 2 ratings, TFP is an enjoyable shooter. The graphics are pretty colorful and the weapons are very imaginative. My favorite weapon is the Ghost Gun; wielding it provides this spooky effect in your peripheral vision. The single player game seems short. I was able to complete it in two days. It's sort of like those cereal samplers where you can get Fruit Loops, Corn Flakes, and Raisin Bran in little boxes. You play one character, Cortez (who looks and talks like Vin Diesel) as he hops through various time periods to stop the Timesplitters from wrecking all of reality. There's a chapter where you help Harry Tipper, a funny American-hippie version of James Bond, defeat a Dr. Evil-like menace from launching a nuke. In another era, you help Jo-Beth Casey (wearing fishnet stockings and a shirt labeled SLUT) defeat all the ghosts in a haunted mansion. My favorite era involves a Terminator-like Rise of the Machines, where you re-program a robot called RD-110 to be your helper. The game is mostly run and gun, with a few puzzles thrown in, which stumped me long enough that I had to run to IGN and Gamespot like a little whiny baby.
Timesplitters: Future Perfect has a ton of unlockables. After finishing the single player Story game on Normal, I've unlocked less than 20%! There's also single player Arcade, League, and Challenges to keep you busy. This is where you square off against bots in Deathmatches, Capture the Bag, Assualt missions, etc. I have to applaud Free Radical (the makes of the Timesplitters franchise) for providing such an enormous replay value in these other modes. I can play these bots in Deathmatches forever. The maps are quite good. I love this one Virtual Reality map that looks like it's straight out of Tron. You can adjust bot difficulty or arrange your own team of bots, which are characters from the Story mode. I think all FPS designers should include bots. You might ask why, when Halo 2 gives you lots of players on Xbox Live? Sometimes you just need to learn a map or practice. I hate how Halo 2 Rumble Pit forces me to play levels or games I don't like. I also hate how Halo 2 players are getting too damn good. Usually the top player gets 25 kills and I'm lucky to get 10. TFP also has a mapmaker, where you can build your own levels. I went on Xbox live and downloaded a few of the top ranked maps. Some people are recreating Halo or UT levels. I also played a really bizarre game on a custom map where the only weapon was mines and the players were either monkeys, cats, or little girls.
Best reason to keep your Xbox in 2006: BLACK from Criterion\EA Games. Single player only, but it looks fabulous from the previews. Smoke effects, you can blow up damn near everything, and the A.I. seems smarter than the average bear.
Best reason to buy the Playstation 3 when it launches: Unreal Tournament 2007. I read this news release that says UT 2007 when be available at launch time. That would really make buying the PS3 a slam dunk if it was exclusive to Sony. UT is my favorite shooter of all time, but the console versions have sucked up till now.
Other Xbox shooters I haven't played yet: DOOM Resurrection of Evil and Half Life 2. I don't play anything on the PC anymore, so I can't wait to play HL2--the reviews are outstanding. Painkiller: Hell Wars comes out in Jan-Feb, which also looks to release stress. Shit, why buy a 360 when there's all this much shooting left to do on the current generation? Have a Happy 2006! Nuff said.
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