My Love/Hate Relationship with First Person Shooters

I don't think I've ever beat a first person shooter. I've played many FPS' from GoldenEye to Far Cry 3, and I don't think I've finished one. My experience with first person shooters goes like this:

I

Start a First Person Shooter.

Find It Fun For About
 2 Hours.

Become Bored by the 
3rd Hour.

It makes me hesitant to spend any money towards playing a critically acclaimed first person shooter. The last first person shooter I played was Far Cry 3. That game was nowhere on my radar screen, but things were boring in December 2012, and Far Cry 3 was getting some pretty impressive reviews. I played the solo campaign, and found myself turning it off every 20 minutes. The game had plenty of fun things to do, but I just wasn't enjoying the experience. I traded it in a week after I bought it. All of those positive reviews, and I didn't enjoy Far Cry 3. Shame. I didn't enjoy Far Cry 3 because I hate first person shooters.

I Hate First Person Shooters.

Well that's not entirely true. I enjoy watching people play First Person Shooters. I would have no problem watching someone play Far Cry 3. I probably would have gotten more into the game if I had watched someone do their thing. If one of my friends had gotten into Far Cry 3, I would've been right there watching it like a movie. Heck, I'd even play the game for a little if my friend wanted to take a break.

Come to think of it, I enjoy playing First Person Shooters with other people. I spent months playing  Turok Evolution with my friends back in the day. Multiplayer is where it's at. My friends and I would meet up after school and play deathmatches for hours. I remember I would pack my Wavebird controller in my backpack so I could go straight to my friend Brian's house from school.

 
I Love Multiplayer Tho...

Hanging out with friends and playing a first person shooter has always been a joy for me. It goes back to the days of GoldenEye on the Nintendo 64. Four people playing split screen on a 13 inch TV having a blast. Those were the days. There's something about being in the same room with a person while I play a First Person Shooter. Maybe it's just being able to hang out and play videogames you know? I hope Split Screen games never goes away.

These days I find myself having the most fun playing Split Screen Co-op with one other player. Modern Warfare 3 surprised me with its Spec Ops mode. My friend Tino and I finished every mission in two nights. I thought Borderlands was best when I played it split screen with my friend Blake. I found it boring when I played by it online, but when Blake and I played together it was magic. We played it until 7 in the morning one night. It was crazy.

Playing Online? 
Not So Much

While I enjoy playing with other people, I'm not a fan of playing First Person Shooters Online. Not only do I suck, but I just don't have a lot of fun playing. I'm a different kind of gamer in an online environment  My focus is completely different. When I play any game offline I find myself trying to be stylish when I play. For example, in  Grand Theft Auto IV, I'll always have a rare or exotic car in my garage. When I'm online my only focus is not to die. It's different. It makes it worse when the game I'm playing is a first person shooter. I'm never see anything coming. It's the worst.

I thought maybe playing online with friends would help, but it doesn't. It's just not the same when I can't accuse anyone of looking at my screen. This is one of the reasons why I consider GoldenEye for the N64 to be the best First Person Shooter ever. Multiplayer games weren't online back then so you were forced to play in the same room with people. I've got nothing but good memories from those days.

Bioshock Infinite

BioShock Infinite is set to be released at midnight. I don't think I'm going to play it. The good reviews Infinite has received are doing little to influence my decision to play it. I don't want to end up disappointed like I did with Far Cry 3. Who knows? I might end up bored enough to give Bioshock: Infinite a shot. When there's nothing else, a first person shooter will have to do.

Why I'm NOT Buying Assassin's Creed 4

Assassin's Creed 3 was the most disappointing game of 2012. AC3 was proof that the series has hit a wall in terms of new ideas and innovative gameplay. Think about it. What was the major marketing point of Assassin's Creed 3? The setting. There weren't any ads about Connor's climbing ability, or his weapons. It was "hey America come get a glimpse of your history with Assassin's Creed's version of the American Revolution." I'm not going to lie, the setting is what convinced me to give Assassin's Creed 3 a shot. I was done with the series after Brotherhood, but figured enough time had passed for the series to be fun again. Boy was I wrong. Colonial Boston is nowhere near as beautiful or fun to explore as say Italy in the 1400's or the Middle East in the 1100's.

The biggest new thing in terms of gameplay for AC3 was the Naval Battles. Naval Battles are the fights between battleships that took place in Assassin's Creed 3. Many people who criticized AC3, gave praise to the Naval Battles. Some even used Naval Battles as an excuse to finish playing the game. I guess it comes as no surprise that Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag is set completely around the idea of ships and pirates. Ubisoft is pretty much taking the one thing (some) people liked about Assassins Creed 3 and making it the center point in Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag.

Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag is apparently a Pirate Themed game set in the Caribbean. The promo picture being set on a ship is a big indicator that Naval Battles are going to be a focal point in Assassin's Creed 4. That's a bummer. I for one wasn't a fan of the Naval Battles. By the time they showed up in AC3 (around the 6 hour mark) I was tired of everything that made Assassin's Creed 3 up to that point. I was tired of the plot that was going nowhere. I was tired of running from one cutscene to the next. I was tired of a series that clearly hurt itself with yearly releases.

AC4 being announced less than 6 months after the release of Assassins Creed 3 is a huge red flag for me. It more than likely will be available this holiday season which means Ubisoft learned nothing from it's mistakes in AC3. What I liked about the Assassin's Creed series was actually being an assassin. Nothing made me happier than climbing structures and stealthily killing people. I'd have fun climbing each viewpoint no matter how repetitive it was to jump in a stack of hay. I loved searching for treasure before AC 3 added a stupid lockpick minigame to the mix. If AC4 can go back to a beautiful city with gorgeous skyscrapers and fun gameplay, I'd be more than excited for it.

Will Assassin's Creed 4 remind me of the things I love about the series, or will it be another snoozefest with more cutscenes than actual gameplay? That remains to be seen, but if it's coming at the end of the year. I almost guarantee it won't be much different from AC3. That means more running from cutscene to cutscene combined with a boring character, boring location, and a boring story. If that's the case I'll gladly pass on Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag. I'll wait for the reviews before I decide whether or not to give this game a try.

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