BioShock 2

Who's yer daddy?

BioShock never captured my attention back in the day, and sticking a number on the end and releasing BioShock 2 didn't really do anything to help change that either.

For whatever reason it was, I just wasn't interested in diving beneath the waves and shooting through the ruins of Rapture. Was it the setting that didn't engage me? Were there just too many first-person shooters that I was interested in playing instead?

It wasn't until playing BioShock for this 1001 list that I finally got around to seeing what the fuss was about (and quickly realizing I'd have a better time if I installed the Remastered version instead), before concluding that while it didn't floor me, I could see it was a solid game to play.

Is BioShock 2 more of the same, or is there more to this underwater paradise that needs to be investigated? Without wanting to resort to 'diving right in' again, let's get our feet wet once more.

Zeno Clash

Can't we solve our differences at range?

There are many reasons for a list such as the 1001 list to exist. Highlighting technological achievements, for example. Uncovering forgotten and overlooked gems. Introducing players to new and unforgettable experiences, even when they wish they'd rather forget about the weird first-person beat 'em up set in what must be the most unusual setting under the sun that is Zeno Clash.

Sorry, that might spoil what I think of this game ever so slightly...

The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena

"The darkness, for me, is where I shine."

The world can't get enough of Richard B. Riddick if anyone associated with the Riddick series is anything to go by. Films, animations, video games and now a sequel to the surprisingly good Escape from Butcher Bay in The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena.

Straight after the events of the first game, still before the events of the first film, Riddick continues to be the killer that lurks in the shadows, so efficient in his craft that some of these mercenaries really ought to know better by now.

It started life as an expansion to Butcher Bay, but things happened and now here we are, a full sequel to enjoy, much the same as the first game. And to prove that point, here, we've bundled the first game in here too...

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising

Solid copy.

A couple of years ago, but an awfully long way back through the 1001 list, we went to war in the grandfather of military sims, now known as ARMA, then known as Operation Flashpoint. It was an experience, and one that I knew I wouldn't be any good at, but was glad to have played.

The lineage of Operation Flashpoint splits in two shortly after that game. Original developers Bohemia Interactive Studio go their own way, deep into the simulation side of things with ARMA, and publishers Codemasters wait a few years before reviving the brand with a more accessible, though still simulation-based, Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising.

If you, like me, think ARMA is something to try, but mind-boggling to get into, Dragon Rising might just be for you.

Killzone 2

"My people. Sons and Daughters of Helghan."

Source // MobyGames

There are an awful lot of components that go into a great game. Solid gameplay is an obvious bonus, but as technology has advanced, great stories, characters, and voice actors have made games shine, and film composers and orchestras have provided incredible soundscapes that can be recalled in an instant.

But there's another aspect that can make an otherwise excellent game fade over time if not done right, and that's worldbuilding and the aesthetics of what's on show. The reason I rate Front Mission 3 so highly is the look and feel of those big stompy mechs. I'm a fan of that aesthetic. Metal Gear Solid is also helped by its look and feel, but that game does have a whole load more going on besides them. Wipeout famously had a graphic design studio turn the game into the vibrant futuristic wonder that it is today.

However, in my opinion - though it's a tough call to make - there may well be no more aesthetically pleasing game, no better world to dive into, than the grungy, smoggy, near-future, WW2 analogy that is Killzone 2.

The first game of the series didn't grab my attention. That E3 teaser trailer and the subsequent gameplay footage that followed sure did. By the time you've played it, you too will know that Helghan belongs to the Helghast.

Left 4 Dead 2

Dude, haven't we been here before?

Less than a year after Left 4 Dead came Left 4 Dead 2, and there's probably some pun we could make about dealing with one group of zombies only to turn around and walk right into another, or that the dead aren't easy to kill, or that's always more where that came from.

I have a history of not liking it when this 1001 list says we need to play what are essentially identical games, especially sequels. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty is a sequel to Metal Gear Solid, but despite their similarities, you can find a whole bunch of reasons to put both forward as must-play titles. Halo 3 is a sequel to Halo 2, but we've got a harder time of things now, though 'finishing the fight' might be enough to sway it. Left 4 Dead 2 is a sequel to Left 4 Dead and it has, let's see... daylight, melee weapons, a few new monsters.

So who should we leave behind, this game or the first one?

Halo 3: ODST

"You know the music, time to dance."

Source // MobyGames

Given the sheer dominance of the IP, it was an inevitability that there would be some sort of spin-off set in the Halo universe. As it happens, there are a couple, and we'll get to the second in a very short while, but up first is the spin-off that retains the first-person shooting you're familiar with, and a story you very much aren't.

Halo 3: ODST grew too big and bold to be a Halo 3 DLC, and I'm informed that it is set during the events of Halo 2, so good luck trying to work out where any of this fits if, like me, you're not a huge Halo fan and haven't completed any of the main games.

Still, the fact that it doesn't follow ol' Chief again allows the formula to be shaken up and made into something different. Something worth playing? Let's stop waffling and start finding out.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

"There's no honourable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There is nothing good in CoD. Except its ending." - Abraham Lincoln, probably.

Modern Warfare was quite the hit for Call of Duty fans. Overnight, the first-person shooter became something else entirely, an action-packed romp through the world of today, cranked up to extremes found only  - we hope - in cinema.

A sequel was inevitable, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was the first direct story sequel in the CoD series up to this point. What was the story about, again? Was it terrorists or Russians? Both? I can never really remember what goes on in CoD, owing to the amount of strawberry jam I see on my screen...

Let's try and work out what's going on this time out.

F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin

"You have a date with destiny, Sergeant Becket. Let's not keep her waiting."

It's not the best of screenshots to give you a sense of what F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin is all about, is it? Truth be told, even knowing what to expect after having played a bit of the first F.E.A.R. thanks to this 1001 list, this is still too hands-on a game to worry about grabbing screenshots in the middle of it, my attention is too focused on what is getting chucked my way that I simply can't provide you with anything that looks nice and composed.

So live with it. Just imagine that you, too, are in a dark and spooky first-person shooter that follows on from the psychological horrors of the first game and see how you fare.

Let's try and make some sense of it, though.

The House of the Dead: Overkill

"What does a brother have to do to pacify a bitch!?"

Source // PlayStation

Usually, video games on this 1001 list fall into one of two broad camps, those that I have played already and those that I haven't. I mean, that's pretty much a given and not worth talking about, but what is worth talking about is that I have played The House of the Dead: Overkill, albeit in the form of The Typing of the Dead: Overkill, the closest I could get to playing The Typing of the Dead.

Now it's time for me to actually play the game that typing spin-off was based on, The House of the Dead: Overkill, which is an added extra in The Typing of the Dead: Overkill.

Confused yet? Let's wade through these mutants and see if we can work out what's going on.

Battlefield 1943

PTFDigitalOnlyO

Source // PlayStation

An awful lot of first time Battlefield players site Battlefield 3 as their entry to the series, the consoles finally getting a smaller but no less impressive taste of the action, scaling from boots on the ground to dogfights in the sky.

As a nice little treat for those who were hyped to dive into the series, a bite-sized digital-only game was bundled with copies that aimed to give players a blast from the past, and a blast within a minute of entering a map.

Battlefield was going back in time, in more ways than one, with Battlefield 1943.

Borderlands

Pre-WUB WUB

Players love getting rewarded with new loot. Whether it is heaps of cash or experience to splurge out in shops or level-up screens, or new weapons and equipment to push your characters towards their strengths and personalities, getting more, better stuff, again and again, keeps us engaged.

So open-world first-person action-RPG shooter Borderlands gives its players lots of stuff. Like, more than a bucketload of it. Think three and a half million different weapons alone. I hope you like gathering loot. Or maybe 'swimming in loot' would be a better phrase.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2

"Only a true leader plunges into the dark woods of defeat and emerges into the light of victory."

Tom Clancy has his name attached to quite a few video games but were it not for this 1001 blog, I don't know if I'd have ever played very many of them. Splinter Cell was obviously a big hit, but I was more into Metal Gear, and the other series often came across as games that you'd like far more if you were the type of person who read a lot of Tom Clancy books.

There's nothing wrong with that - I guess you know what you're getting into - but the games were generally the kind where you need to be invested in that world and setting to enjoy what otherwise seemed to be a bit of a generic shooter of some description.

Will Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 show me the error of my ways? That Tom Clancy titles can be just as impressive as any other shooter, even without the Hollywood setpieces? Let's outfit and find out.

Resistance 2

"They are calling to us. Can you hear them?"

Source // PlayStation

When the PlayStation 3 first came out, most players could only afford to play free demos on it. Thankfully, this was a time when demos actually did exist, and one of those demos I played a few times was for Resistance: Fall of Man, an alternate history/universe sci-fi Second World War first-person shooter pitting men against monstrous aliens up and down the United Kingdom.

I didn't end up purchasing Resistance, nor did I look into Resistance 2 when it came out, a sequel that no doubt improved on the original, but didn't catch my interest in any way.

The 1001 write up mentions how there are multiplayer matches that support up to 60 players, which was pretty much an anomaly in terms of player counts on the PS3. Wikipedia mentions how those servers' plugs were pulled in 2014, so I guess all we've got to enjoy these days is the story.

But what is that story? Who are these angry-looking fellas from another planet? What do they want with good ol' Blighty?

What's that? We're in America now?

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky

"Cheeki Breeki!"

When your most important survival tool is a rusty bolt, you know you're living in some sort of Hell. When you're playing the prequel to S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, you practically confirm it.

Not much has changed between Clear Sky and Shadow of Chernobyl. The world is still full of other-worldly artefacts and an awful lot of radiation, death can still come for you before you know it, but entire factions are vying for control over whatever is left, and you're in the middle of it all, a walking anomaly.

I didn't have the most successful of times in Shadow of Chernobyl, but I was intrigued by what it tried to do. Is the expandalone story of Clear Sky an easier entry point into this harsh universe, or just more of the same?

Get your bag of bolts ready and we'll find out.

Left 4 Dead

"Dude, where's my thumb?"

Sometimes it feels like the world may be heading towards a zombie uprising. There are an awful lot of braindead individuals out there, that's for sure. What would it take for them to work together for the greater good? Co-operation, for starters, and an intelligent leader to push and pull everything in the right direction.

Co-operating can be hard for some, however, so we should probably get some practice in playing first-person survival horror shooter Left 4 Dead, where a handful of citizens have to rely on each other to wade through the onslaught that lay between them and their survival.

Can you wade through an onslaught, or do you wade through the blood and guts that come out of that onslaught? I'm not sure. Let's find out.

Far Cry 2

"To break a man's will, to break his spirit, you have to break his mind."

Source // PlayStation

I liked my time with Far Cry, difficult though it was, but it wasn't my first taste of a Far Cry game. That would be in the form of its sequel, Far Cry 2, developed by a different team entirely and making its way onto the PlayStation 3, where I could actually play an open-world first-person shooter.

Like other titles in the genre before and since I spent a sizeable amount of time roaming a fictional African country consumed in war, and causing just as much - if not more - carnage by my own hands. There must be something about the immersion of a first-player game that hooks me, and if it's the attention paid to the little things, then Far Cry 2 is an example of showing us how it's done.

Grab your bottle of malaria pills and pick the least rusted weapon you can find, because we're about to be thrown into the furnace.

Battlefield: Bad Company

"Oh look. New guy's dead." "Already? I was just about to learn his name."

Source // EA

How do you bring the Battlefield experience to consoles? Eventually, I'd find out what I was missing in the form of Battlefield 3, my introduction to the series, but this was a smaller, limited version of the real deal. Player counts were capped and some maps shrunk in size, but when you don't know what you're missing all is good, right?

Case in point, perhaps, is Battlefield: Bad Company, a sort of spin-off game designed for consoles to give players a taste of Battlefield. Squad-based gameplay across vast expanses of land traversed on foot, in vehicles, or through the air, where seemingly everything can be blown up and reduced to rubble.

I've heard a lot of praise for its sequel, but have checked out neither title. I'm not even sure why I wasn't interested in it in the first place but would be devouring everything I could find regarding Battlefield 3 a few years later.

Let's see whether my console FPS history should have taken a different course.

Unreal Tournament 3

"There's a reason we drive Axon vehicles... they're the best."

Unreal Tournament 2004 was a solid first-person shooter. Sure, I still haven't experienced the multiplayer modes against humans, where I would be utterly wrecked in seconds, but I played enough of it for me to like it. An old-school shooter with glowing powerups and bloody and burnt chunks of meat scattered all over the floor.

How do you follow that up in the era of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and their push for more realistic graphics? They're beefy enough machines for all the giblets, aren't they? Should Unreal Tournament make its way to consoles? 

Well, whether you agree or not, Unreal Tournament 3 made itself known on the homes of Master Chief and... what's the big Sony FPS? Killzone? Whatever, the point is that the tournament is more accessible, and now doesn't seem to be much of a tournament at all.

Keyboard and mouse at the ready, let's ignore the consoles and see what's what.

Team Fortress 2

"Keep crying, baby!"

I have never seen the appeal of Team Fortress 2. I mean, I understand how a first-person team shooter can be engaging, and unique classes can work together to form a formidable threat, and how cartoony characters and aesthetics can make it stand out against your more run-of-the-mill FPS titles, but I really, personally, cannot find a reason to pick up Team Fortress 2 and play it for myself.

Except, of course, that the 1001 list says we should. So there's that, I guess.

I know Team Fortress 2 only for it being vastly popular for some reason and having too many hats or something. I don't know, and to be honest, I don't care, but lets at least give it a shot.