I've been playing a lot of Far Cry 2 lately on my 360 (in case you can't tell from my gamercard) and I've been struggling with a very simple dilemma: Do I actually like this game?

On the one hand, it is an absolutely gorgeous game. The engine renders incredibly believable jungles, wind swept savannas, and dune-filled deserts. It produces the most realistic fire I've ever seen in video games which can race across grasslands and leap from tree-top to tree-top. And explosions shake, shatter, and shred the flora in spectacularly devastating ways.

But on the other hand, this game is one of the most repetitive pieces of shit I've ever encountered. Every mission contains 90% driving and 10% action- and that 10% action feels like the same 10% action for every other mission. Also, the story shares nothing with the first Far Cry game. Unlike Final Fantasy games which have different stories but similar settings and accouterments, Far Cry 2 is militantly Alzheimeric with regard to what has come before. Mutants and Dinosaur suggestions? That never happened! We've been in this unnamed African country the whole time!

So, do I like this game, or really, really hate it?

So I've been replaying the F.E.A.R. games lately, and I've been musing as to why I like them as much as I do. I mean, in my Video Game Awards for 2007 I had F.E.A.R. Files in the honorable mentions page. But really, they have a lot of flaws, so why do I like them so much?

For those who don't know, F.E.A.R. was developed by Monolith, whose pedigree includes such classics as Condemned, Tron 2.0 and the legendary No One Lives Forever. F.E.A.R. has two expansions: Extraction Point, which takes place immediately after the first game ends and has the same characters, and Perseus Mandate, which follows a new team in events parallel to the original game as well as Extraction Point.

F.E.A.R. is a very by-the-book FPS with a survival horror theme to it. The levels tend to be rather linear, very rarely do you really have much freedom in how you can accomplish any goal. The series' gameplay can accurately be described as "Go from point A to point B killing all the enemies in your path, rinse, repeat". Furthermore, the graphic engine (Lithtech) hasn't aged as well as many of its contemporaries. This means that, graphically, the games tend to be rather blasé with boxy environments filled with hard-edged objects. This is made worse by the fact that most of the series (F.E.A.R. and Perseus Mandate) takes place in office buildings and warehouses.

The series has one major gimmick to it, the ability to slow time, but this isn't wholly original (we've seen it in games since Max Payne). Otherwise, the gunplay tends to be pedestrian and there's little in terms of modern FPS elements to be found in the games.

So what makes them so damned compelling?

2007 was a great year to be a gamer. In fact, it may have been the greatest year ever as we've managed to have hit after hit after hit.

But, in this sea of stellar titles, what games stand out from the rest? Well, I have the answers to that question as well as many others in this year's Sam's Video Game Awards.

Read on for the full poop...

I realize it's not yet the end of the year, but I don't think it's too early to state that 2007 will likely be remembered as the Year of the Shooter. This year there will have been released some of the greatest (if not, the greatest) first person shooters of all time.

This past year we've simply had some incredible FPSes. Let's take a look at them (in no particular order)....

Well, if you read my last tirade on the 360 version of Doom you already know that I own a fuckload of Dooms. And despite the apparent resolve I claimed to have in that entry I did, in fact, buy the 360 version of Doom. Not only did I buy it, but I've been playing the shit out of that game. I'm currently on the last chapter in the game, and will soon have every achievement in it unlocked. It's safe to say that I have been devouring it, the single-player, the mutli-player, the various difficulty modes, I've been eating it up.

Well, as if this game didn't already showcase my weakness enough, it seems they will be throwing me yet another curveball...

Was goofing around on Xbox Live tonight, checking out the latest stuff from the TGS06 (Tokyo Game Show 2006). In case you haven't been following this, during the show Microsoft has been putting out some pretty kack ass demos and videos from the show. Everything from the sublime Half Life 2, Episode 2, to the shockingly Japanese Blue Dragon, to the mediocre Sonic the Hedgehog demo has been featured there.

Well tonight, I found what could be their most nefarious addition to date...