Best Shooters Of 2012: The Ones To Watch

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Posted December 27, 2011 - By Nikole Zivalich

Shooters are the genre de jour. (Mmmm sounds good, I'll have that.) First and third person shooters are the most popular, played, and recognized games out there and for good reason. This year Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 broke records with its sales. It made a billion dollars faster than Avatar after all.

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Being the most popular genre means we won't see a shortage of shooters anytime soon. If any anything, prepare for sensory overload from an armory of options in 2012. To make your budget a little bit tougher to mange we decided to list out all the FPS and 3PS for you. You can make that "Thank you" payable to CASH.

The Darkness 2 Co-op Gameplay Preview »

The Darkness 2
Release date: Feb 7, 2012

The Darkness 2 picks up where the first game left off. We're hopeful that are critiques of The Darkness will be thrown out the door now a new developer has the reigns. Digital Extremes is introducing a new graphic novel art style, new gameplay mechanics and co-op.

Notable improvements we're already excited about include a little thing we like to call "quad-wielding." Okay we didn't make that part up, they did, but whatever, we like it. Quad-wielding means Jackie Estacado can duel-wield automatic weapons while his two demons cause damage too.

Syndicate Gameplay Preview »

Syndicate
Release date: Feb 21, 2012

Gamers of yester-year may remember Syndicate as a cyberpunk real-time tactical game. In 2012 gamers will know Syndicate as a FPS, not a RTS. This obviously has left die-hard fans of the original a little confused and upset. Starbreeze, the game's developer, promises they will remain true to the series roots as far as story goes.

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As someone who hasn't played the first Syndicate, I'm pretty excited about this title. From what I've seen so far, it reminds of Deus Ex, another title I enjoyed from 2011.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier Gameplay Preview »

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Future Soldier
Release date: March 6, 2012

Tom Clancy's series Ghost Recon will be making a highly anticipated appearance in early 2012. The third person shooter series focuses on tactical gameplay rather than run-n-gun of Call of Duty style games.

Future Soldier will require gamers to gather intel in order to advance in the game. Other new features include optical camouflage mode, like in Predator and combat drones. If you saw the E3 2011 demo you know Ghost Recon Future Soldier will have Kinect compatibility too. Definitely keep this game on your radar.

XCOM Gameplay Preview »

X-COM
Release date: March 6, 2012

Like Syndicate, the 2012 X-COM marks a departure from the series' roots. X-COM will also be a first-person shooter. No longer a tactical strategy game, X-COM will combine RPG elements with squad mechanics for a promising FPS experience.

X-COM focuses on an agent in the Extraterrestrial Combat Unit in the 1950's. This unit is all that stands between the USA and an alien invasion. My guess is they don't come in peace.

Official Aliens: Colonial Marines E3 Trailer »

Aliens: Colonial Marines
Release date: Spring 2012

Gamers will finally get to step into the armor of a Colonial Marine who has been sent back to LV-426. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, will be to find the MIA squad from the film Aliens. In fact, Aliens: Colonial Marines promises to be the "true sequel to Aliens." The real selling point, for me at least, is Aliens: CM will have two-player split screen co-op or four-player online co-op.

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If Aliens: Colonial Marines can carry the weight of the Alien brand while still maintaining solid FPS gameplay mechanics, it will truly be a game to look out for. And it will be a game I mostly play at night, mostly.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Debut Trailer »

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Release date: Early 2012

The grand-daddy of the modern first-person shooter owes a lot to the Counter Strike series. Set for early 2012, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is the latest iteration of the CS series. Unlike past games, CS:GO will be released on all platforms, the PC, the Xbox 360 and the PSN. (Sorry, Wii)

If you're afraid Counter Strike might be too hardcore for you, you're right. At least, you were. CS:GO will introduce a new type of gameplay mode called Casual Mode.

Halo 4 Gameplay Preview »

Halo 4
Release date: Q4 2012

One of the best selling FPS franchises ended its trilogy with a cliffhanger. There really isn't a more perfect formula for a "Part 4" than that. One of the biggest announcement's at E3 2010 was Microsoft's confirmation that Halo 4 was in the works. Not only will the adventures of Master Chief and Cortana continue, they will continue in a brand new trilogy.

Halo 4 will be developed by 343 Industries, a new studio created by Microsoft specifically for Halo games. This will be 343's second Halo game. They did a pretty good job with Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Edition. I have complete faith they'll nail this title too.

BioShock Infinite Gameplay Trailer »

BioShock Infinite
Release date: 2012

I saved the best for last. If you walk down a street and ask someone, anyone, what their most anticipated game is, they will say BioShock Infinite. Infinite is the third BioShock game but the second from BioShock creators Irrational Games. Ken Levine and team showed off a demo of BioShock Infinite at E3 2010 and it blew everyone who saw it away.

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The game takes place in Columbia, a floating city in turmoil. Gamers will take the roll of Booker DeWitt. His mission is to rescue Elizabeth, a young woman with the mysterious power to manipulate threads of time. Sounds ambitious, doesn't it? This is the type of game you save up sick days for. Don't say we didn't warn you.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow 6: Patriots Debut Trailer »

Honorable Mention:

Tom Clancy's Rainbow 6: Patriots
Release date: 2013

Ubisoft's next Tom Clancy game is on track to be the must have title of 2013. First they released "target gameplay" footage showing us what they wanted to accomplish. This footage set our expectations for what a FPS with moral choices could be. Then they showed a trailer for what the actual game and it delivered.

The America of Rainbow 6: Patriots is is divided. The nation is in trouble as the government crumbles and its people are becoming hostile. Good thing Ubisoft has plenty of material to work with. A group of Americans have had enough. These home-grown terrorists take matters into their own hands. Ubisoft, you have my attention.

Tags: Features, PC Gaming, PlayStation 3, Videogames, Xbox 360

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RVL8R

Hey wheres Mass Effect 3?

Posted: January 24, 2012 3:46 PM
XxKINGXSlayerxX

HALO CANT WAIT!But when i became rank noble in halo:reach is when i heard halo 4 was coming out lol

Posted: January 23, 2012 1:46 PM
mistageorge01

when is Star Wars the old republic going to cross over to other platforms? ex: PS3... And will Halo ever cross over platforms as well? even though i know its a microsoft game, call of duty crossed over...so any hope of that happening?

Posted: January 13, 2012 8:56 AM
Seravee_08

I mean Infamous 3.

Posted: January 12, 2012 11:00 AM
Seravee_08

When the hell is Infamous 2 gonna come out.

Posted: January 12, 2012 10:59 AM
claggtastic

I have a better question. Where is Mercenaries 3? This is why I didn't want EA to have this franshise they only care about pissing contest with Activision and Call of Duty. Their PopCap smartphone games are getting more love. COME ON MAN!

Posted: January 4, 2012 8:52 PM
TheScatsbury

Borderlands 2. Where. The F. Is Borderlands 2?

Posted: January 3, 2012 1:47 PM
formerroadie

I see nothing here I'm interested in.

Posted: January 3, 2012 11:09 AM
jefferygaines

there are some good shooters come out.

Posted: January 2, 2012 1:12 PM
AWESOMEgamer875

There is only one game total that im looking forward to next year and that is Ghost Recon, for me being a big shooter fan and slowly moving into sports and RPG also, I dont see anything next year that I find remotely interesting except for Ghost Recon and the inevitable CoD: MW4 or other fill in game.

Posted: January 2, 2012 11:53 AM
TD_ThA_MoNsTa

Can't believe you guys didn't put Starhawk on this list, but whatever. One game on this list I'm not so sure about is Halo 4. Because a trailer for it got released just before the VGA's, and the gameplay for it looked about as bad as the VGA's were.

Posted: January 2, 2012 8:30 AM
Pabl007Gunner

Where's Mass Effect 3? It's not and FPS but it's still a shooter.

Posted: January 1, 2012 4:52 PM
dbuddy101

Bioshock Infinite, Rainbow Six, and Future soldier are the best looking. PS3 gamer so i don't like halo, and I haven't seen starhawk (even though it wasn't mentioned) but is it the sequel to warhawk?

Posted: January 1, 2012 9:50 AM
Stinch

Starhawk should be a top 5. No doubt. You've people have seen it right?

Posted: December 31, 2011 2:05 PM
psvitaguy

No Starhawk?

Posted: December 31, 2011 2:24 AM
jefferygaines

i like al the shooters come out next year.

Posted: December 30, 2011 11:50 AM
jefferygaines

the gameplay i will want to see is halo 4 and i play halo 3 and halo raecn.

Posted: December 30, 2011 11:47 AM
I-am-the-arrow-in-your-knee

We can all expect another Call of Duty so why don't you just put that up there...you know its gonna happen, and you know idiots are gonna buy it.

Posted: December 30, 2011 9:35 AM
Atavax

i like how for casual go instead of having a hardcore mode, they have a casual mode; makes me chuckle.

Posted: December 29, 2011 10:45 PM
Atavax

can you call something like Bioshock Infinite a shooter? Like rpg elements can be in non RPG games, Shooter elements can be in a non shooter game and i would think Bioshock Infinite could be one of those games. I don't think anyone is looking at Bioshock Infinite and thinking "Oh man, i can't wait to see how this new gun handles", i think everyone is excited about the storytelling and the character development and the beautiful scenery. The focus of the game is not the shooting, it is just a tool they use to tell the story.

Posted: December 29, 2011 10:43 PM