So we weren’t planning on posting screenshots today, but when Rare’s community lead Mike Wilson popped up with side-by-side comparison snaps of Perfect Dark on Xbox Live Arcade and the original game, we couldn’t say no. Wilson would have pulled his Sad Face if we had. I’ve never actually seen Wilson’s Sad Face, but he’s from Rare, so I’m guessing it resembles Gruntilda off Banjo Kazooie. Ugh.

Joanna Dark isn’t currently wearing a Sad Face. She’s quite the alluring one in fact, thanks to the Xbox 360’s graphical chutzpah. That PVC-trimmed physique no longer looks like it’s been hacked from foam packaging blocks with a pair of half-melted plastic scissors.

We heart Blade Runner homages and vapid facial expressions.

Cassandra DeVries has also been to the beautician, though in her case the transformation isn’t sufficient to induce manly trouser pangs. Here she is before:

From cardboard dummy...

And after:

...to Hilary Clinton.

And how about a high-def version of weenie B-movie accomplice Elvis? Wax on:

From flying hexagon...

Wax off:

...to flying saucer.

To compliment those pin-sharp character models, each and every one of the game’s future spy weapons has been reskinned. Out with the old Falcon 2 pistol:

From Tetris L-shape...

And in with the new:

...to Bond movie death implement.

Check out the official site for more.

Thanks, Mike. The game’s coming out in early 2010.  If it’s a match for Serious Sam HD, we’ll pronounce ourselves well-pleased.

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Simultaneously the best and worst thing about the First Person Shooter genre is that there are so damned many of them. And because there are shooters appearing with such alarming regularity, the truth is that sometimes it’s difficult to keep up. You know what it’s like. Three games come out in the same week that you like the look of, you pick one of them, and by the time you’re ready to go back, something else shiny and new has distracted you.

Over a period of time, it’s inevitable that we’re all going to have missed out on some great games – maybe the ones with a quirky premise that never quite got the recognition they deserved. So that’s where we come in with a round-up of some of the bona-fide Cult Classics of the genre that you may have missed out on the first time around.

A great FPS never dies.

The Operative: No One Lives Forever
Monolith (PC, PS2), 2000

For reasons that are not entirely clear, very few people wanted to play a game starring a sexy female spy in a catsuit, the buffoons. Evidently influenced by late 60s Bond movies and, more recently, the Austin Powers movies, Monolith created a superb premise where ex-cat burglar Cate Archer tip-toed around a plethora of memorable environments armed with a plethora of gadgets.

Exceptionally ambitious for its time, it gave players a great deal more opportunity to experiment than many modern shooters ever bother to offer. Players were afforded the opportunity to sneak past hazards with the aid of gadgets (such as the guard dog distracting electric poodle), dispose of corpses with body-removing powder, or just blast their way out of situations.

The overall look and feel of the game was memorable, too, with excellent swinging sixties-inspired music, and all manner of unusual locations and scenarios, such as a space station in zero gravity, a shipwreck, or a freefall from an aircraft. And yet despite scooping awards galore, it sold precisely bugger all – even a subsequent PS2 port and sequel didn’t do the job. Go and see what you missed.

A sight for sore eyes.

The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay
Starbreeze (Xbox, PC, Xbox 360, PS3), 2004

Precisely one month before Riddick came out, the press got to see the game for the very first time. Gobsmacked as we were by the visuals on display, it seemed incredible that publisher Vivendi wasn’t shouting from the rafters, but a combination of film-based restrictions and general PR apathy ensured that the Xbox-exclusive game limped into stores with a complete absence of hype.

A few sites championed it around release, but by then it was too late. The Vin Diesel movie bombed, retail didn’t put it in front of punters and few gamers put their money down, despite the game being arguably one of the best shooters of its era. Blending stealth, adventure, melee, shooting and even mech combat to quite glorious effect, it almost defied categorisation, and proved beyond doubt that this was how to treat a film license.

To compound the tragedy of it all, Starbreeze also managed to create one of the finest technical achievements of that console generation. No other Xbox title even came close to matching its ludicrously detailed, bump-mapped environments. The game’s subsequent ports to PC and, eventually, 360 and PS3 via the recent Assault On Dark Athena release have put it back in the public eye again, thankfully. Check it out.

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"Can you smell burning?"

As the title pretty bloody obviously implies, Weapon Drops are short, sharp homilies to new, old and upcoming FPS weapons. If it blows shit away plenty good (and sometimes even if it doesn’t), you’ll find a corresponding entry here.

Halo is remembered for a lot of reasons. FPS Gamer history buff Kristan Reed has been known to gibber about its “groundbreaking AI and dynamic combat system”, while others might talk fondly of upwardly curving vistas, chunky physics-enabled vehicles or the way Covenant buildings shatter like lumps of purple meringue when you fire a rocket at them.

For my part, it was all about the Covenant plasma grenade, or “sticky grenade”.

The sticky grenade’s triumphs are twofold. First off, this cloying variety of handheld explosive threw open the process of grenade-throwing to the unwashed masses. No longer would amateur grenadiers have to worry about accidentally lobbing the device straight between the victim’s legs, or glancing it off his shoulder, or bouncing it off the wall behind and straight back into their faces. By dousing the grenade in glowing alien glue, Bungie had “democratised” it, transforming the weapon from holy tool of the moderately autistic elite to something any damn fool could use if he was capable of leading a target.

Secondly and most importantly, the sticky grenade is designed to encourage sadism.

Think of the many times you, dear reader, have been plugged by one. Worlds live and die in the second or two between contact and detonation. There’s the shock of the gaseous blue ball hurtling towards your torso, the frenzied instant of self-scrutiny, the horrible realisation that the other player is back-pedalling like mad, the desperate attempt to salvage a little honour by suicide-bombing the bastard, and the gloomy sight of your own corpse doing its very best Superman impression.

Now swap roles, and recall the satisfaction of seeing exactly this torturous thought process running through the eyes of another.

Good old Covenant know-how. Here’s some footage of a sticky grenade specialist in action.

Got an implement of warfare you’d like featured? Let us know.

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The history of the Metroid Prime series is well documented. From a shaky start in an unfamiliar genre, Nintendo’s faith in Retro Studios proved to be well founded as the GameCube original went on to be one of the few system-sellers on the troubled format. Gathering together Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption may seem like a cynical marketing move, but when you multiply the number of folks who missed out the first time around by the huge number of Wii owners in need of substantial gaming experience – well, you can probably guess which way the figures point.

Rather than simply taking the GameCube originals and pressing them onto the Metroid Prime 3 disc, Retro Studios have spent time furnishing the first two Prime games with Corruption’s refinements. The most immediate difference with Prime and Echoes is the addition of Corruption’s sublime motion controls. Say what you will about the number of developers that misuse the Wii’s unique controls, but pick up the remote and nunchuk, switch the controls to “advanced” and your arms become those of Samus Aran, with precise movement, aiming and interaction.

Keyboard and mouse aficionados may scoff, and how well this control scheme would work in a fast-paced multiplayer FPS may still be up in the air, but when it comes to exploring Retro Studios’ finely crafted galaxy, nothing beats the Corruption approach. Prime and Echoes benefit from the new controls enormously, making previously tricky boss battles much fairer and increasing the already incredible sense of immersion no end.

These fellows would do well to observe Samus' silent role. Instead they blather incessantly.

Corruption’s “achievement” system of dealing out credits for fulfilling certain tasks has been retro-fitted into Prime and Echoes, though it never fosters the kind of experimental play that Corruption’s friend tokens encourage, dishing them out instead for defeated bosses and inventory collection.

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Whilst it hasn’t generated the buzz of LittleBigPlanet, or the barrage of impressive statistics that filled the Spore universe, Halo 3 can still hold its own as a champion of user-generated multiplayer content. As we’ve seen with other titles, however, the more popular and accessible your creative toolset, the less easy it is to filter out the dross. Bungie’s community files section, though a fantastic tool in the past, is struggling under the weight.

So that’s where the following list comes in. This is by no means an exhaustive guide to the very best that Forge has to offer, but we’ve compiled from long experience, cherry-picking the maps and game variants that have earned a permanent spot in the FPSG multiplayer hopper. It’s a connoisseur’s selection of carnage. And so, without further ado…

Sky Castle

Sky Castle – SandTrap – CTF, Slayer, Infection

Sky Castle is among the crème of the many Forge architectural oddities by virtue of being both aesthetically interesting and functional. The huge tower that dominates an otherwise untouched SandTrap provides a great sniper’s outlook, a less-than-impenetrable fortress for CTF or Tower of Power, and an approachable last-man-standing hideout for Infected. As with all the best Forge creations, crafting your own experience around Sky Castle’s geometry is half the fun. This design rises far above the competition.

Shenlong Dragon

Shenlong Dragon – Standoff – Slayer

In contrast to the utilitarian appeal of the previous entry, Shenlong Dragon is almost entirely fanciful. Painstakingly perched on top of the Standoff valley, this is an impressive structure to navigate. With multiple routes to the top, its curved body and Chopper-laden mouth provide some picturesque and occasionally useful scenery for slayer matches. Dismayingly popular amongst the juvenile machinima crowd, we urge you to put the Dragon to good use elsewhere.

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It’s 6am, and tempers are fraying. We’ve had a long night, but the eighth (and perhaps finest) level of the Halo 3 co-op campaign – The Covenant – has our four-man party clamouring to recall stories of Silent Cartographer, the crowning glory of Halo: CE.

It’s a sharp reminder of a long-forgotten gameplay rush, a level beloved for green rolling hills and the most prominent of free-form AI hooks on which Bungie hangs its celebrated set pieces. This was the simultaneously nostalgic and progressive experience we were all seeking. This, we declared to one another, was what console shooters were all about.

Once more unto the beach, dear friends.

And yet suddenly, without warning, the colour palette fades from a brazen mix of green and purple to a squidgy, tepid brown as we enter the penultimate fight. The following procession of colonic tunnels—bridged by alluringly shiny sphincters—pitch us into a series of tough, repetitious battles against the moronic Flood, punctuated by a slow-motion narrative exchange between a giant talking plant and a fictional AI. In a moment of sly self-reflexivity, Master Chief surveys this rotten quagmire from afar, inspecting the muck dripping from the bottom of his boot apologetically.

Welcome to the nadir of Halo design. Welcome to Cortana.

It’s a level that should never have been. Taken on its own, it’s a crime against an otherwise solidly-designed FPS, perfectly positioned to ruin the conclusion for a sizeable chunk of the player base. Taken in the context of the series—and specifically the horrifically misjudged Library from CE— it’s a chink in the design principles of an otherwise celebrated developer. Whether attributable to complacency or no, this misstep precluded Halo 3 reaching classic status amongst many critics and fans – all for what basically amounts to a brown smear.

Definitely not Kansas.

Of course, to chastise a shooter simply for attempting something different within the genre’s narrow confines would be churlish. Diverting enemies from human-like AI to zombified path-finding can make for a welcome respite in any given shooter (triggering security bots in Bioshock a prime example). The odd corridor section, shooting gallery or on-rails sequence is akin to a palette cleanser.

Hell, the likes of F.E.A.R can even exist solely on such limited sustenance; though many would argue that entire game to be a badly designed single player level, no matter how impressively its soldiers hide behind corners.

But there is something about a comprehensive change of location—coupled with style and enemy type—that ensures it rarely meets with success. From Gordon Freeman’s entirely unnecessary sojourn on Xen through to the frosty corridor-based conclusion of Crysis, this seems a design problem consumers are destined to relive. But bad levels are not always the result of a change in setting, and some are even difficult to identify at first glance.

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