In a time when most first-person games were defined by shooting, generic sci-fi environments, and rocket jumping, Thief: The Dark Project sneaked onto store shelves and proved that lurking in the shadows can be just as fun as pumping aliens full of bullets.

From screenshot to trailer to demonstration, Crysis has left jaws on the floor and pants soiled. The visual impact of Crysis is undeniable. Packed with such state-of-the-art visual effects as motion blur, day-to-night cycles, and parallax occlusion mapping, this game is far more beautiful than anything else that’s available at this time. But does the gameplay match up to the standards set by the beauty? This, unfortunately, is pretty arguable; but Crysis is still one of the better first person shooters of the year

Team Fortress 2, a multiplayer team-based shooter from Valve, is one of the best multiplayer games I’ve played in quite a long while. The original “Team Fortress” was released way back in 1996 as a free mod for id Software’s popular first-person shooter, “Quake.” I’ll admit that I have had no experience with the original Team Fortress mod, but I will also say that Team Fortress 2 is an exceptional multiplayer first-person shooter.  Read on to learn why.

It all started back in the early 1990 when Broderbund Software released a small platform game for Apple ][ and PC on a single 3,5’’ disk. The storyline covered by it was quite trivial and something you would usually find in aclassical fairy tale from 1001 Arabian Nights: set in ancient Persia, the good Sultan leaves out for a war leaving his only daughter under custody of his Grand Vizier, who turns out to be an evil ego-maniac striving for power himself. Obviously, the evil Vizier would not be evil enough if he hadn’t tried to force the Sultan’s daughter to marry him. Hearing a refusal, he gives her 1 hour to change her mind, meeting and untimely demise otherwise.