As a result of Blizzard's epic fail with their servers last night, I loaded up Doom 3 and played it for a few hours. Games like Doom 3, at one time, were the epitome of what a computer game was supposed to be. But in this day and age, it's all about the realism. Any shooter you pick up today will undoubtedly be tactical in nature, requiring you to play with a bunch of NPC team mates, give them orders, develop a strategy, and execute that strategy to complete your objective. I am not opposed to these types of games in the least -- I think they can be a lot of fun, and also rewarding. But for me, sometimes there's nothing better than playing solo and just blowing shit up. This is why my list of favorite shooters is topped by Half-Life (all incarnations), Doom (all incarnations), Max Payne (all incarnations), and Quake (most incarnations). While the stories of all these games are all quite different, one thing remains the same -- you're just one guy in that game world, and you get to shoot, blow up, ignite, run over, and slice up everything in your way.

I feel this type of game is a lost art, and I will lay the blame on two different sources:

1. I blame crappy game developers. You created too many shitty first-person shooters.

2. I blame the critics. You keep pounding your chests for MORE REALISM, MORE REALISM, MORE REALISM. Shut the hell up, you're playing a guy in a nano-suit who can jump 40 feet into the air while invisible and head-shotting aliens 300 yards away. Oh yeah, that's realistic.

All is not lost, however. My niche games still do exist, and they are still being made. And they are being made in such a way as to garner very favorable reviews from critics. You've got the Gears of War series, which has been very successful. Additionally, you have such games as Dead Space. That is one that I really think I need to play. It's your classic "sole survivor on a spaceship filled with killer aliens" game. And let's not forget that Wolfenstein is being remade.