To add balance and harmony to the world, I thought I'd post my thoughts in first person shooters. It has been my favourite genre ever since I fragged my first imp in Doom and continues to enthrall me to this very day. I love them. While it is true that great leaps in FPS evolution aren't always the focus for developers I don't consider that a failing of the genre. We've reached a point in FPS games where innovation and iteration come from the small details that make up the overall experience. Things like weapon handling, mechanics, enemy AI and narrative. If played on a high setting, video game foes can provide a real challenge, though if their AI isn't well balanced, then that can seriously break a game. Take The Conduit on Wii. Regardless of the fact you controlled it with a Wii remote and nunchuck, the handling was only just okay and the level design was less than inspirational. Fixed spawn points and a weak storyline caused The Conduit to only matter to the truly hardcore Wii FPS gamer. Now consider the complete opposite end of the spectrum, Modern Warfare 2. This too has scripted spawn points and a storyline which isn't for everybody but the feeling of the guns, design of the levels and challenging gameplay makes it so much more than an average game. Destructible environments is another mechanic that although is nothing new, has been perfected in recent releases due to small and incremental changes.

A negative aspect of FPSes is how you can mostly rely on your default weapon to get you through the game. Jeff Gerstmann of Giantbomb states that thanks to the headshot, there isn't as much incentive to use your full arsenal. This is something that needs to be addressed and Epic's Cliff Blezinski agrees, so one of gaming's most influential could lead the way for change. Multiplayer has become a large part of FPS games and while a lot of players concentrate on this area, there are still an awful lot of us that prefer a solitary adventure. Still a large percentage of HD consoles aren't hooked up to broadband so a great deal of gamers only have the single player campaign to keep them busy. Halo is a great example of this. Its third outing was one of the biggest launches for video games ever and the story of Master Chief was a big reason why. There's no denying that the online space of Halo is a factor of its success but the single player mode is equally loved. Another good example for single player popularity is Bioshock 2. Following on from the first game which was utterly fantastic, Bioshock 2 was given an online mode because it was thought FPSes 'need' multiplayer components. Selling almost two million units, Bioshock 2 didn't have as much luck online with a lot of gamers buying it purely for the single player campaign. And next comes Killzone 3, which has only really been spoken about regarding its single payer mode and still has become highly anticipated with lots of excitement from fans of the series. But let's not be quick to dismiss games whose focus is online multiplayer. It is after all the natural progression of this genre. Developers want you to keep their games rather than trading them in and a multiplayer mode is just one of the ways to do this. Plus it's great fun to get a load of mates together and fight it out with virtual bullets. The Call of Duty series has been huge for FPSes with its incredibly popular model for multiplayer gaming. The refinements from MW1 to MW2 have made a pleasing difference for online gamers. One that even Bungie is taking note of.

Never before have we had such diversity in the first person shooter with all kinds of genres merging together. Not that many generations ago, FPSes were still a run-and-gun affair with masses of enemies all charging you with little else. In the last few years we've seen the continuing growth of RPG FPSes with Borderlands and Bioshock 1 & 2 adding extra depth and personality to the genre. Metro 2033, although flawed in some respects, is a brilliant adventure FPS that sadly suffered due to poor enemy AI. But it's a good start for what could be a great franchise. And of course the online-only FPS is at the top of its game with all kinds of paid and free-to-play variants proving successful for developers.

I agree that FPSs haven't leapt forward as much as some other genres and that graphics coupled with online seems the most desirable asset for some developers but by no means would I consider FPSes any more stagnant than those gaming types that have reached a plateau in their development. A plateau that luckily happens to be fun. Sports games get annual releases with incremental improvements year after year that to a lot of us, seem pointless. But again, the changes make an almighty difference to the gameplay from vastly improved graphics so the animations look more realistic and believable to better ball handling and opponent AI making the game more challenging. Like sport games, the  FPS is one of the most popular franchises that may not innovate with every chance it gets but still offer a great experience for avid fans such as myself who spend a lot of gaming time immersed in the genre. Love it.