The problem that many people (myself included) have with Bioshock is not so much that it was a System Shock 2 clone but the fact that it is a watered down System Shock 2 clone. Everything from removing the inventory system to making the upgrades and plasmids so plentiful preventing any difficult decisions makes the game feel dumbed down. Do I even need to mention the end game fetch quest, disappointing final boss, the lousy endings or the lack of moral ambiguity in how you deal with the Little Sisters? Bioshock was easy one of the biggest disappointments I ever played and in my opinion, one of the most overrated games of all time.

Parts like the sewer section is what makes the game great.  Instead of just giving you a gun and say "go shoot people", the developers were thinking, "what can we do next to keep the game interesting, oh yea, put them in a hovering-like vehicle and have a gunship drop bombs on thier heads".

The one thing that would probably make the game boring for some people is the lack of science fiction elements compared to games like Bioshock, UT, Crysis, Halo, Doom, etc.  However, it wouldn't have as good of a story if it didn't seem realistic, like this could happen in 20 years.  Yes, I know you have things like the gravity gun and a crossbow that fires weird electrical bolts, but HL2 doesn't layer the sci-fi elements on thick like those other games do.

I disagree. There are parts of Halflife 2 which scream awesome. But equally there are parts which were down right boring. The worst 2 hours of my FPS life were in Half Life 2. The part with the stupid zombies and then through the grave yard (yawn). Also the sewers was a bloody chore to. Apart from that the game was great.

I'm sure UT has quite a big hardcore gaming following and those guys can squeze the most out of the game on videos. However the UT games I played (casually) lacked some basic strategies found in halo.

Weapon matchups for example. The whole game of Halo multiplayer is based on starting with shit weapons and collecting the few good ones first and keeping them for as long as possible. As long as you have those weapons your team will have much higher chance of winning the match. UT games have amazing weapons scatered all over the map and they respawn much quicker...meaning that everyone has amazing weapons within 30 seconds.

Also, I want to note that I've played all Unreal Tournament games on consoles. UT on dreamcast, UT2003 on xbox and UT3 on 360...and at that speed, it really doesn't work with a controller. Halo slowed it down for a reason...it was a console game.

Maybe I should have played when it came out.
But I bought it 2 month ago for 5€.
Well it is pretty good but its too old now.
Counter Strike Source is best fps ever.

The part with the stupid zombies? You mean Ravenholm? We don't go to Ravenholm.

That part of the game (i thought) was awesome, but I beat the game on hard.  Maybe if you had more difficulty, the area would be more interesting.  Lot of ammo conservation in that area since the enemies do not give you any when they died.

Nice article Zucas, but Metroid Prime is by no means a shooter.

Metroid Prime's gameplay is the same as Super Metroid's but in 3D and first person.

If you make Halo into a 2D game, you will not get SuperMetroid ... you will get Contra or Metal Slug.

So unless Contra and Super Metroid are in the same genre ... I don't think Metroid Prime should be in this discussion.

If we're talking SP campaign, then I think Half Life 2 probably represents the best FPS SP campaign yet that I've played.

I see people talking about Unreal Tournament and Quake and those were great too, but not as SP games. They were all about the Online MP, which is not the context of the OP so far as I can tell.

HL2's narrative was nicely done, and surprisingly subtle in its use of level design to convey information about the Earth's plight with lowered water levels, etc. It also boasted what remains some of the tightest, best FPS shooting action ever coupled with a constantly evolving scenario that saw you pilot boats, drive cars, order around your own 'pet' antlions and solve puzzles. The careful flow of the levels also took you through everything from futuristic thriller to horror survival.

Even today (and I played it again just recently) on a high end rig with everything maxed and hooked up to a big HD TV is still looks and plays better than anything else I've tried.

I've still to play Gears 2 (although I've played number 1). And while elements of Gears come close to HL2 (and Half Life before it) the gap to me was still pretty big, and I doubt Gears 2 is going to be that much closer (but I'll give it a go of course, it will be a lot of fun there's no doubt about that).

2D Halo confirmed?

Actually I preferred Half-Life 1 more.