I think I've arrived at a crossroad in my gaming life. One that I have slowly been traveling to. The final destination which even I wasn't privy to until just recently when the telling signs up ahead gave me pause as I tried to look for an alternate course, like a man lost on a road trip and inevitably stopping at a local gas station for directions. I hate to say this but the once enticing genre of FPS has become less and less appealing to me.

Sad but true. I almost feel like I need to turn in my imaginary Hardcore Gamer's License for even uttering such a thing out loud yet it can't be helped. This isn't coming from a bloke who hates or is indifferent to shooters either. I have always had a love and fascination for them. Some of my favorite games have been FPS, as seen above in the collage I whipped up for this post. I just have slowly become disenchanted with them. It seems recent generations of console libraries are overflowing with them and still more are being made to add to the massive inflation of them.

I'm not saying they are all garbage because that is not the case but for every quality game like Halo or Team Fortress 2 you'll have more mediocre affairs like Haze and Blacksite: Area 51 jostling for more position in the marketplace. But even the good ones to me are getting stale. Surely I can't be the only one that feels this way as more and more game developers are creating in-game incentives ala perks, customizable characters, clans,and what not to get you to do the same action over and over again... shoot something or someone dead.

While reading Jim's pieces on the concerns of many Left for Dead players of the too soon upcoming sequel, a quote from a Dtoider sprang forth and made me think. Part of the quote was this:

"I feel that there isn't enough change in gameplay to warrant a full sequel to L4F. The tiny amount of new features in L4D2 could have easily been at least a paid DLC, and the first one could alway-..."

What I immediately thought, aside from the brouhaha created in Jim's posts was, can't you say that about every popular FPS, its sequels and/or its inevitable clones ? Perhaps my age is dulling my killer instincts, making me look for something else to gauge my skills, aside from who can turn around the corner and is able to pull the trigger quicker first. Or who can yield that elusive ribbon or armor before their fellow friend. It's just starting to be the same for me. Maybe all of these shooters may not be looking the same but they're beginning to feel the same to me.

I think that's why I've been playing RPGs lately non-stop. It seems I may finally beat Persona 3 by the end of this month yet. inFamous has finally saw play from me and I still can't get enough of Scared2. I hate to say this again but I have come to the conclusion that I'm tired of shooting people dead.

Anybody up to play Street Fighter or Burnout with me?