A couple of days ago, i posted a comment on someones blog, i cant remember who. Their post was about what was wrong with UT3, and at the end they reccomended timeshift as an alternative to all the other fps games.
They also made the ridiculous (or so i thought) claim that it really brought something new to the fps genre. My comment was to the tune of "LOL NO".

I stand by that comment, for Timeshifts single player. It has a weak copy of Half life 2's plot, Halo's gameplay at about 2x speed, and the (arguably) most useful power is from FEAR. The powers that set it apart are not used to their full potential, although there are a few cool moments. Overall, its a fun game to play, but nothing special.

Until you play multiplayer. Myself and a couple of friends tried out timeshift last night, at a badly organized lan where we didnt really know what to play.

Of course, its impossible to have the powers from single player available in the same way, in multiplayer. Instead, you get grenades. Throw a time grenade (of any variety - 'slow down', 'pause', and 'reverse'), and it makes a big orb, much like Halo 3's shield orb. Anyone who enters the orb comes under the effects of it. So does anything else - like weapon's fire and grenades. As such, theyre useful as shields, as much as trying to catch your enemies within them.

Thats a rocket.

What appeared to be just a decent, well made but generic shooter, all of a sudden became an intense, insane frag-fest quite unlike any other. The weapons are fun to use ('explosive crossbow' may not be an original idea, but its a good 'un), and the time grenades make every encounter awesome.

Close up of rocket.

One of my best moments ever in multiplayer gaming - A friend caught me in a 'pause' grenade, and fired a bunch of rockets at me. As soon as the rockets hit the grenades' sphere, they too paused. I got to stand there for a good couple of seconds, looking directly at my inevitable doom. It was, to put it simply, fucking sweet!

I got him back with this. Surge gun = lightning death.

So, i apologise, random blogging guy who doesnt like ut3. Timeshift is fantastic, and does deserve a place among all the other pc shooters. Anyone who likes a good fps should give it a go, if they want some fun new ways to kill their friends/random strangers on the internet.