Shoot to Thrill

Whilst there are some undeniably shiny first and third-person shooters on console, more often than not we're seeing refined offerings these days. Sequels. Publishers are not keen on taking risks this late in the console life cycle, and until we see next-gen offerings from Sony and Microsoft, it's a trend that'll likely continue.

So if you want to see innovative new IPs, flush with groundbreaking ideas and cutting edge tech, you've got to wander off the beaten path, and start looking in a few different directions.

Shootmania Storm

Shootmania is pure eSport, and the feeling of competition runs rich through every aspect the game. It's a team game, more like futuristic dodgeball than the grizzly first-person shooters we've become accustomed to.

Shootmania Storm

In generically designed Tron-esque teams, you charge into furious exchanges of orb slinging, laser shooting and trap laying, and the pace is really fast, almost unrelenting.

There's a load of different game modes, and as Shootmania is by French studio Nadeo, the emphasis is firmly on community. New game modes and maps are positively encouraged, and the vibrant community is one of the reasons that people keep coming back.

Shootmania is pacey, fantastic first-person fun, and reminiscent in many ways of classics like Quake Arena and {Unreal Tournament}. If you're looking for something different to play on your PC, and you're tired of the usual gritty war titles that keep hitting the shelves, this is definitely worth keeping an eye on.

Shootmania Storm

Gotham City Impostors

{Gotham City Impostors} launched across a trio of platforms earlier in the year. On console the content is as was, and will remain as so. But on PC the game took an entirely different direction.

Impostors went free-to-play recently, and now its delights are available to each and all. Content can be purchased through a series of micro-transactions, as is the norm these days. Developers Monolith are hoping that a different financial model might breathe some additional life into the game.

At its core it's a Call of Duty clone, albeit one with its own personality and with quite a few quirks. Players assume the role of vigilantes dressed up as their favourite superheroes/villains and blast the crap out of each other across a variety of maps. Your standard shooter in that respect, but the distinctive stylings might make it worth your while.

Gotham City Impostors

War of the Roses

I've played quite a lot of {War of the Roses} recently. Early access is currently open to those who've pre-ordered, and the rest get access to the third-person action title when it goes on sale on October 2.

Whilst there are a couple of games out there doing similar things, {War of the Roses} stands out for a couple of reason. The hit detection system is very advanced and the attention to detail is superb.

Two teams have at it across seven medieval themed maps, swords clash, arrows pierce armour and horses crush foot soldiers underfoot. It's brutal and uncompromising, and although the learning curve will put some off, underneath the initially frustrating control system is a deep multiplayer game that could potentially have real longevity.

War of the Roses

Planetside 2

This is war on a different scale to everything else out there. It's easy to get lost in {Planetside 2}, such is the scope on offer. Literally hundreds of players are currently fighting it out on massive maps in the closed beta.

Of course it's possible to run from skirmish to skirmish, but who's got time to do that when the map is so bleedin' massive. Instead troops jump into transports and fellow players pilot them into epic battles between three distinct factions.

Planetside 2

Other troops jump in tanks, others on motorbikes, others in defensive turrets on bases. There's a plethora of different ways in which you can specialise on the battlefield and make yourself indispensable to your team. With players taking on such a variety of different roles in the war, {Planetside 2} has already become a rich tapestry of gameplay experiences, each soldier with their own story to tell.

The final version of the game is still some way off, and even then developers SOE might have to delay some content, pushing it back to a later date. But that doesn't stop us being excited about one of the most ambitious first-person shooters ever made. If you can get hold a beta key, we suggest you use it.

Planetside 2
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Ghost Recon Online

There was supposed to be a version of this game coming to the Wii U, but it got cancelled. That's a pity for future Wii U owners, because {Ghost Recon Online} is actually pretty decent.

It's in open beta at the moment, and you can spend as much money as you want of gadgets and gizmos in the eStore. For all intents and purposes it feels like the game is finished, and not much remains for Ubisoft to do other than polish and tweak (and add more maps).

Ghost Recon Online

It's a team based squad shooter with shed loads of futuristic gadgetry. As you would expect from a Ghost Recon game, it's set in the third-person, and hugging cover is rather essential to survival. All the games are objective based, and the maps are pretty big, which means combat shifts around regularly. If you're a fan of the Ghost Recon series and you've got some spare time on your hands, it's well worth checking it out.

Doom 3 BFG Edition

Doom 3 isn't a new game, and even the fact that it's being rereleased as the BFG Edition is not enough to stir up any serious interest. But the reason I'm thinking about it is because {Doom 3 BFG Edition} is the game that is going to be bundled in with Oculus Rift, the VR headset recently given the green light on Kickstarter.

John Carmack, one of the designers behind the original Doom, and a legend in his own right, has been heavily supporting the technology. He thinks it's the future. We don't disagree.

Not Forgetting

{Tribes: Ascend} is another decent PC-only shooter. Here it is speed, accuracy and momentum that dominate the battlefield, and it makes for a heady combination. There's a tough learning curve, but it's worth sticking with.

Add to that games like {Team Fortress 2} and Counter-Strike, two massively popular and enduring titles. TF2 has been going for ages, and was the game that Valve used to experiment with the free-to-play model. Needless to say, that was a success. Counter-Strike, on the other hand, has been through so many different iterations that it's easy to lose count (the most recent is {Counter-Strike: Global Offensive}). What is easy to keep track of is the dedicated communities behind each of these games.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

DayZ is yet another experience that can only be savoured on PC. Yes it's buggy as hell and, in some places, so unbelievably brutal it's frustrating, but it's also an incredibly exhilarating game to play. The average lifespan of players is just 49 minutes, and the zombie horde are only half the danger. More often than not it's your fellow players who take your life, and not the undead. Originally a mod for military simulation Arma 2, DayZ is now being made into a standalone game. We can't wait.

On top of all that there's all the usual suspects you would expect to see. There's no escaping the familiar world of {Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3}, and {Battlefield 3} is still incredibly popular (that could be because servers support up to 64 concurrent players). {Borderlands 2} just launched across all formats, and many more will follow.

When it comes to shooters on PC, you get the best of both worlds. A majority of the top releases are ported across (for better or for worse), and whilst we might lament the lack of certain titles, most of the games being currently released are, unavoidably, sequels. Old ideas rehashed, refined, re-marketed and resold. There's nothing going on that's really, truly exciting or groundbreaking at the moment. If you want fresh ideas and new IPs, for the time being at least, it looks like you're going to have to switch on your PC and get clicking.

DayZ