Battlefield 3

Over this past decade, the first-person shooter genre has become the most crowded in video games flooded with awesome titles like Gears of War 3, Halo Combat Evolved Legendary and the previously mentioned Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Battlefield 3, with its stunning graphics, magnificent multi-player and flyable fighter jets to the mix, puts forth its claim as king of the genre.

Battlefield 3’s graphics are too good for one disk. The guns are well-detailed, with every notch or scratch noticeable, and environments are stunning: the streets of Paris are robustly realistic, the deserts seem inhabitable, and the underground of New York City terrifies. The new graphics engine developer Dice made for the game looks amazing, but it does not run the best. Glitches mar both the campaign and online mode. If these do detract from the online game play however, they are the only things that do.

Battlefield 3’s multi-player alone justifies the price. Game play is slower and more team oriented then Modern Warfare 3. Players drive dune buggies, amphibious transports and tanks, and the maps are perfectly balanced to handle these vehicles with up to 64 combatants. Players can now also suppressively fire on an opponent, who will experience a blurry screen and decreased accuracy. If teammates kill the opponent, the suppressor earns points as well. These rewards for teamwork make Battlefield 3’s multi-player friendly and fun.

While Battlefield 3’s multi-player is reason to buy the game, the campaign is reason to not. Earlier Battlefields’  had free roaming missions that gave the player a level of freedom not often experienced in first person shooter games. Unfortunately, Dice decided to constrain Battlefield 3 to a typical point A to B mission style. The game also suffers from a bland story, and repetitive enemies make fire fights boring as household chores. While the campaign keeps Battlefield 3 from completely ruling the first person shooter roost, the multi-player is the best of the year and gives it at least a share of the crown.

Modern Warfare 3

Thanksgiving food on the dinner table and pleasant conversation over it between family puts most people in the holiday mood, but gamers require a little extra stuffing: the newest Call of Duty game sitting in their game system. For the past five Novembers, Call of Duty has released its newest edition to record-breaking sales. The sister developers of the franchise, Infinity Ward and Treyarch, have a simple formula: theatrical campaigns, fast-paced multi-player, and side games to keep you busy once the credits roll on the campaign.

The Infinity Ward-developed Modern Warfare 3 stays true to this blueprint. The campaign begins with Sgt. McTavish being evacuated by the venerable Captain Price and Nikolai from where he lay at the end of Modern Warfare 2. From there the story sends the player on an exhilarating but short ride to the finish, saving time for the main course, multi-player.

In edition to Special Ops mode, an MW2 holdover where players complete snippets of missions from the campaign, the new Survival mode adds hours of game-play. Similar to Nazi Zombies from Treyarch’s Call of Dutys, players face increasingly difficult waves of enemies while earning money and points. While these two modes are a nice distraction, the standout game mode of Call of Duty is the online multi-player.

The bread and butter of the Call of Duty franchise, multi-player feels similar to MW2: fast paced with lots of crazy killstreaks like helicopters, turrets and juggernaut suits and another great arsenal of guns to use. Big changes come with the leveling up system, however. Every kill earns points toward unlocking perks for guns, such as reduced kick or two attachments. Changes to other perks make the game feel much less camper friendly and play at a more exciting pace. While some gamers may bite into MW3 for the campaign or survival modes, they’ll be left savoring the online multi-player long after holiday leftovers have gone bad.

Skyrim

If these three games were rated for time consumption, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim would without a doubt win. Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare’s online multi-player game modes add replay value, but it’s the same thing over again with different five-year old opponents. Skyrim has hundreds of unique missions that can take day’s to complete, and an epically engrossing storyline. The protagonist must save Skyrim from the oncoming apocalypse of Alduin, a black dragon set to consume the world. Smooth dialogue and staggering amounts of subplots immerse the player into a game with nuances fit for a fantasy novel.

The level of detail and craftsmanship went in the story extends to the visuals. Every inch of ground was hand created (not auto-generated), every object can be viewed in 3-D, and both dandelions and dragons look equally gorgeous on the all new graphics engine. Developer Bethesda’s menu navigation astonishes as well, with a 3-D world maps similar to Google Earth and a leveling up system that creates a constellation representing your abilities within a 360-degree viewable galaxy.

For gamers who want to play Skyrim as well as look at it, the game-play shines brighter than the visuals.. Players choose a race at the beginning of the game, ranging from the brutal Orc to the magical High Elf to the mysterious Khajit. Each race can do different things well, from spell casting to archery to swordplay. These skills can be combined through Skyrim’s dual wielding weapon system and an innovative hot key system that allows you to map spells and weapons to certain buttons and spice up a battle at any time. The best part about Skyrim’s game-play, though, is the enemies. The dragonborn can be fending off giants and woolly mammoths, only to have an ice-dragon ruin his day by swooping him up from behind. The game-play variety and attention to detail evident in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim are superb, and make it the best non-first person shooter of the holiday season, if not the year.