shooter

Forgive me if I'm absolutely sick and tired of military shooters. It seems that no matter what time of year, there's always a war game that's ready to thrust you into some third-world country and have you shoot a bunch of bad guys for 8 to 10 hours.

The format is severely outplayed, so it's no surprise that going into Spec Ops: The Line I was expecting more of the same. Thankfully, Spec Ops deviates away from conventional shooters to the point that it can be enjoyed independently, all while maintaining a very mature and gritty storyline. It's one of the first games to really vilify war, rather than reward it.… Read more

N.O.V.A. 3 Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance ($6.99 -- iOS universal) is the third installment of Gameloft's first-person shooter franchise that, many have argued, bears a strong resemblance to Microsoft's Halo. Whether that's true, the game is mostly a gun-shooting good time with all the perks you'd expect in an FPS, but it does have a couple of problems.

With that said, N.O.V.A. is arguably the best sci-fi shooter franchise on iOS, and with the third installment there's plenty more bad guys to blow away in new and interesting … Read more

Clear Vision (17+) offers an age-appropriate warning right in its name, but this sniper game based on a popular Flash game truly delivers with great playability, graphical style, and storyline.

Certainly not for kids, Clear Vision's storyline is about a guy whose patience gets pushed too far and resorts to the life of a sniper for hire. In the game you play as Tyler, a former clerk at a grocery store who begins to take sniping jobs for cash. Tyler is a cold-blooded killer who doesn't care who gives him the job or who he's hired to … Read more

Do you like wires? Neither do we. And thankfully, you don't really need them anymore when you're using a smartphone.

No matter your preference -- iPhone, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry -- any decent modern smartphone is equipped with wireless Bluetooth capability. In addition to hands-free calling with headsets and stereo headphones, phones can also be used as wireless music sources for an increasingly large array of Bluetooth speakers -- perfect for listening to MP3s on the phone, or Web-based audio services like Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Cloud Player, iTunes Match, or anything else.

As someone who uses Bluetooth gadgets daily, I'd frankly feel lost without my handy assortment of hands-free mobile toys. And I've collected a list of some of CNET's favorites. … Read more

When Sony made the decision to give the Vita dual analog sticks, developers must have salivated at the chance to make the ultimate portable shooter. Unit 13 marks the first attempt at a game that's strictly a shooter, and we've gotten plenty of hands on with the final build.

Is Unit 13 a good sign of things to come? Or are shooters doomed on Sony's new portable?

Jeff: Sure, the Vita's 25-game launch lineup was impressive, but it also left out one notable genre. You'd think there would be a third-person shooter in that lineup, what with the inclusion of dual analogs sticks flanking the Vita's massive screen.… Read more

Here at CNET we're about to start a three-day weekend thanks to Presidents Day on Monday. If you're lucky enough to have an extra day this weekend, what better way to waste a little time than with a solid new game? There have been a lot of great game releases lately, and this week I've picked games from various genres in the hope that you can find something you like.

This week's iOS app collection is all about new games to play over the long weekend. The first is a physics puzzler sequel that's extremely polished and very hard to put down. The second uses your music library to drive the shoot-'em-up action on screen. The third is a platforming game sequel that truly tests your arcade gaming skills.… Read more

Beat Hazard Ultra is a unique dual-stick arcade shooter that uses music from your music library to create the pace of the game. Each song in your music library has a unique rhythm and flow and as the power builds in a song, Beat Hazard Ultra sends more enemies for you to blow away. Even if you have no music on your iOS device, the game lets you choose from several Internet radio stations to stream the musical backdrop of the game. The graphics are worthy of note, too; this game has so many blinking lights and colors that there'… Read more

Is Battlefield about to go sci-fi, again?

A sleuth recently spotted what may be a hint to the next game in the Battlefield franchise.

Following in the footsteps of the 2006 futuristic shooter Battlefield 2142, the numbers 2143 appear to be inscribed on a cargo container near the airport on Battlefield 3's Wake Island map. So is it logical to believe that Battlefield 2143, or a 2143 expansion for Battlefield 3, is around the corner just from seeing those numbers? … Read more

Modern Combat: Fallen Nation is a first-person shooter with jaw-dropping graphics. The third installment in Gameloft's Modern Combat series for iOS, this game challenges you to fight through 13 missions from Pakistan to Los Angeles, and you will find and use several different kinds of weapons as you complete mission objectives. The game is a universal download, so you can play on any of your iOS devices, but we think it is at its best on the iPad.

You get three different types of control schemes to pick from, with variations of onscreen joysticks and touch-screen actions. I found … Read more