The defeat of the Covenant in the first Halo game was only a temporary victory, as the alien attackers have renewed their mission to wipe out all of humanity. Despite the human military force's and Master Chief's efforts, the Covenant have breeched the Earth's defenses and have left its inhabitants in a dismal situation. In the midst of desperation, players assume the role of Master Chief and lead the resistance against the Covenant to save the people of Earth from a gruesome demise.

Based on the revered paper-and-pen RPG (and short run of game releases), this next-gen Shadowrun combines first-person shooter gameplay with the complications of the RPG series. In Shadowrun players vie for supremacy in an intense first-person shooter (FPS) experience that rewards cleverness, cunning and split-second improvisation through a unique combination of modern weapons, ancient magic and advanced technology. Up to 16 players can battle together across Xbox 360 and Windows Vista through the Xbox LIVE and Games for Windows -- LIVE gaming and entertainment network.

The forerunner of the open-world survival FPS genre, the classic S.T.A.L.K.E.R. — recalibrated for a console journey. Dive into the grim atmosphere of this dark science-fiction world on a path to Chornobyl in the first chapter of the original trilogy.

EMBRACE DESOLATION
These desolate lands are full of hundreds of vagabonds. Though, the stalker is always on his own, facing dangers that are often unseen. Enjoy the mix of action, stealth, horror, and survival with RPG elements in a grim Eastern European setting. And don’t trust anything but your Geiger counter!

EXPLORE
The Zone, a place full of unfathomable wonders and sinister threats – formerly an exclusion territory near the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Crawl your path to the destination through real-life existing locations: Prypiat, Nuclear Reactors, Red Forest, and others.

SURVIVE
The path of a stalker to his goal is never a walk in the park. A treacherous anomaly, able to mash even the most experienced fighter, invisible radiation, or plain starvation – any of these can cost you your life. Being careful at every step and managing your resources is the way to survive.

FIGHT
Get ready to test your skills and gumption, enduring superior numbers of rivals and mutants capable of reacting to changes and living their own lives in vast locations. A broad arsenal of more than 30 weapons will come in handy.

DECIDE
To stay alive, a true stalker must never stop his search. Valuable trophies, equipment, supplies, new friends, or answers to the grimmest riddles of these lands give a chance not to perish. Prepare for a non-linear journey for answers and forge your fate with choices that lead to different endings

The stakes are high when the world's most elite counter-terrorism unit enters Las Vegas, where over 36.7 million men, women and children visit each year. "Sin City," the home of the famous Las Vegas Strip, flashy hotels, high-rolling casinos and world-famous celebrities, becomes the setting for a terrorist threat of global proportions. What happens when one of the world's most famous cities is held hostage by terrorists?

The year is 2142, and the dawn of a new ice age has thrown the world into a panic. The math is simple and brutal: The soil not covered by ice can only feed a fraction of the Earth's population. Some will live, most will die. Players will choose to fight for one of two military superpowers in an epic battle for survival, the European Union or the newly formed Pan Asian Coalition. Armed with a devastating arsenal of hi-tech assault rifles, cloaking devices and sentry guns, players will also do battle using some of the most imposing vehicles known to man. Massive battle Mechs wage fierce combat on the ground, while futuristic aircraft rule the skies. When facing one of these new behemoths, players will need to use their wits and an arsenal of new countermeasures like EMP grenades to level the playing field.

"The Stalin Subway" is a First Person Shooter-style game where the events take place in post-war Moscow. The game allows to plunge into the depressing atmosphere of the Stalin's period and to play as a Soviet officer.

Prey tells the story of Tommy, a Cherokee garage mechanic stuck on a reservation going nowhere. Abducted along with his people to a menacing mothership orbiting Earth, he sets out to save himself and his girlfriend and eventually his planet. In Prey, players enter a living spaceship which enslaves alien races and devours humans for lunch. A unique twist on the first person shooter genre, Prey features such innovations as the ability to walk on walls, manipulate gravity and perform a "spirit walk" by leaving your physical body behind. Designed by Human Head and brought to Xbox 360 by Venom Games (under the direction of 3D Realms), Prey features full online support for up to eight players, utilizing the game's play innovations for unique multiplayer experiences.

Built using Valve's Source engine, this follow-up to the SiN series takes on an episodic structure, expanding on the role of Colonel John R. Blade, a battle worn hero in charge of HardCorps. Joining Blade on his mission are JC, a HardCorps hacker with a secret to keep, and Jessica Cannon, a fiery rookie who can find her way into any secure facility. The first chapter, Emergence, features never-before-seen weapons, characters and environments along with a host of interactive options, paying homage to its predecessors, SiN and its expansion pack, Wages of SiN.

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth is a first-person horror game that allows for dynamic gameplay with a unique mix of investigation, puzzle solving, exploration and combat as gamers are faced with the seemingly impossible task of battling evil incarnate. Set during the 1920s, Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth is based on the Cthulhu Mythos inspired by the writing of H.P. Lovecraft, American fantasy and horror writer.

Experience stealth and action combat like never before. Move freely in open battlefields and execute deadly attacks with extreme control. Set ambushes, attack silently and unseen, infiltrate prisoner-of-war camps, stalk, and stab, all while being completely surrounded by the enemy. Strike Force. Strike First.

In Battlefield 2: Special Forces, players choose to fight as one of six different Special Forces soldiers: Navy SEALs, British SAS, Russian Spetznas, MEC Special Forces, Rebel groups and insurgents. Armed with the latest special forces weaponry, players can take control of any of the game's 10 new vehicles to engage in major conflicts with up to 64 players. Additionally, persistent character growth allows players to continue to rise through the ranks. The material penetration feature measures weapons' ability to fire through barriers based on their composition and players will need to know the difference between concealment and cover in order to survive. Team play features allow players to enter the action on the front lines as part of a formal squad, or work behind the scenes in Commander Mode to direct the strategic assaults of their teammates.

In this epic adventure, you will experience the fateful legend of Kong from the perspective of both man and beast. Survive Skull Island as unwitting hero Jack Driscoll in first-person shooting action, and unleash the staggering power of the 25-foot-tall King Kong in third-person action sequences. Use everything in the jungle to your advantage, exploiting the natural food chain of the prehistoric predators and grabbing objects from the environment to kill those hunting you.

Star Wars Battlefront II takes the best-selling Star Wars video game of all time one Imperial-walker step forward with all-new space combat, playable Jedi, and never-before-seen environments straight out of the Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith movie. Fans of the original Star Wars Battlefront will also enjoy an all-new single-player experience that takes players through an epic, story-based saga where every action the player takes impacts the battlefront and, ultimately, the fate of the Star Wars galaxy. Battlefront II improves upon the original game’s single-player experience with open-ended, mission-based objectives inspired from all six Star Wars films.

Call of Duty 2 lets players experience four individual soldier stories as they overcome insurmountable odds in multiple campaigns. Players have the freedom to follow each of the four storylines through for the ultimate character-driven experience, or they can engage in the historic battles chronologically for quick hitting action. Along with the new missions, the game features an enhanced engine, advanced AI, and even more authenticity than before.

In the game, you are Matthew Kane, an elite member of Rhino Squad and Earth's valiant invasion force. Fight alone, with your squad, and in hover tanks and mechanized walkers as you engage in a heroic mission into the heart of the Strogg war machine. But, in this epic war between worlds, the only way to defeat the Strogg is to become one of them.

The story begins when a paramilitary force infiltrates a multi-billion dollar aerospace compound, and the government responds by sending in Special Forces. The group loses contact with the government when an eerie signal interrupts radio communications--and when that interference subsides moments later, the team has been destroyed. That's where you come in. As part of a classified strike team created to deal with threats no one else can handle, your mission is simple: eliminate the intruders at any cost, determine the origin of the signal, and contain the potential crisis before it gets out of control.

The mirth and mania that comes from a gun-toting man named Sam begin again in the sequel to the original Serious Sam and it's expansion, Second Encounter. The game still has the wild, structure-unconcerned nature that made the first two games such a pick-up-and-play blast, but this edition pumps up the visuals and physics by incredible degrees with a brand new graphics engine, as well as integrates all-new gameplay elements for Sam to cause mayhem. The sequel allows Sam to drive vehicles, and the co-op mode returns for multiple players to cause even more of a ruckus in the game's open and enemy-filled environments.

The second chapter of this WWII military shooter about the men in the field and the consequences of warfare, Earned In Blood features a new single-player story, new multiplayer missions, an all-new cooperative-style game mode, and new weapons and vehicles. Delve deeper into the most authentic WWII experience as you take the role of Sgt. Joe "Red" Hartsock, the new squad leader of 2nd Squad. You represent the best of the 101st Airborne, the Screaming Eagles. Command two new squads of American paratroopers, your fire team and assault team, through war-torn France's urban streets and villages. On the verge of liberating the last regions of France, your missions will be take you deep behind enemy lines, further and more dangerous than ever before.

Players from the United States, China and the Middle East Coalition (all armed with realistic armarments and vehicles) will all be represented in harrowing battles for a massive number of online players (more than any of the previous Battlefield titles). The new game engine offers vastly improved visuals, physics and sound, plus a dynamic stage limiting system that scales the size of the online battlefield according to how many players are logged on.

Jack Mason is a burned-out doctor with no will to live, that is, until he nearly dies in a transport crash. Now he and his infected patient are stranded deep within the most vicious prison sectors of a wasteland called 'Earth'. Pariah utilizes the power of a heavily modified Unreal engine with state-of-the-art Havok physics technology that produces stunning settings, lifelike characters and tremendously satisfying in-your-face first-person action. An intense storyline driven single-player campaign compliments a fully loaded multi-player extravaganza including online play through Xbox Live. Plus the Make-And-Play (MAP) Editor allows gamers to create their own environments in the game and play them with their friends in split-screen mode or online.

SWAT 4 allows players to take control of a squad of up to five police officers tasked with performing dangerous operations such as high-risk arrests, hostage rescue and counter-terrorism. As the unit's commander, players must follow authentic police tactics as they breach and clear a concrete jungle filled with armed felons and innocent bystanders alike.

Created by Texas-based Gearbox Software, Brothers in Arms aims to be one of the most realistic and authentic World War II shooters ever. Based on a true story, the game puts players in the role of Sgt. Matt Baker, a D-Day paratrooper squad leader as he leads the squad through the European campaign. Each battlefield has been meticulously recreated from aerial reconnaissance images, US Army Signal Corps photos and eye-witness accounts of war-torn Normandy.

Star Wars: Republic Commando is a dark and intense first-person shooter for the Xbox video game system and PC, utilizing an enhanced version of the acclaimed Unreal engine technology. Unlike the largely main character focused Star Wars games of the past, Republic Commandopresents a dramatic military-style action experience from the point-of-view of an elite squad member of a Republic Special Operations unit. Players step into the role of a Commando performing precision operations deep behind enemy lines in this brutally realistic Star Wars combat experience. The game is set at the start of the Clone Wars, as seen in Episode II, featuring Clone Troopers and Jedi fighting a common foe side-by side.

Half-Life 2 takes the suspense, challenge and visceral charge of the original Half-Life and adds startling new realism and responsiveness. Welcome to a world where your presence affects everything else. From the physical environment to the behaviors and emotions of both friends and enemies, every move has a consequence. Enjoy the unique combination of pounding action and continuous, immersive storytelling. Characters can assess threats, navigate tricky terrain and fashion weapons from whatever is at hand. Lush and realistic environments - objects obey the laws of mass, friction, gravity and buoyancy.

Counter-Strike: Source blends Counter-Strike's award-winning teamplay action with the advanced technology of Source™ technology. Featuring state of the art graphics, all new sounds, and introducing physics, Counter-Strike: Source is a must-have for every action gamer.

Best PC First Person Shooter Games

Halo 2

Shadowrun

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas

Battlefield 2142

The Stalin Subway

Prey (2006)

SiN Episodes: Emergence

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth

Commandos: Strike Force

Battlefield 2: Special Forces

Peter Jackson's King Kong

Star Wars: Battlefront II (2005)

Call of Duty 2

Quake 4

F.E.A.R.

Serious Sam II

Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood

Battlefield 2

Pariah

SWAT 4

Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30

Star Wars: Republic Commando

Half-Life 2

Counter-Strike: Source