Last saturday I went to a friend's Cyberplace to play on LAN some FPS's with some friends (we're 5 in total).

Although the PC's there aren't the best choice for online gaming, we decided to play (like we mostly do) on LAN. The chosen 3 were: GRAW (Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter), CoD 5 World at War and Rainbow Six Vegas 2. Lot of potential and nice, realistic features.

My own reviews after play these games from 11pm/12am - 8am (Actually, I started at 2am after the installation of the 3 games)

CoD5/World at War: Fast, cool graphics, realistic textures and perhaps a little tricky at the start. The sounds aren't so great since the developers decided pretty much to copy and paste the old ones from CoD1 and the expansion UO. Same features of the last CoD4 Modern Warfare, some people have been complaining about the lack of new features, it looks more like a mod for CoD4 and I have to agree despite how much I like the CoD games franchise. I would give a 7.5 in a 1-10 scale for realism. Good game for teamwork as well for Solo work. CoD is all about MP and this one has the same good old mods:

Deathmatch: kill anything that moves.
Teamdeathmatch: kill enemy team.
Domination: capture and hold all the "flag" spots you can and keep enemy away from reaching them, victory can be achieved through score (you score for each point you hold) there's a time limit and a score limit can be settled before the battle.
Sabotage: each team must get a bomb located usually in the center of the map and carry it, bring to the enemy spawn, plant it and protect it from being deactivated.
Capture the Flag: The old CoDUO CTF has been added, go to enemy spawn, get the flag and bring it back to your spawn while protecting your own flag from being captured.
Headquarters: each team starts like usual and a place of the map gets assigned as a HQ, go, capture and secure it, then you must defend it for a limited amount of time until the location switchs to another map place and so on, the winner team is the one who got more HQ's captured and defended.
Search and Destroy: perhaps the one I like more, one team has a bomb and must plant it in one of 2 bomb plant spots. The other team must protect these 2 places. The game can be won if one team wipes the another, the most interesting feature here is that there's no respawning, once you're dead you remain dead until the end of the round. Both Teams take turns, at the 1st round team A must attack and plant the bomb and Team B must protect bomb plant spots, for 2nd round Team B must plant the bomb and Team A defends.
War: ??? Didn't have enough time to explore this new mode, to be honest this is a new mode in the vast CoD franchise, if I find out something about it, I'll let you know.

This new CoD includes vehicles, stationary Guns, new "old" WWII weaponry and new maps. The Japanese army has been added as part of the german-italian-japanese axis. The jump feature is, like always, a good reason for the bunny hopers users to stay and sometimes ruin the game. Another good thing of the game is the ranking system wich allows you (like in CoD4) to customize your weapons (silencer's, large ammo clips, etc) and use different "perks" to help yourself in battle.

Rainbow Six Vegas 2: I'm not a big fan of Tom Clancy games, but all of them are good and have a cool realistic factor, from the first Ghost Recon to the last one, such things like walk slow after being shot in the leg or can't sprint anymore after a mortal wound on the chest, Rainbow Six Vegas 2 offers one of the best tactical and strategic gaming experiences I've ever played on a FPS game. First of all, like in most of Tom Clancy games, you can't jump so you don't have to worry about bunny hopers or those annoying shot and left/right jump guys. The game difficulty is moderate to hard. One of the best features included is the option to get "cover" and hide on almost every map object; cars, walls, boxes, doors, barrels, etc can and must be used to prolongue your life in this stealth-tactical game. The game modes are similar to CoD ones, but with some differences, you have a limited life resspawn and sometimes you don't have it depending on wich mod you're playing on. Graphics are good, realistic textures and fine sounds wich are vital to survive; in here you can listen to enemy steps, 5.1 helps a lot to locate the source of the noise, right, left, a next room, pretty much like in America's Army, I remember when I used to think a lot of AA players were hackers because they knew where I was and to where I was going, the reply to my questions was tragically real: "I can hear your foot steps" the sound of this also changes if you're climbing up a catladder, walking on a metalic structure, running on a snowfield, etc, like I said, you need a lot of stealth to stay alive. The IA is smart and effective, they do the same thing you can do, get cover, move while taking cover, etc. About the game modes:

AAD: yes, attack and defend, one team must capture an objective and the other team must defend it. Although it sounds simple, this is one of the modes I enjoyed the most, every map has a different objetive and the game-style adds a lot of intense strategy and teamwork.
Kill the leader: each team have a leader, the objective is to kill enemy team leader and protect yours.
Total/Clobal conquest: capture 3 satelital packcages and hold them for a limited amount of time (until the countdown end), very fun and challenging I have to say.
Teamdeathmatch: classic tdm, kill the enemy team.
Deathmatch: classic dm, kill anything that moves except you.

At first, the usual keyboard set up made things hard, but once you get used to it, is all about move sthealty - cover - sneak into the room and kill the objective, proved to be a good choice to make a difference in teamwork and team strategy based on map objectives, reminded me of America's Army and not without a good reason; the next release of AA will include unreal engine, the same used for this game. I really suggest you to try it and give me your opinion.

Finally, the last and not less important, GRAW - ghost recon advanced warfighter: Another big hit of Ubisoft and Tom Clancy, the first ghost recon was one of a kind in the FPS world and this last release shows why. Many fans of the old ghost recon aren't so happy with GRAW, the gameplay changed and some game unique features were removed, but the game still has potential. This is one of the most hard and difficult FPS games I've ever played. If Rainbow6 requires a lot of teamwork, this one need a full squad work as one man. Maps are mostly huge with a lot of places to hide, set some ambushes and more. Not as fast paced like CoD games, the equipment weight affects dramatically your movility (like in all Tom Clancy games, Rainbow6, etc), speed and stamina. The meticulous and coordinated equipment set up before any round is a key to win. Certainly this isn't a Solo'ing man game, victory depends on coordinated attacks with the right weapon at the right time. Not good for gun 'n run players, patience here is basic tool. The graphics are cool, good textures and the sound helps also a lot if you have 5.1 Although you have a radar wich shows from where you are getting shot, sometimes its too late to check it, sniper bullets sound trace can be mesured if you have 5.1. Your opponents can hear your foot steps too, but since the battles in this game happen more outdoors you don't have to worry a lot about being listened. The IA of the bots here is awesome, they are able to run, hide, regroup and set an ambush and more. Sometimes you die and never know where was the bot. I have few to say about the game modes (didn't have enough time to try them all)

Teamdeathmatch: Classic TDM
Deathmatch: Classic DM
Domination: like CoD domination.
Cooperative: A nice feature, you can play the missions in coop mode, Lan or online with friends, max number of players is 4
Hamburger Hill: ??? no idea about this one.
Siege: Sound like old CoD base assault, but I haven't tried it yet.
OGR: The one I most liked, max number of player is 12, you have to go behind enemy lines and reach the extraction point.

One thing in common about these 3 games is the coop mode, yes, you can play on LAN or online the missions. Interesting for training and very challenging, I'll play this weekend again to get more info. Hope to see you soon and talk about this.