I've been playing a lot of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive lately on the pc. Having not touched any CS in many years, it's very refreshing to come back to a multiplayer FPS game that's so barebones, for lack of a better term. What I mean by that is that there's no XP, weapon unlocks, loadouts, kill streaks or anything crazy. It's just you and your gun. I played a lot of old CS back in the day, starting from 1.0, which I credit for really teaching me how to play FPS properly. Situational awareness, watching your flanks, being aware of where enemies might come from, it's all key to playing effectively. These map layouts are so ingrained in my mind I can practically sleepwalk through them.

What's so great about it is that every round, every match is different. It's a tug-of-war, in a sense. As the attacking team you're trying to gain ground to get to the bomb site or the hostages, depending on the map. As the defenders it's usually a case of covering all points of ingress and quickly reacting when your teammates call out enemy locations. Smart teams might send 4 of their guys one way in a feint, while one guy with the bomb goes the other way to plant stealthily. This leads to its own risks, as the one guy with the bomb has to be capable of handling any possible defenders that stuck around. It's all about calculating risk. Do you think you can rush the enemy team down and hopefully catch them in a flank, or are they too crafty for that? Do you spread out or all cover one site and hope you predicted the enemy's movements accurately?

Counter-Strike is a harsh mistress if you've gotten used to modern FPS games. There are no ironsights or snap-to targeting, and the weapon recoil models are much more difficult to handle than in most games. Holding down the fire button on an assault rifle is a good way to spray bullets at everything but your opponent, generally speaking.

The game also has some fun casual modes, if you're not looking for serious competitive play. There's team deathmatch, where you don't have to worry about money and can just use any weapon you want, and it doesn't really matter if you die. There's also Arms Race, aka gun game, where every kill earns you a new weapon and the first player to get a kill with all weapons (including the knife at the end) wins.

The rest of my gaming time I've been spending playing Mass Effect 3 multiplayer on the 360. I downloaded the Citadel DLC, intending to finally hunker down and do my second ME3 playthrough, but after jumping in the multiplayer for the first time since the month after launch, I've been completely hooked on it. Bioware's released so much free DLC for it, it's kind of crazy. Of course it's all subsidized by the players who buy equipment packs with real money, but I haven't been doing that and have gotten decent luck with the RNG, unlocking some good weapons and crazy new character classes, including a Krogan Warlord who swings his hammer for massive damage and runs around the battlefield smashing everything, laughing maniacally all the while.

Teamwork is also paramount in ME3 if you want to survive the gold, or god forbid Platinum, difficulties. It's easy to get overwhelmed by enemies and it's sure death or a quick retreat when you do. Sticking by your teammates is must, so they can revive you if you get downed, and very few classes can take out the tougher foes on their own in a timely fashion so as not to get overrun. I'll confess I'm hooked on the slot machine nature of the upgrade packs, as I'm always looking to unlock more characters, weapons, or upgrade my current weapons. It's a little frustrating that you have no control over what you unlock at all, but at the same time that's what keeps me coming back, besides the satisfying gameplay. Working with your teammates, setting off bionic detonations and tech combos, biting your nails as you watch the lone surviving teammate trying to finish the wave, falling in love with a new class you've unlocked, it's all great fun.

So that's what I've been playing. I also finished Assassin's Creed 3 recently and will probably write a review on that soonish. Lots of thoughts about that game. Spoilers: I didn't hate it, but it's problematic. I also liked it better than Far Cry 3.