The Top 10 Video Games of Summer 2012

3. Ghost Recon: Future Soldier

It takes A LOT to stand out in the military shooter genre these days, and just when you think you’ve played all the Battlefied multiplayer you ever could, and you’re all Modern Warfare’d out, along comes Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. Instead of simply fitting in, Future Soldier actually raises the bar for the genre. If you like the gritty realism of Battlefield and the action movie vibe of Call of Duty, you’ll fall in love with Future Soldier, which strikes a perfect balance between those extremes, as well as a delicate balance between stealth and all-out gunfights. The “future” portion of the title means near-future, with plausible innovations like tactical pocket drones and cloaking camouflage. Picking apart the enemy in the dead of night without being detected is almost like putting together a puzzle; kill the wrong guy too soon and his buddies will find him and sound the alarm. There are a lot of “fitness” video games on the market now, but this one does a better job than any of those at actually elevating your heart rate.