Hello there TPS fans! Are you running out of shooter games to play? Are you getting tired of shooters taking place in the modern day period or shooters that take place in a World War II setting? Frankly, I’m tired of shooters simulating the events that just happened recently, like the war against Iraq. Why don’t game publishers step up and think of something new and fresh? All right — now that my rant is over, there is actually a shooting game that is on my radar and at first blush looks like a total winner: Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldiers.

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldiers was initially titled as Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon 4 (it’s actually the 4th game in the series if you exclude the expansions) and was going to be released in March 2012. However, Ubisoft is delaying the release until May in order to fine tune the game. For those who are not familiar with the series, it is a third-person shooter game. Ghost Recon: Future Soldiers takes place in a futuristic setting of Russia which is currently engaged in a grueling war. The entire mission includes visiting places such as Pakistan, Zambia, Russia and Norway. The Ghosts will be deployed in different missions in order to defeat and neutralize the ultra-nationalist force that took over Russia and are currently invading neighboring countries.

Ghost Recon: Future Soldiers is mostly a third-person shooter, but some instances (such as shooting with the aim sight) require the player to switch to first-person for more accurate targeting and aiming. The player will have to control four Ghosts with different expertise — a sniper weapon expert, a commando, a Ghost lead, and a reconnaissance expert. You will have to be strategic with the positioning of your Ghosts so that you will succeed in your missions. In my opinion, strategic shooters are best and offer a challenge to serious gamers, as opposed to shooters that any button-masher can master.

Since the game is set in the future, you will be armed with some amazing futuristic weaponry and equipment. My favorite is “optical camouflage” which will basically allow your Ghosts to become invisible. Optical camouflage will be extremely limited so that players will not be able to rely heavily on the tech to accomplish missions. The optical camouflage is designed to automatically turn off if the Ghosts move too fast, fire weapons, or are being shot. I have to mention another neat feature of the game that I like — Gunsmith. With Gunsmith, you can customize your weapons. The customization is very deep as it includes tweaking every part of the gun. Good news for Xbox 360 users, as the game allows the use of the Kinect. Customization will be done through hand gestures and even voice commands.

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldiers is set to release in May 2012. The game will be coming to PS3, Xbox 360 and Windows. Look for it at your favorite game store — the future is now!