Obscure FPS facts: Z is for Zeno Clash (2009). This isn’t as obscure as some games we’ve covered, but is stranger than all of them put together. Manages to make mutant-punching melee combat work from first-person, with guns often a liability when you're being rushed by 'things'.

Obscure FPS facts: Y is for You Are Empty (2006). Despite being limited (a lot of proposed features were cut), linear, and featuring no dynamic lighting (but it does have truck-sized chickens), the game's strange, cloying atmosphere makes this alternate-reality apocalypse worth exploring.

Obscure FPS facts: X is for Xenus II: White Gold (2008). Imagine Fallout 3 took on the war on drugs, but with way less polish and, if anything, more ambition. Full of game-breaking bugs and ‘wait, what?’ moments that require patience, but make Xenus II worth sticking with.

Thanks for picking up the books. Quantum of Solace is in Hurt Me Plenty, so hopefully the text lines up with your experience!

Obscure FPS facts: W is for WWII Online. Running since 2001, this ‘the opposite of Battlefield 1942’ FPS allows you to travel in realtime from England to Germany, with its map encompassing 135,136 square miles. Deep and obtuse, but clever design leads to concentrated fights.

Obscure FPS facts: V is for Valiant Comics. Purchased by Acclaim but still running after the publisher's demise (and recent rebirth), Valiant’s FPS links include 1997's Turok: Dinosaur Hunter and the almost entirely forgotten N64 FPS, 1999's Armorines: Project S.W.A.R.M.

Thanks for the super cool artwork. Hope we get to do more!

Obscure FPS facts: U is for Utopia City (2005). Despite attempting a choice of combat or stealth, energy management and superpowers, this somehow manages to waste the imaginative potential of its ‘enter virtual reality to ‘rescue’ people from utopia’ premise.

Obscure FPS facts: T is for The DinoHunters (2006). Paid for and prominently featuring various sponsors, DinoHunters revolves around a bunch of hillbilly stereotypes travelling back in time to shoot dinosaurs. Runs on Valve’s Source technology and features a karate-kicking T-Rex.

Obscure FPS facts: S is for Shattered Horizon (2009). One of a string of multiplayer shooters that failed to gain an audience, Shattered Horizon was doomed by a steep learning curve and a reliance on DirectX 10, with no support for the then infinitely more widespread DirectX 9.

Obscure FPS facts: R is for RoboCop. Unexpectedly, having starred in FPSs in 1992 (technically clever, and good fun), 2003 (utterly random) and 2023 (a modern classic), RoboCop - along with Aliens - is one of the longest serving IP’s to appear in the FPS genre.

Obscure FPS facts: Q is for Quiver (1997). Filling a ‘more FPSs, please’ gap, Quiver is one of a number of ‘DOOM clones’ that delivered exactly what fans of id's shooter wanted. Other examples include 1994’s Depth Dwellers, 1995’s H.U.R.L., and 1997’s Alien Cabal.

Obscure FPS facts: P is for Phantom Slayer (the) (1982). One of the ‘maze game’ precursors to the FPS, Phantom Slayer stands out by allowing you to freely turn, and for giving you a gun. Creator, Ken Kalish, said he wanted the game to mix “fear and aggression followed by unrestrained fleeing”.

Obscure FPS facts: O is for Operation Matriarchy (2005). Wake to discover a virus has converted all the women into monsters. Simultaneously manages to be both more and less schlocky than it sounds, and has a reverse-difficulty curve where it throws less stuff at you over time.