Third world countries want to acquire weapons capable of mowing down cities. It is your duty to aid your partner and disrupt the operations of the rival countries. You are our country's last hope for a peaceful world.

As you walk home, eager to tear the wrappings off the case and pop the Blu-ray disk into the DVD-eating drive, you pump yourself up for the thrilling next-gen experience you are hoping for. The game loads up. At your first view of the graphics, your jaw drops. It falls to the ground because this next-gen game is plagued by last-gen graphics.

The first thing noticed is the un-detailed, flat faces and rather bland environments. The explosion effects are a disgrace, leaving you to wonder if your frag grenade was actually a frag at all; sometimes you are left wondering what propelled the barrel soaring across your screen.

What's more discouraging than horrendous graphics? Poor voice acting. The acting is just terrible, with generic lines delivered by unenthusiastic actors. It's a relief that it is drowned out by the game's rather exciting soundtrack, so you will miss out on some of the voice acting, but you will be very thankful.

Also, before hopping into the action, one might want to read the manual for controls. There is no tutorial or training mission in this game. Even within the first mission there are no hints for you to get used to the game, so be prepared to be dumped into an action-filled level with limited knowledge of the controls, which means be prepared to die.

The game was developed to be played with a buddy. The game consists of the tough guy, machine gunner Lang, and the stealthy sniper, Graves. The two have clashing personalities, as heard from the witty remarks they make to each other. You, as the player, can switch between the two main characters at any point during the game.

The only fun to be had with this game is playing with a friend. That's only because the two of you can joke around about how bad it is. It is also worth noting that there is no formal health bar. It plays like a recent FPS in that your vision gets blurred the more damage you take. This is always a welcome feature because of regenerating health. The A.I. In the game is pretty stupid, allowing you to sneak up from behind and shoot,  regardless of how loud you are.

Overall, you are better off not even paying attention to this game on store shelves. It is a pain to play and no fun comes out of it — unless you want a game you can joke around about with a friend.

Conflict: Denied Ops is rated M (Mature) by the ESRB for blood, drug references, strong language, and violence. This game can also be found on: PS3, Xbox 360.