evilneko said:
Well it turns out, a friend was willing to part with his copy of COD4, so I gave it a shot. (/rimshot)
The campaign lasted me 10 hours, tops. I can't believe how short it was. A better player would probably breeze through the entire thing in two or three. But me, I kind of suck. I have difficulty aiming precisely due to RSI in my right hand and using a trackball.
On to researching/finding the other things on my list now.
Actually, I think I have an idea what I'd really like: something like Far Cry, but without the fucking mutants. I liked that game up until it started trying to be Doom. Not that I don't like Doom, but if I want to play Doom I'll play Doom.
So you want a realistic shooter that doesn't focus on multi-player, and has a campaign well over 10 hours long? Well... uh... yeah, I got nothing.
Slightly more seriously,
Bioshock is surreal but it's frequently lauded for the story and overall aesthetic of Rapture. If you can get past having magical powers caused by genetically engineering mutations and fighting guys in massive diving suits who are protecting psychotic little girls that have giant sea slugs controlling them (no, really), you'll probably have a great time.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution is probably the closest thing I can recommend... and even then, it emphasizes stealth over run&gun Rambo-style game-play.
Uh...
Bulletstorm? I wouldn't really say the enemies are "mutants", just bat-shit insane people, and it did put a fair amount of work into the campaign.
Just Cause 2 doesn't really have a good story, but it's an excellent open-world sandbox that encourages you to explore the massive map and wreak havoc everywhere you go. The PC version supports a fair amount of modding too.
The
Syndicate FPS, maybe? It's another cyberpunk-y thing, I suppose the campaign isn't really
too much longer than the average
CoD game, but the story is pretty interesting and the little gimmicks it uses can keep it fresh too.
If you don't rule out aliens entirely, then
Crysis 1/Warhead/2 and
Half-Life 2/Episode 1/Episode 2 get recommendations as well.
I suppose you could look into the various
Tom Clancy's Assorted Games That Plaster His Name On The Title For Brand Recognition games. (
Rainbow Six,
Ghost Recon,
Splinter Cell.)
Rainbow Six and
Ghost Recon are both tactical squad-based shooters,
Splinter Cell emphasizes stealth.
Alpha Protocol is a third-person/stealth/RPG hybrid thing. Haven't done anything with it myself in a long time so I don't know exactly how stable it is now, but it was made by Obsidian Entertainment so it was pretty predictably buggy when released. The writing is pretty much rock-solid (provided you don't mind the main character acting like a massive ponce), but everything else was a bit "eh".
Another science-fiction game that kind of emphasizes stealth, you could try either of the
Chronicles of Riddick games (
Assault on Dark Athena is essentially just a remake of
Butcher Bay with an added campaign that isn't quite as good).
The
Operation Flashpoint games apparently take a pseudo-realistic tactical approach to the campaign, that requires you to examine the situation, but I haven't actually played them so I can't give any personal experience on them.
The
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games are shooter/RPG hybrids. They do include mutants, being based in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster, and they are fairly buggy and very unforgiving in difficulty, but still pretty great games.
Another sci-fi game, with aliens and all that good stuff, is
Prey.
For pseudo psychological horror, there's the
F.E.A.R. series (though they get progressively less scary with each sequel).
I suppose if you care about
Star Wars at all,
Republic Commando would still count (it was released in 2005, has some great squad-based single-player).
And it's more of a brawler mixed with psychological horror, but
Condemned: Criminal Origins was pretty good, but its sequel never got a PC release for some reason.
Tribes: Vengeance is a ***** to get running in a stable state (the old Unreal Engine it runs on is pretty crap when it comes to compatibility) and the series is famous for its multi-player more than any form of campaign, but it was made by the same guys who worked on
System Shock 2 and
Bioshock so the story is actually okay and the game-play itself is vastly different from most other FPS' (being based around the "arena shooter" style of games like
Quake and
Doom, so it's very fast paced and requires you to master how you can move around with the skis and jetpack you have).
That's all I've got.
EDIT: Actually, for hyper-realism you could try
Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad.
Dragonball--where Goku was a kid--was way better than Dragonball Z. Not that I watched very much of either. 
