Ghost Recon: Future Soldier

I'm a Clancy whore.  I buy all the Tom Clancy games, even if some of them don't hit the mark (EndWar, Hawx).  I have been playing Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon since their original PC releases.  I don't like that strategy has been eschewed for more run 'n gun style gameplay and have still been able to find merit in the iterations that have come sense.

Yesterday, I was eagerly waiting to get home and play Ghost Recon Future Soldier.  I finally got to get some gaming time at around 8pm and was giddy with anticipation.  I thought to myself, while I would like to get to bed at a decent time, there's a good chance that I could be playing it until midnight.

Then I load it into the xbox, and am greeted with the U-Play passport.  I put my code in, says it's pending, then I need to actually exit out so it will download.  A 108kb download can't process while the game is running?  

Ok, so I'm done with that, go back into the game and decide to start my campaign.  Oh wait, now it has to install audio files, which takes about 10 minutes.

Back into the game, ready to start.  I do the first little bit, and move on to a mission where I'm supposed to protect an informant.  Then the game just lost all appeal to me.  It's not the story (I didn't get far enough into it), it's not the presentation (it looks slick), it's not the controls (about what you would expect) - it was more that the game just has too much going on - it's too "busy".  It's got the Splinter Cell Conviction instructions being plastered on 20% of the screen, all these little whizbangs and doo-dads flying about - it just seemed like an assault on the senses, and not in a good way - I almost felt claustrophobic.  I got through one small section and moved on to the next and then I just said fuck it and turned it off.

I'm not sure if the game is at fault - I think it's me.  I'm just not digging this short attention span theater that warfare games have been moving towards.  I want to say "really ghost recon, you're showing your age a bit and shopping at Forever 21 isn't helping you, just be yourself", but alas, it may just be more of a case of "oh, Ghost Recon, you're still a decent game.  It's not you, it's me - I'm just not that into you any longer".

*sigh*