Ni no Kuni TGS 2010 Trailers

I really want Ni No Kuni to come state side. It's being developed by Level-5 (who does one of my all time favorite game series) and animated by Studio Ghibli (one of my all time favorite animation houses). I think this is a winning combination. What makes this even more interesting to me is that it's being developed for both the DS (trailer above) and the PS3 (trailer below,) and I'm actually thinking of buying both versions. This is mainly due to the fact that apparently each console copy will feature a different story and, obviously, different game play. I really want this game.

First Impressions: Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days

This will be ongoing as I take part in the first bit of the game. I am playing it on the 360, hopefully things don't lock up.

• Great start screen menu music
• It has it's own in game achievements menu (love it when games do this)
• Reloading takes way too long
• Visuals are great
• Progressing really fast, this is a short game
• So many enemies
  

He-Man is always great

I just started up Split/Second and upon using one of my event triggers I unlocked an achievement. What makes this so note worthy is the name of the achievement: I Have The Power. References to He-Man are always great.

First Impressions: Singularity

Ongoing as I play through the first bit:

• Way similar to Bioshock in terms of themes and feel
• Friggin' jump scares
• Damn monsters don't die very easily
• Dismemberment is great
• Handles nicely
• The Seeker is very fun to use but doesn't turn enough to be incredibly useful
  

Uncharted 2: Why I love it

So I finished Uncharted 2 a little more than a week ago. As I'm sure you have heard, it's great. The thing is, I disliked the first game. In fact, I almost hated the first game. The second game however really fixes everything, like everything. Overall it was a great game, but let us explore just why I enjoyed it so much despite my hatred of the first.

The Combat
In the first game the combat sucked. It had all the mechanics that it should have but the difficulty of them and the execution wasn't the best. First off, the enemies never died. Those guys could take so many hits without even being fazed. And the ones that could get knocked around a bit seemed to be able to take even more bullets before dropping.

Along with this, you ended up having to use a LOT of bullets, bullets that can't do much damage, bullets that need to be picked up off of fallen enemies. You can see the problem. Countless times I wasted several clips on a group of enemies to end up finding myself having to run into the group to pick up some more. Leading to an easy death.

This brings up the idea of the hand-to-hand combat. It wasn't very good too. The only time you ever wanted to use the melee attacks was when there was only one man remaining. If you do it with a few guys around, they will kill you before you're doing beating the first guy down. What ruined it was the very precise timing you needed to have when hitting the square and triangle buttons. Don't get me wrong, needing a sense of timing isn't bad, but needing that precise of it when being rained down on by gun fire is very hard.

Difficulty
So you might be thinking that I just sucked at the game and should have changed to an easier difficulty. Well the thing is, I was playing on easy throughout the whole game. I choose this off the bat since I had heard how good the second game was and needed to finally start the first. I had to get through it quite so I could experience it and know the story and characters.

So you can see why I had become so frustrated with the game when I was losing so much on what should have been easy, at least the choice of difficulties lead me to believe this.

The Platforming
This was the only part I enjoyed about the first game. It had some really good landscapes and made you scale some really crazy towers. The issue with this was that there wasn't enough. After around five minutes of climbing and traversing the environment, you had to go into another gun fight. The whole game was just moving from one gun fight into another. This really made me notice how short the one aspect of the game I enjoyed was and ended up ruining for me.

If Uncharted: Drakes Fortune had less of a focus on the gun-play, it would have been much better.

So what did the second game do that made me love it so much? I'm glad you asked.

The Combat
Fixed. Enemies now don't take ALL the bullets to go down. I can stay in one spot and shoot out people easily. This makes the gun fights last significantly shorter. One bad thing is that picking up ammo is the same but with the ability to actually kill the guys when you need to makes this not as bad.

The hand-to-hand combat is also much, much better. Instead of needing the exact timing when hitting the guy, you can just mash the square button until he is dead. They even add in a counter attack mechanic. This allows you to fight back whenever one of the enemies grabs you or blocks one of your punches. Much better.

Difficulty
Also fixed. I was able to go through the whole game on Normal and find it easier than the first one on Easy. With the enemies actually dying after a realistic number of bullets I found myself having a much better time and even enjoying the gu fights. The only downside was near the end when you have to fight these incredibly over powered enemies. They can kill you in about two hits from either their melee attacks or their crossbows. Thankfully this was only for about one or two chapters at the end.

The Platforming
Great. I enjoyed it in the first game but the way they set it up in this one was much better. They last so much longer, the gun fights don't take away from the traversing and the camera alone both helps point you in the right direction and forces you to look at how gorgeous the environment they created is. In fact, the movements of the camera are one of my favorite parts of the game. The quite cuts and ideal slow motion moments make seeing Nathan Drake jump from a collapsing building better than ever.

The Set Pieces
This is where Uncharted 2 really shines. Not only did it fix everything from the first game, but it managed to make some incredible lasting impressions by making you play incredibly one time moments again and again. Whether this be running down a city street while a tank follows close behind trying to blow you up, climbing out of a train dangling off the end of a cliff with a bullet in your gut or even fighting enemies in a tower that is falling over and making you jump through a window in order to live, everything was amazing. These moments - along with countless others - are what gives me such a good lasting appeal about the game and make it a hard one to forget.

Review: Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot - 7

Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot is the second piece of downloadable content for the first-person shooter Borderlands and is centered around a wave-like cooperative multiplayer style of game play. The content sticks to the game’s gorgeous art style and sense of humour along with introducing new multiplayer modes and several new in game options. However, the content surrounds this new cooperative coliseum style fights completely and can cause the content to come up as slightly shallow in overall value.

The main feature about Mad Moxxi is the new coliseum mode to play in. The object of this mode is to survive a number of rounds while enemies flood into the area. Each round has five waves and contains different enemies and different handicaps or bonuses. These little add-ons can range from increasing the damage or one weapon while reducing the effect of others, to game play devices like making the enemies more accurate, have more ammo, or even taking the players shields away from them. There are a number of handicaps that can be set up for each wave and the more rounds you complete, the more bonuses will be added at one time.
The waves also differ from how the enemies will go about trying to kill you and as you progress through each round they will become smarter and stronger. One nice addition to the rounds is that the final wave of each one is called the Boss Wave and pits you and your team against either one of the main story’s bosses or a new one for this content alone.

The waves are formatted like Horde mode from Gears of War 2 or Firefight from Halo: ODST. Like these other games, the coliseum causes your team to stay together and work as one. Leaving to fight by yourself will quickly lead to death when playing on the higher rounds and finding precise locations to set up a camp is important. Each of the three coliseums are based on areas from the main campaign and are set up in very different ways. For example, The Gully consists of a tall sniper tower with three levels of arena beneath it, while The Angelic Ruins is wide open with not many closed off areas to make a safe place to hide out in.

There are a total of three coliseums and two different round caps to choose from. The first being a short five round game (25 waves in total) and the second being a long 20 round game (100 waves). A short game can take around 30 minutes to complete while the latter can last over four hours. Apart from these three arenas to play in, Mad Moxxi also includes an all new bank system and the ability to unlock two more skill points for your character. The bank is probably one of the more intriguing features to the game. It allows players to stash any of your guns and equipment. You can also purchase bank upgrades that will give you more room to hold your stuff. The bank is a very welcomed feature since you now have a place to hold those weird weapons that you’re only carrying to show off to your friends.

The one downside to this add-on is that it focuses completely on the coliseum battles and nothing else. This causes the content to feel a little short and shallow when you look at what you’re really paying for. Despite some of the matches lasting very long, finding out exactly how to position and use your team over and over can come off as a bit repetitive. With that said, the handicaps for each wave add a random element to each fight and can cause you to mix up each of your formations. This addition greatly s and alters the otherwise monotonous nature of simply kill everything.

Despite the short length of time between this and the previous piece of additional content, Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot feels like a solid addition to the game. Even though the arena fights can get repetitive during your third hour of the 20 round games, the number of different bonuses and handicaps can still keep you on your feet. The bank system is very welcomed to anyone who has come across a weak but unique gun that they don’t want to have to sell off in order to keep some inventory room. And to anyone who has hit the level cap - but still wants to upgrade their character - the two unlockable skill points are a great addition. Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot not only gets the wave-like cooperative game play right but alters it enough to make it feel new and very exciting.

Overall: 7/10

Can't wait

I think finally preordering this game has gotten me at the level of excitement I should be. I simply can't wait for it now and plan to be spending many a sleepless night working through it.

Here's a video from Kotaku showing some of Batman's gadgets at work.

E309: Notable Mention Traliers Pt. 2

Here is the last batch of trailers I enjoyed from E3 2009.


Final Fantasy XIV
Not sure if I will play this because it's an online Final Fantasy game, but any new numbered Final Fantasy will get me excited.



Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (Game Footage)
I haven't played the first one but I hear it was good. I will play it one day for sure.



Final Fantasy XIII
This is really more one of the trailers I really liked, but it's nothing on my for-sure-getting list.

E309: Notable Mention Trailers Pt. 1

These are some other announced/shown trailers/clips from E3 that I think look cool but aren't at the top of my most wanted list.

Metroid: Other M
I really like the idea of not having Samus completely isolated for the majority of the game. I think being able to see more of her character unfold and her home world is the exact step this franchise needed.



The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
Normally I am way into the latest Zelda game but I wasn't really that big a fan of Phantom Hourglass and I'm thinking this will be very similar. I will buy it for sure though.



Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Crystal Bearers
This seems like it's going to be one of those FFCC games that Nintendo puts out and I completely look the other way on. At the same time it doesn't.



God of War 3 - (Demo Footage)
I liked the first few games, but still found them to be nothing amazing.

E309: Trailers I Liked Pt. 1

Here's a collection of trailers I liked or that got me excited from E3 this year. They are in no particular order.

Golden Sun DS
The main reason I am so excited for this is because the first two Golden Sun games were probably some of my favorite RPGs of all time, and my favorite GBA games. I put way too many hours into those two games, I plan to repeat that with this one.



The Last Guardian
Though I don't have a PS3, I found this trailer to be quite beautiful and I will for sure be picking up this game when I have the system.



Super Mario Galaxy 2
I still need to finish the first game but just the fact that Yoshi is in this one is awesome. It should be very fun.



New Super Mario Bros. Wii
I think this game has one of the worst names for a video game I've heard in a while but it looks really fun. The idea of 4 player co-op is great, though I can't see myself having 3 people over to play with at once. Also, the idea of no online play (thought I'd never use it) is odd to me.



I'll post another section of trailers later today.

So excited

This is from Kotaku, here to be exact. Finally I can spend another 100 hours on this game.

Review: Afro Samurai - 7

Afro Samurai is a game entirely focused on the old hack and slash action system and despite some awkward plat forming sections, lives up to its name. You play as a samurai conveniently named Afro Samurai as you disembody your enemies throughout numerous levels. It does a great job of making you feel like you are completely destroying your foes but begins to fall short when actually adventuring.

The main character, Afro, is in search for the number 1 headband which is being worn by the man who killed his father. Afro currently holds the number 2 headband (which you collect early in the game) and is on a path of revenge. Possessing the number 1 headband means that you are the greatest sword master in the entire world. This is the reason that your father was killed in the first place and now you must fight your way through mass numbers of enemies in order to avenge your dad.

The game’s main focus is on its battle system. Throughout each level you will encounter many enemies in which you must kill before continuing on. It goes with the norm for these kinds of games whereas it gives you X for a quick attack and Y for a strong attack. You will be mainly using these two buttons and just mashing them for the entirety of the game. This brings up one of Afro Samurai’s key flaws: its monotone nature. As most hack and slash games are, the only thing to do is continuously hit your attack buttons until you are done the game. Afro Samurai is no exception to this.

However, the game’s combat varies by the addition of “Focus Attacks.” These attacks are more powerful than your regular moves and add a bit more thinking to your battles. Apart from the standard fighting, you can go into focus mode and then angle your attacks with the left analog stick and choose either a horizontal (X button) or vertical (Y button) slash to perform. This causes the game to slow down so you can target your enemies’ specific body parts to chop off. Once you can pull these off with no problem, the fighting becomes quite fun. Stringing together your sword attacks, your kicks (B button) and even being able to flip around in slow motion make for a great time. It’s quite satisfying when you finally slice your opponent clean in half right when they were in mid air. Killing them also leads to their blood pooling out which is a nice addition.

Apart from the game’s combat moments, which are about 75% of the game, you will need to run move around through each level and even some plat forming sections. This is where Afro Samurai has its greatest downfall. The plat forming sections will require you to execute tasks such as wall climbing or running along walls. The reason these sections are flawed is that the controls specific for the section aren’t the best. You will only be able to run along a wall if you have angled yourself exactly as you need. Since the game requires no buttons to be pressed or held to initiate wall runs, you can only jump (A button) towards the wall and hope you got it right. This also becomes evident when you need to wall jump between two walls several times. This requires you to run up the first wall and then jump to the one opposite and continue this till you reach the top. Around 25% of the attempts of these will end with Afro not grabbing the edge or wall section and falling back to the bottom. There have been several moments that I was cruising up a wall until my character, for no reason, back flipped back to the ground instead of launching himself to the opposing wall.

The game also doesn’t allow you the ability to run up/along any wall in any other parts of the game. You can only pull off these gravity defying stunts when at the appropriate points. This harms the game since it shows how restricted some of the controls and game play elements are. This also shows how insignificant the plat forming is to the overall game. You do end up doing it a lot, but specific ‘wall-runable walls’ take away from the charm of the game. This makes the game feel choppy as it doesn’t all flow together. You are either doing crazy wall runs or you are in a fight. It would have been much nicer to be able to pull off some wall jumps and insane stunts during the combat.

To add to the annoyance, the camera in Afro Samurai doesn’t fit well at all. It inverts the X axis without giving the player an option to adjust any of the controls for it. This comes up as an issue most of the time while fighting. It can be quite irritating to not be able to see the enemies behind you and thus, leads to more damage being done to your character. It also has a tendency to get stuck on small objects or pass behind trees and once again, this can lead to a quick death. Lastly, as the plat forming sections are hard enough as it is, not being able to adjust the camera the way you like it ends up with costing you more time or having you jump off a cliff that you couldn’t see.

The most appealing aspect of Afro Samurai is its graphical style and original soundtrack. The artwork is very different from most other games on the market and especially in this genre of games. When the camera zooms in on the characters or scenery you can see that shadows have been cross hatched to add depth. For example, a close up on Afro’s face will reveal little diagonal lines running across all his skin. The beauty of this graphic style is a good fit for a game paralleling its anime version. It just feels right. Partnered with the soundtrack, the game is both good looking and sounds great. All music was composed specifically for the game and makes a good fit. This puts it apart from most actions games since you will be hearing a fantastic hip-hop song playing with lyrics based on the Afro Samurai story instead of fast passed techno or rock music.

Afro Samurai does a great job of making you feel incredibly powerful during its combat. Being able to slice any enemy’s body part off in one quick (or slow motion) attack feels great. And seeing your enemies explode into pools of blood just adds to this. Partnered with a beautiful art style and awesome music leads to a great game. You won’t be frustrated with a certain plat form section for too long and after getting used to the dreadful camera take away most of the issues. These issues don’t take away from the game’s charm however as most of the game is brutal hack and slash fighting, and Afro Samurai pulls this aspect off quite nicely.

Overall: 7/10

I love Sony

This is Sony's new PS3 ad.

Review: Rock Band 2 - 9

Rock Band 2 is the sequel to the highly popularized music rhythm game by Harmonix. The game is clad with fake musical instruments; a guitar, a drum set and a microphone. What Rock Band 2 does isn’t so much a true different take on the first Rock Band, but more just fixes some of the issues the first one had and does so in a surprisingly ‘well worth you money’ way.

Rock Band 2 is a music rhythm game that focuses around making you and your friends an imaginary band. By having fake instruments to be tapped, strums or sang into at certain times, it simulates the experience in a way you would want from fake rocking in your basement. A music rhythm game requires you to hit notes that move across the screen at a certain time. With RB2 you have a note track coming down towards you with colored bars on them. When the bars go in the area at the bottom that matches their color, you have to play that note. Playing that note differs with the instrument. Playing the guitar requires you to hold down the same colored fret button and strum when the note is in place, same goes for the bass. Playing the drums requires you to hit the corresponding color pad when the note is in place, or stepping on the foot pedal accordingly. If your using the microphone, you need to sing the words as they scroll across the screen. You will see lines for the singer and those indicate what pitch you should be at. If the line is high up, sing high and vice versa.

The major difference from the first game to this one is the exclusion of the average single player mode you found in RB1 or the Guitar Hero games. This may seem like something a little crazy but it’s really not because if you’re playing RB, I’m pretty sure you’re playing with friends. The tour mode does a great job giving you stuff to play for a long. It would have been nice to still have the main ‘go through every song’ kind of mode again, because then you can see how well you can play songs on that difficulty. Though it doesn’t harm it that much since when you beat these kinds of modes, you never go back to them, like ever.

Instead of that, this time it’s main focus is on the Band World Tour mode that the first one had. Though the first game had this as a solid multiplayer mode but with some flaws, and the flaws were quite big. Things like having to play multiplayer (or trying to do two instruments at once) made it something you couldn’t play any time you wanted. Now you can play that mode by yourself, which makes sense since there are no other major modes to play alone. It also helps that they brought in the idea to let one character play any instrument you want, so now you don’t need three characters to get all there is out of each instrument. Most importantly they now allow for band world tour to be played online with other people. This is probably one of the best additions to the game for this mode was easily the thing to play in the first game and now being able to play it whenever you want makes it great. And even though you may not be able to talk to the person you’re playing with, it doesn’t feel like you’re missing too much.

Another big addition to RB2 is the idea of band challenges or battle of the bands. In these you get requested to do certain songs in a set list and it’ll rate you on how well you did overall by things like the highest overall score, or the amount of stars you earned. These will be posted up on the leaderboard and by the looks of it, will close and more will be added throughout RB2’s life. Some of these will require an entire band, while some may just be solo or even things like you can play anything as long as there is one vocalist. One of the best things with this is that it shows the overall leaderboard and that it shows your friends leaderboard as a separate section. So you can see which of your friends did better on each individual challenge. Though because of all the leaderboard stuff this game has, it needs to update the servers each time you finish a song/song set which from what I experienced (with a decent connection) took a good ten seconds. This may not sound like much, but when you’re sitting there staring at a loading screen just cause it needs to update scores, it gets old, fast.

The hardware bundled with the special edition of the game is slightly different now too. Though at the time of this game’s launch, you couldn’t pick up the hardware, which always sucks. But if you did have the RB1 controllers, you can use those. The new hardware comes stronger and has sensors in some of the instruments so that you can just hold up like the guitar to the TV and it will calibrate for you. This is a huge advantage now because calibrating is always a hard thing to do and is extremely important in this kind of game. Though when trying to calibrate the RB1 guitar for this game, it never seemed to be able to get it to work. I have no idea why.

Harmonix has always focused quite a bit on downloadable content and just getting your RB library to be as big as possible. This has included with every week they release three new songs to download and every now and then they release a free one. They added the ability to have all the downloadable songs from RB1 to work in RB2 and vice versa. One thing you can do is that if you have the first RB, you can export most of the songs from that game onto your hard drive do you can play them in RB2, and of course these songs will show up during world tour mode put into set lists and what not. Another bonus Harmonix has done is added a code on the back of the manual that will get you twenty free download songs. It tells you to go to their site to input the code in order to get a redeem code to be emailed to you to use in the Xbox Live Marketplace or Playstation Network. As of right now it’s just a message saying thanks for buying the game but having the news of getting twenty free songs is quite great and puts RB2’s songs that come with the game over 100.

The biggest thing with Rock Band has always been the multiplayer aspect. Even once finishing every mode completely, which by the way will take a long, long time; you will still be coming back to this game. With the amount of songs they offer that are rivalled by no other game, you will always find yourself with new things to play. If you don’t have friends around to come over and play, you can always play online with one of the three online modes, or just play them by yourself. Though the game can sometimes seem intimidating to some who aren’t comfortable singing in front of their friends or just in general think they suck at the game. RB2 fixes this by adding a no fail mode where you...can’t fail. This is a great idea, but it still has the crowd bar on the left so you can see how well your doing, which I don’t think was necessary. It will never hit the bottom but it will go down into flashing red, so your track list will flash red. If you’re someone who knows they’ll usually be in there, it can be innerving that it’s always flashing red at you. It would have been a better idea not to have the crowd bar at all so you can just focus on the song and no indicator of failing ever shows itself. After all, if you’re using this mode, you probably don’t really need something telling you you’re doing well, your just there to play and mess around.

Rock Band 2 is the best band rhythm game out there to date and is only rivalled by it’s prequel currently. You can just see that this game was made by people who know what it’s like to go through the real deal here, where over two thirds of the loading screens are information of the band your about to play. Along with subtle notes and how things are generally run in the tour mode, you can feel this game was made properly. Overall, it just feels tight and well put together. You will find yourself having endless hours of fun despite how awful your friend can sing Hello There by Cheap Trick. And with the no fail mode, it’s fun for everyone. You’re definitely getting your monies worth for this game, even if you’re buying all the hardware as well.

Overall: 9/10

Blown Speakers 21/07/08

This week on Blown Speakers we wrap up the news of E3, discuss Shaun White's drug abuse and we find out that Sean hates movies, all that and more on this week's edition of Blown Speakers.

Also we are in the works of getting our podcast officially submitted to itunes so look for it soon in the itunes Store.

Download it to your itunes here

Or grab it in it's own window here.

First look at boss battle in LittleBigPlanet

Werehog?...what?

So this is a screen from Sonic Unleashed. It is coming out for the Wii, 360, PS3 and PS2. As we all know, Sonic games aren't what they use to be since they went 3D. I think this has to be the worst idea the sonic team has come up with.

The idea with Sonic Unleashed is that Dr. Eggman has used the chaos emeralds on Sonic to give him a curse. During the evening he becomes more like a hedgehog (Werehog?) where he runs around on all fours, knocking down a bunch of enemies and fighting them. This aspect is basically a beat 'em up. The worst part though is that for some reason; the werehog's arms are really stretchy when he is attacking...what?!

Besides that ridiculously stupid aspect, I hear the daytime section of the game is great. It has Sonic running around real world place (like Greece) in 3D and 2D going at extreme speeds, 300 mph is max I hear.

So why would the sonic team come up with such a good game and then ruin it with this stupid aspect. They must be thinking this will add something fresh to the Sonic franchise. Thing is, I can't remember the last time I thought something new with Sonic was good (ex: Sonic Riders). Maybe by doing this, they'll be able to appeal to the hip kids of today? I dunno.

Playstation Network ID linking now on

Announced at this years E3 yesturday at the Sony Press Conference, you can now link your Playstation Network IDs to your Playstation Underground account. A good feature about this is you don't need a PS3 to get some of the benefits of doing this.

The site states this as benefits you'll be able to get by linking your accounts:

Once you've linked your IDs, you'll receive all these great features:

• Identify yourself on the Web using your PLAYSTATION®Network portable ID
• Display your portable ID on social networking sites
• Meet other PLAYSTATION®Network members
• See who's who on the PlayStation® message boards
• Keep tabs on your PLAYSTATION®Network friends on the Web with the Friend List

Seems like a good idea, I just made my account link up. I don't have a PS3 but I have had a Underground account for a while now.

You can click this link to get to the Playstation Underground.

New Prince of Persia site

By now you should know that Ubisoft released the news that a new Prince of Persia game is in the works. If not, I don't know why you have chosen to live under a rock. I personally loved the Sands of Time Trilogy and had PoP3 easily make it to my top PS2 games. So I am quite looking forward to this.

Today they made the official homepage of the new game, along with that came the new logo for the series. As you can see above.

The last thing that should be noted was that there is a feature on the main page where you can register your Ubisoft.com account so that you will add this game's info/news to your mailing list. This basically means that you will get news about this emailed to you. Also, registering yourself allows you to be able to get linked to have Prince of Persia widgets for your personalised google sites or facebook. Yay? I encourage you all to register your accounts (for the emails), or if you don't wish to, your in luck. I just signed my account up a few minutes ago and when I get new info on the game, I will be sure to share it with you all.

Hey I got a PS3

The first question that will most likely be asked is why would I choose to review the PS3 now? The answer is that the PS3 seems to finally be picking up steam having started to beat the Xbox 360 in sales as well as some great games coming out soon (some examples include Metal Gear Solid 4 and Killzone 2). So with this knowledge of future potential and the reluctance of knowing that eventually I would have to buy a PS3 anyways I went to the local store and succumbed to the pressure of the PS3 along with the games "Uncharted: Drake's Fortune" and "Resistance: Fall of Man". I had to pick up the 40GB PS3 as the 80GB's are being phased out in place of the MGS4 PS3 coming out in later June along with the game so expect no review on the backwards compatibility.

So the first thing I did was set up my account in a mainly streamlined process that seemed simple enough and then proceeded to revel in the vast glow of what I've just decided is quite an impressive interface. For those readers unaware the PS3 has basically the exact same interface as the PSP using Sony's XMB software which I find looks a lot more unique then the 360's interface which reminds me of an older website except without the stupid gif's everywhere. I then proceeded to look through the various options which although seems kind of daunting at the time with what seems like a bunch of icons you really don't need but I guess that's alright although I'm still kinda pissed that each CD you put on it has it's own icon under the music tab but I digress.

My next goal was to set up my online account, Once again a streamlined process although the need for a number in the password is a new feature in most sites so I feel I can't bitch about it too much but dude seriously I'm not that retarded that I don't understand the process of a stronger password to protect my oh so valuable account. I then added my friend which was easy enough but he has yet to accept so I am still a lonely PS3 user (blown-speakers add me). With the basics down let's get into the games.

I guess now would be the time to discuss the controller. The first thing I truly noticed was how damn light it was, it feels like nothing (although I hear the Dualshock 3 is a lot heavier) but besides that it's basically the PS2 controller with more trigger like R2 and L2 buttons.

I first tried out Uncharted which looks absolutely amazing expect a review once I finish it but this is a review of the PS3 so this article will focus on what it can do. I'd like to state that saving is the exact same as what you do on a PSP. Once you get into the game it looks and sounds impressive, I guess this is the true power of the PS3 and so far I think it's pretty good I tried to find a section where I could use the SIXAXIS functions but the only one I could really find was when you throw grenades which was mad broken just because the time it takes to aim with the SIXAXIS will be more then enough to get taken to bullet rape town from your friendly enemies. After a bit I decided to try out Resistance to get a feel for online and hopefully some more SIXAXIS action.

My first reaction to Resistance was since when was it still normal to have a health bar in a FPS? I guess the evolution of games has slowly weeded that little gameplay idea out but I've never really realized how much more difficult games are with one, but also expect that in a review of the game. After about an hour of playing I found the SIXAXIS still used minimally which I'm debating if that is a pro or con. My basis is that over use will be seen as a gimmick but under use makes the player question why it was included so far I think they have been successful in this middle ground. The online was something I found fairly impressive mainly because within seconds (alright after a LOOOOOOONG downloading patch time) I was in a game with 40 players something I'd never experienced before. The game ran smoothly with minimum lag although I don't like how the microphone of other players blare through your speakers at a volume much louder then the game itself.

I guess that is the end of my impressions so far, some other complaints are the fact of how many damn updates they have that take forever to download as well as the other stuff on playstation store which can take a lot longer then the 360. All in all however I'm fairly impressed with the system which can also be shown by the fact my 360 has remained unplugged for the past few weeks while I have been playing with the PS3. My final judgment is this system is pretty powerful with many cool features but the games so far as mainly mediocre however the upcoming games are more then enough to entice any game player.

PS It also has a Blu-Ray player, expect a review on that once I get a movie for it.