Beyond Good and Evil for PS3

This is one of the prettier games I've seen in a while.  The artwork is smooth and considered.  Enjoy the look, as you wander around solving puzzles, doing quests, and occasionally getting into brawls with bad guys.  You get paid for taking photos to catalog the world's wildlife.  It encourages you to take a closer look, as you run around the world.  The game is ten bucks for about twelve hours of gameplay, and I think it's worth it.  Treat it like a nature hike .. on another planet.

Killzone 3 for PS3

In a year full of pale sequels, I'm pleased to say this one's very good.  I played through the single-player story on wimpy mode.  The dialog is predictably "gritty," and it includes the usual storyline of the maverick soldier who refuses to leave his men behind .. but once you relax into the cheesemo, predictable "war hero"  stuff, it's kinda boy-game fun.

The multiplayer is where this one really shines.  Natch, you get the usual deathmatch mode, and the capture-the-flag style modes.  The "operations" mode is really fun tho; it's basically a mini-story where your team completes (or defends against) a progressive set of missions.  e.g. blow up the doors, take a strategic position, then destroy the mainframe.  (Should they update that to "destroy the 'cloud?'")

The other interesting thing about the multiplayer mode is that the choice of "careers" for your character doesn't seem to actually include a "heavy grunt" sort of character.  Everyone is specialized for something: heals, turrets, sniping, stealth &c.  The talent trees for each are quite short and narrow, and different maps are better for different careers.  It makes you try more than one career, and switch them up to match the map and your teammates' styles.  Well done!

Split/Second for PS3

Split/Second is a car racing game, and I'm hit-or-miss on my opinion of those, but I just finished playing this one all the way through. You know those crazy car chases in movies, where they're flying through an abandoned industrial sector, with stuff blowing up all over the place? It's like playing those scenes, yourself. You're racing on and off streets, with "real" cars -- but you accumulate powerups that let you trigger explosions in front of the competition, which plays like a kart racing game. The AIs match your skill well (if you pick slow cars, they pick slow cars) and the courses are varied enough to be interesting, but repeated enough to be familiar by the end of the game. And there's nothing like triggering an explosion moments before the finish line, to knock the opposition out and jump to first place just in time. Zoom!

ModNation Racers for PS3

In the words of days-gone-by search engines, "More like this!"  Sure, I'm a sucker for user-generated content, so I was looking forward to ModNation ever since last year's E3 demo, but it's lived up to my hopes.  It's great!
It's a fun kart racer, with balanced power-ups and smooth controls, and a few tricks that sometimes mean the race leader loses, right at the last second.  Everything you expect from a kart racer game.

But the track-creation tool is the really awesome part.  (Well, that and the car creation tool, or the character creation tool, actually.)  Like any good level generator, your first few are awesome because you don't care, then the next few are all messed up because you have something in mind, and then the rest after that work because you find a groove and the tools don't get in the way.  Then you go multiplayer and play your maps with other folks.  And then folks tell you what works and doesn't work about them.  And then you make more!  You gotta try this.

Red Dead Redemption for PS3

OMFG this game goes forever.  Red Dead Redemption is a third-person shooter where you're the gristled cowboy with a dark past who's fighting to go straight.  The main story is hours and hours, the scenery reaches for miles, side quests with real stories are littered everywhere, you can collect pieces of outifts, or tame horses, or shoot horse thieves, or save damsels, or get robbed by damsels.  It's a jillion things to do, and you could easily spend a month finding all the hidden bits.

Also, pardon the "gee wiz," but whoever did the lighting for it deserves a medal -- sunrise and lightning storms were my favorite.  They really nailed the Western genre.  The music is similarly on target, though after a few hours I turned it down so I could run Pandora on a laptop.  It's a remarkably pretty game, making it good for spectators, too.  Yeehaw!

Braid for PS3 (PSN)

Braid poses a time-traveler's dilemma, what if you could go back and undo all your mistakes?  In this side-scrolling world, you can.  Biffed the timing on jumping those koopas?  Back up in time and get it right the next time.  Oh, but it's not that easy -- some things aren't affected by your time travel.  It makes for mind-warpingly interesting puzzles that involve overlapping, but not concurrent, time lines going in different directions.  Weird and wonderful!

God of War III for PS3

When me droogs and I are up for a bit of the ultraviolent, this game hits the spot.  There's slashing and smashing and decapitating to fill an evening with action.  (I think the producers secretly own shares in a fake blood factory, because there are gallons of it here.)

There's this story, too, about killing all the old gods of Olympus, and you get to ride on a Titan, which is pretty freakin' awesome, but mostly you kill things that gush blood everywhere.  Also, there are spots where you have to pull levers in the right order to get a platform to lift you to the next area ... where you kill things.

There are boobs.  Did I mention that?  Some of the things you kill have breasts on them.  Gorgons, I think.  So, *evil* breasted-things.  But boobs you can look at.  So there's that.

The whole thing's actually quite pretty.  I give it two thumbs up ... which I will then chop off and throw into the fires of Hades.  Haiyah!

MAG for PS3

I didn't think I was into the pewpew games but I can't stop playing this one. I'm not even all that good ... my aim is strafingly bad. It turns out I love this one.  I keep playing.

I think the key is the tech trees. You get XPs for shooting the other guys (and TWICE as many for healing teammates) and every few dings you can afford to buy another skill.

There are several ways to go with skills. I started out favoring machine guns, and worked up to the biggest baddest one. That worked okay. But then I respec'd for assault rifles and teched-up to get the 4x optical scope, which I now totally prefer. Respecs are available every dozen or so levels, so you can try a new stuff as soon as you're bored with your last choice.

I always first get the healing and resuscitation skills -- that's how I level up. Whether spraying machine gun fire, or controlling bursts of rifle fire, my strength is in the heals.

Now my friends need to pick up a copy. A clan on headsets is a formidable force.

Wolfenstein for PS3

I used to love playing Castle Wolfenstein on the Apple ][.  I liked how you were outnumbered, stealing ammo off the bad guys, and saving the day.  It was missing just one thing ... zombie nazis.  Well, these may not be exactly zombies, but they sure are supernatural nazis.  And they still make "aiiieeee" noises when you gun 'em down!

Once I'd popped the disc into the PS3, it didn't come out until I was done with the single-player campaign.  It's excellent!  There's a goofy story.  There are nazis using gateways to other dimensions.  There are weapon choices and upgrade choices that let you pick your fighting style.  A ton of detail makes it extra compelling.  I really enjoyed it!

Critter Crunch for PS3 (PSN)

The launch of Critter Crunch was less than impressive -- the trades should've been heralding "The next PopCap" or something like that. This is an action-puzzle game, where the rules are simple, the controls are dead simple, and everything is just cute as hell. Plus, the music is catchy, and the goofy noises things make as you catch 'em with your tongue and spit them into the waiting mouths of predators higher up on the food chain add a cutsey percussion to the whole thing.

Oh, and there's actually a part called the "Puking Tutorial" where they instruct you on regurgitating rainbows. Kris plays several-layers-deep strategically, while I mostly mash buttons, and we both love it!

Batman: Arkham Asylum for PS3

You see!? This is how you do a game based on a cartoon! The player  becomes the protagonist seamlessly, rather than just riding along on the hidden track of a jungle safari ride.  Plus, there's a real writer! Ryyyyyyye-tooooooor.  (Doesn't hurt that it's Paul Dini fer cryin' out loud.)  And who's playing the Joker? Mark Hamill.  Because he always does. It's an episode of Batman the Animated Series, it's just really complex, takes longer than the usual episode, and has a lot of side quests.

The fighting is great -- you're a badass, hand to hand.  But then your XP-based power-ups are things like the skill to drop down from a gargoyle and string up your opponents.  For kicks I did a level entirely by sneaking around the rafters and stringing the bad guys up when no one was looking.

Harley Quin went and turned into a sexy-schoolgirl cliché, but the rest of the characters have all the depth and intriguing-weirdness you expect, plus a little extra something that you can only really convey in an interactive medium where the player is discovering them as part of the story and game.

I haven't gotten all the way through yet, but when I do, I'm watching every last line of the credits.  There are gonna be names I'll recognize in future games.

Zombie Apocalypse for PS3 (PSN)

You are the last hope of mankind. Use the left stick to run around, and the right stick to shoot. Every once in a while, there's a human survivor, so run over and protect them until they can escape! Eliminate all the robots zombies to advance to the next level.

You start out with a machine gun and a chain saw -- and while the machine gun might be more effective, the chainsaw offers panache, especially when wielded over your head and plunged into your adversaries' chests! You'll collect exploding, zombie-attracting teddy bears, too -- they're like grenades but whey cuter.

My favorite part is that for a moment after a zombie grabs you, you can shake the controller to throw them off you again. This is a discombobulating mode shift, and oddly fun. It's my new flavorite laundry-time game! Braaaaaaains!

Battlefield 1943 for PS3 (PSN)

I can't stop playing this one!  You switch off being a japanese or american soldier trying to gain control of all the flag points (five) on small pacific islands.  There are only a handful of maps, and a handful of strategies, and it's all so very simple, and that's exactly what makes it fun.  You can run around shooting, or get in a tank, or a jeep, or even airplanes ... and for extra fun you can jump out of your airplane and parachute onto the other teams' positions.

This is my new laundry game.  It's easy to just pop in and enjoy a few minutes of mayhem between loads of laundry.

inFamous for PS3

I'm enjoying inFAMOUS because it combines two of my favorite things. Like Mirror's Edge, you can run around on rooftops and listen to fox news tell you of a government consipracy. But you also have the open-world fun like Fallout 3, where you run around killing people while a visible morality index keeps track of whether the angel or the devil is suggesting your targets.

I guess it's Grand Theft Auto with electrically-charged superpowers, because when you get tired of the story line, you wander around discovering side-quests, and when you're tired of side quests, you hop back on the main storyline.

There are hours and hours of gameplay in here! And the comic-book styling of the HUD and the cutscenes and things are very pretty. Go get a copy!

Burn Zombie Burn! for PS3 (PSN)

Burn Zombie Burn is practically the definition of "casual game."

Clear rules: kill all the zombies before they eat you.

Simple controls: a top-down point of view, as you run around and shoot stuff.

True to theme: while the shotgun and uzi are the simplest to use, the chainsaw and cricket bat are far more rewarding.

A twist: zombies are afraid of the burning torch you can brandish ... but if they catch on fire they fearlessly sprint towards you ... BUT point values are increased while there are zombies buring.

It's perfect for killing time (and zombies) between loads of laundry. A couple rounds coincide nicely with the wash cycle. And the price is right -- one roll of quarters!

Portal for PS3

Portal is a first person platformer with a fun addition. Like other platformers, you get to run around trying to get from here to there. But it's the future now, and you've got a hand-held wormhole maker!

Can't jump up to the platform? Pull the trigger to open a wormhole next to you, then shoot to place its other end on the wall next to the platform. Step through and poof, you're there! Of course, the levels aren't suddenly a piece of cake, they get very sneaky.

It's a brainy sort of fun. You have to solve path-finding puzzles using more than just what's visible on the screen and more than just three dimensions. Oddly enough, it's pleasantly twisted when the mental map in your head is a klein bottle.

Warhawk for PS3

Warhawk is perfect for a quick online frag session -- if it moves, shoot it! Instant action.

The tutorials teach you the basics: First you learn to run around shooting things. (Or knifing things, at close range.) Then you learn to drive around shooting things. Finally they show you how to fly around shooting things. The basics are simple, and you start out pitted online against other noobs, so you can learn before you're completely pwned.

Once you get the hang of it, you'll find that it's fun to specialize in certain tactics. I like picking planes out of the sky with a rocket launcher. Some folks are really good with a sniper rifle. The tanks are especially fun. And I like flying, as long as there aren't too many missile launchers around.

Now that it's a Greatest Hit, it's only twenty bucks. I recommend the downloadable version.

Killzone 2 for PS3

Holy crap this game is intense. The intro movie sets the stage spectacularly, then launches you right into the action. Even in easy mode it's intense -- you survive longer, but it doesn't ratchet down the intensity at all. My eyes are still bleeding.

Visually, it's smooth and detailed. Your bullets don't just leave scars on the column that the bad guy is hiding behind -- you blow off pieces of concrete, all the way down to the rebar. And that piece of corrugated steel *you're* hiding behind gets knocked out of place with every grenade they land near it. You can see rockets coming at you smoothly, not stuttering between frames. The clear graphics give you time to side-step!

Then there's the AI stuff, which is remarkable. Enemies work together, shouting things to each other. They split up to flank you and they sneak around behind you when you hide. And this adaptability means that if you're failing a level, you can try a different approach and get totally different results. Blazing down the middle while mashing buttons not doing it? Sweep around the side, draw enemies out one by one, or just see whatever works in that particular area.

In any currency (six movie tickets, eight hours of iTunes, three blu-rays...) this title was definitely worth full price.

Zuma for PS3 (PSN)

I guess I'm a little late to the party, but I'd never played Zuma (from PopCap Games) on any other system. I love it! It's one of those action puzzlers, which I'd compare to Tetris, where you have to match up pieces that are coming at you, making them disappear, before they stack up and bury you.

You see, while I spent my wasted college leisure-time playing NetHack, kids these days play games with graphics and sound. So if you're a thirty something, you'll find Zuma to be plenty of fun, just like Tetris was, and you'll play it compulsively until your eyes bleed. But the *real* treat is to kick back with a beer and watch a twenty-something play it ... they totally go matrix-mode. And it's a trip to watch them actually apply strategy rather than just shooting madly until the game ends in disaster.

Hey, spectacular cut-scenes and multi-million dollar production budgets must look really impressive when you present them to the executives, but maybe with a couple extra supporting charts and graphs (and executives with some vision) you could get the management to greenlight more of these types of games. Please?

Flower for PS3 (PSN)

Wow! Flower is a very pretty game ... it's like art that you can play. You see, you're the wind, so you breeze around fields, and then flowers open as you blow past them. But it's not all visual -- there's chilled-out music playing throughout, with the opening of each flower adding a percussive note of a chime, or guitar pluck, or harp strum. Plus, the sound folks added awesome ambient sound, so there's rustling grass, rain, thunder, water swishing, a subtle but pervasive aural environment rendered in very nice stereo everywhere you wander.

Mister and Miss Achieveypants will immediately notice that nothing's keeping score, there's no timer counting down, there doesn't seem to be a high score list. You just drift around, opening flowers and enjoying the sights and sounds. At least you progress through "levels" -- that might be on a quiz at the end.

This was ten bucks well spent, especially when compared to the cost of a massage or talk therapy or a tasty Barbera. Now, can I get a screensaver this attractive, too? Please?