Hey remember the format wars?  That’s right, long ago and far away there were once two different types of High Definition movies.  There was HD-DVD and Blu-ray, both looked the same visually but Blu-ray had a larger storage capacity and better backing from the movie industry.  Panelist debated long and hard over who would be the winner of the format war.  The nail in the coffin however was when Warner Bros decided to go Blu-ray exclusive.  Blu-ray disc was finally given the crown of the king of HD and skeptics speculated that the PS3 would skyrocket in the area of in-home-install-base due to the Playstation 3 being the cheapest Blu-ray player on the market.

It’s easy to associate the PS3 with Blu-ray. Sony took the title as the HD winner and used it till it’s juices were squeezed right out.  With Blu-ray being the HD winner why wouldn’t you think that Sony would do well with their Blu-ray player that happens to play video games?  The problem itself doesn’t even lie with Blu-ray although some may argue that society wasn’t ready for an upgrade in movie watching yet (C’mon the Wii doesn’t even play DVD’s).  It could be possible that part of the blame for Blu-ray’s lack of  appeal has to do with the small installed base of the Playstation 3.
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Ubisoft Montreal has taken it upon itself to try and re-invent the Prince of Persia franchise once again for the current generation of consoles. The series had taken a turn for the emo and lost some of its steam, but we have left all that behind us to follow a new prince and his attractive female counterpart on a journey to save the land.. Now the first thing I am going to do is mention Assassins Creed in reference to this game and compare similar aspects. I am sure half of the people reading this will be saying something along the lines of “What, Assassins Creed? Who likes Assassins Creed?! Is Hollywood trying to defend Assassins Creed?! What an idiot!” Well settle down my hot headed friend, no one is going to force you to love any game, in fact it’s just the opposite. For those of us who played Assassins Creed it was obvious that a fantastic game was being ruined by repetitive missions and the crazy’s on the medieval street who push you, and only you, for no reason. Prince of Persia takes a lot of good things from Assassins Creed, and unfortunately a bad thing or two come along for the ride as well.

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It is no doubt that LittleBigPlanet has become Sony’s game to back.  Ads for LBP are everywhere.  Costume DLC for this game come out at a staggering frequency.  This time it is Street Fighter costumes.  On thursday, LBP owners will be able to buy the Street Fighter costume pack for $5.99.  The pack include costumes for Zangief, Chun-Li, Guile and Ryu.

This review comes from HCG member de Hollywood.

Every once and a while a game comes along that takes the boundaries set by traditional gaming, and throws them straight out a window. Mirrors Edge attempts to do this and succeeds in many ways.

Right off the bat you are throw into the shoes of “Faith”, a parkour expert and an information courier for hire. You leap, climb and slide your way through 9 levels of intense chase scenes and missions that can rival most films. However, unlike a movie, you get to decide how to approach the situation. A certain level of skill is required to enjoy the fluidity of the game, but practice makes perfect and you should be gliding across rooftops with ease after some time with the game.

Soon into the game Faith finds herself being hunted by the police, determined to find justice for her wrongly accused sister. The story line doesn’t stray too far in terms of creativity, but it works with the style of game.
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Finally the PS3 has my attention.  I wasn’t a big fan of the Socom series before as I did not have a Playstation 2 however I heard some great things about the online play which prompted me to go ahead and buy Confrontation.

The Socom series could easily be compared to the Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (G.R.A.W.) series.  The game is played in the 3rd person view, soldier versus soldier combat.  The emphasis is on tactical maneuvering and working together as a team.  Socom Confrontation is an online only multiplayer game and can be downloaded via the Playstation Network or purchased at your local game store bundled with the Official Playstation bluetooth headset.

The graphics in Socom are decent, there is not much that is mind-blowing but it certainly is not sub-par either.  What is really well done is the sound and the ease of control.  Each gun sounds realistic and each shot feels as real as the sound it makes.  Socom also uses the rumble feature of the Dual Shock 3 so making the upgrade is recommended.

There are a total of 7 maps available, each map is scalable to the size of the party you are playing with.  Some game modes allow up to 16 players on each team while the comfortable games are played with 8 players on each team.  The Playstation Network does host the ranked games while a player match is hosted by the game creator.

There is also clan support which allows you to recruit and fire players in your clan and of course play clan matches.  Socom Confrontation is an exciting and addicting experience.  It certainly is a reason for gamers to buy or keep their PS3’s.  There is a good amount of lifelike military violence and a very slight amount of language. 

This game is fantastic and is highly recommended for any PS3 owner looking for a good game for their Playstation 3.

Buy/Skip/Rent:

Buy