Out of nowhere, my Playstation 3 has become my newfound favorite console. It's taken awhile, but I really think Sony is turning the corner on getting back to being a serious contender. Infamous, Ratchet, and the amazing Uncharted 2 have been in constant rotation in my PS3 for months. I still love my Xbox 360, and I am not a fanboy ny any means. But with a big price cut, much-more reliable hardware, and free (and improving) online, I am really looking forward to the future of the console.

The only real exclusive on the horizon I can think of for the 360 is Mass Effect 2... which I am sure will be great, but Sony's also got God Of War 3 a few months later. Could Sony pull ahead and once again become the industry leader? It will be interesting to see. And with my PS3, the future is looking bright.

Congrats, Sony... I don't think anyone believed you could do it.

"Ever think you messed with the wrong guy? Well, I'm that guy."

So here we go. Being broke (!) and looking through my back-catalog of games I realized all the games I hadn't beaten were RPG's. Most of which I hadn't played in months (shutup, Johnsteed). It's really hard to go back into a story driven game when you've completely forgotten all the characters, plotlines, and god-knows what else. Amonsgt all of this, I had forgotten about one little game. Silly me. InFAMOUS is a fantastic open-world action game that is reminscent of Crackdown, GTA, and a little bit of Mercenaries thrown in. But the game has a great identitly all it's own. And it's a game where the choices you make drastically affect the storyline, world, and even your main character's appearance. And who the hell wants to be a nice guy, given the choice? My version of the hero is a wise-cracking, impatient, sadistic bastard. I steal innocent people's lives to power myself up, blow up police stations for little reason, and generally do whatever the heck I want.

I think the reason I like InFAMOUS so much is that most open-world games give too much freedom for my tastes. GTA, to me, had too many distractions and I usually get bored or sick of the main story by the time I feel like going back to it. For instance, I loved Crackdown because it was structured, but not too linear. Therein lies a similarity to InFAMOUS. You can do what you want, but there's no time-wasters like bowling, dating, or driving around aimlessly. Your character is singular in his purpose, and it's ultimately up to you how he goes about accomplishing it.

Anyway, this game is just a blast to play. The combat is great fun, the voice acting is superb and helps to compliment a very well-told story. And the main character is a brooding bad***.

Score one for an awesome PS3 exclusive.

Sooo.... trying to get back in the gaming groove lately. Bought Batman: AA, played it, loved it. I am also realizing the game has more replay than I thought; not just that it's just a blast to playthrough the story mode again, which it certainly is, but also the challenges. They force you to use every gadget and strategy available in the game, making you realize this game was created with alot of thought, and continues to impress me.

Anyway, having finished with Batman, I started looking at the Arcade on XBL. Everyone was raving about Shadow Complex. I read that it was a 2-D adventure in the spirit of Super Metroid/Castlevania: SOTN, and since those are two of my favorite games and I've loved the DS iterations of Castlevania (which are basically clones of SOTN), I figured it would be a sure thing. The game had a damn Metacritic score of damn near 90, there had to be something special about it.

Well, I'm disappointed to say that Shadow Complex is the type of game I played, and although I liked a bit, I kept waiting for some big surprise or something to happen that would really impress me. What it really is, in all reality, is a sub-par, but serviceable Metroid clone.

There was supposed to be a few pictures here, but Gamespot is being a pain in the *** right now. Try to update later.

The similarities to Metroid are that Shadow Complex features areas that cannot be accessed until certain weapons and gadgets are obtained, there is a grapple shot, and there are missiles. The map system is also identical. But Shadow Complex lacks the depth, variety, and compelling gameplay of even the better Metroid clones (like SOTN). There are basically 4 weapons.The character and plot are plain. And the gameis short. I took my time and messed around finding off-the-beaten path items and still finished the game in under 6 hours.

The game isn't bad, don't get me wrong. But it's not on the level with even the better Metroid clones.. Have fun and get it if you have some exrta MS points to spend and don't mind a short experience, but don't expect to be blown away by the second coming of a cIassic.