Well it's been a solid two months of solid gaming. Since I've gotten my PS3, it's been nothing but gaming, and I've thoroughly enjoyed the PS3 experience as a supplement to my Wii experience.

Over the last two months, I've done something that I said I'd never do: buy into hype. Whenever a highly anticipated game is soon to be released, the forums light up with glee as gamers attempt to express their barely contained excitement over the title. Being apart of the online gaming community is still somewhat new to me, having joined GS less than a year ago, so wasn't aware of the kind of influence that the community can have on you. I found myself looking forward to games I had never heard of, one of which was Super Smash Bros Brawl. I truly had never heard of the game since I hadn't owned a Nintendo console since SNES. But after reading countless threads, previews, and hands-on analyses, I decided that the game might be for me.

And I was right.

SSBB is, quite simply, pure fun. It's deep enough as a fighting game that you will need days to truly get the hang of any one character. It's simple enough (only 3 main buttons) that anyone can pick it up and play it. I've had a great time playing online with long time SSB players and sharpening my skills. The diversity in character design is outstanding, so everyone plays different (which the exception of a few characters from the same universe). Each one of my friends uses different characters, so their personal tendencies multiplied by the different character strengths gives me multiple opponent sets. I can turn the game on, jump online, and run 1 on 1 matches for at least a couple of hours.

SSBB panned out for me, mostly because I enjoy a solid, strategic fighter. The last one I really took a liking to was Marvel Vs Capcom 2, so I was long overdue for another. I could possibly see another 2 full-fledged fighting titles coming my way in the next 3 months with Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (whew) and DBZ: Burst Limit coming out. That should supply me with enough fight for the rest of the year at least.

PixelJunk Monsters is the most fun downloadable game that I've played this gen. It has a way of feeling incredibly rewarding. Just looking at all the rainbows from the perfect stages feels great. It has also got a way of not making you feel like a loser when you lose. Monsters got the best of you? It's ok. You remember which monsters come on what waves, what direction they go, what towers work on them, and just try again. I'm quite excited about Sony releasing additional content for the game. That $10 is the best money I've spent this gen.

I was madly in love with Folklore when I first started playing it, but the game has started to slide a little. I'll save the details for my review of the game.

Now, there's the business of Grand Theft Auto 4. It's quite amazing that for the first time this generation, a consensus can be reached that there is finally a fantastic game all the way around. What I'm curious about is the fact that the game can have so many technical problems and not catch any flack for it. More than anything, it shows that a game's reputation has a tremendous effect on how it's received. I don't think a new franchise could have as many bugs and still receive a perfect score. But then again, if the reviewers didn't encounter any problems with their copies of the game, the game's score shouldn't suffer. Not to mention that I was quite disappointed with GTA3. It was the same thing over and over again with bad graphics and pointless (honestly) violence. This game seems to be different tho, so I won't judge it from its predecessor.

At any rate, the overwhelmingly positive reception of GTA4 has me seriously considering purchasing it. Before that, I'll most definitely buy Mario Kart Wii, an extra Wiimote, and an extra wii wheel. It's summer time, and I'll have my wii up at work for a mostly slow summer so that all of my staff can get acquainted with Nintendo's fun machine. After that, GTA4 may get a serious look, if not Okami for Wii.

That's all for my gaming update. More to come soon.