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Here is a list of games that I think everyone should watch out for in order of release date (bold are the more important ones). These games should be MORE than enough to last you til next year without buying any games in December. Even half of this list will last you for a long time.

Here’s the list:

Dead Space
Midnight Club: Los Angeles
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows
Barbie Horse Adventures: Riding Camp (just kidding)
LittleBigPlanet
Star Ocean: First Departure
Fable 2
Far Cry 2
Bioshock – for those who didn’t get the PC/XBox360 version
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
Fallout 3
MotorStorm: Pacific Rift
Tom Clancy’s End War
James Bond 007: Quantum of Solace
Resistance 2
Gears of War 2
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe
Call of Duty: World at War
Mirror’s Edge
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Expansion Pack
World of Warcraft Gaming Mouse – and for those that can afford or justify buying a $100 dollar mouse
Need for Speed Undercover
Left 4 Dead – I wish this would be out on the PlayStation 3
Hello Kitty: Big City Dreams (another joke)
Tomb Raider Underworld
Alone In The Dark: INFERNO – for those with PlayStation 3, this version fixes some issues that were reported from the earlier release and includes an exclusive new sequence in Ep 6

Let me know if I missed anything great!

I was reading an article on cnet and I have to agree completely with what David Carnoy have mentioned about the present and future of the Sony PlayStation. The current PlayStation 3 has just started to take off with the lowered production cost (chip shrunk from 90nm down to 45nm) and with slightly more games worth purchasing. Sony should get back or at least break even from the investment and money lost from selling each console under cost when it first came out. That won’t be possible however, if Sony started researching on a completely new processor chip from the ground up as it would need to inject a huge chunk of money for research and development all over again, well before Sony could profit from the current console. Therefore it makes much sense for Sony to stick to the current chip design and modify it.

As a PlayStation 3 (60GB with Spiderman 3 Blu-ray DVD) owner since November 2007, I would prefer to hold on to this console for at least a few more years as oppose to buying a new console every 2 years because I’m just not ready to make another expensive purchase, just like most of us normal consumers who would like to make purchases at the cheapest possible price unlike the hardcore gaming fans who will rush to get new consoles/games on their very first release days. I too agree Sony should improve the current console, not just on the technical side but the look and feel of the console as well. The PlayStation 3 console is huge, though its surprisingly quiet. It would be great if its size could be reduced to the same side as the slim PlayStation 2. I think the slim version of the PS2 is one of the sleekest console of all time, if not THE sleekest. And I assume by the time it can be shrunk to that size, the price will drop as well?

Sony should ignore and forget about Microsoft from releasing an XBox 720 or XBox1080 (I personally like the name XBox1080 as it would match with the current Full HD format). Why? What happened to the earlier versions of the XBox360? Remember the infamous Red Ring of Death? How many times did someone you know had to send back the console for a repair or a new one? Don’t get me wrong, I am not a PS3 fanboy and certainly not here to bash XBox360, at least not in this article and I don’t see a point in bashing it anyway as I heard from people the newer versions are much more stable than the older ones. I just want to point out that history would repeat itself if Microsoft rushed into releasing a new console. And even if a new XBox is released with better graphic capabilities, its not all about the graphics. First if a game has great graphics but no actual playing value, the game would still not be worth purchasing, well most of the time. Take the Nintendo Wii for example, it doesn’t have the graphics compare to the XBox360 and PlayStation 3 but its the best selling console these days. The reason is because it is innovative and it suits a broader range of audience from non gamers, casual gamers and to the hardcore gamers. To me its basically a tweaked GameCube!

But then again, imagine what the PlayStation 4 can do with a completely new chip.

What do you think?

PlayStation 3 doesn’t have anything good these past two weeks that suited me except Silent Hill: Homecoming will be out at the end of September. After that, there are at least four games that everyone should watch out for since they are pretty hyped up! Hopefully these games will live up to their hype specially Little Big Planet.

Here are the dates for the four games I recommend to watch out for that are coming out in October:

 

Dead Space – 10/14/2008
Far Cry 2 – 10/21/2008
Big Little Planet – 10/21/2008
Fall Out 3 – 10/28/2008

Dead Space, an horror + sci fi combo third person shooter. Sort of like Resident Evil + the movie Event Horizon and with a lot more gore. Basically, in this game, forget about headshots from Counter Strike or Call of Duty. In order to make the bloody monsters stay down is by shooting their limps or their weak spots. Obviously each monster will be dealt with differently. Another new feature that has not been introduced in any of the other third person shooters is fighting in zero gravity where your movement is slower and sound is suppressed. Top becomes the bottom, left can be right under this environment. I am looking forward to hunting those monsters down jumping all over the place in zero gravity.

I also think Dead Space will be a good addition to the horror section for the PS3 until Resident Evil 5 comes out. Unfortunately there is no online component to this game, which is not good in my book. Would be nice if at least co-op play was implemented like Mercenary 2 because playing with others, specially your friends, is much more fun and enjoyable than by yourself…well sometimes.

 

October 21st will be a busy day as Far Cry 2 and Big Little Planet come out on the same day based on EBGames.com. I guess I will test out Big Little Planet first because its really a new type of game where as Far Cry 2, while impressive in both game play and graphics, is still a FPS to me so therefore it can wait. Big Little Planet really looks like a true party game that PlayStation 3 lacks since day 1 where you can play with up to four people on one console and instead of having a split screen, all four will be on the same screen, which is a huge plus. Wii will still dominate the party game section for a while or maybe for as long as the console lives since I think that’s what it really is for. But I’m still glad PS3 is coming out with an exclusive party game.

And finally we have Fall Out 3, another promising game to complete the month of October. So far it looks like Oblivion with improved graphics. Don’t get me wrong, its not necessary a bad thing. I will need to see more game play previews before I can say more for Fallout 3. But so far it really looks promising.