There have been a ton of great titles on the PS3 thus far, but for myself and many other PS3 fans, GTA 4 is the big one. This has been and continues to be my most anticipated title since the launch of the PS3.

So far, PS3 owners haven’t had much GTA-style games. We’ve had an OK port of Godfather, and we’ve had the excellent Manhunt 2 and Bully for PS2 which share many of the same writing + dev staff as GTA, but the GTA series has always been the main focus of Rockstar North, and I couldn’t be more excited about the pending release of GTA 4 on April 29th.

Why GTA is great

Best GTA Clones

(not in order)

Expectations for GTA 4

Anyone else as excited for GTA 4 as I am? What are your expectations?

Julian Eggebrecht, president of Lair development studio, Factor 5, is caving to the negative reception of Lair:

If you’re on a platform where this whole motion control is something new and not being pitched as the main feature of the platform, you should probably give the choice between having different control schemes, there is absolutely no doubt about it.

I know the hardcore hivemind basically says that Lair is a great game that was ruined by bad controls. Except that’s not true. The basic flight controls are fine; they are just like Warhawk. It’s everything else about the game that’s terrible: the story/dialog was horrendous, the characters were terrible, the mission objectives were either dull and repetitive or just awkward and painful to play, the dragon melee fighting was a button-mashing mess, and the ground combat was awful. I rented this game hoping to find a diamond in the rough, a great game that was unfairly bashed. But no, it was really a horrible game.

But this game doesn’t need an analog stick patch. It needs a write-a-better-game patch.

Better luck next time Factor 5.

The pretty much useless Information Board on the PS3 XMB is finally going to get something useful. Blog posts from blog.us.playstation.com.

Once this gets enabled, I’ll turn this feature back on. Anybody use the Information Board as it is now? And will you turn it back on when the PlayStation.Blog gets added to the Info Board?

Check out comment 20 on the link below

Frazz :
“Integrate this blog and the orange info bar on the ps3.Stupid to come out with a useless feature like that and not back it up.
Good update with the rating hopfully it will give a better idea of what we gamers want”

Jeff Rubenstein-
“Look for the Blog to start showing up on the info bar this week. Nice timing with that request. “

New Blog Feature: Post Ratings

Anything interest you this week? And good news for Blu-ray fans. Netflix goes Blu-Ray exclusive! (as Darrin pointed out in the shoutbox).

* Gone Baby Gone (Disney/Buena Vista)
* We Own the Night (Sony Pictures)
* No Reservations (Warner Bros.)
* Becoming Jane (Disney/Buena Vista)
* Over America in High Definition (Topics Entertainment)
* Over California in High Definition (Topics Entertainment)
* The Amateurs (First Look Studios)

Blu-ray.com

Despite the positive consensus that this title is receiving, I was prepared for a bland overhyped game:

Reservations

• Leaves, plants, and dirt People rave about the graphics. I’m sure this game has all the latest in bump mapping, HD textures, and fancy 3D features, but it’s freaking leaves and dirt! How exciting can it be?
• They Shop at the Gap I’m as tired of bald space marines as the next guy, but these characters are so bland it’s offensive!
• Dude Raider Tomb Raider bored me to tears (I only played the original). If anything can get my heart racing more than the leaves, the dirt, and the middle-america clothing fashion, it has to be tired cliché game mechanics. Let me guess: linear “exploration”, shooting bad guys, and jumping puzzles.

Thankfully, I was wrong.

• Graphics and Presentation I expected a bunch of boring rocks and plants with fancy shader effects, but this game is actually a lot more exciting than that. Most games have levels that feel like they were churned out from a level editing tool. In this game, the environments feel like actual living places, and all the traps and surprises within them work well. This game has a variety of cool visual elements and effects that are better seen than written about. Suffice it to say, that this is the most visually impressive title that I’ve seen. And with competition like Ratchet & Clank and CoD4, that is no small achievement. Don’t judge this by the screenshots alone, you really have to see this game in motion to appreciate it.
• Dialog, Characters, and Narrative While the characters look boring, they are surprisingly interesting. All of the dialog scenes and cut scenes are fun to watch and the story keeps you immersed in the experience the whole way through the game. The dialog and overall narrative are fairly typical pulp adventure fiction, but it’s very easy to get into and just plain fun. I’d peg this as par for a good Hollywood movie and amazing for a video game.
• Playing a Movie The core strength of this game, is you actually feel like you are playing an Indiana Jones style movie from beginning to end. To clarify, you don’t feel like you are watching a movie, which is a trap that many other games fall into, you really feel like you are playing the movie. While this game is completely linear, the game mechanics are elaborate and flexible enough to avoid feeling scripted. Also, the game moves along at a very brisk and exciting pace from beginning to end. The game never slows down, or hits dull filler parts, or excessive repetition. You always feel like you are doing something different, finding a cool new environment, and moving the story along.

Cons

Uncharted really nails the movie-like pulp adventure game that the developers were going for. However, while I love this game, and I think most people reading would agree, I know this game isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, so I’m going to try to list the things that would tip that group of people off. This is more a list of what the game is not, rather than nitpicks of what the game is.

• No Multiplayer
• It’s very “pulpy” Why did these ancient civilazations build all these elaborate and fun giant stone puzzles that work so well hundreds of years later? Why are there hundreds and hundreds of mindless pirates that are so easy to kill? You need to practice judicious “suspension of disbelief” to enjoy the experience.
• Limited replay value I enjoyed this enough, that I will definitely play through a second time, which is rare for me, but that’s it. This is a linear single-player movie like experience so expect to play through once or twice at the most and be done with it.

Agree? Disagree? Let’s hear it in the comments…

Good news for Sony:

The 45nm Cell will use about 40 percent less power than its 65nm predecessor, and its die area will be reduced by 34 percent. The greatly reduced power budget will cut down on the amount of active cooling required by the console, which in turn will make it cheaper to produce and more reliable (this means fewer warrantied returns). Also affecting Sony’s per-unit cost is the reduction in overall die size. A smaller die means a smaller, cheaper package; it also means that yields will be better and that each chip will cost less overall.

This means that each PS3 will be cheaper to produce, giving Sony more leeway to either make a profit, pass savings on to consumers, or both. No matter what Sony decides, this is good for Sony and hopefully it’ll also be good for us in the form of a price reduction.

IBM shrinks Cell to 45nm. Cheaper PS3s will follow

North America

Games/Demos:
Go! Sports Skydiving - $4.99
Lost Planet Multiplayer demo

DLC:

Rock Band
Kiss - “Calling Dr. Love” $1.99
B-52s- “Roam” $1.99
Faith No More - “We Care A Lot” $1.99

Motorstorm - Chinese New Year skin - free

PSone Games:
Crash Bandicoot: Warped $5.99

Themes and Wallpaper:
Uncharted Wallpaper 6
Uncharted Wallpaper 7

Game Videos:
Uncharted “Final” Trailer
MLB 08 The Show “First Look”
Burnout Paradise Dev Diary
Burnout Launch Trailer 1
Burnout Launch Trailer 2
Conflict: Denied Ops Diary

Theatrical and Blu-ray Trailers
WALL-E Trailer 2 (Theatrical)
30 Days of Night (Blu-ray)

Europe

Games/Demos:
Sky Diving - €4.99
Turok demo
Conflict: Denied Ops demo

DLC:
MotorStorm - Chinese New Year Gift - free
Folklore - Malion Pack - free

Trailers:
Lost Planet

Japan

Games/Demos:
-Snakeball - 800 yen
-Lost Planet demo (online mode)
-Patapon (PSP) demo

DLC:
-Motorstorm – Chinese New Year vehicle pack - free
-Piyotama - Valentine theme – free
-Snakeball Multiplayer add-on - 200 yen

__________________________________

I snagged the Lost Planet & Patapon demos on the Japanese PlayStation Store this morning

PSN Content 02/07/08

Overview

This is the PSN entry into the popular and trendy tower defense genre. This is a simple yet very addicting game.

Personally, I think this game is easily worth the $7.99, but if you are a more frugal type, you are safe sticking to the variety of free variants of this concept.

Differences from Other Tower Defense Games

• Local co-op play. With the right partner, this is a *really* fun way to play.
• Mechanics are different. Listing the specifics would be a bore to read, but suffice it to say, that workings of the game are different enough to make this a unique experience.
• Absolutely zero maze creation. This was probably the best part of Desktop Tower Defense and it’s completely absent in this title. The mazes are basically pre-made in each level as you can only build towers on existing trees on the map.
• Organized into levels or maps. Early levels are easy, however difficulty curve is suprisingly steep. This game gets really hard, really quickly.

Wish List

Some players want a really simple, easy to get into experience, while other players want something more elaborate and involved. There’s room for both, but I’m in the latter group.

Take an RTS game, strip out the story, exploration, and troop management and elaborate on the base building and maze creation features. Or take a tower defense game and add some high production values, more features and gameplay balance, a level editor, and expanded co-op and versus ultiplayer modes.

Anyone else have impressions to share? Has anyone beaten this title yet?