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Category Archives: PlayStation 3

Review: Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (PS3)

Although Lost Planet: Extreme Condition is published by Capcom, playing through the game brought an old SquareSoft game to mind; specifically, Xenogears of PSone fame. Just as in Xenogears, you begin Lost Planet as an amnesiac young man who remembers little of his past, but knows how to pilot giant mechs. Of course, there are many differences. Xenogears was a PSone title by Square that delivered turn-based RPG epic storytelling that, today, would seem awfully dated; Lost Planet is a PS3 title (originally Xbox 360) that is anything but turn-based, delivering all-out shooter action in full HD quality visuals.

Yes, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition is a game that’s over a year old on the Xbox 360 and can be obtained for about $10 less than the full retail of the discounted PS3 version (roughly speaking, about $30 on 360 these days, compared to $40 on PS3). So are there reasons to buy this version? Sure there are.

First, the PS3 version is more like a director’s cut, offering all 16 of the downloadable multiplayer maps that Xbox Live users had to shell out points to obtain; additionally, players can unlock two new characters that can be used in both single and multiplayer mode, as PS3 exclusive characters; namely, Frank West of Dead Rising and Megaman. There are others as well, although those may be more familiar to veterans of the Xbox 360 version of the game.

The story is essentially unchanged; you are Wayne, part of a group of snow pirates who are trying to run the planet E.D.N. III of a savage, bug-like alien race known as the Akrid. Wayne’s dad was killed by one such Akrid, named Green Eyes, and shortly after that, Wayne was injured, lost his memory and rescued by the snow pirates. As one of his only memories remaining is the memory of how to pilot the giant mechs that are particularly effective at ridding the planet of Akrid, Wayne soon becomes key to the battle against the Akrid.

One problem; the Akrid carry this glowing orange goop in their bodies that turns out to be a great energy source, so total annihilation of the monsters may not be the ultimate goal, here; harvesting their goop is apparently a great way to deliver low-cost energy to the galaxy, so… well… you can imagine where things might get dark from that point on.

E.D.N. III is, by the way, an ice planet full of blizzards and howling winds, about as far removed from a Royal Caribbean atmosphere as carrots are removed from bicycle shorts. In other words, it’s a very atmospheric game that delivers action-based horror and chills in the same spirit as horror classic The Thing, only louder and with a lot more action and shooting and explosions. And it definitely delivers that sense of being on a lonely, nearly lifeless frozen planet, kind of like a trip to Lambeau Field.

If you like shooters, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition’s not a bad choice. The story segments are nowhere near as extended as a more RPG-style shooter title like last November’s Mass Effect, and there’s far more action at a far faster pace. Gamers who appreciate a shoot first, ask questions later approach to their gaming will find a friendly experience in Lost Planet: Extreme Condition.

The single-player campaign mode is initially the heart of the experience. Lasting a decent amount of time for an action-adventure shooter title (12 to 20 hours, depending on how you play), Lost Planet has a terrific storyline with plenty of surprises and a shocking end that still has the Xbox community buzzing a year later. This is one of Capcom’s better but less-heralded efforts of the past couple years, so it makes a welcome addition to the growing PS3 library.

Yet what gives the game lasting appeal is the online mode, in which you can team up with, or fight against, up to 16 players at a time; and since this game is now on the PlayStation Network instead of Xbox Live, you don’t need a Gold subscription to play online; on PSN, the online gaming is free, a nice bonus for those PS3 gamers late to the Lost Planet party.

The game looks sharp in both standard definition and in HD; however, this is where the port-over exposes some of the game’s shortcomings. Little was done to take advantage of the uniqueness of the PS3 platform; those playing with the SixAxis controller are offered no motion-sensitivity, which makes the loss of force feedback even more noticeable; although the DualShock 3 will be released soon, there’s no word yet on whether Capcom will support the new controller, once released, with a patch adding force feedback back into the game.

Furthermore, even though the game is now on Blu-Ray disc on the PS3 format, Capcom did not take advantage of the extra space to offer the game in full, true 1080p HD resolution. Sure, you need a HUGE HDTV in order to appreciate the 1080p difference, but gamers who have that sort of set-up will be annoyed that the game looks no better on PS3 than it did on the Xbox 360, thanks to the lack of 1080p support.

Still these are details, not deal-breakers. Designed by members of the teams that brought such Capcom classics as Onimusha and Devil May Cry to life, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition is an incredibly fun title that excels at kick-butt boss battles and levels featuring the Akrid. Levels featuring evil snow pirates are less engaging due to flawed enemy AI, but the AI on the Akrid and bosses are much better. The only disappointment is that most Akrid opponents all have the same weakness; shoot them in the orange glowy part of their body and they are easily dispatched, even though getting clear shots in on that part is not always easy; it’s just disappointing that it’s variations on the same strategy for nearly all the Akrid opponents.

That said, in the balance of things, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition is a fun game; there’s absolutely no reason to buy the game again if you already own it on Xbox 360 and also happen to own a PS3. However, if you only own a PS3 and missed out on this action-horror classic, this is one game that’s not quite as spendy as most new PS3 titles, yet delivers the goods.

Waiting for Final Fantasy XIII

One game I don’t need trade show displays of to create excitement in me toward playing, once it’s released, is Final Fantasy XIII. From every bit of video footage I’ve seen, the game looks gorgeous and truly deserving to be on the PS3 platform.

While I’m not one to condemn most RPGs for not being on the cutting edge of graphics … after all, one of my favorite publishers of RPGs is NIS America … I can certainly get excitied when a title like this comes along and is on that cutting edge. While I am not sure if it will be released in 2008 or not, I can say that it is already one of my most enthusiastically anticipated games of the year.

Blu-Ray outsells HD-DVD 2 to 1!

Those wondering about the outcome of the high-def format war between Sony’s Blu-Ray Disc format and Toshiba/Microsoft’s HD-DVD format need look no further than the news coming out of the Consumer Electronics Show. With Holiday 2007 now history, the votes that matter most have been cast: consumer spending dollars.

In that battle, it is Sony’s Blu-Ray Disc format that is emerging as the winner. For the 2007 holiday season, Blu-Ray Disc outsold HD-DVD by a two-to-one margin. At the CES, Sony’s reps and movie studio partners were saying that the war is pretty much over; it’s just a matter of time now.

By contrast, the Toshiba reps were saying, “It’s too early to cast HD-DVD aside.”

Considering the sales figures, however, and the fact that a Blu-Ray Disc holds 20 GB more information than the largest-capacity HD-DVD, whose reps sound more desperate? Hands down, Blu-Ray Disc is going to be the high-def format winner, thanks in large part to PlayStation 3 sales.

These aren’t your grandparents’ air purifiers wars, kids! This is for keeps!

Review: College Hoops 2K8 (PS3)

In basketball and in videogames, one thing remains true: the struggle to reach the top is nothing compared to the struggle to stay on top once you’ve reached that plateau. No one should understand this better than 2K Sports and the development team behind College Hoops 2K8.

Back when they were first relaunching their college hoops title, the king of the hill for college basketball games was EA Sports’ March Madness series. It took several years and a lot of critic’s picks hype, but College Hoops has clearly grown to become the college basketball game of record across most console platforms.

They’ve been on top, depending on who you talk to, for a couple-three seasons now, and the real challenge for them has become staying on the cutting edge and innovating enough that March Madness or some other title doesn’t come ‘round and overtake them again.

This year, 2K Sports put more time into revitalizing and refreshing the Legacy mode, which has been stagnant for the past couple outings as the developer focused on graphics improvements to bring the franchise into the next-gen era. That mostly accomplished, Legacy mode was overdue for a makeover and this year’s edition has received some much-needed attention.

Consider this, from a game play perspective, to be College Hoops’ real next-gen coming out party, and you can get the invites to the debutant bash from the same place you receive the first communion invitations. If you thought building a winning franchise was tough before, prepare for the next generation of legacy-building.

In the game, Legacy mode is still offered in two flavors. Open flavor will appeal to folks who just want to coach their favorite college team and nothing else; it allows you to take over any program you desire, often with the real-life coaches currently at those schools. Yes, that means Tubby Smith is now at Minnesota, rather than Kentucky, sports fans!

The other flavor of Legacy mode is Career, in which you start out as a young, inexperienced, less-skilled coach and your only option is to take on a bottom-rung school at an obscure conference where only by winning the conference tournament are you guaranteed a spot in the NCAA March Madness event, because your conference is so small that no other team, no matter their win-loss record, is going to get respect from the NCAA Selection Committee. As one remakes the fortunes of these obscure programs, other schools start taking notice.

After a minimum two-year stint at each stop along the way, you get a chance at the end of the season to take part in the coaching carousel. The better your teams finish each year, the more likely you’ll be invited to take over the program at a school in a more high-profile conference. Of course, it’s not always best to move up fast, since an optional game feature allows your coach to be fired for poor team performance, so if you move into a Big 10 or ACC job too soon, you might not be ready for the challenge and could get busted back down to the obscure ranks once again. Some folks may prefer to stay for a longer stretch at a smaller program where winning the NCAA March Madness tournament isn’t a yearly expectation, but perhaps only making the tournament is.

As always, scouting and recruiting are at the heart of this game, and that is where a large part of the redesign effort has been focused. Puffing out recruiting and scouting is a new mode, the ABL season. A real-life summer league made up of high school all-stars, in the game there are more than 100 ABL teams spread out across the nation and as a coach you can either sim past all this, attend the games, or even play them out.

The advantage to playing them out is that you earn extra points for recruiting functions once recruiting season starts, so there’s a real advantage to at least playing out some of these games, especially if you’re coach of a small school with a thin scouting budget to begin with.

Throughout the ABL season, you can choose to attend or play out as many or as few games as you wish, and target players. Based on your coaching skills after playing out each game, you’ll start to see some of the ratings for those players revealed; skilled coaches will see all the ratings revealed in fewer games; less skilled coaches will need more games to make those assessments.

About the only disappointment here is that once those skills are revealed, those are that player’s real, hard-coded stats. Unlike Wolverine Sports’ Draft Day Sports: College Basketball for PC, the stats are accurate, rather than skewed to the coach’s perspective. Seeing less-experienced coaches by a little off on their skills assessment of players, as in DDS:CB, would add a bit more realism to College Hoops 2K8.

There are many ways to utilize the ABL season, but for smaller school coaches especially, it’s usually best to focus on the ABL teams that are closer to their college; after all, how often is a player from Los Angeles going to take seriously a scholarship offer from Maine, if he’s drawing interest from UCLA, Kentucky and Duke? Not often.

Still, with this simple but depth-adding feature, 2K Sports has innovated in the area of college recruiting in a college basketball game, in a way that no other game has anticipated or pioneered before them. That’s how a top game in its category, like College Hoops 2K8, manages to stay on top.

On the PlayStation 3, the graphics are sharp as ever, though it’s clear that the team focused on game play this year, rather than graphics improvements. That works fine, though, since game play improvements were clearly the bigger area of need. This may be the last edition of the game in which the SixAxis controller is utilized exclusively, since Sony plans to launch the DualShock 3, with both rumble and six-axis motion sensitivity, early in 2008. That alone, if fully utilized in College Hoops 2K9, could make next year’s edition even better for controls. The utilization of motion-sensitivity remains scant and optional this season, just as it was last season.

The online mode is robust and friendly, making it easy to find game opponents, even though Sony’s network is still not as robust with traffic as Xbox Live; the delay of Sony’s Home interface may have something to do with that.

In the end, the improvements made to the Legacy mode transform that part of the game into an area of renewed interest, which is good since the Legacy mode is the heart of any offline play experience with the game. The result is that College Hoops 2K8 remains ahead of the injured and “headed for IR” March Madness franchise by a good distance, for now.

Review: Guitar Hero III (PS3)

Let me be up-front about something right away: I am a late-comer to the Guitar Hero phenomenon. How late, you ask? Well, Guitar Hero 3 for the PS3 is actually my first exposure to the title, in terms of owning it. I played some GH2 on PS2 in a videogame store a couple times before, and that was it.

So how am I qualified to comment on the third installment in the series? Simple. I’m approaching it as the first PlayStation 3 appearance of the franchise, and judging it on next-gen terms. Simple. And if ever you wanted to hook a game up to an HDTV, but were waiting because you lacked the proper HDMI switches, now’s the time to get that squared away, because this game looks quite a bit better in high-def.

A lot of the reviews I’ve read of GH3 have commented on the song list, critiquing the title for overlooking contributions by their favorite artists. I can understand that, but when the bulk of a review is spent grumbling about what I title doesn’t include rather than what is included, perhaps it’s time for a fresh perspective.

Now, I’m blessed. I was able to experience Guitar Hero 3 with the benefit of the Les Paul wireless guitar controller for PS3. Although it’s a bit on the smallish side, it has the look and build of a real guitar, which is completely kosher in my book.

Once I’d hooked everything up, I was pleased with how natural it was to find the PS button to turn both the controller and the PS3 on. The rest of the controls were easy to find as well, so long as I was just trying to start up the game.

After I began my adventure in the tutorial, though, I found that mastering the controls was a bit harder than expected. It wasn’t from a lack of orientation; it was more from a simple training of my brain to move the proper hand and fingers in response to the proper screen prompts. Initially I was making rookie mistakes like tapping the chord buttons and holding down the strum bar. By the time I was done with the tutorial, I had most of the initial kinks worked out.

It was a different story for my wife; when she adjusted to the game in the tutorial, her big hurdle was to avoid the temptation to strum with her right hand. As a person who plays some guitar, her muscle memory gravitates toward strumming constantly, but if you do that in GH3, you’re ending long notes early by initiating new strums. However, she also adjusted quickly.

My wife observed that the key to adjusting to the game is to think of it more like playing keyboards rather than playing guitar, and I found that analogy to be a good fit. Learning the game is a slow process and even after a trip through the tutorial, it’s easy to be overwhelmed in the early going, so that, for example, even when you have a long note, you’re initially hesitant to use the whammy bar because you need so much concentrating to make sure you’re not missing too many notes.

The game does have a decently deep song list to explore, a solid career mode with plenty of blister-inducing challenges and bosses to overcome, and an online component that adds value to the experience. When training up, I was quite grateful for limited-note, heavily-pattern-based songs to warm up with, like Foghat’s Slow Ride and Pat Benetar’s Hit Me With Your Best Shot.

Of course, the better songs are deeper into the game, and thankfully there are plenty of song packs adding to the total game experience, whether available separately, via download, or otherwise.

After several sessions playing the game, I am still a long way from being a Guitar Hero myself, but I am improving. And my wife, though she initially struggled a bit more than I did, has quickly learned how to string together impressive 40-plus consecutive note streaks without an error; I still max out at about 20 or so. But I’m working at it.

One feature I suspect is new to the series this time around is the “star power” ability that seems to take advantage of the PS3’s tilt sensitivity. When you hit certain note progressions without an error, you are granted Star Power in your Star Power meter. Once that’s filled up, all you have to do is tilt the neck of your guitar toward the sky and you enter Star Power mode where, so long as you keep hitting good notes, you have a chance to really rack up the points.

I suspect this feature was absent from earlier versions on PS2, since the tilt recognition may have been hard to utilize back then, unless they had wireless guitar controllers and a proprietary tilt recognition function built it. I could be wrong, but it just has the feel of a new feature for the next-gen title.

The online scoreboard and ranking are also nice features.

In the end, Guitar Hero III is an enjoyable and unexpectedly addictive addition to the still-young PS3 library. As the first PS3-native Guitar Hero title, GH3 comes out not only with the look of a rock-n-roll superstar, but the depth of talent to make sure it’s not a one-hit wonder.

Review: WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008 (PS3)

If at first you don’t succeed, try and try and try again.

That is the maxim that has built THQ’s WWE SmackDown vs. Raw into a winning wrestling game franchise. When the franchise first appeared after THQ outbid Acclaim several years ago – and initially appearing on the PSone platform – the game was a pale imitation of Acclaim’s game, which at the time was pretty impressive.

Times have changed, though. After two outings on PSone, about six outings on PS2 and now the company’s debut effort on PS3, WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008 is a smooth, slick, deep and detailed pro wrestling sim that gets better every year pretty much off the virtue of listening to user complains and responding to them with surprising flexibility.

This year, one of the main roster twists is that the game finally acknowledges the ECW brand. The show, which airs on SciFi, is now part of the game’s WWE schedule in 24/7 mode, and their superstars now part of the roster. Yet, like so many features that have become part of this game, there’s still work to be done to fully integrate ECW into SmackDown vs. Raw.

For one thing, you cannot play through Smackdown vs. Raw’s 24/7 mode (more on that in a bit) as an ECW superstar on the ECW broadcast. Perhaps that’s due to the far more detailed and varied storyline mode; the developers may not have had time to incorporate a complete set of ECW storylines into the mix, although that’s just a guess. At any rate, hopefully the 2009 edition will correct this oversight and fully integrate ECW into the mix, so that ECW stars and the ECW show are a complete and equal partner to the Raw and Smackdown brands.

One major change to the game this year is the complete elimination of two modes from the past two or three seasons; gone are both Manager Mode and Career Mode. Given the shortcomings of both these modes over the past 2-3 editions, that’s not a huge loss because what replaces it is a much more complete and comprehensive mode called WWE 24/7.

Named for their On-Demand PPV site, WWE 24/7 mode is the new storyline mode and it marks a big upgrade in gameplay and appeal. It marks the first time the game has offered gamers a chance to simulate more of a realistic schedule that WWE superstars have to fulfill, even though some niggling details are still overlooked.

In the mode, you either select an existing WWE star, or create one. Which brings up a great chance to mention the Create-a-Wrestler mode, as an aside. On PlayStation 3, the create a wrestler mode has finally become a refined and subtle tool for creating a realistic and convincing superstar to play as; gone are the days of uncustomizable, wacky, butt-ugly mods and in are a set of features, from head-to-toe, that look convincing. It is a noticable upgrade, especially when playing in 720p high definition. (Unfortunately, the PS3 version lacks a 1080p True HD mode this season … another area for improvement in the future.) Most of the costumes are solid, and do not consist of ridiculous things like baby clothes.

Anyway, if you select an existing WWE superstar, you’ll start out on the brand they were in when the roster was finalized; if you create a superstar, you can identify him with either Raw, SmackDown or ECW, but even if you select ECW, he won’t get to compete on that show, which is a shame.

If you begin as a created superstar, your first concern will be making the WWE roster, which means wrestling a set of Heat matches to show the GMs of SmackDown and Raw where your skill levels are; of course, this is tough, even in easy mode, because unless you’ve accumulated some upgrade first, most superstars you create will start out at a skill level of 36, competing against a roster of superstars ranking at skill levels of 70-95. That’s just tough.

Of course, over time, you can overcome this, but expect to lose a lot along the way.

The 24/7 mode has plenty of out-of-ring features as well as a wide variety of in-ring match types and challenges, and solid story variety. The mode is a true career mode that lasts several seasons and not just one. It is as well done as it has even been, and finally realizes some of the potential of what such a career-type mode ought to be.

One way in which the 24/7 mode could be improved is if THQ were to pay attention to the dialog and interaction system created by BioWare for Mass Effect; if a similar system were implemented for the storyline mode in SmackDown vs. Raw, it could offer gamers an even deeper level of immersion and a feeling they are affecting the course of their storyline.

The controls for this year are standardized across all platforms and on PS3 do not take advantage of the SixAxis’ motion sensitivity, which is a shame, especially since the Wii version does incorporate that – although the game is significantly different on Nintendo Wii.

The grappling system is less complex this year, and an all-new struggle and submission system adds some drama to those submission hold and escape maneuvers. The system is now pressure-based and responds on PS3 to how much pressure you apply to the control sticks – just don’t break ‘em, homey!

Graphically, the game is a step forward, especially in 720p, although the lack of a True HD 1080p mode on PS3 is a sore spot for Sony fans who want to get the most for their HD money, which is why many early adopters probably bought a PS3 instead of a 360. Still, the game has a long way to go to achieve next-gen refinement; next to a true masterpiece like Mass Effect, the graphics still have quite a way to grow.

SmackDown vs. Raw, over the years, has overcome many obstacles. When THQ first took over the WWE license, the company was determined to do a different style of wrestling videogame for each hardware platform. Some of us still remember WWE Raw for the original Xbox, WWE Royal Rumble for Dreamcast and WWE WrestleMania for the N64.

Yet with most of those games, a more arcade style of game play predominated and eventually it was the sim-style of SmackDown vs. Raw the proved most popular with wrestling fans, leading to THQ eventually narrowing the franchise to one game appearing on all platforms.

While THQ’s stewardship of the WWE license was shaky at best for the first four or five years, the company has really grown into its role as a group passionate about capturing a true-to-WWE experience for fans, even if they have a prominent and annoying habit of releasing modes and features that are, at best, works in progress.

However, in the end, THQ has proven adept at continual improvement or, as Vincent Kennedy McMahon might term it, ruthless aggression. The ECW element of the game, as well as the lack of 1080p resolution on PS3, are the most obvious examples of this, this season. But as time has proven, we can now count on THQ to come back next year with noticeable improvements to these shortcomings, as well as a handful of new ideas that, likewise, will be rough and in need of refinement.

And so it goes.

Review: Folklore (PS3)

Billed by Sony as “the next generation in dark fantasy games,” Folklore, like so many action platformer games, tried to bill itself as an action RPG but the truth is the game more honestly has more in common with Rachet and Clank than it does with Final Fantasy XII. Although filled with gorgeously detailed graphics, the designers sometimes went overboard in artistry and didn’t think enough about legibility for game elements like the bits of dialog that have to be read on-screen instead of being spoken.

The game has two playable characters, a young blonde girl named Ellen, and an older male character, a journalist named Keats. Both end up traveling to Doolin, Ireland and entering a dark fantasy world where they must fight individually, and ultimately together, to survive in a world filled with monsters known as Folk.

Sounds a bit more intriguing than it becomes in execution, however. The unique gameplay element is supposedly how you defeat monsters using the motion-sensing SixAxis controller. Basically, after beating them down to where they are stunned, you rip their souls out of their bodies by … waving the SixAxis up and down. A lot. Not as innovative as it sounds, and it grows kind of boring and repetitive, fairly early on.

The story is somewhat interesting; Ellen is searching for her dead mother, which draws to mind the plot set-up of Silent Hill 2, while Keats is tracking down a lead springing from a call by a mysterious woman. While such is the stuff true dark fantasies like Silent Hill are made of, Folklore is far less dark, belonging more to the world of Papa Smurf than to the living dead. And while it’s a nice framing sequence, the story just isn’t all that deep or intriguing once they toss you into the game itself.

As for depth, there are over 100 creatures to encounter in the game, which plays out over seven different realms. The real problem is repetition and tedium; once the novelty of the game’s battle system wears off – which happens quickly – you are able to step back and realize just how simplistic the combat actually is, which destroys the charm. There is also not much in the way of minigames, such as Mizuno golf or fishing or anything like that, which keeps the focus too much on the maps and areas which respawn enemies at a rather annoying rate of frequency.

It’s too bad some of the lovely graphics are adorning such a gameplay- and story-lacking package. The look of the game itself is well done if a bit polished and idealisitic, but it gives one a solid idea of what can graphically be achieved on the PlayStation 3. While I’m certainly awaiting even better examples, like White Knight Story, Silent Hill 5, and Final Fantasy XIII, Folklore is at least an eye-catching showpiece.

Unfortunately for gamers, it’s not much more than that.

Review: Transformers The Game (PS3)

With a team like Stephen Spielberg and Michael Bay combining their efforts, Transformers: The Movie was supposed to be the event action movie of the summer. While it did OK at the box office, however, other films from Spider-Man 3 to Live Free or Die Hard to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix all made similar or better impacts. Still, the Transformers franchise would be a lead-pipe cinch to do well on videogame consoles, right? Well, that depends on how the game is carried off.

First, it ought to be said that developer Traveler’s Tales had a good pedigree coming into the game. As the developer behind Lego Star Wars and a Chronicles of Narnia game, among others, they know their way around action games, though their experience has been in games that skew just a bit younger.

The graphics show that the developer is ready for more than just Lego games based on LucasFilm franchises, though. While not quite measuring up to the top PlayStation 3 titles on the market, the graphics are a step above PlayStation 2; call it PlayStation 2.5-level graphics. While short of the near-photorealism the PS3 is capable of and a noticeable step down from the movie, Transformers The Game does look sharp and the smoothness and speed of the animations that display transforming characters from vehicle to robot are a nice achievement. They don’t get in the way of the action and yet contain an impressive amount of detail.

Like the movie, the film centers around the battle between good robots and evil robots, which has spilled over to Earth as the two sides search for the AllSpark. The AllSpark is the life force for all Transformers, so naturally they want it back. Of course, the plot is more of a window dressing to this loud, exploding, event-packed action game that keeps a gamer on their toes … for as long as it lasts.

One of the game’s strengths is its destructible environments, which are on full display on the PS3 version of the game. Nearly anything can be “blowed up real good,” which makes the settings for each chapter a lot of fun to play around in and destroy. Not that that really advances the game, but can be the source of some sadly sadistic fun for a while once the paper-thin plot begins to wear thin; those who love to test the limits of “what can I and can’t I do in this game” when they play videogames will find plenty to enjoy here.

However, ultimately the game is cut low by its relatively brief length. There’s a wide universe to explore in the Transformers franchise, but so much is left unexplored by this game it should have land for sale signs posted all around. By action game standards, it’s probably not too bad, but at $60 a pop for PS3 titles, it might seem a bit of a flirt-and-flee affair. What is present in the game is fun, but in the end a lack of significant length or depth may leave most gamers feeling unsatisfied, especially by the rather simplistic combat system, which could have been so much deeper. Optimus Prime out!

Review: NBA 06 for PS3

One of the weaknesses of Sony’s NBA 06 for PlayStation 3 is the lack of roster accuracy. I always use the team I know best – the Minnesota Timberwolves – as a gauge of the desired roster accuracy. This season, that is an approach that is particularly effective, because of all the all-season changes to the Wolves’ roster.

There was, among other things, a complex 7-for-1 deal that sent franchise player Kevin Garnett to Boston in exchange for five players and two draft picks, off-season moves involving buying out the contract of Troy Hudson, trading Mike James to Houston for Juwan Howard, and the drafting of Corey Brewer.

NBA 08 for PS3 fails on at least two counts with Minnesota Timberwolves roster accuracy. Even after downloading the latest roster update from the PS3 Network, top draft pick Brewer is completely MIA in the game. Also, Hudson is still on the roster. The presence of Hudson might be forgivable, but considering Brewer was the number seven overall draft pick this summer, his omission is simply unforgivable from a roster accuracy standpoint. I searched other teams’ rosters and even the free agent wire and he’s simply not there. Intolerable!

From a game mode standpoint, Sony stubbornly refuses to add a franchise or dynasty mode to the game, meaning a single 82-game season with playoffs is all you get. This makes the inaccurate rosters even more objectionable. It also renders trades essentially meaningless because you can essentially stack a team to be good for one season and never have to worry about the long term good of the franchise. Refusing to offer a great franchise most is a pet peeve of mine and renders the game about as useless to me as if they included something ridiculous, like, oh, say, a shopping mode where you could buy golf apparel ladies and men enjoy.

Another disappointment is the player models. While Sony boasts NBA 08 is optimized for 1080p “True HD” display, the level of the graphics is still not where one might expect it to be, which lends the sense that if 2K Sports or even a “lousy at hoops titles” EA Sports ever got their act together, they could really blow NBA ’08 out of the water.

Speaking of modes, the storytelling mode the company has experimented with the past two seasons, “The Life,” is replaced this season with a feature called “Game of the Week,” which actually pulls you out of your immersion in the franchise you’re choosing to run for a season.

All these objections stated, there are several good features in NBA ’08. It offers a wide variety of online play options, for example, although during my time playtesting the game, I was unable to find a single online opponent, even once, with all the filters turned off! Granted, I received the review copy a bit early, but this was a huge disappointment and limited my ability to fully evaluate how the game played online.

The graphics are nice in 1080p, even if they still feel a bit too videogamey. I’d love to see a company serious about sports game graphics embrace 1080p and really rock my world with a near-photographic realism approach to an NBA game.

The controls work well in traditional mode, but the SixAxis motion controls were nothing to write home about. The sound work was fine, though lacking any real star power. And the music catalog was severely limited. I’d still love to see some sports game designer truly take advantage of the PS3 hard drive and allow you to import your own .mp3 collection into a sports game. I’d love to crash the boards to the sounds of Evanescence. Haven’t found it yet; if it’s here, I’m missing it.

The stat-tracking is minimal and ultimately, the strongest point to NBA 06 is the challenge level of the game. Sony does a good job of making opponents solid, not just videogame wireframes you can slip past easily to perform monster dunks.

Defense is palpable in the game and even on the easiest mode, the game AI will challenge you unless you have a couple great three-point shooters on your team and you’re skilled at hitting the money-wedge on the shot meter for those outside shots. But go up in game AI skill level and even that won’t be a help, since you’ll actually be challenged to play smart basketball and take wise shots.

So, once you’re on the court, NBA ’06 actually plays pretty well. But when it comes to the details, the devil’s having his way with Sony, ruining a game that, if it were more accurate, had more and deeper modes and an active online community of devotees, could be a whole lot better than it is. For now, it’s a solid choice for casual game players, but not my pick of the season for dedicated NBA fans.