PS3

So, some news: I got engaged to my beautiful girl, which totally kicks ass! While this, in and of itself, is totally fantastic, I also got a bit of a bonus out of it too. She felt a bit of engagement ring guilt - not that it was insanely expensive or anything, but it still set me back a few bob - so to assuage that guilt she bought me a new PS3 Slim! Best. Fiance. Ever.

Not that it was a totally selfless act, seeing as she also purchased Guitar Hero World Tour which she's been wanting to play for ages. We've both been having a lot of fun playing it, me on the guitar and her on the drums. It took a while for my fingers to listen to what my eyes and brain were trying to tell them, but I'm now at the point where I can play most songs on Hard. Expert still destroys me, however. Favourite song to play? Hotel California.

She also grabbed Killzone 2 as part of a preorder deal. I blitzed through that in a few weeks, I really enjoyed it. It's the first console FPS I've played, and being a long time PC FPS player it took me a while to get the hang of the dual analogue control. As a game, there was nothing particularly innovative or original about it. It pretty much ticked all of the standard FPS boxes, but the sheer amount of polish and fine tuning that the game displayed was incredible. It really goes to show what a studio can do when they have the backing of the console parent company, and money and time is no obstacle.

I also picked up The Ultimate Megadrive Collection second hand from EB. I haven't delved too much into it yet, but it's been fun to have a quick bash on the Sonic games. I also played through Comix Zone, which I had never played before. It was charmingly repetitive and straightforward, as a lot of retro games can be, but it showed a lot of artistry and some new ideas. Thank God that the collection allows you to save at any point, though, as otherwise I would have had no chance completing it. All these new games with their multiple save points and quick saves has made me soft, I tell you!

The high point of my PS3 experience so far, however, has been Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. I picked this up a couple of weeks ago, and I finished it a few days ago. The fact that as soon as the end credits finished rolling, I went straight back to the menu and started up a new game on Hard should tell you how much I enjoyed the game. The game is just so much fun! The whole package just appeals to my sensibilities. Amazing, lush graphics? Check. Classic rollercoaster ride adventure story? Check. Genuinely good dialogue and cutscenes? Check. Very nearly perfect controls? Check. A whole bunch of other awesome things? Check. The only thing I didn't really like about it was the "zombie" sections near the end of the game. After 16 or 17 chapters of playing against reasonably intelligent human AI enemies, to all of a sudden be pitted against typical "run at the player blindly" enemies felt a bit disappointing. I tolerated these sections rather than enjoyed them.

Based on my new found love of Uncharted, needless to say I am totally amped about Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. I've been playing the multiplayer beta, and it's fantastic. I didn't want to commit too much time to the beta though, as any rewards and stats you've built up don't carry over to the full game.

In summary, the PS3 is like a magical black box of wonder and joy filled with electronic lollies and sparkles that I consume with my heart.