Well, finally decided to go the way of several other Dtoiders as of late and pick up a PS3. I was planning on waiting until the MGS4 bundle so I could not only get everything I wanted in one package, but also backwards compatibility. There were two reasons I decided not to wait. 1) My tax return and economic stimulus money came in at the same time and left me with a chunk of money larger than my paycheck burning a hole in my pocket. 2) I decided that backwards compatibility wasn't as much of an issue for me, as I have tried playing PS2 games on my roommate's 61" TV through component and found it to be a little too big. My PS2 games just seem to look better when played on my 37" Sony Trinitron that sits in my bedroom, and that's fine with me.

So I dropped some bills and got the 40gig PS3 along with Uncharted and, because I just had to buy it for the fourth fucking time, Ninja Gaiden Sigma. I just managed to plow through Uncharted by last night, and it mostly lived up to the good things I'd heard. After playing GTAIV, the gunplay was definitely a little disappointing, but I think it has to do with the better physics engine of the latest jaunt through Liberty City. There were time's in Drake's adventure that I felt I was skating around in a world greased with butter, and the way the enemies moved was unnatural and frankly, kind of retarded. I was not expecting third world mercenaries to dance around like marionettes, but that is what they appeared to do. Overall the gunplay was just too fast and loose for my tastes, but the cover system worked reasonably well, and despite the cracked out animations and unsettling accuracy, the enemy AI was at least decent in the "flanking the fuck out of you and tossing well-placed grenades" sense.

The story was sparse in the beginning, but did seem to flesh out towards the end, and despite the supernatural "twist" (which didn't bother me that much since it had already been spoiled for me) was about as satisfying as any Indiana Jones movie. In fact, I daresay that playing through this game has made me much more excited about the new Indiana Jones movie coming out this month.

I've been putting off playing Ninja Gaiden Sigma, and decided to be a complete sucker and pick up Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, also know as GLORIFED DEMO THAT WE ARE CHARGING AN UNREASONABLE PRICE FOR. After a download and installation that took too fucking long, I got my chance to see what all the hype was about. I honestly have not played a GT game since the very first on my original Playstation, but I think the experience may have been ruined for me by Forza and Forza 2. I prefer the physics engine and damage modeling in those games, but I'll be damned if I didn't spend every race in GT5 Prologue with a smile on my face because of how pretty the game looked from the steering wheel camera. I'm really excited for the full game because of real time damage modeling, and my hope for GT5 rests on 1) actual damage modeling, and not, LOL your tires wear in real time, and 2) that those of us that boned up and paid the 40 bucks will get some sort of discount code so as to avoid paying 100 god damn dollars for the full version of the game.

Anyway, I realize that probably seemed pretty critical, but overall I have been pretty satisfied with my purchase, and with Metal Gear Solid 4 on the horizon I have a feeling it will be well worth it. If you want to add me as a friend and invite me into your online gaming fold, go ahead. My PSN id is PadreChester (curse you PSN for not allowing spaces!) and I imagine that I will be picking up Unreal Tournament in the near future, if only for the oddity of being able to play with a Master Chief skin on my PS3.