Games games games!

So, the last PS3 game I bought was Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood back in about April. Nothing comes out that takes my fancy for 7 months then bam, AC: Revelations, Saints Row 3 and WWE'12 come out all within like 2 weeks of each other. Assassin's Creed should be arriving tonight or tomorrow but I might just not touch it for a while. A few of my friends are getting Saints Row so I'll probably play that for a few weeks doing online co-op or something, then give WWE'12 a bash, last year I got about 4 months of playing out of that game before I got fed up with it.

Once I'm done with WWE'12 I'll move onto Assassin's Creed then when I mastered that I'll get Arkham City and rinse through that hopefully in time for next year's Assassin's Creed edition, they seem to crank out an AC game every year.

If only I didn't have to work...

I'm waiting for my girlfriend to get her inheritance money (her dad kicked the bucket a few months ago) so I can get a new laptop, then I'll be getting Skyrim. I've also started playing DC Universe Online again as it's gone free to play. I can only play it with the lowest detail settings on my current laptop, which sucks a bit. I'm still quite surprised that I could play Skyrim on medium detail on my current laptop if I wanted to. I don't though, so I'll be waiting for my new (custom built) laptop so I can crank it and DCUO up to high detail.

Get a Macbook! I've almost had one for almost a year and it's brilliant, still as quick as the day I bought it

I'd echo the love for all things Apple. I virtually have an entire orchard these days, and there is no way in hell I'd go back to owning PC products now.

Know what you mean about games though Jordan. Always a lot released this time of year. Glad a few like Forza and Gears 3 were released earlier than normal.

Quite honestly, Sonic Generations shouldn't be overlooked when putting together a list of greatest games of the season, either.

The fact that it's a glorious return to Sonic The Hedgehog making a game worthy of an 8 1/2 out of 10 or higher, at long last, as well as heralding his comeback to gaming relevancy once again, is pretty astounding, really.

It's one of the games well worth playing and not passing over this season, as well.

Truth be told, while I enjoyed Arkham City a lot, and have been waiting for WWE '12 with baited breath and intense anticipation... Sonic Generations has been the game for me, that has brought back my smile, again.

More than any other game, Sonic Generations is just pure happiness. My reaction was basically this:

A few mini-reviews:

Arkham City. A very good game, but for me not quite as enjoyable as the original Arkham Asylum. I personally thought the claustrophobic nature of the original game was more suited to the style of play than the sandbox open world in this one. But it's not like the new game is bad. It looks excellent, it plays well (though some button combos are confusing in the middle of a fight) and while the story perhaps crams too much in, I works overall. Recommended, as they are still just about the only superhero games worth playing (X-Men Origins: Wolverine aside).

Gears of War 3. Like all Gears games, this is visually stunning. It's one of the best looking games you will ever see on the 360, and the presentation alone really sells the idea of an epic conclusion to the story. In terms of playability, it's familiar if you have played the others, but that's no bad thing as the othe games were great to play. For me, Gears always succeeded where the likes of COD fail in providing an intense battle without making the whole thing so panicked you cant tell what the hell is going on. If there is a complaint, it's that the single player game is too short, but God it's good while it lasts.

Forza Motorsport 4. This is, without doubt, the best racing game in the world. It frankly blows GT5 into oblivion. It's visually stunning, it's much much much more fun to play than GT5, it has a customisation suite that is almost limitless whether you are a gear head into technical tuning or someone into creating custom paint jobs. It has intense racing with realistic and intense driver AI, it had great tracks and an amazing range of cars, and it has FAR better integration of the TopGear test track. Its nigh on perfect. If you own a 360 and don't own this, you are missing out the best your console can offer.

Arkham Asylum is a classic, I just aced story mode a few days ago, it's a cracking game. The riddles, trophies and smashable teeth give it a lot of extra life too, and the fact you can get maps which show the rough location of goodies is good as it means you don't have to look at guides (I had to do on a few of the riddles where you have to align the question marks). For a tenner it's an absolute steal.

Since I havent played it I can't say anything about Saint's Row 3 but going by the 2nd one I'd say this is pretty unmissable if you like GTA style games. It's just like an OTT version of San Andreas. All the little mini games of the second meant you could play it for weeks. The graphics are good, controls take a little time to get used to but a spot on game nevertheless. Also, the customisation options for cars, safehouses, your own character etc. is pretty wide and the facial morphing options rivals WWE CAW modes. Judging from the Youtube video of the first mission where you jump out of a plane shooting people on your way down I got to say I'm ready for a few weeks of hibernation with this game.

Assassin's Creed, I'm not sure how innovative the new game will be, but regardless it's got a good storyline, good gameplay, nice graphics and the previous two have been really good (first one was good but nothing special) and I always feel motivated to go for 100% in these games. My copy should be being delivered today but no one's there to sign for it so looks like I'll have to pick it up from the post office on Friday morning.

I bought either the first or second Saints Row game, played it for about 2 hours, and never put it back in the 360 again. I hated it, and I loved GTAIV. But then, I didn't like San Andreas or Vice City.

I'm all about Skyrim for the moment. After Xmas I'll pick up Arkham and then WWE12 in that order. Then it's DMC next I think.

So Saint's Row 3 came through on Thursday and I've been playing it constantly since. Here's some thoughts on it.

I'd say I'm about a third of the way through, TBH it's not as amazing as I thought it would be. It's still a really fun, open sandbox game with loads of features and mini games, the same formula as the last game but with a more limited customisability. It's back to San Andreas style "upper body clothes/lower body clothes" instead of different options for vest, shirt, jacket etc. Car customisation is as good as SR2... not too technical, but enough to make nice looking, nice sounding cars. If you want a game with options, this is your game. You can even pick your own taunts and compliments, including "The Marine" which is John Cena's "you can't see me" hand gesture.

Story wise I will admit, it is everywhere. I hardly know what's going on myself, but TBH Saint's Row isn't about a killer story with well developed characters. It's completely over the top insanity that makes no sense and, if you're me, gets you falling about laughing. My only complaint about the story mode is that Johnny Gat, your old run in buddy from Saint's Row 1 isn't here. The un-named main character and Gat provided brilliant comedic moments of absolute psychopathery. This is one of the main reasons I like the game so much. The rest of the plot, while a bit thin, is still loaded with funny characters, including a wrestling trainer called Angel voiced by the immortal Hulk Hogan, a pimp you have to rescue from the dungeon of his own sex club, a socially retarded FBI agent/hacker, and a gang called the Luchadores, who don Mexican wrestling masks. Something else cool about the plot is that you have decisions to make on how the story is affected, like the first one is, after you've laid waste to everyone in this skyscraper, do you blow the thing to pieces or save it as your new base. The choice is yours.

Music wise, the games achieves average. It's got a diverse playlist including a heavy metal station, a house station, reggaeton, a talk show and an 80's channel too, with more. I haven't listened to much of the radio, but on the whole there's something for everyone.

I spent yesterday playing co-op online with my friend. There's no competitive multiplayer, just co-op compaign but it loads seamlessly into your own game and I didn't experience any lag. I was really impressed with the online.

In conclusion -- if you're looking for a sandbox game similar to San Andreas then this would be your game. OTT, unrealistic, psychopathic one-man-army missions, customisation, fun, great sense of humour, wrestling references. The game would have been better if Gat was in it for longer but I guess you can't always get what you want.

But if you try hard, sometimes, you might find, you get what you need...