and ruxpin comes up for air

Well. So much to play, so little time to write about it. That's a problem I can live with.

At the bare-bones level, let me just note in passing those games gobbling the most time of late. Others on the list have impressed, but the proof is in the pudding, and here pudding equals time spent playing. To whit:

Unreal Tournament 3. There is only one. Even if the recent patch wiped out all my custom mod levels. I'll download them & reinstall a million times if you make me, you beautiful game! Man, I'm a terrible shot though.

Burnout Paradise. I'm surprised at how much I have been playing this. And sucking miserably. But fun, more so than anticipated.

Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds. Fun, but a pain that you have to unlock the six courses through hours and HOURS of tedious replay. For $59 you should be able to play all the courses out of the box. And don't get me started on there only being SIX courses! But the game is slick fun, the new Advanced Shot option is okay after the first curse-filled game. It's not the HD showpiece I expected but it is a pretty, almost Nintendo-esque escape.

Virtua Fighter 5. Because beating the snot out of each other is awesome.

Toy Home. All praise the extra content on PSN. Finally I can pick & play whatever level I want, whenever I want! Now I'm bored.

Time Crisis 4. As I affixed Post-it brand removable cable hooks all over my HDTV, to secure Guncon 3 sensors around the screen so I could calibrate my rifle, I did have a brief fleeting moment of lucid horror at how deeply down the rabbit hole I've gone. Once I read books, went outdoors, experienced sunlight. Now I hunt bad guys in the dark. But then I shot a bunch of terrorists with my machine guns at the TC4 airport and felt MUCH better.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. I let jMo play this one a bit ahead of me and never got around to really starting this one. This weekend I finally sat down and played about 2 hours. Corny, yes. Raiders of the Lost Ark, Romancing the Stone? Guilty as charged. Lush and jaw-droppingly gorgeous with every frame? Pretty much. This kind of 3rd person perspective shooter is not typically my bag (no Max Payne fans are we) but here it works. The puzzles between firefights keep things interesting, and the transitions to movie interludes are as seamless as I've seen in a video game. It's worth a rental at the very least.

Skate is actually pretty darn impressive. I think I may prefer this interface to Tony Hawk and his legion of games. (BTW, love the hoverboards in UT3. It's approaching my dream game, where you shoot folks from your skateboard and then hop in a car and shoot other cars. with Plinko in the bonus round.)

flOw on the PSP has proven to be a treat, too. I do find it laggy though. I imagine I'll rediscover the PSP more, now that I'll be traveling for work more and separately from the PS3 mothership so frequently.

That is all. For now. More later!