Okay, kinda bored, kinda broke. So I dig out the already paid for titles to play, mostly shooters.

I played through Killzone 2 and enjoyed it quite a bit though I have been through it four or so times now completely and who knows how many of the scenarios I really enjoyed that I shot over and over again. Okay, so I got killed a lot and had to play them to get through. Don't be a spoilsport. I am really looking forward to Killzone 3 when it is released though I don't have a 3D LED flat screen to take full advantage of its technology.

I played Resistance and Resistance 2, often revisiting sequences and shooting them again and again, trying out different tactics and weapons choices. Along the way I noticed something of interest to me, if no one else. I really enjoy playing Resistance 1 more than Resistance 2. Hey, 2 has better art, has a somewhat more developed story-line, so based on what I usually enjoy in life, I really should like Resistance 2 much more than Resistance 1. But nope. I enjoyed shooting my way through 1 quite a bit more than 2. Maybe because of the weapons limit? Maybe because the shooting sequences were more immersive to me? Dunno.

Started playing MetalGearSolid 4. God I hate that game. Yeah, sadly it has the some of the best game play around. And as a wannabe author, I am all for story-line, character development with multifaceted individuals where possible. And I understand I came into this series at the tail end. But good grief, Charlie Brown, put a sack over your head! MGS4 has to be the most lamebrain insult to the intelligence I have run across since watching the Gong Show a few decades back.

Yes the game play is fantastic. When you get some. Four, five or even six cut scenes with 'saves' in the middle? Give me an effing break. The stealth is good, the shooting is fun, the opponents are okay, though I hate the Vamp sequence. What is it with this character? Gay Ballet Dancer or Seriously Immortal Killer? Make up your mind? Or whatever. Actually a Gay Immortal Killer sounds knd of interesting. But this ain't it.

I love playing the sequence with the four howling banshees. The one in the snow is the best, though the puppet mistress isn't bad either. I find it amazing to enjoy something and detest it so much at the same time. Kinda mental, I guess.

Currently I have Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 2 on my system. Stretched out, controller in hand, coffee cup on the table beside the couch, so you can call me Grandpa 'tater. I am enjoying spudding out with the game. I read that it has stirred some controversy due to the Russian Airport sequence. What airport would be considered PC to shoot up the passengers in? Oh, none? What sort of shooter do they want where you can't shoot people? It does make sense in the plot of the story. And I like the moral delimma. I get queasy when I play it through. I start out only shooting dead guys and the occasional luggage cart or rack of magazines. But pretty soon I am offing some poor innocent that is obviously in pain. Hey, they put animals out of their misery, right?

Then the security and cops show up and start shooting back. Then it gets easier, even if they are on the same side as the character you are playing and should thus cause similar moral distress. But they don't. Pretty quick I'm picking the cops off, knocking down the guys with the riot shields, make the end sweep so I can get tactical advantage on them and taking them down by the row. Pretty cool, only to get 150 grains of lead in the brain for my enthusiasm.

And I will have to dig up Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and play it out to see which of the two I like the best.

Stuff I have I don't bother playing again: Orange Box for one, dunno why this left me kinda bored. Played only one game on it and don't think I bothered finishing it. Hmm. It gathers dust even when I am broke and want to play something I haven't shot my way through, which it qualifies for.

Farcry 2, give me a break. Liked some of the ideas, the weapons stashes, the contracts on different guys. Maybe a little two dimensional, but it was okay. But I remember finishing it with a sour taste in my mouth. I played it again once or twice and finally decided it really doesn't deserve space on my shelf.

Army of Two. Wimpy, pathetic and the only thing rough and tough in the game is the language. Geeze, if you have to resort to sounding like a bad stand up comic to make your characters sound tough, you need to be doing something besides developing games.

Okay, that's it for today. Tomorrow I'll pick up the controller, get my butt kicked on MW2 and see what else is getting dusty on my shelf.

Okay, my previous blog was about the lamentable amount of Fan Service (gratuitiously sexy females) in PS3 games. And my scathing review of MGS4 (Metal Gears Solid 4)for its extensive use of cut scenes kind of makes me appear a rather myopic PS3 player, or at least one with blinders, particularly when it comes to MGS4.

Well, dang it, for sure, and it does! One of the nice things about MGS4 is the game play, quite excellent for the most part(give me a break with the fist de cuffs on top of the nuclear submarine), but when fighting with the Beauty and the Beast Corps, there is also some pretty appealling visuals and each of the cyborg girls (with long tails of woe from PTSD) usually try a "get close and intimate" number with Snake so they can finish him off just before he kills them.

Two other characters, Big Mama and Naomi, are drawn with some sex appeal too. So, while I whine about the the long and intrusive cutscenes that labor on and on about the history of the conflict, doing extremely little to advance the plot, and instead become some sort of onanistic orgy of fiction writing/story tellingthat wouldn't get past a beginner's writing class, the women are attractively drawn, though not full on fan service, but moving well in that direction. There is one "cheat" that lets at least one of the women of the Beauty and the Beast Corps to straddle Snake while he is laying on his back. A nice little visual as they drain his life. Works for me on a couple of levels, maybe be a metaphoric visual for dominant women draining the life of submissive men, but maybe they didn't mean that at all. Just food for thought after you lay down your controller, eh?

So I will still be looking for some risque titles on the PS3, but that offer some immersing game play.

And a seperate issue, I finished playing through Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction a few times and found it to be more fun than I initially did when I first threw it in the console and gave it a spin. I let it sit for a week or two, when finally, poverty and boredom drove me to play it just to pass the time. After a bit, I realized I was enjoying myself. And occasional bits of humor that work pretty well. Good enough to get me to put subsequent titles of the serieson my "to buy" list when I get a few extra coins to rub together.

I like shooters and action games much more than strategy/role playing stuff. I love good graphics including anime and so forth. But the women in many games are simply pathetic. The only really enjoyable game with something resembling some "fan service" (gratuitously visual female characters) would be Heavenly Sword, and there is done with such style and understatement that it really is hard to call the characters Naruko and Kai "fan service". But they are plenty easy to look at.

Now take inFamous. Fun game and everyone looks like they came out of Eddie Bauer (Eddie BowWow to the locals) catalog. Since part of the production was done in Seattle, apparently they took that city's dress code on a very brisk day and made everyone except the bad guys dress to it. And there were zero cuties. Even Trish, the major hearthrob/heartbreak of the protoganist was done very so so. Note So-so means kinda average, not great, barely good, if that. Okay, there is one woman that wears something skin tight. Sasha the crazed bad girl gone way way over the edge. She was a touch of fan service, as was the person voicing her. Yeah, she had a tongue like Vampire Squid (Hey they really exist!) but the rest of the package is okay and she doesn't dress like a soccer mom.

So now I'm hunting games that are playable and feature something nice to look at the same time. It doesn't have to be the dreaded "H" since almost any PC is a better platform for something on those lines. Bu I don't mean High School Musical or American Idol either, though you can adjust their costumes to make some of those singers a bit more interesting. About all I've seen is offered is Wet. Okay, there is probably Laura Croft vaulting around too, so I guess I could invest a bit in Tomb Raider: Underworld. So I will probably spring for Wet in the future, though some of the screen captures make Laura look interesting, particularly in her high cut outfit.

I remember seeing another game with barely clothed cheerleaders that were some sort of hit squad, but when I looked up the ratings on it a few months back, it was rated "pathetic" or something like that, in the 5's or low 6's. So as it stands now, if you want something cute to look at and some quality console time, it's Heavenly Sword.

Does Sony think they are really selling all those playstations to girls? They have some sort of wanna-be fixation on Wii? Oh well, if anyone has some suggestions for eye candy fan service and playable, let me know please. It is a wasteland, or better said, a void in the Playstation Universe as far as I am concerned.

I enjoy playing the PS3 and I rely on reviews when buying games, simply because I have limited funds and there is no rental or reselling where I live. So each time I buy, it will sit on my shelf for month and months to come. In general, I have found the critics to be pretty good, except when it comes to Metal Gear Solid. You can see my review for why, but if you are a buff of the series don't bother, I know why you like it and that is fine. It just doesn't fly for a gamer looking for some game play, not half a dozen cut scenes to wade through. And I learned from it.

Okay, what I am really whining about is when I started writing my own reviews here and assigning numerical ratings, particularly the numbers. I rated Resistance (the original) as 8.5 and I did the same for Uncharted: Drakes Fortune. Both got the same numerical rating and, honestly, I enjoyed playing both very much. So far so good. But I went back and replayed parts of Resistance many times, something I didn't do with Uncharted. And that makes the money I spent and the enjoyment of the game greater, in my book.

So perhaps I should bump Resistance up to a 9? But I have 9/9.5/10 as choices for the very best games. Sometimes the storyline and artwork will get me going, sometimes the intrigue and problem solving are so well balanced I am called back time and time again, sometimes it is just the fighting, maybe weapon choices, maybe just tactics and strategy, but I play and replay mission again and again. I save the high ratings for those . And I haven't found a reliable way to assign those numbers. I feel if I assign lower numbers, the game may never get played, if I assign high numbers, it doesn't allow for signifying any real differnces.

I found my time and money better spent on Resitance, but Uncharted was a worthwhile purchase and time well spent gaming. I need to sort that thing out. So I may edit my reviews from time to time as I play more games and, more importantly, think about rating them. I need to develop a more systematic way for assigning numbers to games. If you see one of my game reviews go up or down numerically, it's just me working out a bit of angst.