Assassin's Creed for the following:

• Pointless "sci-fi" story
• Same tricks in all cities/situations
• Same dialogue ditto
• Same tasks ditto
• Someone shoot that bloody crow that keeps screaming

mgs4

gta4

uncharted

motorstorm

ratchet

burnout paradise

warhawk

resistance

ND_basic

OK, you like action games but you're not looking ad Call of Duty?

Umm. That's, like, the absolute best action game around

From your selection I'm wondering who's selling you the games so you can only afford 2? 2nd hand you can pick Motorstorm up for next to nothing, especially now it's coming out in the "platinum" range. Same with uncharted (which is, frankly, the most fun you'll have with an adventure/shooter/interactive blast).

GTA IV, yeah, it's very good and all but the quality of the graphics on an HD setup is rubbish compared to MGS4 and MGS is a lot more fun.

Burnout? Impressive adn pretty good fun, new multiplayer stuff looks good but I got rid of mine after a few weeks as I got bored travelling for ever to get back to the race I was trying to beat. Things like that ruined it. I'd wait for the 2nd hand price to drop further if I were you.

Ratchet & Clank? Whoa, you like platformers and having a blast running around with silly weapons then get this. R&C is just fun fun fun from start to finish.

Warhawk. Yeah, this is a good game BUT!!!! Unless you put the time in you are going to get your arse kicked around and handed to you on a plate by everyone else who's been playing it for ever. The upgrades in PSN give you some practice modes but it's all extra money.

Resistance is a good shooter. MGS is better. COD is best of all.

Hope this helps but I would say work on a budget, not on a number of titles.

I am totally unsure which of the consoles to go for.

 Right now, I am leaning towards the PS3 (and I'm not a particular fanboy for Sony). The reasons are (1) Blu-Ray and (2) Potential for better games.

But, right now, the 360 appears to offer a better experience. It wold seem that Xbox Live is better than Sony's live service and the selection of games is superior.

It seems to me, however, that time may well give us superior gaming on the PS3, once someone figures out how to exploit the power and the sixaxis.

So, if you had the choice and price didn't come into it (but you could only choose one - and you wouldn't be able to by the other in the forseeable future) and you wanted to get the most out of your 42" HD plasma, which would you go for?