Up until a week ago, LAIR was going to be the game that I purchased... but then I saw how Warhawk was coming. So, I decided, "Well, If I'm going to get a game, I should probably get the multiplayer one first so that I don't fall behind in skill." So after school yesterday, I began my quest to find a copy of Warhawk.

I drove into the Best Buy parking lot, turned off the car, stepped out, and walked into the cool, air-conditioned building, walked to the games section, and cried on the inside. They had no copies of Warhawk left, though strangely there were a whole mess of Bioshock copies. Whether this is just because of an overstocking of Bioshock and an understocking of Warhawk or just because more people bought Warhawk, who knows. Anyway, so I went home, pretty depressed. Then I though, "Wait, I should call Software Etc. and see if they have any copies."

So I gave them a call and they had just two copies left. I rushed to the mall and when I arrived, I bought the last copy. After picking up my brother from one of his activities, we went home, shoveled down dinner and began our play-a-thon of Warhawk.

All I can say is... WOW. This game is one of the funnest I've ever played. It's multiplayer only, as most of you probably know, but one of the cool things about it is that you can play split-screen online. So, you and three other friends can play with other people on other consoles from one console, a feature that Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal and Ratchet: Deadlocked had as well.

Actually, now that I think about it, Warhawk is a lot like the Ratchet games' multiplayer, but it does pretty much everything the Ratchet and Clank games tried to do, but better. It actually seems like Incognito tried to do this on purpose. Let's see... Ratchet and Clank was sort of big on flying, which Warhawk does, only it's more refined and offers an actually flight mode and not just a hover mode. Also, the game is in Third Person, though Warhawk does its Third Person mode better (partly because of the type of weapons that Warhawk uses compared to Ratchet and Clank's somewhat inaccurate weapons).In the Zone mode of Warhawk, your base gains power-ups over time just like your Nodes in Ratchet and Clank's Node game mode. That's about where the similarities end, but still, it's kind of amazing how much the two are like and how Warhawk does it sooooo much better.

Getting into a game is really easy. You can easily filter out the games you don't want to see. It also offers the ping, which many online Console games don't seem to show. This is nice, though, from how much I've played, there is no lag! Absolutely no lag what-so-ever. This is big for me because almost every online game I've played, I've gotten loads of lag and this is the first I've been able to play lag-free.

There are only five maps, though there are many different variations of these. If you only want to use a small portion of the map, you can just use a small portion of a map. However, if you really want to have some fun, you have to play with lots of players on huge maps.

The sound is fine, nothing spectacular. The theme music is kind of cool, but besides that, you won't hear anything all that exciting or moving.

The game has pretty good graphics and animations and such. I mean, it's not really supposed to be a mile-stone for graphics, but the textures are pretty good and I like games like this that use more than just three colors *cough* Gears of War *cough* Killzone 2 *cough* Sorry about that. I must have a cold. Anyway, there aren't really any animations because of the online nature of the game, but when you blow up somebody's Warhawk, their body is ejected. I was standing on a bridge and all of the sudden I hear this explosion and this body falls on the ground next to me. It was hilarious! I had a good laugh about that.

The game isn't that hard to get into. The Motion Sensing controls are off by default and I like it that way. I don't really like flying with the Sixaxis, though you adjust the Sensitivity, which I haven't tried yet. However, when you turn on Sixaxis control, it turns it on for ALL vehicles, which, if you don't want to use it for ground vehicles, is kind of annoying. However, as long as you DON'T turn on motion controls, you'll be fine. The controls are pretty basic. R1 to fire your main weapon and L1 to throw a grenade/use secondary weapon, depending on the situation. O is to crouch, X is jump, Square is to enter a vehicle/climb ladder/enter turret/etc., and... you get the idea. Not much to figure out and all of the controls are in the controller menu and the manual that came with the physical version of the game.

My only gripes are the lack of classes (all weapons are picked up in game, like Resistance) and that ground combat is mostly ignored by everybody else because everybody just hops right into a Warhawk. This may change over time because the appeal of flying a Warhawk might lessen or it may not. I'm not saying that flying the Warhawks is boring, it's just not all that immersive when every single character is in the sky and almost nobody is on the ground. Maybe it's just me though...

Anyway, this game is incredibly and this is a must buy for anybody who owns a PS3. It's got great sound, amazing multiplayer, interesting graphics, incredibly fun gameplay, and is just all around a great deal for $60 (or $40, whichever version you buy). I'll have my full review up later. Until then, see you next time.

--dewmandew7, Free Lance Writer