It didn't take long for me to get used to typing the mixed-capitals of LittleBigPlanet, but it's taken me a bit of time to notice how Sony and Sucker Punch want inFAMOUS to be spelled. The super-powered, third-person action sandbox game drops on May 26th, just a week or so sooner than originally announced, and is looking excellent.
Sucker Punch might ring a bell for you fans of their trio of Sly Cooper titles that brought cartoony action-adventure with lots of fun climbing and acrobatics to the PlayStation 2. This is one of the big reasons I'm not worried about how they'll do with Cole's parkour abilities we've seen over and over in inFAMOUS videos. If they can make climbing around the ruins of Empire City as fun as it looks they'll already be well on their way to hooking anyone who picks it up. Add in that super-powered gliding ability and you can already see the potential for having to scale some pretty interesting ruins to pick up collectibles. Those who preorder the game get a demo on May 7th while the rest of the public can get the demo on May 21st. Gamestop has an exclusive superpower preorder bonus while Amazon boasts a PlayStation Home costume patterned after the evil Reaper gang members you'll run into in the game.
Anyway, inFAMOUS is my PS3 pick for May even without the code they're packing in with it to join the multiplayer beta of Naughty Dog's Uncharted 2: Among Thieves starting in early June.
My PlayStation Portable pick and the other games to watch arriving this month are after the break.
PSP Pick for May: Patapon 2
Rumors of an all-digital no-UMD PSP model coming this year have started heating up, and nothing reinforces it like an entry in a highly acclaimed franchise launching exclusively as a digital download. Sony's Patapon 2 will be sold at retail May 5th for the paltry sum of $19.99 -- the same price Patapon had but with much more content according to IGN. If you wait just a couple more days until May 7th, however, you'll be able to buy it direct on the PlayStation Store for a measly measly $14.99. Impressed yet? Did I mention it has 4-player ad-hoc multiplayer?
Luckily IGN has gotten their hands on the final game and put it through its paces. They've given Patapon 2 a whopping 9.5 "Yes, it's that good" review.
Other than Patapon 2 I'm not excited for much of anything else on the PSP this month. Mytran Wars could finally launch as something that looks like a mech-infused strategy game but media coverage has been so thin that I have no idea if it's worth a look.
On to the other PS3 offerings this month...
X-Men Origins: Wolverine - May 1st.
This movie tie-in should be terrible, but surprise, it's actually a good brawler with, as IGN.AU put it, plenty of the snikty-snikty-snikt. It's nothing genre-defining, especially since it apparently features poor boss fights and some glitches, but its hybrid God of War meets Tomb Raider style of gameplay and leveling up led IGN to give it a 7.8. Gamespot has handed it a 7.0, and CheapyD twittered that he liked it: "Wolverine game is pretty fun so far. It seems like a not quite as polished God of War with Wolverine."
Sacred 2: Fallen Angel - May 12th
Why Sony didn't outright purchase Snowblind and get a new Champions of Norrath game on our plates on the PS3 is completely beyond me. The pair of CON games from the PS2 are classics and stood on the shoulders of two Baldurs Gate Dark Alliance games before it. Instead they went with the poor cash-in Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom at launch and have left us waiting for someone, anyone to fill the fantasy hack-and-slash void.
Enter Ascaron, a developer that basically killed itself producing a sequel to its glitchy but ambitious Diablo-like PC game Sacred. Right around the time Sacred 2went gold they declared the German equivalent bankruptcy, which of course raises red flags about the quality of the title, but to their credit they managed to issue a patches to the already-released PC version before announcing their hope that they be bought by someone who could help them fund development of Sacred 3, of all things.
With luck the up-to-date PC code helped the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions and the online netcode will pass muster.
Bionic Commando - May 19th
We PS3 owners don't get any demo for Bionic Commando unlike our Xbox 360 brethren, but unless the reviews sing the praises of the bionic arm's effect on this third-person shooter I don't see it doing anything but tanking.
Damnation by Codemasters - May 22nd
The wild west just might live again, just not the way you thought in Damnation. It's a Codemasters title that takes steampunk tech and brings it into a semi-modern world. The trailers show off everything from steam-driven weaponry and train-towed tanks to steam-driven mechs. The developer has also been touting the game's vertical gameplay, emphasizing how cinematic acrobatics will be an important part of the shooter gameplay. I'm optimistic since the trailer I saw about the steampunk art style really explained things well, but in order to stand out it's going to have to deliver much more than that art style in such a crowded genre.
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