PS3 Fanboy

Another Sunday, another release list. Let's see what's out in the next seven days.

US Games

• The Darkness
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• The Bigs
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent
  
• Transformers the Game

EU Games

• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas

Asian Games

• Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas

Quite a well populated list. There's no real way anyone can complain about this week's releases. Unless you're a European The Darkness fan. Don't forget, though. If there's a game that's only available in another region, then feel free to import it. Your PlayStation 3 won't care. Release dates are subject to constant change, so give your local game shop a ring before walking down there.

Which of this week's releases will you be picking up? We've already got our copies of The Darkness ordered.

Tom Clancy's GRAW2 is about to hit the PlayStation 3 and we've all been wondering a few things: any noticeable differences between this and the 360 version? Additional content? Will multiplayer function execute adequately, or fall short in matchmaking skills compared to Live? While we don't have all the answers to these questions, we can at least address some of them -- what's new for the PS3 version and what's been added. Let's list it up!

• SixAxis features: Controller features used for Mitchell and Cross-com control
• SP: Drive the supports (drone, M.U.L.E.) with the SixAxis
  
• SP/MP: Change Mitchell stances with the SixAxis
• SP: change the Rules of Engagement with the SixAxis
• Consistency increased between SP & MP: Scope, Movement, Aiming
• PS3 specific adaptation of controls: Menus, Shoot button
• 14 additional maps resulting in a total of 32 multiplayer maps
• 32 new adversarial multiplayer maps of up to 16 players, an expanded arsenal of multinational weapons, character customization options, new optimizing re-spawn system, new female operatives and hundreds of new game mode options are available.
• 2 new coop modes, "Evasion" and "Exfiltration", to vary the game experience in multiplayer.
• 6 missions co-op campaign with a fully immersive experience and storyline. Featuring open-ended play that rewards teamwork as you play with up to sixteen players.

So it seems there have been quite a few delicious changes to the basic frame of the title between then and its release on the PS3. Still a mystery, however, is if all will pan out and operate smoothly. Ports aren't kind to the PS3, but if they've put so much effort into adding stuff to the game, they should put the effort to make it work well, too.

If you've fallen in love with every Tom Clancy novel known to man, you've probably read about one. Because they're all very, very similar. Doesn't make them bad! Just similar. Regardless, when Tom Clancy started to get involved in software, people were skeptical at first, but realized "hey, these games are pretty darn fun." For the most part, that has been the trend. Some games, however, fell short. This one, EndWar, seems to be on the right track.

This game, taking place during WWIII, yes three, follows a bunch of mock battles with some mock heroes and explosions. It employs a more strategic team effort, especially in the online components (we'd assume). This game essentially wraps up everything that has been set up in the other Clancy franchises with massive online battles where players take their own army up against others. It sounds neat and if it happens to be an RTS (our gallery begs to differ), it looks great.

If I were allowed to make the subject line longer, I'd probably have stuck in about three or four of Mr. Clancy's book titles. Such nonsense. Anyway, CVG has cracked the code on the official Tom Clancy's EndWar website and discovered the first teaser trailer showing what? The start of World War III? So we've played World War II out to death, now we have to make up fake future wars? Fine by me. Enjoy the trailer... we'll fill you in on more information once it develops.

We're going write about this because it's really quite humorous. In a post we slapped up a few days ago, we mentioned how activists are trying to enlist the help of U2 frontman Bono to pull Mercenaries 2 from shelves. Someone in the comments sections said something like this:

"RatBoy: Ohhh, ohhh, I got an Idea... Why don't we boycott GRAW 2 because it's set in Mexico. I know that after playing it I develop an intense urge to write my congressperson and ask them to break sanction millitary action in Mexico City."

Well, you've got a gift, my friend. The governer of Mexican state Chihuahua (we wonder if it's very small and frail, shakes a lot?) has ordered the seizure of all copies of GRAW2. The mayor calls the game "a crime against the intellectual capacity of Juarez residents" and offered a similar condemnation of video games as a whole: "Violent video games instill values which are upside down, and these actions are despicable because they attempt to divide the good will of the residents of American and Mexican cities."

Hmm, well RatBoy, do you think England is going to boycott the alternate timeline in Resistance next? You seem to be on top of these things!

Aren't you curious to see what Ubisoft has planned this first quarter? While we'd love to just copy and paste the list in its entirety, it's probably best if we just list the games coming out for the PS3. It's more honest and, well, it makes the list much smaller.

• Enchanted Arms
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent

Again with your monopolization... damn you, Tom Clancy! Now keep in mind some of the games listed should be coming out on the PS3 -- they just have a different release date from the other systems and fall outside of the first quarter. Well, Ubisoft, hopefully these three games (along with the other March releases) will wholly satisfy us.

So... many... references... in... this... title. Anyway, it's all true! Rainbow Six: Vegas (seriously... doesn't anyone else care that it's Rainbow? Are they trying to imply ethnic diversity or univeral acceptance? Tom Clancy, I'm on to you...) has been delayed until the end of January 2007. For the PS3 and PSP. 360 fanboys who invariably come here, rejoice! You can do more of the Rainbow Six-ing while we wait with bated breath to play this neato game.

Why the delay? IGN hypothesizes the online component. But that's fine by us, since Rainbow Six pretty much works because of the online component, a delay to fix that up isn't exactly a bad thing, right? Sony was pretty sparse in its information regarding the PlayStation Online thingy to third-party games (just look at Tony Hawk's Project 8). So, is anyone particularly bothered by this? Or is it all good as long as the final product can compete with XBox Live's online functions for the game?