Black Sunshine

I picked up my reserved copy of InFamous (I may or may not have mentioned reserving it) yesterday.  I’ve basically done nothing but play it since then.  It’s a "sandbox" game, which means, if you don’t already know, that you basically roam around a landscape to your heart’s content, following story missions, taking in side missions, or just exploring, like the Grand Theft Auto series.  But in this one, you have neato electrical powers, caused by a huge explosion that took out six square blocks and resulted in a government quarantine of the city.  You can climb damn near anything, balance on poles and cables, survive a drop from any height (which is nice since it’s quicker than climbing down), and, oh yeah, zap things with electricity from your hands.  These powers grow and evolve as you complete certain requirements.  Some of these powers include a shockwave that can flip cars and send enemies flying; a concentrated ball of electricity called "shock grenades" which explode just like, well, a grenade; and the ability to use your electrical current to grind along cables and rails like a skateboarder, which is much faster than running on them.  Then there’s the inclusion of a good/evil meter.  That’s right, as you zoom around the city on rooftops and powerlines, you can, if you choose, simply attack the pedestrians, choose to hoard food and medical supply drops for yourself, or protect the pedestrians against the violent gangs that now patrol the ruined city, disable nasty devices said gangs place all about, and rescue anybody who needs rescuing. 

On a similar note, another super-powered, sandbox-style game comes out next tuesday, called Prototype.  From what I’ve been lead to believe, you have no choice between good or evil– you are already evil!  Your character wakes up in a hospital with no memories, finding that he’s somehow gained strange, mutant abilites.  He can apparently turn his hands into huge, bony claws, leap hundreds of feet, and absorb the skills of anybody he murders.  So he can theoretically smash his way into an airport, kill a helicopter pilot, and use his newfound knowledge to fly a helicopter the hell outta Dodge.  I think he can also shapeshift, which sounds really cool. 

Also, I discovered that playing LittleBigPlanet online is a hoot.  (I feel like I talked about this already…) I haven’t actually played with anybody online (though it turns out up to four players can participate offline) but the user-created levels tend to be really super-clever and neat.  In fact, I kept a room full of people entertained for several hours doing just that– playing other peoples levels.  Pretty much everybody in the room was saying, "I have to get this game!" by the end of it. 

Playing lots of games lately it seems.  I have no problem with that.