I don't think it's run its course, I think it just needs more creativity spun into it. Skate has the great engine, but level design and— to a lesser extend— customization make the game. I would contend that the amazing level design is what made THPS1-4 so goddamn fun. I don't care if it's not totally realistic for me…

@JinFei3: I've put a lot of time into all three, and the third is definitely my favorite. The off-board controls that sucked in 2 are worlds better in 3. The game modes are more fun/satisfying. The city has fewer "dead zones" where there's little to do, and the pedestrians aren't totally fucking annoying like they are…

@delphi.uk: Yeah, it took all of three seconds for 250mb. Clearly on-disc.

@TheNewSun: As a new PS3 owner who spent a lot of time playing Heavy Rain this weekend, I've definitely got it on the mind so it jumped out at me as well when reading this. It seems like a great example of how a realistic relationship can be developed in a game (and not have any "points" attached to the experience).

@reuniteireland: Thanks! :) Heavy Rain is a lot of fun.

@Tidusx100: Yeah, my wife said that was the only sticking point, but we figured we could probably just borrow a friend's for the time it would take her to beat a new Zelda anyway.

At the opposite end of that spectrum, I finally dusted off my Wii and sold it and all the various peripherals and games over the weekend. It made my PS3 purchase much cheaper.

@lindewell: She won the Best Actress Academy Award in 2006, she's kind of a big deal.

@mean_mr_mustard: Agreed. I did a fair amount research before I got mine last year, and I'm extremely happy with my Samsung.

If I can break away from Fable 3 for long, I might dig into AC:Brotherhood or some NBA2k. If my wife gets ahold of the controller first, I'll be sinking some quality time into Torchlight (hooray Mac port!).

@marius004: While you're at it, what about that damn Mario character? OMG NINTENDO!

@xan_loves_SS: Haha, yeah that's the set!

Around the time of Back to the Future II they put out a Micro-Machines set with a Delorean, a futuristic cop car and the futuristic Texaco station. I think I've still got the cars, at that.

Holy hell, it's finally almost the weekend!

@crazycrsx: My thoughts exactly, the demo was fun, the new controls were fun. I'm enjoying 2k11, but based on the demos I would have probably picked up Elite instead.

@Zordon: Not liking the iLife suite is valid, but it's not as though there are a dearth of alternatives. MS Office, Sun's StarOffice, and the open source NeoOffice, OpenOffice and KOffice all come to mind. For photo manipulation, if you don't want to pay for PhotoShop then you can use GIMP on all platforms equally…

@michaelasnider: Yeah, it was. I haven't played it in a few weeks, so I don't think I've seen that DLC.

@michaelasnider: I always install the Skate games to the hard drive, it wasn't laggy at all for me.

@Benedinho: Skate 3 fixes a lot of things: better off-board controls— walking in Skate 2 sucks, basically— better game modes, a better city and create-a-park tools, and more tricks are available.

@puffa469: I disagree about Skate 3. It fixed a lot of stuff that really needed fixing— like the off-board controls— and it has a much better city design.