On the radar: Infamous and Scribblenauts

At the moment, I'm mostly into playing older boardgames. Stuff that predates AH.

But I'm actually liking a lot of videogames.

Case 1: Scribblenauts
I absolutely yearn for the DS game. It is a puzzle game with 15,000+ objects, that may require Wifi. You have to collect stars by playing with objects. You write out what object you want and the game drops it into position. It understands things like Iron Maiden, Football, and Umbrella.

The trailer video shows someone rescuing the same star from a tree using a ladder, or a thrown football, or a beaver. It is just staggering in the same way as Little Big Planet.

Case 2: Infamous
I just played the demo. If you have a PS3, download it now. It is the second superhero game I've ever played that really felt RIGHT. The first was Crackdown, and it concentrated a little too much on guns and explosives.

Infamous replaces the guns and explosives with lightning. Which behaves like lightning---even a chain link fence will ground your shots. Near misses will still nail someone if they are touching metal. And lots of stuff still blows up.

The real star here is that this is by Sucker Punch. (And if you missed the Sly Cooper series--shame on you. They nailed 3D platforming in a way that bests everything in the field save perhaps for Super Mario Galaxy.)

The character here is more versatile than Sly. Running along wires to leap off 30 feet down, catch and hang on the side of a dumpster and fire lighting bolts with your free hand.

And if you die in the middle of a mission, it sets you to a silent checkpoint a few steps back in the mission. This encourages you to try things. Like a real sandbox game, and not the kind of game that has your stupid brother call you every 5 minutes.

inFAMOUS does look pretty cool; I only have a 360 but I hope the PS3 people enjoy it.

Scribblenauts looks awesome.

I thought it wasn't out yet though? Are you playing an import?

SCRIBBLENAUTS is bought day and date of release in this household. It looks fantastic.

Scribblenauts?!?!?!?!?!?! Awesome shit. I think I'll write "helicopter" every level when my brother gets it.

I don't have Scribblenauts yet. I just thought if you hadn't for some reason heard about it, then you wanted one.

I kind of feel the same way about Infamous. Mostly because of how Sucker Punch redefined platform games, yet practically no one noticed.