Despite news that may suppose the contrary, this week’s selection of new arrivals show that it’s a great time to be a PS3 owner, with nearly all our listed releases finding their way onto Sony’s slow-selling console.

That list begins with LittleBigPlanet, one of only ten games to receive an Edge 10 in the magazine’s 15-year history. Sony may need to tighten its purse strings right now, but if its new darling is anything to go by, there should be little fear that the company is going to close its vision.


LittleBigPlanet

Media Molecule
PS3
US Release: from 27 Oct
UK Release: 5 Nov
It immediately became the showpiece of the Game Developers Conference when first unveiled back in March 2007. Today it is a decisive factor in Sony’s holiday-season strategy, a watershed moment for developer Media Molecule, and perhaps a pivoting-point for the future of user-generated gaming.

What happened, happened. What’s important is that LittleBigPlanet is being shipped to stores as you read this, and that Edge describes it as a “daring, transcendent, magnificent piece of work”, and that soon, very soon, you’ll be able to see it all for yourself.


Fallout 3

Bethesda Game Studios
PS3/360/PC
US Release: from 28 Oct
UK Release: 31 Oct
Though the post-apocalyptic setting has become one of the most tiresome in recent years, Fallout 3’s roads of rubble and smouldering landscapes will no doubt provide a new point of view for Bethesda, a development outfit so deeply rooted in swords and sorcery.

Despite the contrasts in content, don’t be surprised if Fallout 3’s mechanics strike a dose of déjà vu. The game uses the same Gamebryo engine as Oblivion and encourages first-person combat. It’s also gargantuan in size, open-ended in play, and likely to be loved by many.



MotorStorm: Pacific Rift

Evolution Studios
PS3
US Release: 28 Oct
UK Release: 7 Nov
While Pacific Rift’s predecessor occasionally offered brutal, tight, tense and superbly thrilling race-fights, there were a handful of issues that curbed the game’s critical success. It’s therefore encouraging to see Evolution Studios making a sincere effort to remedy past problems.

Pacific Rift eschews a dreary Mars-red racing-rock for a fantasy volcanic island, offering more variety in track décor as well as extra opportunities to splice vistas around cliff edges and racing ramps. The sequel also introduces four-player split-screen racing and each vehicle has reportedly seen a significant improvement in its handling. It’s tempting to say that you can’t really ask for more than what Evolution Studios is trying to do with the series, but for a medium that moves faster than a filthy bike on full boost, perhaps it’s too late for the series to triumph. 



Scene It? Box Office Smash

Krome Studios/Screenlife
360
US Release: 28 Oct
UK Release: 14 Nov
Fact: Scene It Box Office Smash is the first physical 360 release that supports the NXE personal avatar feature. Until the new dashboard goes live (Nov 19), however, players will have to make do with placeholder characters.

That doesn’t exactly change the convincing proposition that Scene It already is; wacky button-mashing quiz-time to lighten the mood. Developers Krome Studios and Screenlife will always get our special kudos for their marvellously svelte fusion of Buzz! and different console to play it on, but also some sincere applaud is in order for putting in place a DLC feature that will update the quiz-question database.



Singstar Vol. 2

SCE Studios London
PS3
US Release: 28 Oct
UK Release: Out Now
Singstar Vol. 2 truly bucks the trend when it comes to Western games launching in the US first then everywhere else at some point later on. SCE London’s newest entry into the scarcely-populated competitive-karaoke genre has been enjoyed by Brits for months.

New features include a duet mode to help halve those rushes of gleeful embarrassment, as well as a variety of excellent tracks that go from The Mamas & The Papas’ California Dreamin, to Maximo Park’s Our Velocity, to (presumably the single version of) The Cure’s Pictures of You and ending up with Nirvana’s Lithium.

The game also includes Blur’s Country House for people that can’t sing but are deft at shouting words, along with Spandau Ballet’s True for those who want to show their sensitive side to that special someone.