KEY POINTS:
PS3's Warhawk is a 32-player multiplayer only exclusive- with no single-play - and it's a heap of fun.
It's all about spin dives, homing missiles and fast and furious chaotic aerial combat - the Warhawk being a fighter jet you pilot.
You're under hard-out air to air and anti-aircraft fire using the Six Axis motion-sensing controller to stop yourself being shot down, or good old manual thumbsticks to roll or weave from fire.
Those, like myself, who have been using dual-stick controls for many years, may find it takes a bit of practice to get used to the motion sensitivity. But once you master it, you'll love the adrenalin rush and swooping down just over the mountain side to evade those nasty homing missiles.
You chose to play as either the Eucadians who can use the Warhawk or Chernovans who have another futuristic aircraft called the Nemisis.
Besides the relentless air battles, you battle on the ground from your tanks, jeeps or turrets. I love how a sniper rifle can damage a warhawk!
There are five maps based on the number of players - including a free-for- all Deathmatch mode and the traditional "capture the flag."
This is not a single player game so you can play either in split screen with a mate, on a LAN or online.
The online play is a good sign from Sony. Microsoft's Xbox Live is well established already and Sony urgently needs to ramp up its online play especially as its online offering called Home has been delayed until 2008.
Frame rates are great, even in split screen mode, and environments are slick and impressively detailed. The combat sound effects are dramatic enough to add to the fast explosive action around you and it all weighs in as awesome dogfight-driven warfare.
By the way, in case anyone has a long memory, there was a version Warhawk way back on PSOne, but this bears little resemblance in view of this being a next-gen console online game! My, how things have changed.
It's all about aerial combat.
MadGamer rating: 7.5 / 10
Another PS3 exclusive first-person shooter from Ubisoft that Sony are hoping will help boost the console is Haze, which was demonstrated at the weekends' Armageddon Pulp Expo and this is being released on November 30.
You play Shane Carpenter, a soldier who starts out fighting for a corporation called Mantle. In the story you later defect to the Promise Hand rebel force after slaughtering your fair share of the rebel mercenaries.
Set in 2048, the soldiers use a performance-boosting drug called nectar that can have some dark side effects as well as its 20 per cent performance enhancement - imagine the withdrawal symptoms!
Mantle troops consume the nectar in large quantities. You'd think they breathe the stuff! When playing as Mantle, you can trigger a Nectar boost fairly often to boost speed, highlight enemy targets, Focus on important things better, like incoming grenades, and perform Melee attacks that are viciously powerful.
Graphically, Haze looks stunning but we were seeing advanced code so it's lining up to be a stunning FPS for the PS3.
Also awaited is Eye of Judgement, the first PS3 game using its new camera "Eye". While a bit of a niche title for those into battle-chess-like combat (albeit heavily prettied up for the enormous cell processor in the PS3) - judging by the hordes playing at the weekend Armageddon expo in Auckland, there are plenty of those fans and yet others amazed (or perplexed) by the technology and just wanting to give it a go.
You use real cards on a cloth map and stage fantasy battles against the computer or players online. The "Eye" reads bar codes off the cards to decide the outcome on gameplay.
Top sellers
Meanwhile latest console sale figures from the US for September show the Halo impact - Microsoft sold a total of 528,000 Xbox 360s, Nintendo sold 501,000 Wii consoles - even my Dad's asking about them - and Sony sold 119,000 PS3s.
They were followed by: DS (495,800), PSP (284,500), PS2 (215,000) and Game Boy Advance (75,000).
NDA, the data collectors, listed the top game sellers in the US for the month as:
360 Halo 3, Microsoft, 3.3 million
Wii Wii Play w/ Remote, Nintendo, 282K
DS Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Nintendo, 224K
PS2 Madden NFL 08, EA, 205K
360 Skate, EA, 175K
360 Madden NFL 08, EA, 173K
Wii Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Nintendo, 167K
360 BioShock, Take-Two, 150K
DS Brain Age 2, Nintendo, 141K
PS3 Heavenly Sword, SCEA, 139K
When i was at the Warehouse at the weekend, I saw people buying the new 40GB PS3. Anyone else bought one yet?
