The Solid Snake Buys a PS3 (and Saves his Sanity) Thread

[Solid Snake]

(...If and only if he survives three weeks of hell first...)

So I have four law school finals in the next three weeks.
...If you know what law school finals are like, you now have an intense amount of pity for my poor, spurned, devastated, emotionally traumatized soul.

(And if you don't know what law school finals are like, let me paint a picture for you. For the next three weeks straight, I will be getting an average of five hours of sleep each night. Maybe six on the occasional Friday night, which will be something of a reward. I will wake up. I will take a quick shower. I will throw something on and walk to the nearest Starbucks. I will order three drinks at Starbucks -- one to drink right away, and two more to keep handy for lukewarm booster shots for the rest of the day, because I will literally not have enough time to spare walking back to Starbucks.
I will study law. I will study law for approximately 80-90% of my day. The remaining 10-20% of my time will be spent taking quick breaks reading your comments on the internet, pretending I'm with a beautiful naked woman for regular several-minute intervals, watching an episode or two of LOST, and crying tears of agony. I will write more than 150 pages of outlines over this time period, if past habits carry through this semester. I will spend a total of fifteen hours writing exam answers. I will wish I was dead. Then I will laugh hysterically when all is said and done because once this semester is over, I will be volunteering at a non-profit organization for the summer...meaning, yes, I spent tons of money to put myself into debt to go to law school and put myself through this agony and it's not even improving my career prospects.)

At any rate: there is a silver lining over this horizon. Do you want to know what this silver lining is? It is right here, in this very topic. This very topic is the thread that will keep me going. It is the thread I will check every time I feel down and depressed and miserable and cynical and jaded. It is the thread that will restore my faith in humanity, keep me pressing forward, keep my eyes on the real goal.

Because the real goal isn't surviving a year of law school.

The real goal is surviving to 5/14/10, otherwise known as The Day Of My Last Final, When I Will Immediately Proceed To Gamestop, Pay Tons Of Money, And Spoil Myself With A PS3 And A Shitstorm of Games.

You think I am kidding? I have saved $800 for this. ($300 in a post-survival gift from a beloved family member, so actually "only" $500 is on my credit card.)
I literally not only fully expect but fully condone spending every last penny. (If you were a 1L law student, trust me, trust me, you'd understand.)

So this is the thread I will return to during my darkest days of Torts, Criminal Justice and Constitutional Law readings to reflect on the single most important question that won't appear on an upcoming exam:

WHAT THE HELL DO I BUY?
I literally don't even know. I've splurged before, but never quite this much. The PS3 alone is $300, or so I hear, though I may actually put down the extra money for the better one because what the fuck I am that insane why not. There are two games I definitely have to buy, and those games are called Metal Gear Solid 4 and Heavy Rain. Beyond that there are plenty of games I'm at least mildly interested in, but I'm not sold on nuttin'.

So, this thread serves three purposes. First, you can chat with me about how I should blow the mind-boggling amount of money I should probably spend on a trip to Europe instead, except Europe ain't half as cool. (Or on several Matt Speroni commissions, which would be cooler but involve far less interactivity.) Second, you can feel better about yourselves because you're not in law school and that automatically makes you a better and/or luckier person than me. Finally, even if you don't own a PS3, I'm going to also designate this thread as Solid Snake's Place to Bitch About The Next Three Weeks, because Lord knows otherwise I'd be making several topics pitying myself otherwise, and who wants to knowingly subject themselves to reading that anywhere else?

...I suppose you could also try convincing me that this is a terrible idea, except it's not, I've been waiting nine months for this, so there.

[MSperoni]

I'm for the commissions, but y'know..

I mean, then I could spend your money on buying games myself and then..erm... talk to you about them on AIM! It'd be almost exactly like you were playing them yourself! Right??

(at least you gotta do the 30$ one.. FF12 is beating your Persona 4 girls! )

[Solid Snake]

Honestly, Matt, every time I stare at this lovely Franny commission I find myself snapping out of an awkward hypnotic trance about two hours later.
...So from that perspective it's probably better we shelve the commissions for now, unless you want to hear that I've missed an entire final because I was too busy ogling at whoever you draw next.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Uncharted 1 + 2.
INfamous.
Fallout 3; GOTY.
God of War 3.
Killzone 2.
Bioshock 1 + 2.
Wipeout HD + Fury.
The Orange Box.
Borderlands + expansions.

Those are the ones that immediately spring to mind. There are others, but some are a little more dated, like Unreal 3 and Warhawk, but I'm not sure if the online for those is still beg enough to justifying getting them now.

This is of course, without any prior knowledge of your preffered gaming genres or any knowledge of wether you've played any of these on other consoles.

Oh and I suggest holding back a 20 to spend on booze, then make your first night a massive drunken all night gaming session.

[Sky Warrior Bob]

You will want Uncharted 2, just for gameplay & on-line content. The story isn't dependent on Uncharted 1, but Uncharted 1 is very good too & worthy of a buy. However, if you have to choose, go with U2. As stated, you get free on-line content with this one.

I really like Infamous as well. Decent dual path storyline (Good/Evil), and great balance of powers to gameplay. (As you get more power, baddies get more difficult.) Also, every area has a distinctive look, and it all feels very much alive. (Plus, the random news broadcasts & pirate TV are always good).

God of War 3, is more of the same. Its clearly more violent, uses more nudity & is a bit more of a challenge. However, it isn't what I'd call a must buy.

Little Big Planet is a rental for me. The official levels are pretty fun, but it does get tedious after a while. Plus, there's far too crappy user created levels to find anything good.

MGS4 is fun, if you like the prior MGS games. However, the story is difficult to follow, and nano-machines get way overused for explaining various elements of the plot.

Heavenly Sword, is a fantastic GOW style game, with a great plot. The only problem is that it is a bit short. Worth playing, and a used copy should be really cheap (it was one of the PS3's first titles).

The R&C titles for the PS3 are both flawed. Tools of Destruction is awesome in every way, except its way too easy to heal. Weapons computers automatically give a health upgrade. Absolutely necessary for city-wide battles, but they make the rest of the game too easy.

Crack in Time separates Ratchet & Clank, and I frankly feel development got flawed because of this. Clank's levels are really pretty & complex. However, much of the levels created for Ratchet end up being simplistic wastes of time as a result. As such, this title was a pretty big disappointment for me.

Can't comment on Resistance 1 or 2, as I'm not into the whole first person shooter thing.

[Solid Snake]

Originally Posted by Hawk

Oh and I suggest holding back a 20 to spend on booze, then make your first night a massive drunken all night gaming session.

I'll have a six pack of Stiegl, a six pack of Paulaner and a six pack of Guinness waiting for the occasion.

Also, I tend to be more a fan of RPGs and third-person action adventure games, and less a fan of platformers and first-person shooters. There's always exceptions for everything, though. I can already tell that I would not enjoy FFXIII, and I suspect that I would enjoy Battlefield 2 or the new Medal of Honor.

[MSperoni]

Well, I don't know what you have for 360 so I can't really say what you should get for PS3 since you could get most of them for 360 instead...

I guess if you just snatch up the best exclusives you ought to do okay. There's a jRPG exclusive for PS3 called Disgaea that I've heard wasn't all that bad.

I mean, aside from God of War 3 and Metal Gear Solid 4, my top 10 favorite PS3 games I own can be found on the 360 as well. I have Heavy Rain but still not played it enough to say for certain how good it is.

[Solid Snake]

Originally Posted by MSperoni

Well, I don't know what you have for 360 so I can't really say what you should get for PS3 since you could get most of them for 360 instead...

I do not own, nor do I plan to own, an X360.
So that might help!

[Azisien]

Well I would say switch Heavy Rain to borrow or rent. It is really, really short, and pretty love/hate.

On the plus side, the latter means plenty of used copies floating around if you do purchase.

I say definitely grab yourself a PSN card when you get the PS3, there are many affordable and fun games to download and play.

And then download Pixeljunk Shooter.

[MSperoni]

Ohh, I assumed you had a 360 cos you said you were playing Mass Effect 2, but I guess you were playing it on PC.

Based on what I know about Snake, Heavy Rain would be a "love" game for him. But I could be wrong.