Sigma

So, here I am 3 months into my PS3 purchase and I still own zero games for the system.

Well, I did purchase Lemmings from the PS Store.

I was really looking forward to MLB: The Show, but with the game's delay and the less than impressive screenshots and videos thus far, I am not even sure about that one.

Spider-Man 3 is a game I was considering, but looking at the reviews, it appears it is the new Superman.

Actually, there is one PS3 game that has recently gotten in my sights. Ninja Gaiden Sigma.

I wrote about my love affair with Ninja Gaiden Black a few times on here. I really do think it is one of the best action games ever. Hard as hell, yes,but extremely rewarding.

A Sigma demo became available on the PS Store a little while ago. I will like to take this moment to point out again how annoying it is to download demos/updates for the PS3. You need to download it first and then then install it, which takes a while. Nowhere near as fast or intuitive as the 360.

Downloading updates are especially annoying since after you download and install, you need to connect your controller to the console with the USB cable and press the PS button.

Anyway, I downloaded the demo and fired the game up. It gives you the entire first chapter of the game (up until you defeat the first boss) and it gives you a "Special Mission" in which you play as Rachel in a closed environment and fight off a few waves of enemies.

One cool thing I have noticed with a few of the PS3 demos available is that the demos are pretty substantial. The Gran Turismo demo lets you unlock many, many cars to try out (only the one track though), and the demo saves your information and settings, so it feels like more of a finished game than just some demo you have to play from the beginning each time.

The Ninja Gaiden Sigma demo is like this. You start off only able to play the regular game on normal difficulty. Beat it, and you unlock hard, as well as the special mission. Keep beating it and you unlock harder difficulties. The game saves your progress so you won't need to start over when you want to stop playing. It even saves your controller settings. I like that.

Anyway, upon firing the game up, I was not very impressed. Sure, the game looked great, but the original game on the Box looked great. The graphical jump to the PS3 did not appear to be very large.

Gameplay wise, the game felt identical. Maybe a bit smoother, with the new animations and rock solid frame rate. But then again, I remember the Xbox game having a rock solid frame rate too. The demo gives you many weapons to choose from (all fully powered up) so it increases its replay value even more.

So, I was underwhelmed visually, but it was still a lot of fun to play. I hadn't played Ninja Gaiden in a while and it rekindled my interest in the game.

I decided to pop Ninja Gaiden Black in my 360 for comparison's sake. Upon starting a new game on the 360, the graphics looked a little worse than I remembered, so maybe the PS3 game is alot prettier afterall. After a while though, you realize that the Xbox game is still no slouch in the graphic front. It is still a gorgeous game. Next thing you know . . . I cannot stop playing it. I am hooked. Fast forward a few days and I am now fully engulfed in Ninja Gaiden again. I'm playing it any chance I get and now the thought of picking up SIgma for the PS3 is practically a sure thing. I am even using this playtime with the original game as practice to hone my skills for Sigma. I am about ½ through the game and still loving every minute of it.

Looks like my first PS3 game purchase will be in June (if the game is not delayed).