Sony seem to be pushing the PSN a lot recently. First they had GT4 Prologue released as a download, and now two major titles have popped up in a week.
Wipeout HD is in a word, superb. It looks amazing, the craft control perfectly, and there’s tons of stuff to do. They’ve even managed to provide SIXAXIS support that’s actually pretty good! The most interesting part, though, is that it’s a PSN Store exclusive. You won’t find it in the shops. This is another massive step forward for online downloads, and at £11.99, it’s a steal.
Burnout: Paradise also popped up this week. It marks the first time on any format that a full current-generation game has been made available to download. At £24.99, it’s a tad pricey, but the fact that it’s up there is promising. A lot of older games disappear from shelves, leading the industry to have a sell-quick business model, almost freezing out slow burning, idea-lead games. Hopefully we’ll see more games being put on the store, and maybe games that have great ideas but lack rich publishers will be able to compete with the souless, idea-straved blockbusters that have almost destroyed my will to play games (I’m looking at you Gears Of War). It won’t happen. But it’d be nice.