PS3 Version of new Counter Strike gets all PC-y

You may have stumbled across this article on Kotaku already and while I'm a little tired of all things Valve, because of it's endlessly annoying fanbase, this is neat news.

With the release of Portal 2 on PS3 (due to Sony's more open source PSN) you can see Valve's desire to meld PC and Steam with PS3 and I really find that exciting. You could run a limited version of Steam on your PS3 and even do the coop campaign with a PC player over Steam. Nothing outstandingly groundbreaking, but it is another step towards a potential one console/rig/system future that people keep saying will eventually happen.

What's neat about the new Counter Strike is that, on PS3, you'll have not only cross-platform play AND cross-platform skill based matchmaking, but the PS3 will also have built in mouse and keyboard support.

As all gamers know the "Master Race" has the far superior control scheme and it's a really great addition to the console. Not only does the cross-platform play allow for a much much much larger pool of players (especially for a Valve Counter Strike game) to play with, but the mouse and keyboard support will actually allow console players to be every bit as good as their PC Brethren. If there's one thing Shadowrun on 360/PC taught us it's that cross-platform is cool, but PC player will own your ass with the better controls.

So basically this game has taken a giant leap forward as a future purchase for me. I would have liked to given it a try because I've always really wanted to give PC gaming a really good run, but the initial start up costs of a new rig are too much and I don't want to jump into an old Valve PC game and get owned for being a noob.

Thoughts? Do you guys think these are good things or should they remain separate like they've always been?

Fat Princess

For those of you with a PS3, a game I suggest you try out is Fat Princess. The main focus of the game is a CTF-esque mode that involves you trying to capture your Princess back from the other teams captivity all while trying to prevent the opposition from rescuing their Princess from you. The type of character you become in the game is determined by the persona's hat you pick up (barbarian, archer, mage, etc.). As a defense strategy, you continuously feed the captive Princess cake to make her "fat" and harder for the opposing team to carry her back to safety. The demo is currently up on the PSN Store in the US.

As a comparison, it has a feel similar to Castle Crashers on XBLA but I could be way off as I have only played that game once. If you've played both, please correct me. Anyway, give it a try. Its a good break from the norm of gaming and has the potential to be an absolute blast with friends. Hit me up on the PSN, the demo has online multi-player.