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PlayStation 3 exclusive gaming rundown--screenshots

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As Sony starts to make a push for the holiday season with a new bundle and rumors of slimmer hardware, we all know that exclusive software remains as the biggest selling point for any console.

We recently showcased a handful of Xbox 360 titles that will be available only on that console. Now it's time to take a look at what the PlayStation 3 has to offer in the coming months.

PlayStation 3 owners already enjoy franchises like Resistance and Ratchet and Clank, but will finally get a taste of some series that have yet to debut on the PS3.

There are also a few titles we left out just because information on them is still very scarce. While we're excited for exclusive titles like The Last Guardian, we're not sure of a release date.

Click through to see our slideshow of exclusive titles for the PlayStation 3. Be sure to check out our Xbox 360 feature and stay tuned for our look at exclusive titles for the Nintendo Wii.

With the ability to change directions on a dime based on user input, it's sometimes surprising how little serious interactive storytelling happens in modern games. One exception is the games of David Cage, the creative force behind ambitious, if flawed, games such as Indigo Prophesy and Omikron.

In 2005's Indigo Prophesy, for example, players took control of several different characters acting out a supernatural-themed police procedural, and could affect the game world in many ways--leaving more evidence at a crime scene, for example, or sending a character out of town. Unfortunately, that game's seemingly open-ended nature was actually a funnel, starting with many choices but eventually whittling everything down to the same conclusion as the game became exactingly linear in its second half.

With several years of new technology, we have high hopes for Heavy Rain, a new PS3 exclusive adventure that carries over many of the same concepts about making choices that affect a seemingly fixed virtual world. Cage walked us through two segments of the game, showcasing the project's unique controls.

Another detective tale, Heavy Rain tells the intertwining stories of four individuals (a journalist, an FBI profiler, etc.), who are involved in the hunt for a serial killer. The dark, moody graphics were impressive, but the nontraditional control scheme threw us for a loop. Instead of using both analog sticks to move the character, the R2 shoulder button moves you forward, while the left stick turns your shoulders--essentially steering your character like a car.

The problem with changing well-established control schemes is that the controls end up not being transparent to players, who will spend more time thinking about where their fingers should be, and less time immersing themselves in the story.

Another nontraditional element is the use of so-called "quick-time events," an often overused game mechanic where gamers have to quickly press a series of buttons in time with onscreen instructions in order to complete a task. Heavy Rain's gameplay is largely built around this mechanic, but it's used in a much more organic way, with subtle 3D icons for button presses and analog stick movements worked right into the scene. Fights, investigations, and conversations are all done using this button-pressing system. The examples we saw were well-integrated, but we can see playing an entire game waiting for a timed button icon to appear on the screen losing its appeal quickly.

That said, Cage's games have always pushed the boundaries of traditional narrative gaming, and his embrace of branching stories and nonlinear plots make Heavy Rain worth a look for mystery/adventure fans when it comes out in early 2010.

(Credit: Uncommon Goods)

I still plan on living out my childhood ninja fantasies: jumping across thatched straw rooftops, stealing precious family heirlooms in the middle of the night, throwing pointy stars, and honoring my giant rat sensei by ridding the world of mutated rhinos and warthogs. And now I won't have to worry about getting wet in the process.

The handle to this Ninja Umbrella resembles the old samurai katanas of yore, replete with a crossed grip hilt and a cloth scabbard that you can swing across your back when the sun comes out. The umbrella section expands to a 3-foot-long canopy, and you can buy it here for $30. Do yourself a favor and don't read the description on there that claims ninjas do karate--everyone knows that NINJAS do NINJITSU. Duh.

(Credit: Hacoa)

We could have told them this would happen. Japanese design firm Hacoa, which made wooden keyboards for Marubeni Infotec, has shockingly found that consumers weren't exactly beating down their maple doors to buy the sylvan peripherals. It probably didn't help that they were going for 50,000 yen, or about $400, apiece.

And we're not so sure about its alternative strategy either. Akihabara News reports that Hacoa plans to sell kits that would have consumers assemble their own wooden keyboards. It would be one thing if this could be done for a fraction of the price, but they'll still cost about $290 each to build.

We're still trying to assemble our kids' Playmobil airplane from last Christmas. But if you're really into wooden computer equipment, and money isn't an issue, you can always get an entire system from Wood Contour for around $3,775.

(Credit: Amazon)

Even native Californians like us appreciate individual weather stations, despite the fact that we never grew up knowing all four seasons. But we've never understood why they all have to look like something that belonged on the shelf behind the counter at Walgreens, next to the travel alarms and AM radios.

Oregon Scientific, thankfully, has come up a wireless modular system that not only looks good but, according to CrunchGear, also can be split into four parts to display its various readings in different places. It's not entirely clear why you'd want to do that, but we think it's a neat idea anyway.

(Credit: Gearlog)

Next to digital photo frames, one of the most common products in gadget catalogs is the weather forecaster. But this trumps them all: an umbrella that tells you if it's going to rain.

The "Ambient Forecasting Umbrella" has an LED light built into the handle that pulses when it detects chances of showers according to an automatic AccuWeather feed. As Gearlog says, "If the chances of rain are 60 percent then the umbrella handle will pulse once every second. But if you see it pulsing a hundred times a minute then that means there's a 100 percent chance of rain."

Or you could just look out the window. And even if its forecasts are correct, will you be able to watch YouTube on it?

We're not too good at figuring out so-called relaxation devices here at Crave. It's been suggested that we're too tense (or dense) to understand how they work. Not so, we say. It's just that we like to keep our stress relievers simple--like a single-malt scotch, neat.

(Credit: Brookstone)

And to prove it, we're actually going to endorse one of the said gadgets, at least in concept: the "Tranquil Moments Sound Therapy System" from Brookstone (otherwise known as a white-noise machine). Operation of this device is something even we can handle. Press button, get ocean surf. Press another button, thunderstorms. Get it?

Brookstone tries to throw some voodoo talk into its specs, but don't let that scare you. "Neuroacoustic research proves that sounds based on different brainwave frequencies can significantly increase your ability to achieve a desired state of mind. By playing sounds based on Delta, Alpha, or Theta brainwave frequencies, Tranquil Moments naturally coaxes your brain to 'match' these frequencies and enter healthier states of sleep, relaxation and renewal."

Please. Just turn out the lights and go away.