European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 1, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 scene stars and stripes july 2007 games to i u c i d a o n 0 c h o o can ps3 survive for Long the latest monthly sales numbers for vide game consoles came out last and you almost have to feel sorry for the the ps3 is doing so and its costing Sony so much that i won Der How much longer Sony can afford to keep this Albatross around its according to the tally from the Ned Nintendo took the top hardware spot in with about Nintendo is handhelds Nintendo Wii console was in second with sales of third was the handheld Sony pop a quiet Success Story that deserves its own column with sales of while the venerable ps2 was in fourth place with consoles huffing and panting across the finish line in fifth was the Box 360 with consoles while the ps3 was with a Mere systems the ps3 is occupying the sales Slot in the last two console was reserved for Nintendo game cube and n64 the is that Nintendo always eked out a Small profit on those even when they were easily outsold by the ps2 and original play Sta Sony will lose almost million on its game division this according to analysts polled last week by the Finan Cial that is simply untenable for not Only is the console not Selling but people who do buy it Arent buying which is where the real Money according to of the top 10 bestselling games in four were for the Nintendo Wii or four were on the Box and two were on the not a single ps3 game made the top Microsoft can ride out the wave of Nintendo mania a Little because Box 360 fans Are and there being rewarded with excellent Halo 3 alone could easily entice several million people to buy a 360 later this but Sony console int seen As the system for the hardcore As is the its seen As the system for Rich peo ple who already own a 360 and Are looking for something frivolous to spend their Cash for a Mas Market consumer electronics maker like that customer demo graphic is simply too after More than 100 million ps2s have been sold since the system was released in at this Well All be dead and buried or be cyborgs kept alive by nanobots and genetic engineering before the ps3 hits that so Sony has two choices slash the Price Ana a 100 discount May not be enough anymore and Hope that higher game sales can offset the hardware or get out of the Home console business and focus on things sure do change in a amazing games hit pop when in on the i like simple games that i can play for a few minutes or a few hours at a More than two years after its my favorite pop title is still the elegant Puzzle game More publishers Are catch ing Puzzle addicts now have a grow ing number of options on Sony portable including one of the very Best games yet released for the crush crush is a rarity in this genre a Puzzle game with a you Are a troubled insomniac who gets to explore his own twisted psyche via a mad scientists virtual reality each level of Dannys subconscious is a hallucinatory 3d Maze each Puzzle solved gets my closer to a Good nights what puzzles these they Arent your traditional mazes youll often find yourself stuck on a float ing with a bottomless abyss yawning Between you and the to Bridge the you have to crush the Maze from three dimensions to move to another then unc Rush the Maze and see where you end Nintendo super paper Mario employed a similar but not As every move you make in crush depends on your ability to switch Back and Forth Between the 2d and 3d and its a surprisingly difficult cognitive at times i Felt like crush was Bend ing my brain in entirely new and the Rush from solving a particularly thorny Maze was unusually on the web pm practical intelligence o i at cube is one of the new puzzles games available for the playstation Tient 2 d3 has picked up on a strategy masterminded by bejewelled publisher pop Cap and other casual game purveyors even a Low budget Developer can make a splash with simple pq2 is the sequel to d3s 2006 and the formula Hast changed each level is a 3d simpler than those in crush but still studded with diabolical you May have to stack bricks to reach the or figure out How to activate sliding doors or teleportation other Levels Are staffed by police men who will Stop you if they see pq2 is a Roc solid Maze addictive if not particularly i still dont buy d3s insistence that it will improve my practical but it did make me on the web cube this game is another simple yet absorbing collection of mazes from the d3 the Maze is a platform floating in and you can Man Euver the titular cube around its Bottom and sides to get from Start to obstacles include rotating one Way squares and Quicksand and As you Advance youll find yourself ducking spiked bombs while racing to meet cramped time you can rotate the but after a few spins you May have trouble remembering which Way youre supposed to be head More disorienting Are the Garish color which sometimes make it difficult to focus on the puzzles one hot Pink Section is particularly the Levels also get a Little and the controls Arent As tight As they should be on a game this on the web losing their religion a virtual shootout inside a British Cathedral led Sony to apologize to the Church of the culprit is Resis Tance fall of the playstation 3 bestseller that finds earthlings fighting aliens in the at one Point the action spills into a building that resembles Manchester Cathedral in Northwest the cathedrals the very Rogers called the game highly prime minis Ter Tony Blair said Compa Nies like Sony should focus on their wider social respond after a we Klong Sony finally sent a letter of apology to Govender even though the company said it disagreed with the notion that there is any connection Between contemporary issues of 21 St Century Manchester and a work of science fiction in which a fictitious 1950s Britain is under attack by take that the last time we checked in with take two the grand theft Auto publisher had undergone a share Holder coup that ended with the oysters of most of the company Board of direct including its chief exec two months theres still some upheaval going with take two announcing plans to restructure its 2k games the anticipated layoffs at 2k  affect the la Bels two major 2007 release bios Hock and the or the 2k sports line of nil and major league baseball fight club Nam co Bandai is the latest publisher to hold a press gathering during the sunup to next months electronic entertain ment and the company actually wheeled out one of its big guns soul Cali Bur the next chapter of the popular fighting fran Chise will be coming to the Box 360 and playstation 3 next More exciting to strategy at least was the announcement of could kept the followup to the 2003 cult favorite cold its a addictive synthesis of a Board game with card and it should be out in the once Nam co finishes translation of its hefty japanese Lou