Jake Gaskill: Sony held a mini press event last night here in Los Angeles (during Kaz Hirai’s TGS 2009 keynote no less. The nerve!), and one of the games on display was the digital pet simulator for the PlayStation 3, EyePet. Now, I’ll be writing up a full preview of it next week, so I won’t go into too much detail right now. But what I will say is that Sony has done some pretty impressive things with this thing, especially in the augmented reality department (basically just a way of having a real-world object display a virtual object onscreen). For instance, you can hold up the card and a water can will appear on the screen as if it were in your hand, at which point you can freely manipulate the object in virtual space. It’s a simplified version of the motion-control technology that Sony is working on at the moment, and yet it’s incredibly sophisticated and satisfying. Better yet, it’s been woven into the fabric of the game in tons of unique and interesting ways. And that’s on top of all the actions and such of the EyePet itself.

 

Again, plenty more on this next week, but I just wanted to give you a heads up in case you had either written off the game, or weren’t aware of it, because it is definitely worth keeping a very close eye on.

 

 

 

Raymond Padilla: I'm off to Japan (again). As you'd expect, I carry a wide assortment of entertainment devices during trans-Pacific trips. This time around I'll have my PSP, some trade paperbacks, a bunch of magazines I have to catch up on, and my iPhone. Before my last trip, I downloaded Civilization Revolution for iPhone. It was on sale for $2.99 -- in the immortal words of Jack Burton, I figured, "What the hell...."

 

It's just a fantastic handheld version of Civilization and the best gaming value I've had in years. It's fun, addictive, and helps pass the time when jet lag is hitting you or you can't fall asleep on the plane. I've already spent dozens of hours playing it and expect the game to claim dozens more from my life. All that for $2.99? I'm just blown away by the value.

 

My question for you on this fine Friday, what games to you constantly replay? What are the best gaming values in your collection?