Call of Duty: Black Ops [PS3] [QUICK&SHORT]

Overview
A First-Person Shooter where you retrace the actions of a special forces operative throughout the 1960's, carrying out controversial missions in Vietnam, Cuba, Russia and the Arctic circle. The complete plot is explained very slowly through fairly graphic and violent cutscenes, as well as through the playable elements of the game.


Major Points
Controversial. See my review of COD: Modern Warfare 2 for issues I had with a previous game in the series - in this game there is some genuinely controversial story lines covered and offensive material - people blown, ripped, stabbed, burned and shot to bloody death right before your eyes, often by your own hand.
Blockbuster title - Lots of massive set pieces and explosive action to keep trigger jockeys happy, although some of the sequences can get a bit "overkill" whereby you can't see what the bloody hell's going on.
Shit-Hot Multiplayer - Takes all the fun and customisable elements of the previous games and adds to it tenfold. Here you can add your own clothes, dogtags, online name, clan, attachments and patterns for guns, extra weapons, perks and killstreaks. Each of these has to be earned through online play and is remarkably satisfying to keep you going ("...just one more level before I can colour my name pink and have a purple heart dogtag!").


Conclusion
Good all-out-action fun - if you are looking for no-nonsense explosive death adventure you won't be disappointed with this. 
Perhaps a bit too overkill for what it claims to be - "Black" operations normally don't involve dozens of U.S. Army helicopters firing rockets and a massive ground force moving in. This also can blind you from the action and drama involved - animations of people writhing in agony lost in a blur of explosive blasts.
Lots of stuff here to keep you playing - the online games are truly great and there's also Zombies mode for a couple of extra hours of fun with mates. Single player will keep you going for 10 to 15 hours anyway so you do get a lot of bang for your buck.

Killzone 3 [QUICK&SHORT] [PS3]

Overview
You are part of a marine squad sent to a planet at war with Earth, the planet Helghan. Played out as a first-person shooter, you watch in horror as Helghan's most devastating weapon is aimed at Earth - and you have no way of making contact to warn them.


Major Points
Satisfyingly colourful - weirdly enough I feel obliged to mention how happy I was that less than 25% of the single player story is drudgy brown or grey. And that makes up about 80% of multiplayer maps.
Enjoyable story - for a gung-ho romp it's quite fun. Muscled men, one-liners, explosions, the usual bollocks.
Nearly the Playstation Move blockbuster I was looking for - the motion controls aren't quite good enough to play through the story on Normal difficulty comfortably and crouch-aiming requires 3 hands (which I no longer have). Oh, and it's got 3D....which I also do not have.


Conclusion
Better than a lot of the pap around. Colourful and fun enough in single player with the story to go with it - if only the single player was a little longer!
Sadly, multi player (although offering randomly changing and adaptive objectives) comes off rather bland and I was bored within a couple of hours.
With a longer story, better multi player maps, options and refined Move controls this could have been spectacular.