PS3 and XBox are set to make killing with new battle games

It's hard to get through the holiday season without blowing something up. No wonder so many gamers camped outside electronics stores this weekend, desperate to score a Sony PlayStation 3 console. Sure, they wanted bragging rights -- first one on the block and all that -- but some of them probably figured that life would scarcely be worth living if they couldn't lay hands on one of the first PlayStation 3 games, a vaunted first-person shooter called Resistance: Fall of Man.

Since only about 400,000 PS3s were delivered to the United States for the launch, most of these trigger-happy gamers went home disappointed. I can't imagine why. If you've got cash enough for a PS3 and the will to kill, you might as well settle for Microsoft's less expensive Xbox 360 and a copy of Gears of War, a savage little saga that's more than a match for Resistance.

It figures. The 360's been out for a year, time enough for software companies to develop games that fully exploit its computing power. Indeed, it's unusual to find top-drawer titles in the first wave of games for a new console. The first outstanding shooter for the Xbox 360, Ubisoft's marvelous Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, showed up four months after the 360's release.

Perhaps Insomniac Games, the developers of Resistance, benefited from the frequent PS3 release delays. In any case, they've given Sony a hit from day one.

Resistance offers yet another slugfest set in a post-apocalyptic world. Different apocalypse, though. World War II has never happened. Sounds like good news, till you find out why. A deeply unpleasant species of unknown origin, the Chimera, mysteriously appear in Russia sometime in the 1930s, and slowly begin sweeping across Eurasia, slaughtering pretty much everything in its path. They're in no hurry, though. It takes them until 1951 to polish off the continent and launch a merciless invasion of Great Britain.

An American expeditionary force, armed with state-of-the-1950s-art weaponry, rides to the rescue, but soon is badly in need of its own savior. It'll take the heroics of American soldier Nathan Hale to prevent the Chimeran conquest of Britain.

This is one good-looking game, with smooth textures and deep 3-D images that take full advantage of the PS3's high-definition capability. Running and gunning my way through an abandoned bus depot, I took time to note the beautiful rendering of the buses. No wonder I got killed a couple of times. That shouldn't have happened, because Resistance isn't all that tough for the experienced shooter. You can generally guess where the next stream of blazing lead will come from, and the Chimera obligingly grunt and growl whenever you're anywhere near them. On a battlefield littered with deadly weapons both human and alien, and lots of convenient ammo boxes, it's just a matter of running, shooting, and ducking, with the occasional grenade thrown in for variety.

Resistance lags a bit in the quality of its artificial intelligence -- the game's ability to make the digital enemies act like cunning foes rather than cannon fodder. It's easy to flank the Chimera and drop them at long range. They've got sense enough to take cover, but they generally stay put as you maneuver on them. It's a common enough fault in shooters, but the higher processing power of the PS3 was supposed to give us smarter opposition. I guess they're still working on it. Meanwhile, you can go online using Sony's free PlayStation gaming network, and confront far more intelligent human foes.

Sounds great, huh? Well, too bad you probably can't find a PS3. Willing to settle for an Xbox 360? It, too, will probably sell out before Christmas, but there are still a goodly number in the stores, and a barnburner of a game to go with them.

Sure, Gears of War is another post-apocalyptic rumble in the rubble. But look on the bright side -- it doesn't happen on Earth. Humans have colonized a distant planet and built a rich and glorious civilization, only to see it demolished by the evil Locust Horde. You're Marcus Fenix, super-soldier turned convict. The good news is you've just been paroled. The bad news is you've just re enlisted.

From here on, it's more of the same run-and-gun, but carried off with exceptional skill. The game's resolution isn't quite as sharp as Resistance, but you hardly mind. Its designers have given it a grim epic grandeur. You wish the fighting would stop long enough for you to take a stroll amid the Greco-Roman ruins.

No such luck. But as Fenix, you've got a repertoire of moves that the GIs in Resistance can only envy. The game's crouch command lets you duck and cover, then hop or roll from one defensive position to the next -- just the thing for nasty fire-and-maneuver situations. You can blind-shoot from behind an obstacle to keep the Locusts' heads down. And the Locusts have sense enough to duck. They're much smarter opponents than the Chimera -- far from brilliant, but they advance and flank like they know what they're doing.

Gears of War also has multiplayer, but you need a paid "gold" subscription to Xbox Live online service to get in the fight. It's worth the $50 a year. But Gears of War is quite challenging enough in single-player mode. Indeed, if you're hardcore about shooters, this game's good enough to make you forget the PS3. At least until next year, when you can find one.