By now you have probably read my posts. I bought a PS3+Singstar PS3 (with dual mics) for my wife and daughter to play. Here's a basic rundown for those that might be interested in this title.

First, Singstar PS2 and PS3 are not identical. I have both. The are very similar, but PS3 has the online store. Options, menu layout, and overall presentation are very similar in both versions but not identical. The PS3, graphically, is much more polished.

The following all applies to the PS3 version.

The included songs are just OK... 30-something songs is lame, though, given the size of the blu-ray disk. They should have added a significant portion of PS2 content to it and had at least 100. But then couldn't micro-transaction users to death if they did that. The content ranges from completely innocuous to something I'd prefer my 10 Y.O. daughter to not see. The videos can get a little (or a lot) racy. A half-naked britney spears making out in a airplane restroom isn't the kind of image I want my daughter to see. Why they put that whore in here is beyond me... The pussycat dolls "beep" is awful as well. I must be overly anal to not want to see that kind of rubbish in my "family" entertainment so take that with a grain of salt. Kids get too much sex and violence in everything they see and hear these days so I try not to add to it with trash.

I bought this thinking the online would be good. It's not. It works, but the song selection is just horrid. A good 50+ percent of the songs on there are from new, indie, or not well-known bands. In order to actually sing a song right out of the box, one really needs a tune or two that they have heard dozens upon dozens of times. Sadly there isn't much online that fits into the category of mainstream popular music.

There are so many artists with so many songs we have heard over and over again through the years. Why the hell cant' they include some? There are many, many, many tunes that when they come on the radio, regardless of genre, people find themselves singing along without even thinking about it. These are the songs I'd like to see but I guess Sony hasn't quite figured that out just yet. The various forums I have visted all have the same gripes: ditch the indie and unknown band shit and get some mainstream music put up...

Honestly, we are all really, really disappointed with the content of singstar. Great idea. Shit execution. If I had to give it an overall rating at this point (and I would do so based on the game and content), I'd give it a 5/10 max.

I know the younger generation is happy to see all the very modern pop and alternative but that is a narrow audience. Everyone can sing "Crazy little thing called love" by Queen. Everyone. Sony, are you listening?

I actually went out and bought Singstar 80's for the PS2 along with Singstar POP for the PS2 so they actually would have some songs to sing. It's pathetic that I had to back to the PS2 to get something that should be online for PS3 users.  Every damn PS2 song released should be available in the singstore.  WTF, Sony?

Yeah sounds like you wanted a rock antem version and not an american idol version... Rock Band or GH4 may suit your tastes better.

I have Rock Band on the 360 and it does have a LOT of cool songs both on the disk and in-store.

Hmm, everyone has an issue with song selection with games; Guitar Hero pisses me off to no end with its poor selection sometimes but you can't buy singstar expecting 70's classics because thats not who the game is aimed at.

It depends on your favorite songs.

Looking up the set list online before purchasing the game would have been a good idea.

You are right... I should have researched it a bit more.  I kind of went on my wife's desire to play the game, though.  I even suggested a Karaoke machine but she said she wanted Singstar.  I just assumed it would have more mainstream music than it did.

It's not a total loss, though.  There are about a dozen songs in total that she likes and there will be updates to come (something like every two weeks) so I'm hoping that more stuff of interest will pop up.

And finally, yes, music games are very subjective and I should probably have added that to the very beginning of my review.

hey KN I m interested to know what you thought of Heavenly sword?did try to unlock some combats?how was it graphically and story line wise?

I actually thoroughly enjoyed Heavenly Sword.  The story was pretty darn good for a short hack-n-slash.  The voice acting was pretty well done as well.  The graphics most of the time were really quite exceptional.  There were some slowdowns in a few places but overall the game was excellent.  There are a few complaints here and there:  occasionally when she would do one of her special attacks, she would go through the motions, killing some bad guy, but there was no-one in her grasp.  It was weird and happend 3 or 4 times through the entire game.  The frame rate was solid most of the time but occasionally slowed.  Strangely, it didn't usually happen when there was a lot going on in the battlefield.  I suspect it was just areas that needed some extra work and the developers ran out of time.  Lastly, Nariko is, well, a stunning computer-generated representation of the female physique.  I was a bit dissappointed that her hair was a low-polygon bundle rather than a bit more hair-like.  That hair is part of her charm and it would have been great if they had put the level of detail in her hair that they did on the waterfalls in the game.  Lastly, the water animations when fighting the snake-tounged chick were pretty weak -- that is the waves and the part where she burrowed underwater to strike you.  Very last gen.   Overall, though, great graphics and a FUN game.  Like my previous complaints about single player games, this one was too short to justify $60.  I'm glad I rented it as it didn't take long to finish it.

As a bargain-bin game of, say $19.95, I would buy this and add it to my collection to play through 3 or 4 times more.  Given the ending I don't see how they could make a Heavenly Sword II without it basically being an entirely new game.

Both my girlfriend and I are actually loving Singstar PS3 now. Sure, I preferred Amped, but I don't thing the song selection is that bad at all (not that you said it was). There are a lot of classics on there when you include the store. For example, I have 3 David Bowie (a God amongst musicians) songs, Don McClean's 'American Pie', the Stones' 'Sympathy for the Devil'. Also, some great 90's songs with 'No Rain', ' Losing my Religion', 'No Surprises', and 'Loser'. Plus many great recent songs with Franz Ferdinand, Corrine Bailey Rae, and KT Tunstall which many kids seem to love these days. I must say I'm rather pleased with learning some of these songs that I hadn't been familiar with before.

I would agree with you though that there seems to be a lack of songs that EVERYONE knows. With the exception of 'American Pie' and maybe some Bowie and Roy Orbison songs, there really isn't much that just about anyone can pick up and play.

Here's to hopefully getting some Queen soon!