With the end of the Harry Potter movies, we can finally say goodbye to the increasingly awful games. Or can we?

In a 7-2 vote, a federal appeals court declared a California law that would ban the sale or rental of violent video games to minors as unconstitutional.

Signed into law by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2005, the law would have prohibited the sale or rental of violent video games to anyone under the age of 18, and forced retailers to pay a $1,000 fine per violation. It would have also created stricter regulations for manufacturers.

With David O. Russell, Mark Wahlberg and a script that sounded like it was stolen from another video game series (seriously, Sly Cooper anyone?) all gone from the Uncharted movie adaptation, fans are now left wondering what will happen with their beloved Nate Drake.

The brainchild of Hothead Games and legendary Monkey Island creator Ron Gilbert, DeathSpank is unlike most heroes; he’s a shoot before asking type of guy — a dispenser of justice and slayer of demons. He’s also quite the collector; on his quests to find a powerful artifact (known as The Artifact), our hero “acquired” more loot than Blackbeard. Read on to find out more about this PS3A Hero.

Prepare to take a trip down memory lane as you travel back into the 80s with Awesomenauts, a retro 16-bit multiplayer online battle arena influenced by our favorite cartoon titles of old. Developed by Romino Games, this downloadable title lets players take control of various wacky characters as they are pitted against one another in one giant area.

But just how awesome is Awesomenauts? We got some hands-on time with the game at E3 to find out.

At this year’s E3, 46,800 industry professionals, journalists, retailers and analysts arrived in LA to experience the videogame industry’s biggest event of the year, and with over 200 exhibitors promoting their latest games and hardware, this year was arguably the biggest ever.

We cannot offer you a complete guide to E3 2011 (that would require writing a book), but we can give you this neat list featuring 10 thing that caught our attention during this year’s show. We had great games and impressive hardware on show and a lot of stuff happening in-between. Enjoy.

Serious Sam is making his PlayStation 3 debut with Serious Sam 3: BFE. Those familiar with the Serious Sam franchise will know that it likes to keep things simple when it comes to first person shooters. There are no regenerating health shields or perfectly placed walls for cover. As the tagline says, “No Cover, All Man.”

Starhawk, the spiritual successor the spiritual successor to LightBox Interactive’s Warhawk, has already garnered a great amount of attention from the gaming community, and for good reason.

Using the new Build & Battle mechanic, Starhawk lets players build fortresses, weapons, vehicles, and other structures with the push of a button, whenever and wherever they want. Blending elements of RTS with third person shooter, the game will be something both new and familiar to Warhawk fans.

PS3 Attitude got some hands-on time with one of Starhawk’s multiplayer modes, a variation of capture the flag, at Sony’s press conference event. How does the game shape up so far, and more importantly, did we capture the enemy’s flag?

It’s been an interesting couple of months without PSN. Let’s just say, we’ve come to appreciate the value of online connectivity. So much so, it’s hard to imagine how we coped in the dark old days. You know, about 5 or 6 years ago, when our consoles were always offline. Our grandchildren won’t believe it; we can hardly believe it.

Yes, that’s right; back by popular demand is PS3 Attitude’s PlayTime, in which we reveal what we’ve been up to for the past month. From blockbuster titles to indie games, we’ve been tracking exactly what we’ve been playing throughout March because, believe it or not, we do play games as well as write about them. There’s been a huge amount of highly anticipated games released in the last few weeks, and we’ve played a fair few of them, so let’s get started.

Many times we see games blending different genres together to create something new and exciting. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. Slam Bolt Scrappers, developed by independent studio Fire Hose Games, mashes what can only be described as Tetris meets Tower Defense into a chaotic free-for-all battle to be king.

Is this action puzzler fit to wear the crown, or is it destined to be thrown into the scrap heap?

The first-person shooter genre is one of the most dominant of this generation. The success of Call of Duty alone is staggering. Back in late December, Activision announced that Black Ops had surpassed $1bn in sales and that over 600m hours had been logged playing the game. The game is still topping the charts today. Call of Duty isn’t the only franchise flying the flag for first-person shooters either; there is also much fanfare for Killzone, Battlefield, Medal of Honor and Resistance, to name just a few of the big hitters.

Recently, Sony has been rereleasing some of their Classic PS2 games on the PS3 under the ‘Classics HD’ title. While the games themselves are a fantastic trip down memory lane, the issue of box art has been raised, mainly they don’t look too good. Here’s my take.

This is the first of our revamped weekly FirstPlay articles, detailing the content of each episode of the digital magazine, and what we thought of it. Some episodes are chock-full of great content, whilst others are occasionally lacking, so our intention with this feature is to give our opinion on each episode, so that you can decide whether or not it interests you.

There are many people who may feel swamped at the sheer amount of options and things to do in the epic Gran Turismo 5. But never fear! PS3 Attitude is here to help! We’re here to provide some of the best tips and tricks, which are tried and tested by the best experts out there: you guys.

We are now in the year of the rabbit; that means, if you’re into astrology this is going to be an exciting year for you and your PlayStation 3, what with rabbits being known for their artistic talents and good taste. However, those who consider astrology to be a lot of superstitious nonsense may require further persuasion.

We advise unbelievers to look at the games released in January – LittleBigPlanet 2, Dead Space 2 and Mass Effect 2 – because these alone point to a good year. Each one is a blockbuster title and likely to be in contention when the awards are being handed out. What’s more, this selection is diverse and offers something for almost everyone. There are worse ways to start a year, that’s for sure.

Well then, dear PS3 lovers… it will soon be the Year of the Rabbit, the happiest of all the Chinese zodiac signs.

In Chinese astrology the Rabbit is considered to be happy and popular. Rabbits are known for their artistic talent and good taste. You might say there are certain attributes of the Rabbit that foretell of a great year for Sony’s flagship console.

So, is that the case? Or will 2011 be more a ‘dog of a year’ than a metaphorical ‘lucky rabbit’s foot’?

We’ve been toiling through the comments section for the past few week, looking through and enjoying all your interesting thoughts, and now we’re finally in a position to announce our Platinum Community winners for December.

It’s been a month of drinking, eating, and spending time with loved ones, and a month for announcements – big announcements. The following games were unveiled: Uncharted 3, The Elder Scrolls V, Mass Effect 3, SSX Deadly Descents, and a new Tomb Raider; it is a very impressive list. We also learned more about some of 2011’s most exciting games: Homefront, DiRT 3, L.A. Noire, Batman: Arkham City, Resistance 3 and Bulletstorm.

There weren’t many new releases, but the Vietnam expansion pack for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 was a highlight. We also got some demos – and yes, a demo can be a highlight, but only just. Here is the re-cap of the month…