Flower Trailer on PS3

Have you had a rough day? Need a few moments of peace and relaxation between wrangling the kids into bed and tackling the dirty dishes from a week ago? Tranquility is at a finger's grasp - just pick up a joystick.

PlayStation three, a newer generation video game console, is paving the way for a very different sort of genre in video games that may change the common perception of gaming. The tradition of video gaming as mostly an alt-culture outlet offering aggressive, shoot-em-ups or exploration through macabre scenes populated with monsters and demons is very recently going through some transitions that promise it a brighter, more credible future as not only an entertainment outlet for the masses but also as an outlet of artistic expression in the mainstream world. Sony PlayStation is not the only console brand trying to branch out and create a wider customer base - Nintendo Wii has been making its name in popular culture by marketing to housewives, geriatrics, and tween girls. But where Wii is offering games in the spirit of quiz shows, fitness regimens, and petting zoos, PlayStation is making poetry.

Last February, PlayStation released Flower. My husband bought it for me as a Valentine's day gift, and it was such a breath of fresh air (pun intended) to play. He's a gamer, and since being with him, I have come to be somewhat of a gamer. I've only played a handful of games obsessively, all of them either cute, ethereal, or relaxing in some way. All of them non-violent. Flower fulfilled my prerequisites to a T. Though, truth be told, Flower is not one of those games I played with obsessive gusto... but it's not really that sort of game. And I find that to be a good thing.

Leave behind your stresses, the chaos of the outside world, the humdrum minutia of daily routine, the sterility and confinement of space in concretes, plastics, and glass. Now, imagine you're the wind. Light, free, a whisper, or a roar.