Grand Theft Auto may have popularized the well-armed open-world rampage, but elsewhere in the pop culture landscape, superheroes hold more sway than car-jacking vigilantes. So it's about time us console gamers got to ditch the military hardware altogether and use our bare hands to blast electric bolts at innocent bystanders.

inFamous, due out later this month, offers that very thrill. Created by Sucker Punch, the development house behind the PS2’s cell-shaded Sly Cooper series, this PS3-exclusive sandbox game allows you to play as either famous hero or infamous villain. Based on the title alone, however, it's unlikely that many of us will elect to rescue kittens when we could instead be flash-frying civilians and making our electrokinetic powers glow an awesomely evil red.

Of course, it’s a lot easier to be bad since the whole city thinks you -- AKA suddenly superpowered bike-messenger Cole McGrath -- are responsible for a massive explosion that not only gave you your powers, but also wiped out six square blocks and left the rest of Empire City an anarchic mess. The police, and all sense of civilization, are gone as gangs crush in to fill the vacuum. It will come as no surprise to comic book fans that the developers were influenced by the post-urban disaster epics DMZ and Batman’s 1999 crossover No Man’s Land.

Still, while inFamous' scenario sounds awesome and the gameplay (in the demo anyway) is superfun, it lacks the freedom offered in pioneering superhero game City of Heroes/City of Villains, a subscription-based, massively multiplayer RPG around since 2005 which has always let you create your own powers, pen your own backstory, design your own costume and then mix it up with other unique players online in Paragon City. Its latest update, the user-generated content-based Architect, came out last month and now lets users craft (and share) their own missions and invent original villains.

City creator Cryptic was initially sued by Marvel, who were upset that people could create avatars with identical powers to their own comic creations, then Cryptic was going to develop a licensed Marvel Universe Online, which was cancelled. Marvel recently signed a 10-year deal with Gazillion Games which is kicking off with the kiddie-friendly MMO Super Hero Squad, while Cryptic is now rolling out the similarly superhero-themed Champions Online, based on the comic book-inspired Champions pen’n’paper role-playing game.

But for all of y’all that would rather be playing with more familiar superhero skins and decades-deep mythologies, get ready to get happy for the massively-multiplayer DC Universe Online. Due out either end of this year or early next, it’s helmed by comic book legend Jim Lee as well as some Everquest vets. But since it wouldn’t make sense for a thousand Bat Men to be running around Gotham, players will create unique characters while members of DC’s Justice League and Legion of Doom (from big names to fan-friendly lesser-knowns like Zatanna, Captain Marvel, Red Tornado and Harley Quinn) will be non-player characters.

In the meantime, inFamous will provide a super-cool super-powered sandbox within which to save lives or, more likely, take them.