Final Fantasy XIII

Title: Final Fantasy XIII
Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJPbozRomX4
Soundtrack clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HiZe2y41Og&feature=fvst
ESRB information: T for mild language, suggestive themes, violence

Final Fantasy XIII  looked like a great game to me, graphics and artwork looked great, so did the story, I thought that the soundtrack was a bit uninspired but I thought it looked great, I got this game and returned it the next morning, and why was this?
    Controls. I admired the artwork of the opening cutscene which dragged out a bit and the game told me how to control my character in combat, it said that I had to go to a menu and choose my attacks, I thought that this meant I had to choose what my attacks do when I use them but instead I got a side menu where I pressed one button to leap into action and swing my sword all over the place at a giant robot, I looked up a video review on IGN and it looked like you do eventually get to actually use your joystick to move your character around, but still not in combat. I decided that if I can't have my control in battle then I don't want to play the game.
    But before you make a decision about this game I have to tell you that I talked to the Game Stop staff and they said that 50% of people loved Final Fantasy XIII and the other 50% hated it, I'm with the people who hated it but I can't say I completely hated this game because I didn't consider story or characters, I didn't want to play this game because I didn't like the battle system, you can not make your own decision about this game until you've played it.
    Even if you played and hated this game, still don't completely forget about the developer Square Enix as they have a bunch of other titles and I think that FFXIII was the only game that they really screwed up, and it was only the controls.

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

Title: Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8puPKA7IiWI
Soundtrack clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wC2ttNyMjpw
ESRB information: T for blood, language, suggestive themes, violence

    When Enslaved came out, I thought it looked like the coolest game ever, but at that point I didn't have my xbox, now I have Enslaved and it is amazing.
    Enslaved has a unique story, you play as a man nicknamed "Monkey" and you are in a slave ship run by the combat machines called "mechs," when a girl named Trip hacks electronic parts of her holding sell, she escapes, in this event Monkey's holding cell is detached from the wall and he has to escape the slave ship. In the escape, Monkey grabs onto the last escape pod which Trip is inside, she launches the pod anyway and Monkey is knocked out on impact and wakes up with an enslaving headband around his head, Trip programmed it to discharge a lethal shock if she dies, so Monkey has no choice but to help her back to her hometown.
    Voice over is great, so are the facial animations, but there are some errors: there is a lot of jumping from handholds and climbing around, this could be a bit more interesting, but is really just hold your joystick in a direction to jump to that handhold, also programming stops you from running of cliffs or falling off ledges, which can make climbing downward difficult sometimes but developer Ninja Theory did a good job with combat as you have different attacks with your only weapon which is your staff. The staff has stun slashes, yellow smashes that deal high damage and plain hits, your staff can even shoot a plasma or stun blast from it's end. I thought that the character "Pigsy" was a bit annoying but still this game held my attention because even though there was an annoying character, he had good character depth.
    Enslaved is great and the ending is anything but anti-climactic, but at the end the story feels like it just stops and when the end of the epilogue faded out, I thought there would be something else but it just went to credits.
    So overall Enslaved was a great game with great voice over, combat, story and beautiful art and graphics but I still loved it even though there was a couple programming errors and irritating controls at a few parts.
    You can go to the ninja theory forums by clicking this link

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Title: Batman Arkham Asyum
Platforms: PC, Xbox 360, PS3
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPnTSvX86Dw
Sountrack clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_j3Kpcsqxc
ESRB information: T for alcohol and tobacco reference, blood, mild language, suggestive themes, violence

I'm a spider-man fan and played Shattered Dimensions last year, activision didn't do a very good job with that spider-man game, I enjoyed some parts but dialogue was mostly unfunny jokes during combat, I decided to give Arkham Asylum a try because Batman already has better movies than Spider-man, I expected the same thing as Activisions Spider-man games: cheesy dialogue, slightly boring combat, and weak story. But I was completely wrong with Arkham Asylum, this is definitely the best game with comic book characters.
    At the beginning Batman brings the Joker into the insane asylum on Arkham Island, Joker breaks free and takes control of the island, with the inmates running loose and half the guards dead with the other half either held hostage or hiding, it's up to the dark knight to fight hoards of Joker henchmen and other classic batman villains.

    Unlike Spider-man shattered dimensions the villains in arkham asylum aren't just there because it's a chance to show off and have unnecasary boss battles, Each villain in arkham asyum contributes to the story. The villains in order of appearance: The Joker, Killer Croc, Harley Quinn, Scarecrow, and Poison Ivy. You sometimes hear a dis-embodied Riddler voice giving you clues about where he's hidden his Riddler trophies, the trophies and other clues about character back stories are not important, but when you find them you almost always stop immediately to listen to patient interview tapes.
    The parts of the game with The Scarecrow are definetey freaky especially the first part with The Scarecrow, because Batman sees Jim Gordon dead and sees his parents dead bodies get up and talk to him.
    Arkham Asylum also has a large fan following, so when you beat the story you should have some people to talk to about it.
    And just as a bonus which I played for at least half and hour after beating the story: there are challenges maps to play, there are survival challenge map along with invisible predator ones and even one where you fight in a back alley of Gotham City.
    The sequel call "Arkham City" comes out this year and it's going to be awesome, click here for the Arkham City website.

Limbo

Title: Limbo
Platforms: Xbox Live Arcade
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV-0w8I-oAc
Soundtrack clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XefRvC_CIGM
ESRB information: T for animated blood, mild violence

Limbo is a platformer from an indie developer called PlayDead.
    Limbo is entirely in black and white and has some of the hardest puzzles in platformers.
    In the beginning you wake up as little boy and there are no explanations of what you're supposed to do or what the controls are (the controls are LS for move, A for jump, and B for action), there are no punch, sword, or even gun attacks for you to use, when you do kill something or someone the weapon will be only from using things from the environment around you, example when the spider is killed you have to roll a boulder on it.
    As for the story, Limbo has no dialogue, no signs explaining things to you, and no cutscenes until a short one at the end. There is only one short explanation coming from the actual developer that says anything about the story, on the download screen on Xbox Live it says for Limbo "Unsure of his sister's fate, a boy enters Limbo."
    Character names are never even referenced on the Limbo website, but I did see one youtube comment on one of the soundtrack clips that said "I like Limbo, he's a cool kid," obviously this person thought that the boy was the title character.
    I enjoyed Limbo very much but the strange ending leaves you with a sense of depression whether you understand the ending or not.
for Limbo images click this link