Castlevania (Demo - Currently Playstation plus only)

Terrible demo. You get two sections, the first is a combat tutorial. The second is a section travelling through a forest on horseback. Combat is like a poor man's God of War although I'd hope once you unlock more moves it opens the possibilities for better attacks and a proper flow to the combat. Graphics are good, although again not as nice as God of War 3 or Uncharted 2. The voice acting while done by a talented cast is also rather forced in its delivery and the dialogue is fairly cheesy. There's a good game here, or at least the potential for a good game but they really chose a poor demo to showcase it. The game is developed by the Spanish company Mercury Stream under the watchful eye of Kojima Productions. I was really looking forward to this and while the demo did disappoint I'm remaining optimistic that the final release will prove to be a must buy game. The series has great pedigree and the art direction and production values are excellent and seeing as this was an old build I still have high hopes.

World Rally Championship (Demo)

The demo for the latest WRC game was released on Xbox live recently. While it's not developed by Evolution studios, the guys behind the excellent PS2 era series using the WRC license this is still a very enjoyable game. It's clearly been developed on a tight budget and while it won't hold a candle to the likes of Gran Turismo 5 or Dirt 2 in terms of graphics and presentation it still provides a great driving sensation. My biggest gripe with the game is the sound effects, I can forgive the less than stellar graphics but the sound levels are appalling. The engines can hardly be heard and give off more of a whine than a roar. Still the game's biggest problem is that it's being released in between F1 2010 and GT 5 so expect to see it in bargain bins come January as most racing fans will sadly be forced to overlook it in favour of the more high profile racing offerings this year.

Halo Reach

What can I say other than "wow". Bungie nailed it, their final Halo game is like a best of compilation of everything that made the other games so good and it removes almost everything that didn't. Aside from the characterisation of the cast being poorer than ODST's the game was almost flawless as far as I'm concerned. It offered a campaign that was epic in every way and it was told in a fashion which suited the medium being used and didn't get bogged down in convoluted cut scenes like its predecessors. Great graphics, sound (amazing score by Martin "Marty" O'Donnell), set pieces that left me both inspired and in awe, this game had it all.

Enslaved - Odyssey to the West (Demo)

Developed by Ninja Theory who previously gave us Heavenly Sword this game tells a story based on the ancient Chinese tale "A Journey to the West". The story was co-written by Alex Garland who wrote the scripts for films such as "28 weeks later" and "Sunshine". In terms of story telling the game is fantastic. The motion capture used to help create the characters is some of the best I've seen and the voice acting is likewise top notch. The gameplay is similar to other games in the genre such as Batman AA and Uncharted 2 although not as refined as either. Graphics and sound are excellent and the score although limited in the demo is impressive. One to watch then, but like WRC it's being released during a flood of excellent titles many of which are sequels to proven franchises and it's in very real danger of getting lost amongst them.