VideoGamer.com Plays

What we've been playing this week.

Tom Orry, Editor - Sonic and SEGA All-Stars Racing, Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii

I'm not sure why, but I wasn't expecting much from SEGA and Sumo's Mario Kart-style arcade racer. Having sunk a fair few hours into it I can say that my preconceptions were completely wrong. It is a fairly shameless rip-off, but visually it's excellent and the powersliding gameplay is spot-on. The track designs are superb and most of the characters are pretty great, while the music is classic SEGA. Dare I say it, I enjoyed my time with All-Stars racing more than when I was working through Mario Kart Wii.

Wesley Yin-Poole, Deputy Editor - Final Fantasy XIII, Xbox 360

Ah, Final Fantasy XIII. Is there a game that pours more fuel onto the fanboy feud that rages across the internet? We've already established that the 360 version's FMV looks compressed, but does it impact on your enjoyment of the game? Well, now that we're some 15 hours into the 360 version, we can draw some conclusions: having seen FFXIII's glorious FMVs running in supercrisp 1080p on the PS3, the cutscenes in the 360 version do disappoint - at first. As a discerning 360 owner you're constantly aware of the reduced quality, but the more you play, the fewer pixels you notice. For those who don't know any better, however… well, they say ignorance is bliss.

Sebastian Ford, Video Producer - Mass Effect 2, Xbox 360, PC

Ok, you were right. You were all right. Mass Effect 2 is bloody brilliant. I gave up waiting for a so-called friend to finish with the first game, I got bored of distracting myself with Age of Empires 3, and seeing Mass Effect 2 sitting unopened on my desk was too much to bear. I'm about 20 hours in now, and it feels like I have seen little more than a suggestive ankle to this full blown sci-fi strip tease. While I have somewhat set my heart on seducing the delightful Miranda, the flirty assistant Kelly keeps catching my eye. What to do? It's decisions like these that keep me up at night.