VideoGamer.com Plays

What we've been playing this week.

Tom Orry, Editor - Gran Turismo 5, PS3

The thing about a game like Gran Turismo is that you can get hooked without knowing. I'm not even the biggest fan of GT5 - its many problems annoy me a lot - but I can't help but think about trying to earn enough credits to buy that Pagani Zonda. But then a voice in my head tells me to stop being stupid. I've been eyeing up the office copy of Forza 3 and remembering how much fun I had with it last year. There's still too much stuff to play from this year though.

Neon Kelly, Deputy Editor - StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, PC

It's time to face facts: I don't think I'm ever going to be great at StarCraft II's multiplayer. Perhaps I just lack the required organisational skills, but for whatever reason I always end up getting rushed within the first five or ten minutes. I had an extended session with Martin recently, and the best I managed was to delay my inevitable defeat by spreading pockets of Zerg across the map, migrating across the planet like an itinerant acne attack. To be honest, I don't even enjoy all that "perfect build-order" stuff, as you rarely ever get to use the big units at the top of the tech tree. What's the point of having massive Battlecruisers if you never get to use them? Still, it's a cracking game without a doubt, and I'm absolutely loving the single-player campaign. My only concern is how Blizzard will handle the Zerg and Protoss games. The Terrans offer lots of opportunities for humour, but the po-faced aliens are a bit more serious, aren't they? Still, given Blizzard's glacial work rate we won't have to worry about this until 2012...

Martin Gaston, Staff Writer - Red Dead Redemption, Xbox 360 and PS3

While people seem to believe Rockstar is capable of moving mountains, as well as increasing the size of the male penis, I present to you the following: this mission in Red Dead Redemption where I had to navigate some platforms to get into a barn. I must have fallen off that barn, like, maybe three times. That was really annoying. I will admit that's quite a petty thing to bring up, but then I'm the person who once refused to eat an incredibly delicious pizza because it had a single hair on the far edge. It could have been my hair, for all I know - I still wasn't going to eat it. Thankfully the rest of Red Dead Redemption has been pretty damn fine; my goal for tonight is to strut around in the Elegant Suit. Stay classy, Marston!

Emily Gera, Staff Writer - Coil, PC

Here's an art game by Edmund McMillen, the guy whose name you'll recognise from the Super Meat Boy credits. A bit of an odd one in typical art game style - you play a fertilised egg or something and gradually grow into a kind of alien-like foetus. Yeah, that sort of game. The narrative is held together through the odd, intermittent screen of cryptic prose written on to a black background, which hints at the gameplay mechanics that turn up in the upcoming segment. And also gives you a vague idea of how this thing was conceived. It's bloody grim, a bit wanky, but quite interesting, which is all you can ask for.

Jamin Smith, Staff Writer – Raving Rabbids: Travel in Time, Wii

There's so much to do in Raving Rabbids: Travel in Time outside of the main game. The hub world – a museum in the year 2012 – has plenty of entertaining distractions. I spent a worrying amount of time playing about with the camera mode, which allows you to take photos of your rabbid in humorous costumes and poses. As I was looking through the photo album (a framed picture decorating one of the walls in the museum) I spotted an opportunity to do something clever. I positioned my rabbid in front of the picture frame, and took a picture of him looking at it. I then put that photo up on the wall, and took another photo, which of course featured my previous rabbid looking at a photo of himself looking at a photo. I repeated this process for 10 photos (the maximum the game will store) which created a mesmerising infinite mirror image. I was informed by Emily that this type of image is known as an example of the Droste Effect. Now you know.