Bulletstorm

I wasn't particularly interested in this game when it first reared it's head at last year's E3, but after realizing it came from the same guys who made Painkiller, my interest was sparked.

You play as Greyson Hunt, a space pirate that wears combat armor made from recycled Fords and old biker jackets and carries enough firepower to reduce the entire city of Detroit to smoldering rubble... more so than it already is I mean.

I do find myself wondering why he says he's a "Space Pirate", though. Do pirates on earth say they are "Sea Pirates"? Does he pirate space itself, and if so, who is he pirating it from? Maybe those people who have shelled out thousands of dollars for a square km of the moon...

Anyhow, the game's primary feature is the ability to "Kill with skill", which means that you are constantly reducing the enemies in the game to mangles giblets using the aforementioned excessive fire power and your time displacing gravity tether. Using the tools at your disposal and your trusty boot, you and your ragtag team of mercs traverse the ruined world of Stigia, which if I recall correctly is an abandon vacation planet inhabited solely by psychotic cannibals. The only way I can think to describe the gameplay is by saying that you are essentially the roided up relative of Neo from the first Matrix movie, only lacking the ability to shut the fuck up while killing people. Honestly, the one thing that bugs me about this game is the absolutely childish one liners that are spouted by Greyson. It makes Duke Nukem's one liners seem like nitrous oxide infused gold. As far as voices and dialogue go, I would rather have had someone of Baird's caliber from Gears of War and his cynical sense of humor than Steve Blum going on about poop chutes and dicks, but I suppose you can't win them all.

At this point I'm pretty sure the demo is available for download from XBL for both gold and free members, but if not I know for a fact that anyone on PSN can grab it. The demo shows a mode called Echoes, which allows you to play thorugh a timed section of the game while attempting to rack up as many skill points as possible. I strongly suggest you check it out and see the carnage for yourself. Oh, and if you preorder now you get into the Gears of War 3 beta, if you're into that sort of thing.

There are also leaderboards for the demo and I'm currently ranked at 284 out of over 80,000 with 18165 points. See if you can beat my score ;).