Full Auto (Xbox 360)

I'm playing the Full Auto demo from the January issue of The Official Xbox Magazine.

This game has some potential, and if the final product improves the frame rate (the demo has a lot of stuttering, even in the in-game movies) and adds some polish, this combat racing game could be a lot of fun -- especially online, where you can designate rivals, and go after them, in addition to trying to win the overall race.

The rewind feature is also pretty slick, and could add an interesting game dynamic.

We'll see if Sega ends up with a hit on their hands. And it looks to be quite a leap forward from the Pseudo Interactive folks' last foray, Cel Damage.

Condemned: Criminal Origins (Xbox 360)

I've been playing the demo for Sega's Condemned: Criminal Origins, downloadable through the Xbox Marketplace.

This game is a lot of things I look for in a game -- next-gen gorgeous, new game play twists on a standard genre (survival horror), and excellent use of 6-channel audio.

This is just the demo, so I don't know if the melee combat will get a little repetitive. But if it does, it's going to be brutal, visceral repetitive.

Horror films could learn from this game. It's one thing to sit and watch a movie for an hour and a half, and see something unknown scurry through the dark. It's something else altogether to spend eight hours stuck exploring abandoned warehouses, seeing things scurry away from you, and having to choose to go after them of your own volition.

Oh, and playing this thing at 1 a.m., alone in the dark, with surround sound so I can hear things in the abandoned building creak and break behind me? Creeped ... me ... out.

Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie (Xbox 360)

I'm playing the Xbox 360 demo of Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie (Xbox 360 demo).

The demo is slick, and absolutely amazing in high def on a projection screen. This is the first game that, for me, is seriously enhanced by the big-screen treatment.

There's a quirk in the "V-REX" level -- when you get into the pool of water, wait there until the T-Rex moves on, and one of your party makes a comment to you. That'll end the demo. If you exit the pool before the comment is made, you'll wander around waiting for something to happen, but not able to move on.

Or maybe that's just me.

Shamu's Deep Sea Adventures (Xbox)

No, I haven't finished Perfect Dark Zero yet, but any time that title's single player story and dialog irritates me to the point of stoppage, I've been bouncing around to other titles.

Like this little All-Ages gem: Shamu's Deep Sea Adventures.

Why? Because it's an Xbox title compatible with the Xbox 360, supports HDTV 720p (high-def widescreen), and doesn't suck gameplay wise like Finding Nemo.

Good luck finding the Xbox version, though. I've been able to track down the Nintendo Gameboy Advance version pretty regularly, and the Sony PS2 version surfaced once, but I couldn't find the Xbox version until I ordered it from Buy.com. Searching for it on Activision won't get you jack tuna -- you need to go to their Activision Value Publishing sub-brand microsite. And, oddly, I couldn't find anything about the title on developer Fun Labs' website.

I'm only 4 levels in, but not bad so far -- and a high-def killer whale on a big screen projector turns out to be pretty cool ...