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I'm going to steal a page from Entertainment Weekly's film review section and pose the question: Why wait for the game when you can criticize the trailer/demo? These days I'm having way more fun watching previews and trying promotional code than playing any of the lame new releases currently sitting on store shelves.

For example, I just finished checking out the new preview for Final Fantasy XIII. Square-Enix's beloved role-playing series has a reputation for raising the bar for current generation console graphics with each new instalment, but I'm not sure they've done it this time. The cut scenes shown in the trailer are CGI movie quality, as always, but the battles? I spied no innovative new camera angles, stunning attack animations, or sparkly magical spells. Just lots of leaping, swiping, and posing.

Good thing Final Fantasy games aren't just about visual spectacle. The franchise also has the first and last word on mushy Japanese melodrama, apocalyptic plotlines, and delicately coiffed boy characters who look like girls, and the trailer makes it clear that all three of these genre trademarks are strongly represented in the series' thirteenth instalment (though, for better or worse, I won't have to worry about feeling weird for thinking the lead character is hot, since-for once-she's actually a girl).

I'd welcome readers' thoughts on the narrative, though. Nothing makes sense after the tantalizing opening, in which our heroine utters the words: "The thirteen days after we awoke…were the beginning of the end." The rest of the trailer is seemingly just pretty images and random dialogue.

Moving to interactive previews, I checked out the new Resident Evil 5 demo available for download on Xbox 360. From the two beautifully brutal levels of zombie slaying I tried (one begins with a classic zombie siege, the other had me wandering around a nameless African shanty town), it looks to be very similar in look and feel to its most recent predecessor…with one big difference: everything is designed for two players (or at least two characters).

I was constantly helping and being helped by a sassy female soldier. We had to heal one another, beat off zombies that were holding the other down, and provide cover for each other. At one point I even flung her over a gap between two buildings so that she could run downstairs and unlock the door of my building.

It was fun, and I thought she was pretty clever for an artificial intelligence, but it felt a bit too much like Left 4 Dead for my liking-though, it's worth noting, I'm among the small minority of gamers who weren't charmed by Valve's multiplayer-oriented zombie shooter. At least Resident Evil 5's single-player campaign looks to have a more fully developed narrative.

The last demo I checked out this week was Resistance: Retribution for PlayStation Portable, the handheld follow-up to last fall's Resistance 2 for PlayStation 3.

The PSP has, unfortunately, failed as a shooter platform, due largely to its inadequate interface (it's pretty tough to move and aim with just one analogue thumb stick). That said, Retribution makes do by transferring aiming duties to the action buttons, essentially turning them into a second directional pad. It's a bit clumsy, but it works.

The less than ideal controls may be the reason behind what seems to be simplified level design. The mission I played involved several narrow pathways and head-on fights with lots of cover. There was no need to do much looking around; I just kept my finger on the trigger and let the auto-targeting system do most of the work. It doesn't offer the sort of strategy found in a sophisticated console shooter, but it is undeniably action-packed.

Retribution's real draw, though, is its graphics. Some terrific looking cut scenes and surprisingly vivid in-game visuals make it easy to believe that the game takes place in the same world as its PlayStation 3-based brethren. Indeed, I was perfectly comfortable stepping into the shoes of new series hero Grayson-a British jarhead with an enthusiasm for explosives-as I entered a Chimera transformation facility with an aim to save a beautiful French operative from becoming a disgusting, mindless monster.

Expect Resistance: Retribution this March.

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