Confessions of a Movie-game Player

So Eragon was more entertaining than I thought it would be.  Then I picked up Cars for the Xbox360 (available all systems, too).  There's a kids-level game and a "Full-size" game.  Cars starts off very slow and is about as arcade as a racer gets.  However, the game has so many mini games that are thematic to the movie and regular challenges of racing that it will take a long time to finish.  I now realize why this was such a big seller last Christmas.  As a game for kids, this is one of the best.

So as I'm playing, I realized that I don't like the oval circuits which are NASCAR style.  To their credit, the levels don't make you feel like you're the only car on the track as most other racers do.  Also, the world is huge and full of hidden goodness.  The points system is really a currency and makes sense.  Best of all was when I realized that certain events leave you in nighttime.  This is because Postcard and points hunting are so much easier at night.  The little "Lightning" icons and postcard icons are bright spots in the mostly dark night levels.  At night, the flaw is that your cars don't have working headlights, even though the other cars do.

Power ups are won from mini-games, and the Turbo is really needed!  Later, you'll learn to drive backwards which gives extra points on races.  There is nothing like pulling big air backwards! 

The lesson I'm learning is that playing the demo may not be good enough.  I didn't like the demo game on Marketplace, but I didn't give it a chance.  This is something to consider when reading reviews.  Most reviewers don't get the 8-20 hours of each game to properly asses it.