Why it's an amazing exclusive:
Want to be a shouty space marine shooting stuff? Want to be an almost real looking automobile racing around a track against other almost real looking automobiles? Want to pretend to be a talented musician by playing fake instruments with big colourful buttons on them? You can be all these things regardless of whichever console is hooked up to your TV. They are multiplatform experiences. Heavy Rain, on the other hand, is not.
No other console game of this generation does what Heavy Rain does. There is no comparable alternative on Wii or 360. Which is a shame, because it's absolutely the kind of game that deserves the attention of as many gamers as possible. It's unconventional, and delivers a gaming experience that is truly unique. Definitely not to everyone's tastes, sure, but absolutely worthy of the suck-it-and-see treatment before forming something that could be wielded like an opinion on why it's the best/worst thing ever.
Only the most mad in the head non-PS3 owning fanboy zealots could pretend to not even be a tiny bit curious about Heavy Rain. The things it gets players doing varies from the most WTF-iest mundane nonsense we've seen since Shenmue (move controller up and down to towel dry hair) to some utterly mental oh-my-holy-shit moments of adrenaline abuse (press Circle to avoid having vagina drilled by insane doctor).
Above: Have we ever run an image more sinister than this on GamesRadar? And that's just her eyes...
The moment you can't get anywhere else: Underwear removal
As already explained, the whole of Heavy Rain is unlike anything else out there. If you want to play a game like Heavy Rain, the only thing for it is to play Heavy Rain. It's loaded with unique, unforgettable moments. Seriously. Can anyone think of another game with tasks that range from changing a baby's dirty nappy to chopping off your own finger to trying to unclasp a lady's bra strap? No. Thought not. Oh yeah, and JASON. Obviously.
Above: Sure. Up and a flick to the left. Up, and a flick to the... GAAAAAAH! OH GOD!CALL AN AMBULANCE!
4. Limbo (Xbox 360)
Why it’s an amazing exclusive:
Thanks to the likes of Flower and Echochrome, the PSN has long been thought the home of the artier, more expressive side of downloadable console gaming. In one fell swoop, Playdead Studios took an axe to that notion and didn’t stop hacking until it stopped twitching.
There was of course a precedent for arty 2D platformers on Xbox Live Arcade, in the form of the brilliant Braid, but nothing in mainstream gaming had prepared anyone for the experience of Limbo. Bleak, stark and haunting, while simultaneously hypnotic, beautiful and transfixing, its deeply expressive looks and sounds are harrowing, affecting and poetic all at the same time.
Above: No other game looks like this. It's so stark yet hauntingly beautiful
With an ambient narrative open to limitless interpretations and some of the most instinctive, logical and satisfying platform puzzling around, Limbo is an enriching experience whether you’re into games for the art or the mechanics. In fact it’s a perfect blend of the two, a game which provides much more than the sum of its already considerable parts, and which stays with you in exactly the way a vivid or disturbing dream does.
The moment you won’t get anywhere else: The spider ‘fight’
You haven’t been in Limbo’s darkly ethereal embrace for long, but already you’re choking on its ambience. And then the silhouette of the most horrific, seething nightmare you can ever imagine invades the screen from nowhere, with animation that can only be described using the word “disgusting”. Your mind floods with images of what it might be, but you know you’re not even close. And then you have to take it out, not with weapons or convenient set-pieces, but with simple logic and ingenuity. Good luck.
Above:Scared of spiders? You'll love Limbo...
