We all know times are hard these days. A lot of people are out of work or had to serious cut back on their spending habits. We gamers are no different from anyone else when it comes to the all mighty dollar. We need every dime we can get and those dimes that we do spend to be well worth it. So we’ve thrown together a list of games that you should consider avoiding at all costs. These games are at the bottom of the barrel and under no circumstances should be purchased if you value your hard earned money.

X-Blades (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)

X-Blades is one of those games that tries to slide by using a half naked blond as the protagonist. Now we’ve seen hyper sexualized female videogame characters for years and it’s never made up for bad gameplay. Now along comes Ayumi sporting a mixture of big swords and guns and offers us nothing we could really want. X-Blades fails to deliver on many fronts such as storytelling, voice acting and how fun it is overall. The enemies come at you in waves that seem to last forever. You’ll find yourself button mashing and sighing for dozens of minutes while you wait for something exciting to happen. X-Blades gives the impression of being an adventure game on the surface but it’s really an arena fighter that  runs out of ideas quickly. It even recycles later levels by swapping day for night while the enemies remain the same. Do yourselves a favor a back away from this game quickly.

Terminator Salvation (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)

The Terminator is a franchise that is loved by millions of people worldwide. Its story and visuals are instantly recognizable  and will always have a special place in our hearts. It’s a shame we can’t say the same for the game. Movie games seem to be inherently cursed from day one. Maybe it’s because the developers must rush the product out to coincide with the film or maybe movies just make bad games in general, but gamers must suffer through this time and time again.

One of the main problems with Terminator Salvation is its length. The entire game can be completed in about four hours. If a $60 game (at launch) lasts that long it should have some sort of intriguing multiplayer component to extend the experience. Unfortunately Terminator Salvation does support online multiplayer at all. I would have liked to have a competitive mode where one side plays the humans and the other side are the machines. Like X-Blades, Terminator Salvation suffers from repetitive combat and few enemy types. This battle shall be waged in the bargain bin.

G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra (PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PSP)

This is another case of a movie licensed game gone horribly wrong. G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra came out in theaters over the Summer and consequently a videogame was hastily thrown together to reap the benefits that come with tie-ins. This game has the look of a last generation product to say the least. In fact there are plenty of games that were released on the PS2 and Xbox that look and play a lot better than this game. The feel of the gunplay is weak and gets repetitive very quickly. Don’t get me wrong I’m not coming down on this game simply because of the graphics are dated, but when it’s almost fully priced at retail something is terribly wrong. Save your money and purchase a much better downloadable game like Shadow Complex for the time being.