Dave Horobin's Reviews
Cars 3: Driven to Win is a competent kart racer that is accessible to players of all skill levels.
It's clear to see that Milestone has set out with the best intentions in a genre that they clearly love. However, RIDE is adequate in most areas but doesn't have the same amount of polish and set of features that are found in other leading racing games. With a lack of online leaderboards to provide any challenge among friends, once you hit the number one spot in the World Tour, only the hardcore racing fans will find any reason to return to the game. The game features a large choice of stunningly recreated motorcycles to purchase and upgrade and there's enough here to keep hardcore racing fans and motorcycle enthusiasts attention for a while; ultimately, though, if you aren't a fan of the genre then RIDE will do very little to persuade you otherwise.
The gameplay available in Farming Simulator 15 is obviously very niche, but behind the actual subject matter the game offers an in-depth sandbox that allows you to decide exactly how you wish to progress using the various farming techniques available. Fans of games such as The Sims and creation and management genre games will likely find a surprisingly enjoyable experience if they can make it past the game's slow start.The new addition of forestry and more emphasis on animal husbandry do add to the experience found in Farming Simulator, but if you're simply planning on cultivating your crops there's not going to be a great deal of difference from the series' previous installments.Farming Simulator 15 isn't going to appeal to everyone, but for those of you who do wish to take to the fields you'll find a surprisingly detailed experience that can prove to be enjoyable once you get your production line in place.
Throw in some odd design choices, a dull story, and lukewarm presentation and The Crew 2 is an ambitious game that doesn't achieve its potential, nor does it approach the standard of some other open-world racers available today.
Agents of Mayhem offers fast-paced and mindless fun filled with Volition's signature crude humour, but elements of it make it feel like a missed opportunity.
If you've enjoyed other LEGO games, LEGO CITY Undercover should definitely be on your radar, but for those who don't, there is nothing revolutionary from the previous formula that will make you change your mind.
Overall, Valentino Rossi: The Game is a solid racing game that offers more content than any of the previous releases in the series. The single-player offering is vastly improved thanks to a much deeper, personal and varied career mode, and the introduction of the Valentino Rossi experience which gives players a genuine insight into one of the sport’s most iconic riders. It’s just a shame that the game’s engine can’t quite can’t quite keep up the pace with all of Milestone’s other improvements.
With a group of friends, Ghost Recon Wildlands will offer countless hours of fun within the vast and beautifully created version of Bolivia. If you're going it alone, however, the repetitive gameplay and the lack of any character development and story depth offers a far less attractive package. Wildlands is a solid open-world game that is let down an overly long and repetitive story, along with too many small bugs and niggles for it to be great.
If you liked Dead Rising 3, you’ll no doubt find some sense of enjoyment in Dead Rising 4. For everyone else, it’s not going to convince you otherwise.
If you're looking for a rally game to play on the Xbox One, or if you follow the sport closely, WRC 5 offers a solid racer that has a nice balance between being accessible for all and offering a challenge to those looking for a more simulated experience. As with real rally driving, it's far from a smooth ride, with visual and gameplay bugs that will annoy you along the way, but if you're willing to look beyond them, WRC 5 offers good handling, a nice variety of stages and environments to race on, and does a solid job of capturing the spontaneous and concentration-filled essence of the sport.
Outside of the officially licensed WRC franchise, Milestone's first attempt at the rally sub-genre does little to reinvent the wheel. However, Sébastien Loeb Rally Evo does offer a pleasant alternative to the previously rigid career modes found in similar titles by offering a wide range of different events in which to take part.
This year's Call of Duty is a mixed bag that will polarize opinion depending in which part of the game you find the most enjoyment. All of the previous mechanics that have made the franchise what it is today are still there and they feel as good as ever. If you play CoD for the campaign, Black Ops III is a low point featuring a confusing and uninteresting story, poor pacing, cheesy dialogue and over-the-top voice acting that results in a story that resembles what the outcome would be if you dropped the cast of Team America: World Police on the set of Inception or Source Code. Zombies once again provides a fun alternative, and the setting and new gameplay additions are enough to keep it feeling fresh for fans until the next DLC pack hits. Multiplayer is as well balanced as it has been for a while and provides the same fast-paced experience that is known and loved. The addition of increased mobility adds a new way to traverse the world and even helps to bring new life into game modes that we have been playing off and on for the past ten years, but this is hit and miss as only some maps allow you to truly explore what it has to offer.Black Ops III's biggest plus points are that it's the most content-filled and best looking release in the series yet, and there are enough new additions to the gameplay across all game modes to help freshen things up for returning visitors. It's a good game for sure, but it does very little to stand out from what's already available and, in some areas, doesn't live up to the standards that the franchise has set over the years.
Beach Buggy Racing doesn't do anything particularly ground breaking for the kart racing genre, but it does do everything it needs to. The addition of multiplayer would have been nice and taken away the feeling of grinding once you have won all of the available single-player races. With quite literally tens of hours of gameplay on offer in the career and championships alone, and even more if you want to earn all of the available achievements, the game's price point makes this a highly recommended purchase for racing fans.
It's important to remember that being a standalone expansion, Saints Row: Gat Out Of Hell isn't meant to offer the same full experience we've come to know from the franchise previously. There are a number of features sadly lacking, the main thing being any real mission structure to the story, but the same mayhem-filled gameplay is still there on offer.For a mid-price game, there is more than enough gameplay to get your money's worth, including multiple endings to the story which will add replay value and a map full of collectibles and activities to take part in.If you've not played Saints IV previously, or have but wouldn't mind playing it again, I'd highly recommend picking up the bundle which includes both Saints Row IV: Re-Elected and Gat Out Of Hell to give you the full Saints Row experience. For everyone else, the price point of the title makes it certainly worth a purchase, just don't come in expecting a full blown sequel.
It's hard to knock a game that delivers on what it set out to do, and that's exactly what Zombie Army Trilogy does very well. It won't appeal to everyone's tastes, but for those of you that enjoy the frantic co-op action that games of this nature provide, you'll find that Zombie Army Trilogy is a competent shooter, that will keep you entertained for hours of zombie killing fun.
If you're looking for a standard arcade racer to play alone, it's probably not for you, but if you're looking for something different and have a few friends willing to team up, ONRUSH feels wholly new and chaotically fun.
It's a solid jumping-on point if you're new to the series, but seasoned veterans may find too few improvements to justify the price.
For Honor's learning curve can be punishing at first, but if you're willing to stay the course and invest some time into understanding the nuances of its deep combat system, you will begin to appreciate how exciting and truly addictive the "Art of Battle" can be. There are issues with connectivity and a campaign that falls short of its potential, but they can be forgiven because what For Honor does get right is at once brutal, rewarding, and unlike anything else we've seen in games.
Just Cause 3 delivers in everything that it set out to do and doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not. It's a solid and light-hearted game that offers a sprawling open-world playground for you to explore and destroy in as many creative and humorous ways as you can imagine. There are bugs that need to be addressed, it lacks the depth of other games in its genre, and it can be repetitive over long periods of play, but in short bursts of a couple of hours or so there's no hiding from the fact that being given the freedom to blow things up to your heart's content provides some of the most chaotic fun you'll find on the Xbox One right now.
Battlefield Hardline is easily the most complete game in the franchise since Battlefield: Bad Company 2's release five years ago. The story makes you actually care about the characters and introduces some much-needed new gameplay with the addition of stealth and non-violent takedowns. It's not the strongest story you'll see, but the positives far outweigh any negatives that the stupid AI and cliched story provides.The multiplayer is genuinely refreshing, and whilst veterans of the franchise may notice the missing game modes and vehicular combat that they are used to, the majority of gamers will find the fast-paced and amusing action to be fun-filled.Visceral's first attempt at taking control of the Battlefield series can only be seen as a success, and whilst it maintains the unique feel of the series, they've added a fresh and new twist to every aspect. Just as Forza Horizon's differences perfectly compliment Forza Motorsport, EA may have finally found a winning combination to compete with Call of Duty.