Lacks the girth of FM4 but wrestling iconic cars around legendary tracks has never looked or felt this good on console.
A shallow, on-rails experience that really can't make much of a case for itself in 2014.
Grid Autosport promised proper motor racing and that's exactly what it delivers. The spirit of TOCA is finally back.
It's a racer informed by many others but, when it comes to open-world racing games, Forza Horizon 2 is best-in-class.
Fast, beautiful, and accessible, but a more modest, conventional arcade racer than its sprawling, open-world peers.
A good intro to Forza Horizon 2's driving action but one that doesn't offer much for long-time Forza fans.
Deep and demanding but incredibly user-friendly, Project CARS is real racing done right.
Forza Motorsport 6 boasts some of the finest racing you can find on console. Easily worth the upgrade from Forza 5.
Beneath Broforce's hyperbolic chest-thumping action movie-inspired silliness lies an extremely polished run 'n gun platformer. Simple and reliable but nuanced and ever-changing (thanks to the constantly rotating characters) Broforce is testosterrific. If you could watch Commando on a SNES, this is what it would look like.
Need for Speed looks the part, sounds the part, and is surprisingly reverent to real-world car culture. I like the direction Ghost has taken here, and I think it's the right one, but beneath its flashy exterior it's not quite firing on all cylinders.
There's a specific corner during one of the German stages in Dirt Rally where your co-driver will supplement his flurry of warnings with a professional request: "Be brave." It's a slight left kink, framed on both sides by half-buried stones. To be honest I'm not certain what it is about this corner in particular that warrants the added advice – there are plenty of deceptive corners in Dirt Rally you can take faster than you'd expect – but "be brave" potently sums up how you need to approach Dirt Rally. Dirt Rally is a brilliant looking and incredible sounding racing sim that feels absolutely outstanding, but it won't tolerate the timid.
Far Cry Primal succeeds in transporting the Far Cry formula back in time and comes to the table with a quiver of neat ideas and a dangerous and fascinating open world. The visceral and varied combat is fun, the beast-based gameplay is a winner, and the lure of camp-claiming, gear-crafting, beast hunting, and resource gathering remains irresistible.
One thing's for sure: The more I've played Hitman's debut "episode" the more I've enjoyed it. Despite the often boneheaded AI and dire loading times, Hitman has definitely combined the best of both worlds. There's scope for it to improve in some areas as the levels are released throughout the year but this is a fun, confident start.
A brilliant and beautiful stunt driving masterclass, Trackmania Turbo is fast, frenetic, fun, and only occasionally frustrating. If this generously proportioned and highly engaging arcade racer gets its talons into you the way it did me, it'll have you compulsively chasing ghosts for ages.
Hitman Episode 2: Sapienza is a fantastic follow-up to the promising first episode; huge, bursting with deadly promise, and begging for many, many playthroughs. The lack of much meaningful local voice acting is a disappointing miss, however, and that might really start undermining Hitman’s jetsetting international atmosphere in later levels if it’s not addressed.
Hitman Episode 3: Marrakesh doesn’t reach the highs of the previous levels and suffers more than ever from the extremely superficial approach to voice acting. It’s not a bad level, but it’s definitely one that I’d be less inclined to return to than the others I’ve played so far. It's the first time I've had to question Io's episodic approach: Over the course of a traditional game presented as a single package you may come across levels that dip in quality compared to the best ones, but you can always put those levels behind you and play the next. In the case of Hitman, we can only go back to the previous two. Marrakesh is what we’ve got for now, and it’s a slight step backwards.
These redressings of Sapienza and Marrakesh are familiar levels, sure, but they’re done differently enough to feel new (if slightly easier). The first mission far outshines the second with its dark humor and appropriate execution options, but both warrant many, many more playthroughs.
Hitman Episode 4: Bangkok gets proceedings back on track after the somewhat bland Marrakesh malarkey of Episode 3. The Himmapan resort may lack the size and scope of Sapienza, and it isn’t quite the classic Hitman hotel level I was after, but it still boasts plenty of problem solving and murderous mayhem within its walls.
F1 2016 is definitively the best Formula One game Codemasters has ever crafted. Deep and nuanced, stuffed with fan service, and as demanding as you’d like it to be, this is worthy fare for the motorsport obsessed while remaining accessible for the merely curious, and absolutely worth the upgrade from previous years. If F1 2016 and last year’s Dirt Rally are indicative of the level of quality we’re going to get from Codemasters going forward I can’t wait to see what’s next.
Despite its amazing driving simulation, Assetto Corsa just doesn't get the racing right. Out on track alone it feels amazing; there's no denying the remarkable realism Kunos Simulazioni has captured here. Unfortunately the team just hasn't been able to wrap a comprehensive or competitive racing experience around it this time.