For those looking for the next Journey, ABZÛ may disappoint. It’s a very enjoyable game but is leagues below its predecessor. Pun intended. For all the niggling gripes listed above, there also appears to be something missing. It’s a game with a very strong message, beautiful vistas and a lot of heart, but the main character felt a bit lifeless. There were times when it got truly tense, but after realising the mechanic in those sections, any connection I had with the character disappeared.
Song of the Deep tends to be your typical indie game fare; harking back to the older generations of gaming with the 2D side-scroller appearance, but having a big heart and an emotional story, with a very predictable ending. But that’s okay, as it doesn’t try and do anything different by offering a big twist at the end. Gameplay wise it can get a little boring and dull after a while, but it is well paced and doesn’t feel overly long or overly short. It just feels right. It is flawed elsewhere but after 12 hours underwater with Merryn and her new found friends, I am content and pleased that I got to experience this game.
Ginger: Beyond the Crystal may be the best 3D platformer available on the Xbox One currently, but this says more about the state of the genre as opposed to the actual game. Aside from the incredibly frustrating checkpoint glitch though, I did have fun with this game and the nostalgia was cranked up high. For fans of any of the aforementioned games, you will find something you like here.
It’s going to sound weird but Oh… Sir! is a quite a charming game given the context. It has an art style that certainly will not be winning any awards but is weirdly amusing to look at, much like the rest of the game.
Danger Zone had the expectations of being a spiritual successor to Burnout, encompassing everything that was good about it. That gameplay is there, somewhere, but it gets lost between the generic level design, and over-reliance of pickups.
This is not a bad game by any means – although it can be as frustrating as hell – but the amazing world design feels second fiddle to the lacklustre gameplay and it would have been a lot better to focus on the exploration, or even make it an out and out stealth experience.
It would be hard to recommend this game to someone who isn’t a die-hard cricket fan because if they aren’t interested in the real thing, then there isn’t anything here to persuade them otherwise. However, for a die-hard fan, this is a pleasantly surprising game that reaches far deeper than the name suggests.
The first few hours of Surviving Mars are frustrating and the game can come across a bit disappointing; stick with it though and once you have figured out what to do all by yourself – due to the ineffective tutorial tips – the game opens up and almost becomes a completely different experience.
Kentucky Route Zero: TV Edition for the Xbox Series X|S is a bit of a strange beast. The narrative is engaging as it meanders to an end goal, but the journey from A to B is pretty abstract.
TowerFall is certainly a very good local multiplayer game that a group of friends can enjoy night after night, honing their skills with the virtual bow and arrow. So it’s difficult then to say the rest of the game, and the price, lets it down. But it does.
Too much is simply identical to before, and the biggest problem remains that this is a game that’s only fun in small doses
Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 is a fun little arcade game that channels the inner spirit of old school Pac-Man, but manages to create its own little niche. It’s overpriced for the amount of content, but those with the patience of a saint and a compulsion to top leaderboards will certainly get their money’s worth. For anyone else, the fun factor may be exhausted before the euphoric beats of the soundtrack subside. And it’s all a bit of a shame really, because it’s an interesting and fresh take on an age-old game. There just isn’t enough of it.
A few little problems only slightly impact the overall experience, but the majority of the time it is a decent game with just the right amount of challenge in the later levels.
For the Final Fantasy die-hards who missed out on this first time around it may appeal more seeing more of the minor characters from the main game. But to anyone not familiar with the franchise, don’t let this freebie be considered an example of the rest of it.
Forces continues the trend of Modern Sonic games being very average and not even an injection boost like Classic Sonic or the new customisable Avatar character can save this from being average at best.
The others in this pack don’t feel as good, or in YDKJ’s case, don’t offer anything new. Still, the overall package is good fun for when you have a few friends over
The training missions feel deliberately lengthened to increase playtime, the three X Games events are good but nowhere near enough, and the freestyle events that follow are no different from what exists in the base game already
For a few short hours The Pillar: Puzzle Escape on Xbox will completely transport you away. It is easy to get sucked in thanks to the serene environment combined with the first-person perspective. A lack of story does not matter: this is a place begging to be explored.
Farming Simulator 17 is an unusual beast. It receives critical acclaim from its die-hard fans and rightly so because the mechanics of the actual farming is very impressive. But it does seem to fall short in most of the other departments, which would arguably be where those who have a piqued interest are likely to be drawn in. I found the game interesting, but I wouldn’t necessarily use the word ‘fun’. I was in the piqued interest pool as opposed to the die-hards, but there certainly isn’t enough included to really keep me invested in the day-to-day activities of running my farm.
many veteran players of this series will feel let down by this latest instalment, and this is all down to the bare bones approach that the developers have taken by releasing this game with only 12 cars and 10 race tracks.