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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
If you can stick around after being thrown in at the deep end with the ‘robust’ DLC releases and, quite frankly, awful controls then The Sims 4 is definitely worth it.
It may have released on PC back in 2016 but Planet Coaster: Console Edition is quietly one of the best launch titles for the Xbox Series X|S, and made all the better by being available through Game Pass. For a park sim, it is incredibly easy to pick up and play as everything is explained and designed as this version was built up for consoles, as opposed to a simple port.
It’s another short one overall at around two hours, but it is clear that lessons have been learnt from the laborious Episode Gladiolus, with far more variation and a character that has a backstory worth telling.
The Sexy Brutale is definitely one of the more original ID@Xbox games that we’ve seen recently. On one side there is an incredibly dark and sinister side to the game solving, sometimes described in great gory-detail, murders. But then ultimately it is a game of hope as Lafcadio tries to prevent his friends re-living their nightmares day after day.
I really enjoyed Maize, perhaps more than I should have. I was expecting the game to be absurd to the point where it made no sense, but in reality I found the story cohesive. Completely out there with a Russian teddy bear and walking, talking corn stalks, but still cohesive.
With the gratuitous violence that is included, it certainly isn’t a game for everyone but if you are comfortable with the destruction of humanity in your cybernetic hands, then BUTCHER is a game well worth keeping on your radar.
For anyone looking for a refreshing change from open-world time sinks after the glut of Mafia III, Watch Dogs 2, Skyrim: SE and Final Fantasy XV, Wheels of Aurelia may be the perfect game for you. Each playthrough takes no longer than 20 minutes and it can be completed in a tenth of the time these games take. It’s also recommended to those that like getting the most out of games as by the end you will have a preferred ending and despite its short length, it’s a game people can have different experiences with and then share those stories with each other, much like the most successful AAA titles.
Poker has a bit of a chequered history in games; some have done it really well as a mini-game designed to offer only a few hours of fun. And then some games have focused purely on Poker and done a terrible job. Prominence Poker does both. A game primarily based on Texas Hold ‘Em done well and best of all, completely free. And with support ongoing long term, this looks set to be the stand out Poker game for the Xbox One.
My time in Nuka-World was a bit of a mixed bag of emotions. On one hand, this is far and away the best piece of DLC for Fallout 4 in terms of location. On the other, the story had me doing things my character wouldn’t have normally done, and the Commonwealth is irreparable now because of those actions.
My biggest gripe with Renegade is simply the lack of tracks, but the rest of the game, as expected, is very good. The Riptide series always felt too big for its mobile roots, and Renegade may be the jewel in its crown. The story adds a new depth to it and shows that it doesn’t take itself too seriously. Everything has been improved upon from the previous entry on the Xbox and it has remained a decent price. If this is a series you have yet to get into, Riptide GP Renegade is easily the best place to start.
Despite the massive overhaul to the battle system and more subtle changes elsewhere, TFBW feels like a very safe sequel to The Stick of Truth. It’s still a great journey with characters that fans of the show know and love, but I am unsure why this game was delayed so much when it appears to have re-used a lot of the assets from previous.
If being a kid in the 80s was half as fun as this game was then I need to get on the phone to the Doc and build me a time machine. Sure, the battle mechanics may not work all the time, and they get tedious after so long, but it has real humour in almost every aspect. It’s one of the very few games that has actually made me laugh out loud. Humour is perhaps the one things games have continually struggled with on the whole, but Saturday Morning RPG nails it. The story is interesting enough to keep you invested because of the wide range of characters that transcend all genres and for the price you really would be a knucklehead not to pick it up.