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You'd be forgiven for thinking Extreme Exorcism is just another game spawned from ID@Xbox that you can happily ignore. If you are willing to take a chance on it though, it is definitely worth it. Even though your time spent will be fairly short, the challenges will keep you playing after the arcade mode has been completed, and the opportunity for local multiplayer adds another layer of fun. While the levels don't differ a lot, and it definitely isn't a game you'll sit and play for hours on end, Extreme Exorcism offers 8bit graphics and music to entertain you while you take out endless rounds of ghosts with your friends, and what is more satisfying than blowing up a ghoul with a rocket launcher?
After filing our initial review of Destiny last year, I said that the experience lacked soul, put the game aside, and felt I wouldn't be coming back. Around the beginning of the summer I needed a game that I could pick up and play for about 30-45 minutes at a time and jumped back in. Before I knew it I was hooked, playing the DLC content, running Strikes, rolling a second (and now third!) character. "The Taken King" and Destiny 2.0 have taken that experience to a new height that is worth diving back into for old players and warrants the price of investment (into the new Legendary Edition) for new players. Bungie has put in so many small, new tweaks and wrinkles that it will take dozens of hours before you'll see and do everything. Destiny is not perfect and is still a grind that is best experienced with friends, but the addition of new and repackaged content fleshes out the experience to a point where it becomes an easy recommendation for shooter fans.
Whilst World of Tanks might not be everyone, the title is flawless in its execution.
Here's the deal with Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime: As a single-player experience, the game drags. While your AI companion is actually helpful and surprisingly competent, having to man the ship on your own is a cumbersome and sometimes boring experience. The game takes on a whole different spin when a second person is involved, becoming a rewarding romp where players can celebrate successfully completing their shared goals. As a game meant for a couch co-op experience, it checks the right boxes and then-some as the two of you work to replace the anti-love in the room with something more positive, like love or perhaps a high-five. If playing on your own is the way you tend to roll, however, you'll still enjoy the game's presentation, but the luster of what moves this game from good to great territory will sadly not be present.
Forza Motorsport 6 isn't for everyone and the chances are that you will know in advance if this is the type of game that you would like to try. For those of you that have even the slightest interest in cars or racing, you'll be treated to some of the finest, most immersive racing action that you can find short of doing the real thing. With a wide choice of assists and difficulties available, it's ideal for both newcomers and hardcore racing fans alike.There are certainly improvements that Turn 10 could make, such as dynamic time of day and weather and a less linear career mode that allowed access to better cars earlier. However, they are very minor annoyances that can be easily overlooked due to the quality of everything else that the game has to offer. With stunningly detailed visuals, sound and physics to match, a huge roster of cars to drive, and new wet and night races that add another dimension to the gameplay, this is a bigger and better Forza than we have ever seen before. Forza Motorsport 6 is a masterpiece of a racing simulator that really has to be experienced to be believed.
My niece was right, it is easier to go through a game mercilessly slaughtering anyone that gets in your way. It's even fun. The true magic of Dishonored, however, is that you don't need to. The process of teleporting to a high ledge, sneaking up behind an enemy, choking them out, finding a place to stash the body, and then repeating is so highly addictive that it should be illegal. Each level and mission is constructed like a perfect puzzle with a dozen perfect solutions and each player can dabble to find which one works best for them. Dishonored may be the perfect stealth game in that it doesn't penalize you for not being stealthy, but rewards you greater for delicate care and skill. While the Definitive Edition may not have the greatest degree of new shine on new consoles, it still is the edition of the game to own if you didn't get in on the last-gen version.
The Phantom Pain is the kind of game that actually feels as if every seemingly insignificant gameplay detail actually has a real purpose. Every mission, side-op and minute spent assigning staff back at Mother Base makes a real difference to what can or cannot be achieved out on the field. At its core, it is still a stealth-action game, but it never ties you down to just being stealthy. Every mission can be approached in a multitude of different ways and it's left up to the player how to progress. The more manageable approach to storytelling may not seem true to the Metal Gear Solid series to date, but it fits in well with the game's more flexible approach, which lets people attack the game head on or play in smaller bites without needing to worry that at any moment they may have to set aside an hour purely to watch a surprise cut-scene.
Whether you're a fan of the films or just open world games in general, this is a title that's well worth a look.
Whilst point and click games may not be to everyone's taste, Broken Sword 5 manages to weave in a sense of mystery and a bunch of puzzles, which allows it to appeal to a wider audience. Even veteran puzzlers may find themselves stuck for a little while at some points in this adventure, but there are hints throughout the game should you feel you need the extra help. You are thrown straight into the excitement of the murder, and the story only gets better the deeper into the game you get. Although the conversations are often slow and drawn out, the characters are amusing and the game constantly pokes fun of itself and is never too serious, even given the subject matter. Players of any of the previous games should feel right at home here, and for fans of puzzles that may be a little outside of the box, there is plenty to keep you entertained. There's a lot of fun to be had here and it will definitely get the cogs whirring in your brain, even if it doesn't quite hit the mark all the time.
With just two hours of content and gameplay that never challenges you, plenty of people will dismiss Whispering Willows and never think twice about it. That's maybe not such a bad thing as it definitely isn't for everybody. It acts as an example as to why the Ouya didn't last. This was one of the better received games in the console's short lifespan and it fails to stand up to a lot of games within its own genre on the major consoles and PC. I do genuinely love the game's message overall, however. It gives a voice to a people so rarely represented in video games and does so within a story that's worth seeing. Despite its dark tone and serious subject matter, one word keeps returning to me when I think back on Whispering Willows, and that's 'charming'. It's flawed, and brief, and unchallenging, but so too is it engaging, and mysterious, and charming. Among so many other lost souls in the Willows Mansion, the ghost of the Ouya lives on.
Gears of War: Ultimate Edition stands as a shining example of how a remaster should be done. From the ground up the game has been redesigned to make it look and feel perfectly at home on the Xbox One, and The Coalition have managed to combine remaining true to the original game, whilst at the same time adding improvements. By staying true to the original Gears there are moments where the game shows its age, but they aren't frequent enough to spoil the overall experience, and you'll be more surprised by how well the story and gameplay mechanics stand up to today's standards, and quiet often over shadow them.If you're not a fan of third person shooters or the previous Gears of War games, there's nothing for you here, but for everyone else the name says it all, this is the Ultimate way to experience Gears of War, whether you're a newcomer to the franchise, or if you're looking for any excuse to return to Sera and chainsaw Locust's into tiny pieces, Gears of War: Ultimate Edition is a must play.
The zombie subgenre is plagued with tropes. Movies, books, games, whatever format in which they're found, the undead just seem to feast on cliches. The better of those stories still insert something new to the landscape, though, and Zombi doesn't really do that. Managing your backpack and scanning environments for supplies and routes might have been fun on the second screen of a WiiU, but on Xbox One those features are watered down to just another mini-map and inventory menu. If that's what ZombiU added to the genre, then Zombi isn't left with much to hang its hat on. What does remain are genuinely tense interactions with the undead, at least, and the difficulty of survival is well executed. Ultimately, however, that's the case for a dozen other similar games, many of which do a lot of other things better than Zombi. At times it felt deserving of a score slightly higher or much lower than the one you see below, but ultimately, with a little getting used to, it's a functional but unpolished experience shambling down the streets of London.
Beyond Eyes is a unique title because it explores a topic that is rarely shown in a game and for the most part it does it very well. The art style is great, and the story is charming, even though it won't fully tug at your heartstrings. It's a quick completion for those who want it and it's a memorable game. It's very short length might put people off, though, so you may want to wait for a sale if you don't like the thought of paying £9.99 (or regional equivalent) for 2-3 hours of pretty limited gameplay. With Rae's sometimes frustratingly slow walking speed, the focus is all the more on seeing the colourful world coming into view. While there could have been more here, Beyond Eyes is still an enjoyable experience if you fancy winding down and just relaxing on your Xbox.
While combining the innovative nature of the Kinect with the use of a controller is a noble goal that more developers should strive for, Commander Cherry's Puzzle Quest is an unmitigated disaster that takes the worst parts of Kinect games and platforming and mashes them together. If the terrible Kinect scanning doesn't get you, the horrible platforming controls will. While some may find fun in the challenge, the game should be passed on by all but the most ardent of Kinect fans.
My time with The Swindle was littered with failure. I blame myself for plenty of those attempts, but the game roots against you in a way that's nearly unrivaled in the past two decades of video games. Not since the Wet Bandits attempted to invade the McCallister residence has burglary gone so laughably wrong. Yet still, it had its moments and surely there are those that will appreciate this sort of beating more than I did. Perhaps it hearkens back to a time when games didn't hold our hands as much, and if that's the case, perhaps I've been coddled by quick-time events and cutscenes that do the hard stuff for me. I don't believe that's the case, though. 2015 is my 20th year as a gamer and I have played few games that challenge your patience as much as The Swindle. Maybe the game's robots have achieved sentience and human-like emotions. That would explain all the menacing satisfaction they seem to derive out of my failure.
For all of Q.U.B.E's emulation of Portal it does manage to stand on its own as a first-person puzzle game worthy of your time. The puzzle mechanics are solid and the way in which the game gradually introduces you to the various elements of its gameplay are expertly done. The theme of isolation is also well-crafted, and the story plays out quite well despite the minimalist presentation. Much like the other quality games of this genre, Q.U.B.E. manages to not out-stay its welcome, and is smart with its inclusion of hidden puzzles and an additional mode of play to increase gameplay time. Fans of Portal will find a lot to like here (just don't expect the irreverent humor), and those looking for another game to scratch that particular itch will be very pleased. Further, the game's story presents some thought-provoking questions about the nature of isolation that add to an already solid package.
Submerged is an interesting game in that it swaps out conventional combat mechanics for pure exploration. This means that it's not a challenging game, but it is still fairly engaging. Collecting more parts of the puzzle will keep you playing and driving around in the boat is easy to get the hang of. The climbing mechanics can be a little frustrating in comparison, but you will get used to them in time. The mysterious game crash still remains a mystery, but this seems like a very rare occurrence. For its length, it's hard to fully justify its initial asking price, but the content that's there doesn't outstay its welcome or feel overly short. Whether you fancy something less action packed, or just a quick and easy game, Submerged will be an enjoyable journey while it lasts.
If what you want is a fun and simple platformer, then look no further than Tembo. The whole game has a fun, nostalgic feel to it from start to finish, and the civilians and phantom enemies as collectibles give you a reason to go back and play the levels again. The game is never too easy or too hard, but, at the same time, it doesn't really challenge you too much in any way. For the price, Tembo the Badass Elephant definitely gives you your money's worth in a short but enjoyable experience. If you don't take it too seriously, then there is a lot of enjoyment to be had here, because an elephant never forgets - to have fun and be a Badass!
No Time to Explain is going to be a love-it-or-hate-it type title for most people because it is unapologetically difficult. If you enjoy those ultra difficult games and the challenge they provide, you'll love this. Otherwise you just won't. When I started the game I was frustrated by the frequent deaths and seeming lack of direction. As I played on, however, my attitude changed. The laser gun being used as a mode of transport is generally fine, but sometimes it's a little finicky, and this can lead to undue frustration in an area where precision is really required. As you stick with it, you learn how to better finesse the use of the laser beam and get that feeling of satisfaction for completing something difficult that many games don't supply. If the thought of dying frequently is a turn off for you, the game will only prove to be frustrating. If you enjoy games that bring the difficulty, this is a top-level game for you to grab and brag to all your friends about once you complete it.
Overall, it is clear that the new Ego game engine offers up cars that have never handled better. Equally, the circuits have been reproduced in amazing detail. Those aspects of F1 2015 are undoubtedly an improvement on the series' recent titles. As much as the car handling and environments have improved, Codemasters has taken a step back in respect of the range of game modes that are available this year in comparison to the gradual additions that have been introduced year-on-year. Given that this is the first Formula One title on the Xbox One may well prove that going back to basics on the game modes is the right thing to do in order to ensure that they get the actual driving experience right. There is certainly plenty of scope for adding new game modes in future Xbox One iterations, much like the approach taken since the series reboot back in 2010.