Author Profile
- Username
- holchasaur
- Articles
- 87 (68 reviews)
- First Article
- Fri 21st, June 2013
- Avg. Review Score
- 7.3
- Find Them On
- Twitter/X
E3 2015 Rare Replay Will Bring 30 Classic Rare Games to Xbox One This August
30 games for $30
During Microsoft's E3 press briefing it was announced that Rare Replay, a collection of 30 classic games from developer Rare, will be coming to Xbox One on August 4th. The trailer (which you can view below) showed a broad range of titles from Rare's history – dating back to the NES days and before – all bundled into one package...
Review BADLAND: Game of the Year Edition (Xbox One)
Flight of the clones
It feels wrong to mention Flappy Bird and BADLAND: Game of the Year Edition in the same sentence, but there's no way around it: BADLAND plays a lot like Flappy Bird. Pressing the A-button to ascend, and simply releasing to let gravity do its job, this physics-based sidescroller is all about avoiding a gamut of hazards and...
Review Rogue Legacy (Xbox One)
All in the family
Procedural generation is a term that is being thrown around quite often lately, and it's one that has a decent amount of stigma going against it. When environmental characteristics and enemy arrangements are decided by an algorithm or line of code, changing the surroundings with every replay, it can make a game feel cheap, and the...
Review Pinball FX2 - Star Wars Rebels (Xbox One)
Strong with this one, the Force is
Earlier this week we reviewed Avengers: Age of Ultron for Pinball FX2, and we regret to say that we were disappointed with it. Because it felt familiar and uninspired, we were a little bit worried that the developer, Zen Studios, might be losing some of that magic it's been injecting into its pinball tables for the...
Review Pinball FX2 - Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron (Xbox One)
Sequelitis
By now we should all be aware that the people at Zen Studios typically do stellar licensed work. Even when they don't entirely get it right – e.g. the chaos found in South Park Pinball – the fundamentals of pinball are handled well enough to offset the missteps, and it's hard to criticize them on that level. But recently a very steady...
Review Shovel Knight (Xbox One)
Dig your way to retro heaven
Shovel Knight is one of the finest video game success stories of modern times. When a few employees left WayForward to start their very own indie studio, they took to Kickstarter to pitch their first project to the masses and round up the proper funding. That project, of course, was Shovel Knight. The campaign was a...
Accessory Review Mortal Kombat X Fight Pad for Xbox One and Xbox 360
Losing kontrol
With the release of a major fighting game comes the inevitable licensed controller. While we usually end up with an arcade stick of some sort, accessory maker PDP has come up with a more affordable option to accompany the launch of the year's biggest fighting game, Mortal Kombat X. This Sega Genesis-like wired Fight Pad is Xbox One...
Review Mortal Kombat X (Xbox One)
Taking it to the X level
Back in 2011, Mortal Kombat was reinvented for home consoles with its ninth entry, which amounted to what many consider to be the definitive game in the series. Introducing a story mode unlike anything ever included in a fighting game before it, as well as remixing characters, locations, and plot events from its...
Review Borderlands: The Handsome Collection (Xbox One)
It's what's on the inside that counts
When Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel released back in October for last-generation consoles only, pretty much anyone and everyone with any understanding of this industry suspected it wouldn't be long before it found its way onto Xbox One. Sure enough, about 5 months later, it's shown up where we expected it to and...
These achievements come fast for furious drivers
Achievements and Gamerscore are a big part of Xbox culture. Not only do we like to unlock the most brutally difficult achievements to showcase our skills to our friends and followers, but sometimes we just like to send our Gamerscore skyrocketing by any means necessary. The best way to do that is to...
Review Battlefield: Hardline (Xbox One)
Gettin' tough?
Like the Call of Duty franchise, Battlefield has been doing the same thing for a few years now, and some could argue that the result is becoming a bit stale. While Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare aimed to shake things up with futuristic weaponry and gadgets to spice up both the single-player and the competitive space, it still largely...
A spell-cial surprise
While PSN and Steam have been quickly accumulating a substantial number of roguelikes, the Xbox One has certainly been lacking in this area. In fact, we aren’t sure if there’s a single game currently available for purchase in the Games Store that's built around this increasingly-popular design choice. Hope is not lost,...
News Xbox Live Gold Subscribers Can Now Download Bioshock Infinite for Xbox 360 at No Cost
Say "bye bye" to Lara and "hello" to Booker
As of today, Bioshock Infinite can be downloaded to your Xbox 360 at no cost if you're an Xbox Live Gold Subscriber, thanks to Games With Gold. If you're unfamiliar with Bioshock Infinite, you should know that it was one of the highest-rated games of 2013, with the Xbox 360 version holding a 93 Metascore...
Review DmC: Devil May Cry: Definitive Edition (Xbox One)
Here’s your chance to atone
Great games don’t always get the appreciation they deserve, and that’s a damn shame. Look at 2013’s Tomb Raider reboot, which was a smash hit with critics and most that played it, yet somehow it didn’t meet sales expectations. It’s a top-notch production all around, with refined gameplay, stunning art design,...
Review Ori and the Blind Forest (Xbox One)
An unforgettable journey
Some people are bothered by the term Metroidvania, which we’ve never really understood. We’re fully aware that it’s an unnecessary subgenre classification that derives its name from two of the industry’s most respected franchises, Metroid and Castlevania, but we're quite alright with that. For those of you unfamiliar...
Review Pinball FX2 - Iron & Steel Pack (Xbox One)
Catapults and six-shooters aplenty
It feels like ages since Zen Studios created pinball tables that weren't based on comic books or cartoons. Actually, it's been three years. In that three years time, we've watched this talented studio craft fantasy pinball experiences that excel beyond anything we could ever expect to find standing on four legs in...
Review Pneuma: Breath of Life (Xbox One)
God us
We weren't quite sure what to make of Pneuma: Breath of Life before getting our hands on it. Early trailers gave the impression that it was to be a Myst-like puzzle game that took itself very seriously. The visuals looked stunning and, although certainly having an artistic spice to them, appeared to primarily be concerned with realism...
Feature These Are the Xbox 360 Games We Want to See Remastered for Xbox One
Providing old favorites with a minor facelift
Whether you like them or hate them, it seems that remasters, definitive editions, and last-gen ports will continue travelling over to the Xbox One for some time to come. We'll admit that we're not entirely fond of the idea if it means that potential sequels get the shaft, but we do welcome the remaster...
Review Unmechanical: Extended Edition (Xbox One)
The little robot that could
Sidescrolling puzzle games are truly a dime a dozen these days, and we’re getting to a point where it’s hard not to wince every time a new one is announced. That's not to say that a strong selection of these games haven't been knockouts — Braid, Limbo, and Fez, for example, have been absolute homeruns — but even...
Pure Retro Did You Know That James Bond 007: Nightfire Had a Thrilling Multiplayer Mode?
License to Kill
When the Xbox 360 was the latest and greatest console on the market, that meant the original Xbox was only last-gen, which didn’t make it all that old. But now that the Xbox One has ushered in a new generation, it finally makes sense to slap the retro label on those classic Xbox games. That’s where Pure Retro comes in. From here...
Feature Game of the Year - Staff Lists
Another year bites the dust
With just a few days left in 2014, we thought it would be the perfect time for Pure Xbox to put a Game of the Year list out in the wild. Instead of featuring a single list of games voted on by our entire team of writers (like we did for our Most Wanted Games of 2015 article), we've instead decided to feature each writer's...
Partners in cute
Juju is a total surprise. When a platformer such as this comes out of nowhere with little to no promotion behind it, it’s tough not to expect that it will be another dud that deserves to disappear into the darkest corner of the Xbox Live Marketplace. But then we got our hands on it, and within minutes it was apparent that this is...
Review Pinball FX2 - Venom (Xbox One)
Lick it up
One of the many things that we appreciate about Zen Studios' work with their Marvel Pinball tables is their commitment to acknowledging characters and properties that don't have as much mainstream appeal as, say, Spider-Man, Iron Man, or Captain America. For every Fantastic Four and The Avengers, we've had Doctor Strange and The Infinity...
Pure Holidays Our Guide to the Best Xbox One Games Available This Holiday Season
If you need Xbox One gift ideas, this guide is for you.
The holiday season is now fully upon us. That means, not only do you have to start buying gifts for family, friends and coworkers, you also have to let others know what's on your wish list. So, if you or the person you're buying for owns the latest Xbox console and is uncertain of what to...