Overview
- Website
- microsoft.com
- Average Review Score
- 6.8/10
- Average Game Rating
- 8.09/10
Latest Reviews of Microsoft Games
Review Age Of Mythology: Retold (Xbox) - Microsoft's Godly RTS Classic Revitalised
Go beyond history
Age of Mythology might not be a major numbered entry, but it's still played a significant role in the Age timeline – transitioning the series from 2D to 3D following the success of Ensemble's real-time strategy king, Age of Empires II. Mythology wasn’t just there to fill the void when it landed on PC in 2002 and is still...
Review Sea Of Thieves - In Truly Ship-Shape Condition Two Years After Launch
It's a pirate's life for me
When Sea of Thieves initially set sail in 2018, it was met with somewhat mixed reviews. Rare's pirate playground is undoubtedly a masterful creation; a vast, dynamic, hyper-stylised sea world dotted with mysterious islands and skeleton forts in which players are set free to create their own grand adventures. However, it...
Review Forza Horizon 4 - The Best Racing Experience On Xbox One
Fuel Britannia
Offshoots aren’t meant to surpass their source material. They’re meant to be unusual curios that take an existing concept in twist it in ways the mainline series never could. When the original Forza Horizon casually rolled up onto the scene in 2012, no one really expected it to attract the fan base that it did, but eight years on...
Review Forza Horizon 2: Storm Island (Xbox One)
Making it rain.
When crafting a DLC package of any significant weight for a game that has gone down really well with gamers and critics alike, developers have to be careful. What they add can’t interfere with the mix that they already had, as they really don’t want to be messing with a successful formula. Playground Games found a way to ensure...
Review D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die (Xbox One)
Look for D
Remember Deadly Premonition? It’s one of the most divisive games ever to be released upon the world. Poor production values, bizarreness to the extreme, and campy…well, everything else, meant it was one of those wonderfully weird games that either clicked with you, or it didn't at all. Now, four years after the release of Deadly...
Review Kinect Sports Rivals (Xbox One)
Do or die.
To say that Kinect Sports Rivals is a high-profile title for Xbox One would be something of an understatement. Being the only game (barring the violently bad Fighter Within, which barely passes as a game) available that’s been designed for the much-maligned Kinect device that’s included with every console, people were looking to...
Review Killer Instinct (Xbox One)
C-C-C-Combo Breaker!
Fans have been asking for it for years and finally Killer Instinct has returned, albeit with a new developer - Double Helix - who have adopted a free-to-play model for the game's characters, which is also now sporting fancy new visuals. However, fans can relax their cynicism and rejoice, as Killer Instinct on Xbox One retains...
Review BattleBlock Theater (Xbox 360)
The Behemoth Is Back
BattleBlock Theater is an Xbox Live Arcade platform puzzle game from The Behemoth, who are the developers of the excellent Castle Crashers and slightly-less-excellent Alien Hominid HD. The graphics are cartoonish, it features a good deal of laughs and some tricky puzzles that will test your dexterity later on. Also, it allows...
Review Kinect Party (Xbox 360)
Ain't no party like a Kinect Party.
Depending on when you pick it up, the decision on whether or not to get Kinect Party is a bit of a no-brainer. For a while after release day, it was available for absolutely no charge and should you have missed out, the price is 800 MSP. The product itself is also a bit of a no-brainer at times too, and while...
Review Red Bull Crashed Ice Kinect (Xbox 360)
Born slippy.
If you aren’t aware of what Red Bull’s “Crashed Ice” event series is, then you’re missing out. In short, the sport of ice cross involves a bunch of ice skater types starting at the top of an icy track that contains all manner of twists, turns, bumps, and jumps, and they have to race to the finish line in the fastest possible...
Latest Microsoft Articles
News These Five Games Are Coming To Xbox Game Pass (November 20-27)
November's second wave is here
Microsoft has revealed the second batch of titles joining Xbox Game Pass in November 2024, which includes the previously confirmed Stalker 2 and Nine Sols along with the surprise addition of Aliens: Dark Descent. We've also got two games entering XGP "Standard" - these are already available with Xbox Game Pass...
News Surprise! Xbox's Avowed Has Been Confirmed For Another Platform
Even Blizzard's digital service "is an Xbox"
Well, here's a bit of a surprise. Xbox has today revealed it's bringing Obsidian Entertainment's upcoming fantasy RPG Avowed to not only Xbox Series X|S, Windows, and Steam platforms, but also Blizzard's Battle.net launcher on PC. This was confirmed in an announcement today on Xbox Wire. While we've seen...
Reaction Like It Or Not, Xbox Has Gone Full Throttle On Multiplatform
It's much bigger than Series X and S
We've known for a good while now that Microsoft wants Xbox to be more than a console, but up to this point in time, its messaging around that pursuit has been quite vague. It's always felt like the company wants to keep its loyal fans happy, while also adapting and growing Xbox as a business, which hasn't always...
News Microsoft Is Now Advertising Pretty Much Every Gaming Device As An Xbox
"This is an Xbox"
We've been hearing for months and months, years even, that any device with Microsoft's games on it is an 'Xbox' of some sort. The company has been pushing PC, Mobile and Xbox Cloud Gaming for ages at this point - but today's absolutely massive new marketing campaign is their biggest move in this direction yet. Launched earlier on,...
News Black Ops 6 Season 01 Update Now Live, Here Are The Full Patch Notes For Xbox
New content available now
Last week, developer Treyarch began teasing some of the content coming to Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 in Season 01 - and now we have the full rundown of everything included in today's Black Ops 6 update on Xbox.
News Phil Spencer Thinks Stalker 2 Could Be An Xbox Game Of The Year Contender
"The quality has really come a long way"
It's official, folks, we're less than a week away from Stalker 2 hitting Xbox Game Pass - and Microsoft's gaming boss thinks that the open-world shooter could be a real GOTY contender in 2024. Speaking with Game File, Phil Spencer was asked about the upcoming title and its
News Xbox Delayed Avowed Purely Because Of Its 2024 Game Pass Schedule
"Okay, let's make sure we pace this out a little better"
Obsidian's upcoming RPG Avowed was supposed to be out at this point, but the game was eventually delayed to February 2025 earlier this year. While delays in this industry often happen due to evolving development timelines, Xbox insists this isn't the case with Avowed. Speaking in a new...
News Microsoft Issues Statement As 'Hundreds' Of ZeniMax Workers Go On Strike
A one-day strike across four locations
Yesterday was a turbulent day in the world of ZeniMax Media, as hundreds of unionised workers at the company went on strike against Microsoft at four different locations in Maryland and Texas. As reported by IGN, this involves people who work on the likes of DOOM, Fallout and The Elder Scrolls, and is related...
News Xbox Fan Shares Stunning 4K Images Of 360 Launch Title Project Gotham Racing 3
These look amazing!
Right, by now you probably know that we're huge fans of Project Gotham Racing here at Pure Xbox HQ - so it's no surprise that when we saw some fresh 4K images of PGR3 in and amongst the Xbox Reddit homepage this week, our hearts skipped a little bit. Of course, these aren't official images pulled from the Xbox version or...
News Fallout 5 Not Being Ready Benefitted Amazon's TV Show, Says Xbox Boss
"We didn't have a new game lined up for the launch"
When Amazon's Fallout TV show really took off earlier this year, and Fallout fever was in full swing, there were lots of eyebrows raised about Bethesda not having a game ready to launch alongside the show - but the head of Xbox believes that
News South Of Midnight Game Length & Xbox Tech Specs Revealed
Coming to Game Pass in 2025
Yesterday, Xbox shared a lengthy documentary on its upcoming 2025 game South of Midnight, and Kinda Funny's Parris Lilly has followed this up by revealing some important information about the Compulsion Games title. With Parris recently visiting the Canadian Xbox Game Studio, the presenter can reveal that South of M
News Despite The ActiBlizz Deal, Xbox Remains 'In The Market' For New Dev Teams
"We definitely want to be in the market"
Well all know the trials and tribulations that Xbox went though to acquire Activision Blizzard last year, but the whole ordeal doesn't seem to have put Microsoft off from potentially bringing more teams on board. In a new interview with
News Xbox Boss Says Everything Is On The Table When It Comes To PS5 Ports
"I do not see sort of red lines in our portfolio"
Ever since Microsoft started releasing some of its titles on Sony's PS5, there've been rumours that certain franchises won't ever move over - but Xbox boss Phil Spencer has thrown that notion out of the window in a new interview. Chatting with Bloomberg, the Microsoft Gaming CEO said that there ar
Reminder Seven Games Are Leaving Xbox Game Pass This Friday (November 15)
Some big titles in here
We have seven more titles leaving the Xbox Game Pass library this Friday, including some major releases that we'll be sad to see go. Nevertheless, you've got a couple more days to try some of these out and see what you think. Here's the full list of games exiting the service on November 15: Date Game Platform November...
Talking Point 10 Years On, It's Been A Mighty Turnaround For Halo: Master Chief Collection
Xbox eventually finished the fight
All the way back in 2014, Microsoft had a killer lineup planned for the second year of Xbox One. The team had the likes of Forza Horizon 2 and Sunset Overdrive bringing brand-new experiences to players at the start of the last generation, but it was one title in particular that led the charge for Xbox that year -...
News South Of Midnight Documentary Shares Detailed Look At Xbox's 2025 Adventure
"Weaving Hazel's journey"
After spotting a little teaser last week about fresh South of Midnight coverage coming soon, Xbox has dropped a chunky documentary on the upcoming Compulsion Games adventure - focusing on the team "weaving Hazel's journey" in the 2025 title. You can take a look at this big old ViDoc up above, which goes over some of the...
News PlayStation's Call Of Duty Timed Exclusivity Deal Is Now Officially Over
MW3 DLC packs can now come to Xbox
Microsoft may have acquired Call of Duty publisher Activision more than a year ago, but the Xbox owner vowed to uphold any existing deals that the franchise had with PlayStation owner Sony - and the last of those deals has now officially come to an end. Yep, as pointed out by CharlieIntel, last year's
Talking Point Where Are All The ActiBlizz Titles On Xbox Game Pass?
Isn't it about time?
With Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 now out in the wild, Xbox's biggest Activision Blizzard release since the deal went through has now come and gone. The game ended up being a very good one, so we have no complaints in that regard - but we do still feel a little shortchanged by the Activision Blizzard deal so far. You see, we...
News Xbox Game Pass Is Getting A Massive Black Ops 6 Update Next Week
Season 01 is HUGE
At the start of the week, Xbox developer Treyarch began teasing the first seasonal content update for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, and now the team has fully detailed Black Ops 6 Season 01 - it's an absolutely massive update all-in-all. The headline news is this: Black Ops 6 Season 01 is bringing six multiplayer maps, one new...
News Xbox 'Friend Requests' Have Now Returned
Update: Available now!
Update [Fri 8th Nov, 2024]: In September, Xbox mentioned how it was reintroducing friend requests on Xbox. Now, in an update this week, they're available to everyone across Xbox's platforms and services. Here's another look, courtesy of The Verge's senior editor Tom Warren: Original article [Thu 12th Sep, 2024]:...
News Free Play Days: Try These Xbox Games For Free (November 7-10)
Included With Xbox Game Pass
Thursday is here, which means Xbox has set live its new Free Play Days lineup for the coming weekend! We have four titles to dive into over the next few days - including a brand-new Xbox release in the form of Across the Obelisk. Here's your full Free Play Days selection this weekend: Across the...
News Halo Infinite's New Third-Person Mode Seems To Be Going Down Well On Xbox
Firefight-only for now
Halo Infinite continues to grow following Microsoft's recent 'Halo Studios' rebranding, and this month's update has delivered third-person gameplay for the very first time. Available now in the game's co-op Firefight mode, third-person
News Four Games Are Available Today With Xbox Game Pass Standard (November 6)
The Standard library expands
Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass Standard service is getting a pretty major update today. The team is bringing four more titles over from the Game Pass Ultimate library, including 2024 narrative adventure Harold Halibut. <related ids="164791"> For those who aren't fully caught up with Microsoft's new Game Pass plan -
Rumour Blizzard Could Be Remastering Another RTS Classic
Warcraft 2 looks to be getting a makeover...
Following the release of StarCraft and StarCraft 2 on Game Pass yesterday, there's now some news about Blizzard potentially remastering one of its older real-time strategy games. As
News Xbox Has Two 'BOGOF' Promotions Running Right Now
One for games, one for DLC packs
Xbox has a couple of new 'Buy One, Get One Free' sales running on its digital storefront right now - and they're actually both worth a look this time around. One promotion focuses on sports titles, and includes a nice mix of new releases and older backwards compatible games, while the other is all about DLC packs and...
News These Five Games Are Coming To Xbox Game Pass (November 20-27)
November's second wave is here
Microsoft has revealed the second batch of titles joining Xbox Game Pass in November 2024, which includes the previously confirmed Stalker 2 and Nine Sols along with the surprise addition of Aliens: Dark Descent. We've also got two games entering XGP "Standard" - these are already available with Xbox Game Pass...
News Surprise! Xbox's Avowed Has Been Confirmed For Another Platform
Even Blizzard's digital service "is an Xbox"
Well, here's a bit of a surprise. Xbox has today revealed it's bringing Obsidian Entertainment's upcoming fantasy RPG Avowed to not only Xbox Series X|S, Windows, and Steam platforms, but also Blizzard's Battle.net launcher on PC. This was confirmed in an announcement today on Xbox Wire. While we've seen...
Reaction Like It Or Not, Xbox Has Gone Full Throttle On Multiplatform
It's much bigger than Series X and S
We've known for a good while now that Microsoft wants Xbox to be more than a console, but up to this point in time, its messaging around that pursuit has been quite vague. It's always felt like the company wants to keep its loyal fans happy, while also adapting and growing Xbox as a business, which hasn't always...
News Microsoft Is Now Advertising Pretty Much Every Gaming Device As An Xbox
"This is an Xbox"
We've been hearing for months and months, years even, that any device with Microsoft's games on it is an 'Xbox' of some sort. The company has been pushing PC, Mobile and Xbox Cloud Gaming for ages at this point - but today's absolutely massive new marketing campaign is their biggest move in this direction yet. Launched earlier on,...
News Black Ops 6 Season 01 Update Now Live, Here Are The Full Patch Notes For Xbox
New content available now
Last week, developer Treyarch began teasing some of the content coming to Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 in Season 01 - and now we have the full rundown of everything included in today's Black Ops 6 update on Xbox.
News Phil Spencer Thinks Stalker 2 Could Be An Xbox Game Of The Year Contender
"The quality has really come a long way"
It's official, folks, we're less than a week away from Stalker 2 hitting Xbox Game Pass - and Microsoft's gaming boss thinks that the open-world shooter could be a real GOTY contender in 2024. Speaking with Game File, Phil Spencer was asked about the upcoming title and its
News Xbox Delayed Avowed Purely Because Of Its 2024 Game Pass Schedule
"Okay, let's make sure we pace this out a little better"
Obsidian's upcoming RPG Avowed was supposed to be out at this point, but the game was eventually delayed to February 2025 earlier this year. While delays in this industry often happen due to evolving development timelines, Xbox insists this isn't the case with Avowed. Speaking in a new...
News Microsoft Issues Statement As 'Hundreds' Of ZeniMax Workers Go On Strike
A one-day strike across four locations
Yesterday was a turbulent day in the world of ZeniMax Media, as hundreds of unionised workers at the company went on strike against Microsoft at four different locations in Maryland and Texas. As reported by IGN, this involves people who work on the likes of DOOM, Fallout and The Elder Scrolls, and is related...
News Xbox Fan Shares Stunning 4K Images Of 360 Launch Title Project Gotham Racing 3
These look amazing!
Right, by now you probably know that we're huge fans of Project Gotham Racing here at Pure Xbox HQ - so it's no surprise that when we saw some fresh 4K images of PGR3 in and amongst the Xbox Reddit homepage this week, our hearts skipped a little bit. Of course, these aren't official images pulled from the Xbox version or...
News Fallout 5 Not Being Ready Benefitted Amazon's TV Show, Says Xbox Boss
"We didn't have a new game lined up for the launch"
When Amazon's Fallout TV show really took off earlier this year, and Fallout fever was in full swing, there were lots of eyebrows raised about Bethesda not having a game ready to launch alongside the show - but the head of Xbox believes that
News South Of Midnight Game Length & Xbox Tech Specs Revealed
Coming to Game Pass in 2025
Yesterday, Xbox shared a lengthy documentary on its upcoming 2025 game South of Midnight, and Kinda Funny's Parris Lilly has followed this up by revealing some important information about the Compulsion Games title. With Parris recently visiting the Canadian Xbox Game Studio, the presenter can reveal that South of M
News Despite The ActiBlizz Deal, Xbox Remains 'In The Market' For New Dev Teams
"We definitely want to be in the market"
Well all know the trials and tribulations that Xbox went though to acquire Activision Blizzard last year, but the whole ordeal doesn't seem to have put Microsoft off from potentially bringing more teams on board. In a new interview with
News Xbox Boss Says Everything Is On The Table When It Comes To PS5 Ports
"I do not see sort of red lines in our portfolio"
Ever since Microsoft started releasing some of its titles on Sony's PS5, there've been rumours that certain franchises won't ever move over - but Xbox boss Phil Spencer has thrown that notion out of the window in a new interview. Chatting with Bloomberg, the Microsoft Gaming CEO said that there ar
Reminder Seven Games Are Leaving Xbox Game Pass This Friday (November 15)
Some big titles in here
We have seven more titles leaving the Xbox Game Pass library this Friday, including some major releases that we'll be sad to see go. Nevertheless, you've got a couple more days to try some of these out and see what you think. Here's the full list of games exiting the service on November 15: Date Game Platform November...
Talking Point 10 Years On, It's Been A Mighty Turnaround For Halo: Master Chief Collection
Xbox eventually finished the fight
All the way back in 2014, Microsoft had a killer lineup planned for the second year of Xbox One. The team had the likes of Forza Horizon 2 and Sunset Overdrive bringing brand-new experiences to players at the start of the last generation, but it was one title in particular that led the charge for Xbox that year -...
News South Of Midnight Documentary Shares Detailed Look At Xbox's 2025 Adventure
"Weaving Hazel's journey"
After spotting a little teaser last week about fresh South of Midnight coverage coming soon, Xbox has dropped a chunky documentary on the upcoming Compulsion Games adventure - focusing on the team "weaving Hazel's journey" in the 2025 title. You can take a look at this big old ViDoc up above, which goes over some of the...
News PlayStation's Call Of Duty Timed Exclusivity Deal Is Now Officially Over
MW3 DLC packs can now come to Xbox
Microsoft may have acquired Call of Duty publisher Activision more than a year ago, but the Xbox owner vowed to uphold any existing deals that the franchise had with PlayStation owner Sony - and the last of those deals has now officially come to an end. Yep, as pointed out by CharlieIntel, last year's
Talking Point Where Are All The ActiBlizz Titles On Xbox Game Pass?
Isn't it about time?
With Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 now out in the wild, Xbox's biggest Activision Blizzard release since the deal went through has now come and gone. The game ended up being a very good one, so we have no complaints in that regard - but we do still feel a little shortchanged by the Activision Blizzard deal so far. You see, we...
News Xbox Game Pass Is Getting A Massive Black Ops 6 Update Next Week
Season 01 is HUGE
At the start of the week, Xbox developer Treyarch began teasing the first seasonal content update for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, and now the team has fully detailed Black Ops 6 Season 01 - it's an absolutely massive update all-in-all. The headline news is this: Black Ops 6 Season 01 is bringing six multiplayer maps, one new...
News Xbox 'Friend Requests' Have Now Returned
Update: Available now!
Update [Fri 8th Nov, 2024]: In September, Xbox mentioned how it was reintroducing friend requests on Xbox. Now, in an update this week, they're available to everyone across Xbox's platforms and services. Here's another look, courtesy of The Verge's senior editor Tom Warren: Original article [Thu 12th Sep, 2024]:...
News Free Play Days: Try These Xbox Games For Free (November 7-10)
Included With Xbox Game Pass
Thursday is here, which means Xbox has set live its new Free Play Days lineup for the coming weekend! We have four titles to dive into over the next few days - including a brand-new Xbox release in the form of Across the Obelisk. Here's your full Free Play Days selection this weekend: Across the...
News Halo Infinite's New Third-Person Mode Seems To Be Going Down Well On Xbox
Firefight-only for now
Halo Infinite continues to grow following Microsoft's recent 'Halo Studios' rebranding, and this month's update has delivered third-person gameplay for the very first time. Available now in the game's co-op Firefight mode, third-person
News Four Games Are Available Today With Xbox Game Pass Standard (November 6)
The Standard library expands
Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass Standard service is getting a pretty major update today. The team is bringing four more titles over from the Game Pass Ultimate library, including 2024 narrative adventure Harold Halibut. <related ids="164791"> For those who aren't fully caught up with Microsoft's new Game Pass plan -
Rumour Blizzard Could Be Remastering Another RTS Classic
Warcraft 2 looks to be getting a makeover...
Following the release of StarCraft and StarCraft 2 on Game Pass yesterday, there's now some news about Blizzard potentially remastering one of its older real-time strategy games. As
News Xbox Has Two 'BOGOF' Promotions Running Right Now
One for games, one for DLC packs
Xbox has a couple of new 'Buy One, Get One Free' sales running on its digital storefront right now - and they're actually both worth a look this time around. One promotion focuses on sports titles, and includes a nice mix of new releases and older backwards compatible games, while the other is all about DLC packs and...