Xbox One Game Reviews
Review Pinball FX2 - The Walking Dead (Xbox One)
Get bit.
The critically acclaimed first season of Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead (hence forth referenced as Season One) invades the best version of digital pinball currently on the market, Pinball FX2, and the results are quite impressive. This closely-coordinated effort between Telltale and FX2 developer, Zen Studios, comes hot on the heels of...
(Re)mastered Blaster
When it comes to re-releasing older titles on a new platform, there are a number of ways a publisher and developer can go about it. They can just put the game out as it was and drop the price. Alternatively, they can bundle in a load of DLC and call it a “definitive” version. Failing that, they can tweak the graphics and...
Review Pinball FX2 - Guardians of the Galaxy (Xbox One)
Chart topper or flipper flopper?
It’s been a big summer for the Guardians of the Galaxy, has it not? Thanks to the critical and commercial success of the motion picture, this ragtag team of superheroes has risen from utter obscurity to a common household name in what seems like the blink of an eye. That means comic books, action figures and other...
Review The Golf Club (Xbox One)
Taking a new approach
Golf games haven’t grown up in the last 25 years. No matter how you look at it, the same systems that we used to control the likes of World Class Leaderboard on the 8-bit machines in the 80s are the same ones that we use today to control the latest EA Sports licence-fest. Everything has changed around the core systems of the...
Review Guacamelee: Super Turbo Championship Edition (Xbox One)
Nacho average luchador
Even if you haven’t played Guacamelee or seen it in action, chances are you’re at least aware of its existence. Released as a timed exclusive for PlayStation consoles back in April of last year, this Metroidvania-style action platformer was met with a knockout of a reception, and since then has been heralded by many as one...
Review Sniper Elite 3 (Xbox One)
Blood and broken bones
Ladies and gentlemen, Karl Fairbourne is back. The buff, very American super sniper makes his return in Sniper Elite 3, joining ranks with the allied countries during World War II to help them gather intel and scout areas of interest. Although, chronologically, this isn't a return as such. Sniper Elite 3 is set some-odd years...
Into the darkness
Outlast is a game you can brag to your friends about when finished. It’s also a survival horror adventure that probably shouldn’t be played by those with weak hearts. The tension scales so sporadically that even a half-hour session can leave you exhausted. But rather more importantly, Outlast is a finely crafted, well-paced...
Review Valiant Hearts: The Great War (Xbox One)
Masterpiece theater
Though a few videos have been published leading up to the release of Valiant Hearts: The Great War, not a lot of them did very much to explain what the game actually was. Clearly, we could see that it was being built on the UbiArt Framework and from what we read, we could clearly see that a lot of care and attention was being...
Review Sixty Second Shooter Prime (Xbox One)
A new ruler?
Sixty Second Shooter Prime isn’t officially related to Geometry Wars, but it may as well be. A twin stick blaster, the game sees your triangular ship trying to blast its way through enemy cubes, triangles, and coils. There’s no health bar, and no extra lives. Colliding with something means that your game is over. The goal is to rack...
Connected chaos
To be blunt, Watch Dogs’ lead anti-hero Aiden Pearce is a straight up smartphone addict. For most of the game, Aiden can barely take his eyes away from his device. And who can blame him really, especially with all the cool things one can do? No, he isn’t checking to see what’s trending on Twitter or playing a round of Candy...
Review Wolfenstein: The New Order (Xbox One)
Nazi-killin' machine
Can you believe that Wolfenstein has only seen four home console installments since Wolfenstein 3D was crammed onto an SNES cartridge back in the mid ‘90s? Being one of the oldest names in the book when it comes to first-person shooters, Wolfenstein has a legacy most brands can only dream of achieving, and it has somehow...
Nut all that fun
With platform holders making it easier and easier for indie developers to self-publish in these modern times, it’s inevitable that we’re going to see a lot of games ported from mobile devices to current home consoles. The first game of this nature to come to Xbox One (outside of Halo: Spartan Assault, which we wouldn’t...
Review Super Time Force (Xbox One)
Time is on your side, yes it is.
Super Time Force is the coolest game to hit the Xbox One and Xbox 360 so far this year. From the beautiful modern-retro pixel aesthetics to the unrelenting barrage of '80s/90s action movie inspirations and references, it’s an always-flashy, funny and frantic spectacle. It’s clear that the people over at Cabybara...
Review The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (Xbox One)
Great power. Great disposability.
With another blockbuster film comes another video game tie-in — but is that always a bad thing? With games like Spider-Man 2, X-Men Origins: Wolverine and even Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay we'd have to say that expecting a lazy cash grab shouldn't always be a go-to reaction. Look back at 2012's...
Review Child of Light (Xbox One)
What rhymes with magnificent?
Child of Light is gorgeous – you know it, we know it, everyone that has seen it knows it. Running on the UbiArt Framework – the engine created to power recent Rayman games – it’s no surprise that Ubisoft Montreal has been able to craft visuals so stunning that still-frame images look like genuine paintings...
Review Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition (Xbox One)
There and back again
When Square Enix announced late last year that an updated version of the Tomb Raider reboot would be “re-built specifically for next-gen consoles,” we couldn’t help but scoff. For a game that we already called “adrenaline-filled” and “aesthetically superb,” — let alone only being on the market for 10 months —...
Review Trials Fusion (Xbox One)
Man. Machine. The future?
We know that topping Trials Evolution would be no easy feat. As the second game in the Trials series, Evolution hit Xbox Live Arcade back in April of 2012 and was in such high demand that it shattered digital sales records right out of the gate. Not only did this sequel to Trials HD feature tighter gameplay and more varied...
Review Strike Suit Zero: Director's Cut (Xbox One)
Interstellar Earth Defenders
Strike Suit Zero: Director's Cut is an arcade-style space shooter that one might compare to Star Wars: X-Wing, or even those Rogue Squadron games for the Nintendo 64 and GameCube. As a war rages on between Earth and the independent colonies of space, you'll play as a pilot in the U.N.E. (United Nations of Earth) with the...
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 Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes (Xbox One)
Sneaking on to next-gen like a Boss!
Metal Gear Solid has been one of the very best franchises in gaming history. Developed by Hideo Kojima and Kojima Productions, each new title has always been able to reinvent itself, bringing fresh gameplay mechanics, in depth stories and pushing the graphical power of consoles to their limits. Now, six years...
Review The LEGO Movie Videogame (Xbox One)
Everything is (not so) awesome
The LEGO Movie Videogame is already the second LEGO game to be released on the next generation of consoles, and with the upcoming awkwardly-titled LEGO The Hobbit just on the horizon, this series has no intention of letting up. Based off the excellent movie, The LEGO Movie Videogame takes the honours of being one of...
Boom time.
To say that Xbox One owners have been waiting for Titanfall to arrive is probably one of the understatements of the year. To say that a few gamers who have been thinking about taking the step up to the Xbox One have been waiting to see how Respawn’s new multiplayer-only FPS would fare is also in the same ballpark, understatement-wise...
Review Max: The Curse of Brotherhood (Xbox One)
Artful or awful?
Let’s get this out of the way first: prepare to die a lot in Max: The Curse of Brotherhood. Press Play’s latest puzzle platformer will test your patience with its “trial-and-error” approach and finicky controls — which often led to Max plunging to his death more times than we could count. With that being said, Max’s...
Review Fighter Within (Xbox One)
Fighter Without.
In a world where Kinect for Xbox One is seen as nothing but a gimmick designed to ensure that you pay more for a console than you otherwise would, it was imperative that the first Kinect-only experience was compelling. A Wii Sports for the Xbox One, if you will. So who better to leave in charge of such a thing than Ubisoft, the...
Addiction, thy name is Peggle.
When PopCap’s John Vechey took the stage at E3 2013 to announce the company’s new titles, he expected the announcement of Peggle 2 to be something of a megaton. “Ladies and gentlemen, PEGGLE 2!” he bellowed, as the room went dark and a short video trailer took what seemed like aeons to kick in. During the...
Review Angry Birds: Star Wars (Xbox One)
Flies in the oink-ment.
Try and find somebody who’s never played an Angry Birds title, and you’ll find that it’s a tough ask. After launching on mobile devices a few years back, the game has gone from strength to strength, and is now – as we all know – available in a million different varieties, for a million different devices. There’s a...
Review Need for Speed: Rivals (Xbox One)
We fought the law.
Though it’s a far less technical and therefore more arcade feeling racer than Forza, Need for Speed: Rivals isn’t something you want to miss as part of the Xbox One launch offering. Its schizophrenic identity of law breaker versus law maker, provides a dual experience of fast cars, dangerous pursuits and intense road battles...
Review Powerstar Golf (Xbox One)
Swingin'!
If there’s one thing every console apparently needs, it’s a golf game. Whether you’re seeking realism in one of EA’s PGA-licenced affairs, or firing up the over-the-top action of the excellent Everybody’s Golf series, there always seems to be at least one available relatively early on in a console’s life-cycle. Powerstar Golf...
Review Dead Rising 3 (Xbox One)
Dead fun.
If you're a fan of the original title and the sequel, then Dead Rising 3 is going to impress and please you. The series' intriguing lore and storyline, over the top, ridiculous psycho boss battles, and oodles of extravagant combo weapons are all present and accounted for, enhanced further by the Xbox One's powerful hardware. Dead Rising 3...
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...
