XBox One Reviews

Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 – a game title that deserves a Kingdom Hearts style “2.5D Ultima Super Dream Final Edition” if I’ve ever heard one. People know what Tetris is, and a good chunk of those will know what Puyo Puyo is if you explain it in Mean Bean Machine terms. It says what it is, for better or for worse. But hidden behind that slightly mystifying name is a potent mix of puzzling fun that never gets old –…

I’m not sure there’s a more intense single-player racing experience than coming to the end of a long rally stage as the rain starts to spit. The time pops up at the checkpoint and you’re either a second ahead or behind the pace heading into the last stretch. Every time it happens in WRC 9 on Series X, I shift forward in my seat and try my darndest to hit each apex without careening off an edge and down a…

Breath of the Wild meets Assassin’s Creed – it’s a recipe that amazingly we haven’t had until exactly this moment. But boy, does Immortals Fenyx Rising taste good. Mixing in a bit of fourth-wall breaking Borderlands humour and plenty of mythology, this is a game that wears its influences on its sleeves. You enter every “shrine” knowing full well that you’re venturing into a Zelda-like environment, and that’s just fine. It’s prettier than Breath of the Wild and, arguably, offers…

How good can Tetris get? The definitive version on the Gameboy (or NES) did everything that this genre needed to do. Every effort since has just been more of the same. How much innovation can there be after billions of blocks? Turns out, you can squeeze quite a lot out of it. There’s been plenty to play on Xbox Series X this past week, but Tetris Effect: Connected has proven to be the most addictive. If you have Gamepass, there’s…

There are certain things we can rely on in life to have an annual release, Things like the Shamrock shake at McDonald’s, or they claymation Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer special during the holidays. Just Dance has been in that same category since it’s inception over a decade ago. With its infectious song lists bright colors and fancy unique choreography Just Dance has always been a fun time for all. While this year is the first time the game isn’t released…

It’s time to enjoy two of the best co-op games ever made… again. Overcooked! All You Can Eat combines the first and second games together into a “remastered” pack on Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, but it feels a bit like warming up leftovers. If you’ve never played this series before and have somebody to play it with, disregard any negativity in the coming 900 or so words. They are fantastic fun and you’ll get an awful lot out…

Tis the season everyone, time for Call of Duty to release a new game,  Time for them to climb the sales charts with another new title, Time for wives to mourn the loss of their husbands as we all prepare our bodies and new consoles for some elite level pew pew action. The Campaign mode of Black Ops Cold War was designed and developed by Raven Software which was already designing a campaign based on the Cold War before Treyarch …

How do you make a great racing game like Dirt 5 into a must-play experience? You optimise it for Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5. It’s that easy. Racing should be a bigger genre than it is. When you look at the mobile scene, the biggest titles are things that are intense, fun and playable in short bursts. That’s driving games to a tee. We haven’t been able to have that pleasure on console until now. The traditional experience has…

There’s no sign of the roguelike rush stopping any time soon, and ScourgeBringer is the latest to join the often-punishing genre.  A well made game that nails its gameplay execution, ScourgeBringer is a fun ride that will remind you of a game with tight controls from the NES or SNES era. There’s a story to ScourgeBringer, but it’s ancillary to the experience.  From the time you first load up the game, you’ll be playing through your first run in a…

There’s no better way of rounding out a dinner party than to load up Jackbox. The mini-game compilations are fantastic fun, often come to Gamepass, and, more amazing than anything, are now up to their seventh pack. This latest compilation brings with it five new games, each worth looking at. For what it is, there’s nothing quite like the Jackbox compilations, and I think if you know you’ll get the use out of it, it’s worth every penny. But the…