January is over and it’s time for the gaming industry to really ramp up the new releases. February is fast becoming a time when all manner of developers and publishing teams look to push their latest titles into the minds of gamers, hoping that the reduced cash days of the holiday season are long behind them.
In fact, February 2019 is a damn hot month for new game releases with a huge number of AAA and independent titles getting ready to release. But what are the most exciting Xbox One games on the horizon? Well, this lot will be releasing throughout February 2019 on Xbox One and you won’t want to be missing them!
Trials Rising
It’s been a fair old while since we got our hands on a new Trials title, straight from the purely crazy minds over at RedLynx, but with Trials Rising we finally get to hop aboard a bucking motorcycle once again, in order to tackle the toughest of tracks!
Playing out in the classic 2.5D Trials action, Rising is apparently ‘Trails at its best’, and the gameplay has everything going for such a motto. Whether you wish to hoon it round Yellowstone Park, trek up Mount Everest or somersault off the heights of the Eiffel Tower, you can do so – we’ve certainly come a long way from the industrial feels of the original Trials HD, but the sensitive and fluid controls of the bike have remained pretty much the same. As always, expect to be gunning for those high scores whenever you boot up Trials Rising on Xbox One, and by receiving a notification every time you have a score beaten by a notorious rival ‘friend’, the draw for those all-important bragging rights increases tenfold.
As well as the standard solo and local/online multiplayer races, the new career mode is set to revolutionise how you see Trials. Starting off from humble beginnings on a scrawny dirt track, your goal in this mode is to outperform others, rising to fame as the most audacious and famous biking star, procuring sponsors and titles along the way. The multiplayer side of things has also received some additions, most notably with the new Tandem Bike, whereby two players most work together in order to maintain balance and power.
Oh, and of course the amazing Trials Track Editor is back in full swing for Trials Rising, enabling you play the very best of tracks from the community, as well as share your own masterpieces.
There’s no excuse for Trials Rising on Xbox One to not be seen throwing the series back into the limelight, encapsulating players in a never-ending cycle of world-beating, score-smashing, backflipping motorcycle mania!
Metro: Exodus
Exodus: “a mass departure of people”. Well, come the 15th February 2019 there will certainly be an exodus of gamers to their nearest shop, as the long-awaited return of the dark Metro FPS series is finally here!
Continuing the harrowing journey of Artym from the original Metro 2033 and the sequel, Metro: Last Light, Exodus throws Artym back into Russia, amidst a post-apocalyptic wasteland that is host to all sorts of human foes and freakish mutants. By bonding with companions fighting against these threats, and gradually building up a rebel army to fight back, Artym will hopefully rid Russia of all that harm it. Taking place over the course of a single year, expect to be immersed in a number of seasons, starting off with the harsh nuclear winter that has been brought about by the recent devastation of the Russian Federation. Each season brings with it unique enemy factions, environmental hazards and mutants to keep an eye out for at all times…
But Artym is nothing without his weapons, and in true Metro fashion there will be a plethora of weapons to get your hands on, after initially resourcing and crafting them, of course. Not only is crafting essential to utilising all-new guns, but if you wish to customise your arsenal then crafting is the way to go. The extensive locker of weapons available to you just backs up the fact that Metro: Exodus can be played in a multitude of ways, from the stealthy and sneaky to the brave, all-guns blazing affair. If you are killing enemies, or at least ensuring that they aren’t killing you, then Exodus doesn’t really have a preference to gameplay.
If you are a complete Metro rookie or a dieharder who has followed the series from the start, enjoyment can be found in equal amounts from Metro Exodus, mainly thanks to its tense survival horror elements and exciting combat. Oh, and it’s worth mentioning that should you pre-order the game on Xbox One before release date, then you will receive a digital download code for Metro 2033, so you can gather an understanding of Metro as a series – and see why everyone is raving about it!
Far Cry: New Dawn
Ubisoft, those behind the immensely popular and gripping Far Cry franchise, are back at it again with their semi-spin off, semi-sequel – Far Cry: New Dawn.
Set in the same world as the recent Far Cry 5, just with a distinct post-apocalyptic makeover, expect New Dawn to give you all new weapons and vehicles to play around with, each based around the idea that a devastating nuclear war has forced all those affected to scavenge the few resources they have left.
In that case, then New Dawn will place a large emphasis on crafting and scavenging in order to fashion makeshift weapons and then take the fight to the Highwaymen, the new evil that is threatening Hope County. You see, the Highwaymen are looking to control the apocalyptic world by complete and brutal force, and it is up to you to journey the world, recruit ‘soldiers’ to your resistance movement and fight back against your oppressors. It’s fairly Far Cry in terms of the plot, but a new feature that will play a large part of New Dawn is the central Homebase, in which you will find yourself crafting new weapons and upgrading this unique area in order to progress and emerge as a powerful figure.
But unlike Far Cry titles of old, the map borders are definitely not the limit, as the all-new Expeditions allow you, and a co-op friend if you wish, to travel to different areas and tackle mini-challenges: think of them as challenging dungeons that you can choose to attempt or ignore in favour of the main world of Hope County.
An interesting story with even more guns, Far Cry: New Dawn will not disappoint.
Anthem
Tensions were, let’s say, pretty high ever since the highly-anticipated looter-shooter known as Anthem was announced last year: it just seemed so… ambitious! But a bit of ambition never harmed anybody, and it seems as if Bioware has managed to pull one out of the bag with Anthem, as they look to deliver the game a loot-addict dreams of!
If you are somehow completely new to Anthem, then in a nutshell it is Bioware’s newest IP, set in a futuristic world where everyone has access to their own personal exo-suit, enabling them to fly around wherever they wish. Content-wise, and Anthem seems to have it in abundance, from basic story missions to taxing strongholds and everything in between, including the option to simply free-roam the map, always looking for the next adventure and opportunity to level up. And you will want to level up, as in the traditional style of a loot-em-up like Destiny and Warframe, everything you touch is more than likely loot, from weapons and abilities to new customisation options for your exoskeleton, or ‘Javelin’, as it is referred to.
Everything you do in the world of Anthem will lead to an opportunity to grab newer and better items, as well as expand the overarching story, and thus rank your Javelin up to deal more damage, take more hits, and deploy the most devastating of powers. But such powers would be useless without friends to show them to, and that is where Anthem’s seamless multiplayer comes in. All it takes is a few button presses to invite a fellow player, and then you go out into the game-world to indulge in whatever mission or online event you wish. And then? Well… more loot!
While most of your gametime will occur out in the world, taking down swathes of enemies and procuring items, the single-player Fort Tarsis will act as your base of operations, from which you engage with NPCs integral to the storyline to further your understanding of the context and open up new story missions. It is from Tarsis where you will be found doing most of your preparation for events in the real world. It makes up the other side of the coin – your own solo hub away from the large-scale shared online world.
Anthem just has to be played!
Crackdown 3
Even this late on, we wouldn’t be surprised to see Crackdown 3 delayed for another couple of years!
Ever since the iconic ‘orb’ was teased in the Xbox One announcement event (yes, nearly 7 years ago now) Xbox fans have been frothing at the mouth for a new Crackdown world to explore and blow to smithereens – preferably with friends. Well, we finally have our wish, now let’s just hope it can somehow live up to the hype!
Telling the neon-coloured tale of an evil corporation slowly controlling the world from the inside, Crackdown 3 is set in the area of New Providence, unfortunate home to the corrupt TerraNova Worldwide, who are hell-bent on controlling everything and everyone who just so happens to live within their grip. This is where you come in – the legendary Agent who must fight back against TerraNova and restore New Providence to its colourful, futuristic, safe past.
That is, of course, if you get your head around Crackdown’s extensive arsenal of wacky, explosive weapons, and manage to get to grips with the number of unlockable skills that your character can equip. Through playing through the story and taking out fodder enemies and high-value targets, you will slowly be able to play with new ways to traverse the world (aside from your standard transforming vehicle) and dispose of enemy threats. The new ‘Gangs Bite Back’ system helps to make the battles feel more like a war, as the more destruction and killing of a gang you do, the higher value targets may wish to pay you a little visit instead of forcing you to come to them. This mechanic in particular enables the player to put a bit of tactical nous into their destruction – straying away from mindlessly destroying everything, and instead targeting specific areas.
And if you are looking for some multiplayer action then the newly created Wrecking Zone mode allows you and some other online players to compete against each other in completely destroying the city of New Providence. In this mode, literally anything can be destroyed and the winner is the player who can demolish the most.
With more than a couple of years of development behind it, Crackdown 3 will hopefully be the high-explosive, adrenaline pumping Xbox One Crackdown we have wanted for years! And the fact it’ll be hitting Xbox Game Pass makes it even more appealing.
DiRT Rally 2.0
With the uber-large budgets and advanced technology that video game developers have to play with, there are some pretty gruelingly realistic simulators out there that just continue to blow our minds regarding how close they are to the real thing. 2015’s DiRT Rally, a spin-off of sorts from the mainstream DiRT titles, was one such game, offering gamers one of the best rally car experiences on modern consoles. One mistake on one race could have spelled out disaster, as is the case with actual rally racing, and DiRT Rally 2.0 continues this gripping, tense form of gameplay.
From the tracks to drivable vehicles, everything included in DiRT Rally 2.0 has been painstakingly recreated from the real world. At launch, there are 50+ unique vehicles that are available to drive, including the notorious VW Polo GTI R5 and pure power of the Chevrolet Camaro GTR.4, which can be driven across 6 off-road locations across the globe. As well as these rural locations, there are many tracks that you can race across from racing-fame, such as England’s Silverstone and Mettet in Belgium.
If the pure-racing of the standard DiRT Rally 2.0 single-race experience doesn’t appeal, then you may wish to indulge in the Career or team development mode, the latter in which you create your own team, hire your own staff and gradually expand your garage, filling it with your favourite cars.
And of course, as with every major racing title on the market nowadays, DiRT Rally 2.0 must have an element of multiplayer, and this is located within the Daily, Weekly and Monthly Challenges that include global leaderboards.
If you want to put yourself through the pure tension of a hardcore rally simulator, then look no further than February’s DiRT Rally 2.0.
Jump Force
Some may not be able to distinguish their Gokus from their Narutos, but there are many who can, and it is these especially who will be hugely excited for this month’s release of Jump Force on Xbox One. And this all seems like for a very good reason – Jump Force is essentially a celebration of all things manga, wrapped up in a beautifully stylized and satisfying fighter.
With a roster of 40+ fighters from 17 manga series, each obviously coming with their own unique moves and abilities, Jump Force pits your own carefully selected tag team of 3 fighters against another, and lets your fighting prowess do the talking.
In regards to the single player side of things, and the story Jump Force will tell is one of all out war, as the Jump World collides with the Real World, and our heroes fight against a powerful and dangerous threat in order to save the entirety of the human race. So far, so much like a normal fighter plot-wise, but where Jump Force becomes unique is in its strange but compelling camera angles. Playing out in a 360 degree plane, the two fighters on the screen will be frantically moving, dodging and pulling out all manner of moves from pretty much anywhere. Just know that this is definitely no 2D fighter, but very much the opposite in terms of opportunities to close the gap to or distance to your enemy.
No modern fighter would be complete without some form of online multiplayer, and in Jump Force going online opens up a whole new side to the game. First of all, you will have to create your own customisable avatar, making it so no two players are ever alike, and head on down to the massive game world, inspired by popular cartoons Dragon Ball, One Piece and Naruto (as well as the real world) and find players to fight against from there.
If you are a massive manga fan then the chances are you have had Jump Force’s release date saved in your mental calendar for ages now, but for any newcomer to the concept, or someone simply looking for a decent fighter to get into, it’s not long to wait until Jump Force hits the shelves.
So, a super strong month that is seeing a number of potentially great titles hit Xbox One. But which games will you be picking up in February 2019? Let us know in the comments below or fire us a message on the usual social channels.
