Darren Edwards

10 years ago? Surely not. We’re talking about the year when President Obama was first inaugurated and Michael Jackson passed away. Feel old yet? It’s particularly scary as that was the year I started University, and my housemate introduced me to a cracking little game by the name Trials HD. We ploughed hours into chasing personal bests, climbing online leaderboards and had a great laugh in the process. That is the beauty of this game, as the addictive and entertaining gameplay is perfectly balanced by its slapstick charm.

I was lucky enough to attend, and got to spend some quality time with Doom Eternal, id Software’s much anticipated sequel to the excellent 2016 release Doom. The demo was pretty generous and set around, and on, a besieged Mars and nearby space station.

I approached the entrance to Codemasters’ HQ with trepidation and excitement in equal measures. It was my first experience of such an event, and was immediately put an ease by how friendly everyone was. This was especially true of GRID’s Director, Chris Smith, who was bursting with passion for his latest project. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to put some questions to him…

It crept up on me. No, not a ravenous Demogorgon looking for its dinner, but the first season of Stranger Things on Netflix. It arrived with no considerable hype or build-up, instead dropping seemingly from nowhere all at once. One of the reasons I love Netflix, and the generation of entertainment we are currently enjoying, is discovering the next binge-worthy series. This was it. The series was well received all round and spawned a companion game for mobile devices which was also widely praised. Three years later and three series’ in, the franchise enjoys continued success, and as a result a more ambitious companion game has been released to Stranger Things 3.

Have you ever found yourself with some leftover Xbox Live Credit and thought, what can I possibly get with this? I know I have. But fear not, as I have scoured the Xbox Store and found the best Xbox One games available, right now, for under a fiver each.

I’m a big fan of racing games. So when I got the opportunity to go and experience the upcoming GRID release, I jumped at the chance. It’s being developed by the legendary Codemasters studio, who have a long and rich history of releasing quality racing titles. Their latest project is due for release on October 11th 2019, and I was lucky enough to get a sneak peek of the newly rebooted GRID.

Put your hands up if you have ever wanted to drive around in a huge monster truck and smash things up. I thought so. Thankfully, Monster Trucks Steel Titans is here to make that dream come true. Well, sort of. I went in with no expectations apart from “give me monster trucks”, yet the more time I spent with the game, the more I started to discover its many flaws.

Originality in games is naturally harder and harder to come by nowadays as our beloved industry goes from strength to strength. But there are some that immediately grab your attention because they have an original idea at their core. Verlet Swing is one such game. Prepare to enter a curiously weird game world where your only chance of escape is to swing to safety like a demented Spiderman trapped in an '80s bootleg video game.

Here we go again. Another year has passed us by and E3 2019 has given us plenty to talk about. Bethesda were third out of the traps to showcase what they had to offer the gaming masses this year. Understandably, you may have missed the briefing, as it was broadcast in the UK at 01:30am. But never fear, dear readers, as right here you will find plenty of reasons to be hyped about what Bethesda had to show. 9 in fact.

50 years. That’s a long time in anyone’s book, but yes, 2019 is Konami’s 50th anniversary and things are shaping up very nicely indeed. To celebrate, the good people at the Japanese games company are treating us to three different collections: Arcade Classics, Castlevania and Contra Anniversary Collections. Most recently, gamers were invited to “trace the origins of the historic vampire franchise”, with the release of eight games in the Castlevania series. After such a long time, are these titles worth a revisit, or have they, er, lost their bite?

“Go big”. That’s what Microsoft’s Executive Vice President of Gaming, Phil Spencer, promised he and the team would do this year. He also said that they will be “as big at E3 as we’ve ever been”. Exciting stuff indeed. This came not long after Sony announced that they would not be holding a live E3 conference this year, and indeed for the first time ever. With Nintendo sticking to their “direct” format, it leaves Xbox holding the only live conference from the big three. This provides an opportunity to steal the show. What better time to “go big”?

World War Z is lots of fun and easy to pick up and play, despite being a little on the expensive side. It may not have loads of new ideas, but it delivers a solid online PvP experience that doesn’t disappoint, especially on the zombie front.

Trust me, this time next year, this will all have just been a bad dream.

Assassin's Creed III Remastered on Xbox One is a good game which is fun to play. The graphics may be significantly improved but this is essentially the same as it was seven years ago, albeit now up against much stronger competition.

Music within video games has the unique ability to tip off players with what’s going to happen next and is by far the most effective way of setting the mood. But right now it’s time to hit pause, and look back at five of the most influential game soundtracks ever to grace the Xbox family, and why they resonate with players so much.