After a month of winter, a new Series of Forza Horizon 5 Festival Playlist Weekly Challenges come to the fore, and summer has finally appeared in Mexico with Series 42.
As a game, Shaolin vs Wutang is not great, but then, as an experience to take you back to the golden age of martial arts films, it’s a triumph. It all depends on which camp you fall into.
There are much better fishing games than Ultimate Fishing Simulator, and my strong advice is that if you want to go fishing on Xbox One you look elsewhere first.
It’s fun while it lasts, but apart from some interesting achievements to find and unlock, once you've done so the urge to play again evaporates like the morning dew in a blast furnace. It’s a fun diversion, but sadly it doesn't last long enough.
It plays well, looks all cute and cuddly, teaches kids about money and it’s free to download. And all this is helped by Island Saver providing a nice and relaxing place to spend some time. Sometimes that is all we need in life. No matter what our age.
Maneater on Xbox One is bloody brilliant. It’s a massive game with a lot to do and a huge amount of content to discover - the locations or beauty spots are usually wittily scripted, and have quite a few nods to popular culture as well, making them entertaining asides. What's more, there is a good story of revenge to follow.
PAC-MAN is so much more than that first game, game changing as it was. So join us as we celebrate the birth of one of the most iconic of gaming characters.
If I can't go out, what games could I play that will bring the great outdoors in here to me? Thus a germ (if you'll pardon the pun) of an idea formed, and I began to think about which games would make my list. And here, for your reading pleasure, please allow me to present to you the "Five Greatest Gaming Worlds To Play While We Can't Go Out IRL" list - or just some of the best games with the biggest worlds for you to really get lost in.
Mega Party: A Tootuff Adventure on Xbox One is very much just okay... at best. It doesn't do anything particularly well, it looks ropy and the controls are poor, but weighing against that is the inclusion of a lot of content to unlock, and the possibility of four player battles in a series of childish mini games.
Retro platformers might not be to everyone's taste, but the gameplay on display in Thy Sword is strong enough to warrant giving it a go, especially with three difficulty levels to have a go at. Don't just think of this as an excuse to grab easy achievements... it is much more than that.
Robot Squad Simulator X on Xbox One is not a game I can recommend to anyone. It seems a shame that a potentially good idea, with genuinely tense gameplay to be recreated, has been squandered like this. The driving of the robots is awful, the arm mechanics really suck, and the rest of the game is simply shoddy and badly designed.
In a world where games like Forza Motorsport, Gran Turismo and Assetto Corsa exist, it must take pretty big cojones to look at these games and think "I can do better!". This would appear to be the thinking of the fine folks over at Slightly Mad Studios, as in 2015 that’s exactly what they did. The game they produced, Project CARS, looked excellent in the trailers, and with a massive amount of content it looked set to give the big boys a run for their money. But was it all smooth asphalt, or did they crash on the first corner?
It’s not a big game, or particularly clever, but what it does have is that gaming X-Factor; that hook that keeps you playing every time you accidentally blow a survivor up or get pogo'd by a punk zombie. With only three levels to go at, it’s not going to be hugely long-lasting, but you will have fun while it lasts.
Rivenaar’s Grove is an extremely simple yet mildly enjoyable puzzler. It provides a way to kill an hour or two, and isn’t remotely taxing on the old grey matter.
Songs of Silence is an excellent entry into the 4X and strategy genre, even more so when you consider that titles in this niche are relatively thin on the ground on consoles.
