Dave Ozzy

If you’ve ever found yourself immersed in the strategic depths of Stellaris: Console Edition, you will be happy to know that the Third Expansion Pass kicks off today, the 15th of September, starting with the Distant Stars DLC pack. With two other DLC packs due to drop at the start of 2021, it sounds like a good time to return on Microsoft Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

There are experiences here that I’m not sure I’ve encountered before - at least not in a video game. If that’s not fodder for full marks, then I don’t know what is. Welcome to Elk on Xbox One is a game that’s going to stick long in the memory. For a story that deals in the power of memory, that feels like a suitable conclusion.

Wintermoor Tactics Club on Xbox One may not be your ‘new game+’, one-shot death brand of turn-based strategy; instead, it dares to be welcoming, and that’s something to be celebrated.

Talking Tom Candy Run on Xbox One is a competent endless runner and perfect as an entry-point for young players who might recognise the titular Tom. For more critical players, though, you’ll feel your hackles rise at the laziness of a free-to-play game dressed up as something paid for.

There have been 27 FIFA games. 2-7. Sure, you could get all cynical and say there’s only been five or so different FIFA games, but let’s not get facetious. Now, did we really need every one of those 27? Couldn’t we have lost a ‘Road to World Cup 98’, say, and given another sport a chance? An EA Sports Kabaddi? Games companies, are you listening? Stick an Ultimate Team on these and you’re minted.

While the presentation is a little bland and the price tag is north of the value it offers, Educational Games for Children on Xbox One has been made with real care. If your kids are anything like mine, they’ll love it.

It would have been difficult to make a case for this lightweight, unfinished game at a budget price point, but £14.99 for a game that’s a painful fart in the wind makes it a hard ‘no’. Find a copy of Bloodstained, Dead Cells, Hollow Knight or anything else, really, and you will have dodged an hour-long headache with Gleamlight on Xbox One.

Approach Cinders on Xbox One with caution. If you like a bit of melodrama in your life, and the prospect of a well-crafted, alternate take on Cinderella sounds appealing, this glass slipper may well fit.

With a time-bending approach to the twin-stick shooter, it looked like The Ambassador: Fractured Timelines on Xbox One would be really spoiling us. Instead, we get a slow-paced example of the genre, whose best ideas never quite develop beyond its first hour.

WarriOrb on Xbox One is hard. It is unfair. You will have to swallow that unfairness until you can find a workaround. There are undoubtedly better hardcore platformers out there. BUT, if that doesn’t dissuade you, and you’ve beaten Dead Cells, Hollow Knight, Salt & Sanctuary and the rest, then - hats off to you - there’s some charm and joy to be had in this little sphere’s adventures.

For a seasoned hidden object player - particularly those who feel oversaturated with the horror and fantasy themes of the Xbox One library - I can give a Kevlar-guarded recommendation. The CSI-theme suits the material well, and - while they don’t necessarily work - the innovative elements attempt to shake up a template-heavy genre. If you haven’t played a hidden object game before? It’s hard to make a case, as there are better examples from the same publisher.

Hidden object games have never filled me with enthusiasm. Whenever one pops up in the ‘New Games’ section on the Xbox, my eye naturally scans over them and I dismiss them. Up to this point, I’d never thought critically about why, but there’s a knotty ball of reasons. So, how to approach the issue? Like any true obsessive, the only way was to dedicate a week, playing hidden object games exclusively.