Dave Ozzy

You need a gimmick if you’re going to stand out in the Shoot ‘Em Up genre. Colour-shifting ships, time-manipulation, chucking it into a vintage arcade cabinet: we’ve seen a few over the years. Switch ‘n’ Shoot believes it has the next big gimmick. When you shoot, you switch direction. If you miss, you’re immediately facing 180 degrees from the target you wanted to hit. That’s less than ideal!

We make choices every day, including the one you made to click on this article. If you boil them down, they can often be simplified to just a few words. Work? Yes, No. Sleep? Now, later. This reductive approach to our lives, and the choices we make, is the space that Ord plays in.

Not going to lie, we weren’t hugely aware that there was even a CASE 1. We’ll sidestep our ignorance on that one and get our teeth into CASE 2: Animatronics Survival, which is out now on Xbox One, PS4, Switch and PC via Steam.

Remember Devil Dice? We do, and it’s a game that’s ripe for a spiritual successor. Many a day was spent on the PS1 trying to get a die to flip just so. Then there was Intelligent Cube, again on the PS1, with its rows of cubes looking to stomp you down. Man, the PS1 was absolutely the home for games with cubes in. Cube Raiders is out now on Xbox One, PS4, Switch and PC via Steam.

Sure, sure, Cyberpunk 2077 has delayed and the sky is falling. But let’s not write November off: we have the launch of the Xbox Series X|S, and one of the most rammed months in recent memory. The best and the brightest of the AAA games have been held back for this moment, so that they can pull a Blue Steel and look their best on new hardware. Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, the new COD, DIRT 5 and a Need for Speed remaster are all lining up, and man do they ooze money. There’s plenty to scratch onto a Christmas list, then, and more than enough to make the delay to Cyberpunk seem like a moderate nuisance. No, no, November - you’re breathtaking.

The best part of writing launch pieces for TheXboxHub is getting sidewinded by games you’ve never heard of. Legends of Ethernal is certainly one of those games: it’s the first from debut outfit Lucid Dreams Studios, it’s arrived with little to no fanfare, yet it looks the absolute business. Legends of Ethernal is out now on Xbox One, PS4, Switch and PC via Steam.

Nope. Nope, double-nope. Watch the trailer for Visage and see what we mean. This is some Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark-style nopeness that we hope to never find booting on our Xbox One. Visage is out now on Xbox One and PS4, while it has been out for a while on PC via Steam.

Flipping heck, Artifex Mundi, it’s been less than a month since your last hidden object release, while Family Mysteries: Poisonous Promises, the first in the series, only came out in August. Relax! Pre-order Cyberpunk and give yourself a few duvet days! Family Mysteries 2: Echoes of Tomorrow is out now on Xbox One, PS4 and Switch.

It’s hard to be critical of Brotherhood United on Xbox One and its many bruised edges. Sure, it looks like a knock-off, and the platforming stinks, but it sets such a low bar that it clears it. It wants to give you three hours of no-nonsense action, switching out difficulty for a sense of momentum, and it does it all for a budget price.

Remove the stealth from Clea on Xbox One and you have a delightful little Resident Evil puzzler, hunting for keys, navigating mazes and pushing the right switches in the right order. The story amps the mystery up, and you’ll want to know what Clea’s neglectful parents were thinking. But that wouldn’t be Halloween, would it, so we need baddies to skulk and scare. The problem is that these enemies are more like coming across umpteen traffic lights and diversions on a road you just want to get down.

Hopefully time will be kind to Rock Band 3. It’s the equivalent of a Blade Runner or Van Gogh, unappreciated and undersold in its own time, but something that has undeniable quality. We may never see another Rock Band, no encore to this great series, but in Rock Band 3 and Rock Band 4, we got some pretty awesome final tracks.

If you’re after a Puzzle Bobbler, Rusty Spout Rescue Adventure on the Xbox One will give you the bubble-hit you need at a budget price, but only if you’re after a simple, colourful two-player local experience. In almost every other way it misses the mark, with a grindy and punishing campaign, a lack of online multiplayer and only two-player couch-play. For a lot of social bubblers, it won’t matter, as Rusty Spout’s heart is in the right place, me hearties.

The Halloween glut of games keeps on glutting, with the release of Clea, out now on Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, joining a previous drop on PC via Steam.

So, we were absolutely in for the Demon’s Souls, Tony Hawk Pro Skater and Mafia remasters. Need for Speed Hot Pursuit, Kingdoms of Amalur remasters - yeah, okay, we kind of liked the originals. Destroy All Humans! and Spongebob: Battle for Bikini Bottom: alright, it was starting to get silly. Asterisk & Obelisk XXL? Er, what? Asterisk & Obelisk XXL: Romastered is out now on Xbox One, PS4, Switch and PC via Steam.

Life is a rollercoaster, isn’t it? We checked the Xbox Game Pass app last week to receive a message that GONNER was leaving the service, and had a weary sigh. It was a colourful, violent, hella good time, and we were going to have to part ways. Then lo! GONNER2 strides up to October, says hol’ up, and arrives completely free for anyone with Game Pass. Winner winner, chicken dinner! GONNER2 is out now on Xbox One to purchase as well as via Game Pass, Switch and PC via Steam.