The esports scene is booming these days, with pro gamers worldwide training hard to shine during solo and team-based tournaments for many different games. Not only can folks compete to be the very best in fighters like Tekken and Mortal Kombat, but also sports, shooters and multiplayer online battle arena games (MOBAs). The latter of which is the focus of casual management simulation Esports Life Tycoon, as you attempt to build your own MOBA team and lead them to glory. Will it be a championship winning formula from developers Raiser Games, or is it as disappointing as getting knocked out in the first round?
Liftoff: Drone Racing on Xbox is a Gordian knot of a game. Mastering even the simplest manoeuvres takes time, and that’s before you’ve mastered the improbably difficult racing. Master the racing, and you’re left with a slow, precise racer in an ugly environment.
Although it has been part of the Xbox PC line-up for quite some time, having Star Renegades on Xbox consoles is a great thing. For most this is a combat-focused RPG with an addictive battle system, smooth pacing, and fantastic neon presentation. If you are a fan of Battle Chasers: Nightwar then Star Renegades is the perfect game to fill that niche.
Mars Horizon on Xbox is an excellent and approachable but deep game that will scratch the space exploration itch for a lot of players. Whilst it’s not an adrenaline rush, it’s got a lot of heart and its excellent UI and design will mean you spend many hours crafting and preparing your missions and then tensely watching them launch.
Having originally launched five years ago on other systems, it comes to the Xbox family in a great state as well; I haven’t encountered a single issue in my time with the game. Friendly communities, unobtrusive microtransactions, and a hell of a lot of fun - my biggest frustration is that The Four Kings Casino and Slots didn’t make the jump to Xbox sooner.
While Destiny: Beyond Light on Xbox does axe more content than it adds, it is still worth playing through. The new world is an interesting place, and with a lot of post story content coming from Variks, the scope to have fun is large. A new Raid makes me happy indeed, and with new exotic quests and Hunts to take part in the future does appear to be bright.
At first glance, XIII looks like a video game. It has graphics, sounds come out of the speakers, and a character moves when you touch the pad. But sit down to play it, and you’ll realise that it’s held together with sticky tape and paper clips, collapsing into scraps when you play for more than five minutes.
Unrailed! on Xbox is fresh, clever and loads of fun to play. You’ll only realise its full potential when playing with friends locally, which is unfortunately very difficult at the moment. However, online play does the job despite being temperamental at times, yet the support of an ever-growing community should keep this one on the right tracks.
It’s more a chipolata than a full blown sausage, then, and Dark Sauce is tasty for the single hour of entertainment that it offers. It’s up to you whether that’s enough of a meal for the £4.19 outlay.
So what do we have with Persephone on Xbox? Quite simply, a game that is brilliant both in design and execution. The world our titular hero finds herself in is beautifully designed, with puzzles that make full use of that unique central concept of death as a means to progress. By using a ‘show, not tell’ approach, the game places experimentation at the forefront and encourages the kind of lateral thinking that is so often missing from indie titles in the genre.
Ubisoft have cornered the market on massive open-world experiences with the likes of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and dancing games courtesy of their Just Dance Series. They’ve even amassed a plethora of board game adaptations over the years such as Uno and Trivial Pursuit LIVE. Now though, they are trying their hand at capturing that family friendly gameshow vibe by adapting the American equivalent of Family Fortunes, Family Feud. Is there fast money to be made from this long-time favourite, or does Family Feud deserve three strikes?
Despite some minor gripes, Star Kings is the best expansion for Age of Wonders: Planetfall on Xbox so far: Paradox has only improved their output with every new content drop and this latest addition keeps to that trend. If you enjoy Planetfall, Star Kings is a no-brainer pickup. It truly adds to, and improves, the game in ways that feel almost necessary now for the full experience.
It may be ugly, it may be a clear PC port, but 50 Years on Xbox can be a budget-priced addiction machine if you let it. It somehow manages to cram the joys of Civilisation into a twenty-minute game, and then has the gall to make it more-ish. We’ll take a prettier and slightly more varied version for the sequel, but for now 50 Years is well worth settling on.
If you have ever wanted to smash police cars/racers off the road then Need for Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered on Xbox is the game for you, and that goes double if you've never played it before. It’s fast, furious and will have you on the edge of your seat as you hurtle round corners, inches from disaster, winning a race by the skin of your teeth. If you played the original then there’s not a lot new here, but it looks and plays great - that in itself means it’s got to be worth a punt.
Family Mysteries 2: Echoes of Tomorrow on Xbox is prime nonsense; a retelling of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines but peppered with spot-the-difference puzzles and hidden objects, as if Arnie was sent back in time to tidy someone’s room. It’s supremely camp, but the best hidden object games are, and you’ll likely forgive the dodgy animations and script by the time you reach the end of its entertaining three or four hours. Ignore the ‘2’ in the title: this is a strong entry point for the genre, and one of its best to boot.
