One of the latest to go down the Game Preview and Game Pass route is that of Lightyear Frontier, a game that takes farming sim elements but puts it into space.
The final week of the Horizon Race Off dawns in Forza Horizon 5, yet as we prepare to bid farewell, there is a last hoorah in the shape of the Festival Playlist Weekly Challenges for Series 32 Spring.
You may not have heard of Loretta, but dismiss the psychological thriller at your peril. In Episode 197 of TheXboxHub Official Podcast you'll get to hear about the game - and why it is very nearly perfect.
Pull on your wooly pulleys as it is Winter in Mexico, and in the world of Forza Horizon 5 we all know what that means, right? Yep, more weekly Festival Playlist Weekly Challenge shenanigans to keep us entertained and racing hard through Series 32 Winter!
There are two distinct styles of racing game: the simulation type, where tweaking tyre pressure to shave a tenth of a second off your lap time makes lots of sense, and the arcade style where you can be found pulling off outrageous handbrake turns and getting style points for it; games in which you don't care how much pressure is in your tyres as long as the neon under the chassis is working. So, in this article I'm going to embrace the sillier side of the racing games - the arcade racers, the anything goes side of the genre.
For me, if you want to unwind after a particularly stressful day, or just fancy shooting a load of stuff, Serious Sam is the perfect way to scratch that itch. Serious Sam II was a solid entry in the series, however it suffered from a lack of newness compared to the first two outings.
The titular Horizon festival has travelled the globe across four entries, with Colorado, the French-Italian riviera, Australia and Britain all hosting the music and racing extravaganza. Whilst there are plenty of ways the series could evolve with a new entry, one question to ask is which location could play host next in any potential Forza Horizon 5. So, let’s go on a quick world tour and see where we could head next.
While only in its infancy, the 2020s are shaping up to be the decade of the uber-woke: you can’t so much as glance at a screen nowadays without being shown stories of racial discrimination, political tension and a certain little virus - all of which would have previously been incredibly taboo topics indeed. Rightly so does the tide seem to be changing on our attitudes to such issues, with much more of a general acceptance and tolerance to people’s backgrounds and beliefs. Another of these topics is mental health. And that tide seems to be changing too.
In hindsight, it’s easy to see Rock Band 4 as the encore for the series - one last song before the franchise left the stadium. But rather than being the belter, the anthem that got everyone singing, it was like finishing with an album track. Sure, it was good to see the band coming back onto the stage, but, well, we were hoping for something a little more memorable.
Resident Evil 7’s new take on perspective opened up a new avenue for horror without sacrificing the series’ core mechanics, while the recent Resident Evil 2 and 3 remakes offered a fresh coat of paint for those who were previously unable to play the originals. As Resident Evil Village approaches, let’s take a look at the components of a great Resident Evil game
Boasting talents such as Andy Serkis, Nitin Sawhney and Alex Garland, and coming from an up and coming studio in the form of Ninja Theory, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West should have spawned a franchise. It was however not to be. Though extremely well-received, sales figures did not meet expectations. As such, Enslaved is remembered fondly by those that played it, but that is the only legacy it has. With time coming around to its tenth anniversary, we take a look back at another forgotten classic.
While The Walking Dead isn’t quite a hot property these days, there was a time when the comic books and TV viewership were peaking almost simultaneously. With Telltale Games doing pretty darn well off the universe by developing narrative-driven episodic adventures, it made sense for others to want a piece of the pie. Team17 decided to merge this post-apocalyptic, survival oriented comic book series with their relatively well received strategic sandbox game, The Escapists. And looking back now, five years on, the resulting experience of The Escapists: The Walking Dead turned out great!
Summer is now officially over. So, what are you going to do? Stay in and game of course! And if you need a form of return on your gaming endeavours, here are some of the easiest achievements from the Xbox One games that have released in September 2020 for you to unlock as the nights draw in. Let’s get right into it.
In the run up to the Xbox Series X, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Phil Spencer would kick off the boots, put his good slippers on and have a well-deserved rest. But no! The Xbox One is absolutely pumping the hits out. The ‘Holiday Season’ is ramping up, and the big hitters are in the process of arriving. FIFA, Watch Dogs: Legion, a Star Wars game - they’re all here, vying for the Christmas Number One spot (which will be FIFA, unless 2020 pulls another fast one). It is also October, which means Halloween. Expect a few games on the list to shamble about in your peripheral vision, readying a jump-scare. But it’s not all blockbusters and spinechillers: there’s a few stylish indies there too.
Do you know those games that rely on a single element of attraction? It might be a unique art style, a novel gameplay mechanic or even high difficulty. Hydrophobia is that game. It isn't a pretty game and it doesn't have the best narrative in the world. It's not necessarily fun or accessible to play either, but it totally dominates when it comes to water. Equip your rebreather because in this article we'll take a look at Hydrophobia and water. Lots of water.
There’s nothing quite like the feeling of being utterly defenseless against some sort of supernatural threat, but we needed some sort of twist in the formula. In October 2018, indie developer Sadsquare Studio released Visage on PC via Steam Early Access with console ports to come after the full release. Within a short amount of time, Visage was being hailed as the scariest game ever created. Sure, that’s what they all say. In this instance, however, they’re right.
It’s easy to forget that the Far Cry franchise first premiered on PC over 16 years ago. Originally a Crytek release, it soon found its way to consoles after Ubisoft acquired the rights to the series. For Xbox, this resulted in Far Cry: Instincts being released over a year later - the debut for the series on Microsoft’s home console.
Fahrenheit remains one of the finest early examples of how to bring a film or TV Drama to the player, that doesn’t feel like you’re just playing a video game. The creative driving force behind it, David Cage, brought interactive storytelling to the forefront of gaming and showed just how well it could be done.
