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.
Another month goes by and we have another list of easy Xbox achievements for you to unlock, in games that may have normally passed you by. Who knows, maybe you’ll find a hidden gem in amongst these easy Gamerscore boosters? For June 2020 we’re featuring games that have released in the last month or so, those from below the surface of the water, deep dungeons, the great open roads and even some that hover gently above us all!
With the release of The Catch: Carp & Coarse, Dovetail Games have upped the ante for the representation of my favourite sport on the Xbox. However, I know that not everyone is interested in sitting in the rain to catch tiny fish as I am, so after reviewing the game it got me thinking about how I would explain the whole world of fishing to an angling muggle, as it were. I hope in this little article to try and explain my thought processes for approaching the game, and give you a bit of a clue, and a few hints and tips, as to how to be more successful in winkling those Boss Fish out of their lairs.
The original Diablo released way back in 1997 to critical acclaim and its legacy has been clear from the not-so-subtle clones to the inspiration it has had on all facets of gaming. Needless to say, its follow up, Diablo II, had a lot to live up to.
Jet Set Radio is still, without doubt, one of the coolest games around. An irresistible combination of looks, sound and gameplay (all of which hit the sweet spot) still make this a unique experience 20 years after its initial launch in the year 2000.
At its launch, Naughty Bear was seemingly overshadowed by E3 a couple of weeks prior. Major releases like Fallout: New Vegas and StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty grabbed gamers’ attention months prior, whereas Naughty Bear, comparable to its terrible stealth mechanics, released on a whimper. The overwhelming influx of poor reviews didn’t help its case either. Yet, a decade later and here I am - writing about a game that continues to serve as a stress reliever or a rainy day substitute. That has to count for something, as I can’t say the same for most triple-A releases.
Session has released through the Xbox Game Preview initiative and is leading the charge, somewhat, of a skateboarding renaissance on consoles, with Skater XL, the seminal Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 and recently announced new instalment in the Skate series reboot following in the near future. Unlike the Birdman’s emphasis on putting together outlandish combos and finding hidden videotapes, Session is a much more grounded skating experience.
Marketed around the globe as Street Power Football in most parts of the world - aside from in the North American region where the exact same game will be sold as Street Power Soccer - we recently got invited to a hands-off gameplay presentation of Street Power Football by the teams behind it. And after spending a decent amount of time taking in everything that is promised, we're pretty certain that the premise and ideas behind it will be hugely anticipated by many.
Ion Storm was a developer with a very strange list of games in their repertoire. To think that one studio could put out both Daikatana and Deus Ex in the same year, mere months apart is strange, to say the least. Daikatana was plain terrible. Deus Ex meanwhile was a revolutionary game that’s not only culturally significant but downright excellent. And best of all? It’s still a blast to play to this day.
The video game industry is growing exponentially, which is why I wanted to take a moment to analyze a rather trivial topic within this broader spectrum. Explosions. They’re cool, they’re grandiose, they’re spontaneous, yet often scripted, and give insight on the graphical capabilities of a particular console generation. From the genre-defining Grand Theft Auto III to the upcoming Destroy All Humans! Remake, explosions have evolved to something greater than poor SFX and pixelated images. Explosions now, well, look like explosions.
When we were given the opportunity to take in more of DIRT 5, via a developer presentation by the team at Codemasters Cheshire - those behind the rather brilliant but hugely underrated ONRUSH - we just couldn’t say no. And come the end of the session, we left safe in the knowledge that what Codies are promising with the next chapter in the franchise has promise to be the best DIRT experience yet.
over the past few years, Rare has been seeing something of a renaissance - or Rarenaissance - and the future of the studio is looking the brightest it has been this century. But what exactly can be done with their old IP? Will we ever get a Banjo game again?
Conker: Live & Reloaded is a parent’s worst nightmare. A potty-mouthed, borderline-alcoholic squirrel tries to find his way back home after a disastrous night out at the local tavern with friends before they depart for “some war” - as Conker so innocently puts it. Back when this game was released exclusively for the original Xbox in June of 2005, I remember the big label at the bottom that read, “WARNING: This game is not made for anyone under age 17”. It’s as if the M for mature label and the war-ridden squirrel with a cigar hanging out of his mouth on top of a tank weren’t enough of an indicator already.
Will we ever experience Valorant on consoles? As someone who has dumped well over 50 hours into the beta and the 1.0 release, it’s tough to predict how successfully the game will translate.
Obviously, at E3, something around a million games get announced, so I am going to have to apply some filtering to this piece, if only to save you reading forever more. So, I present to you my five favourite things that came out of E3 2015 - and some that flopped as well. Buckle up, it may be a bumpy ride!
Overall, the Maya and Gran Colombia Pack is a strong showing. Both civs are fun to play and bring something unique to the table. And despite my misgivings, the Apocalypse Mode shakes up Civilization VI’s gameplay.
