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.
This latest batch of games is a long one, much to the annoyance of the person having to type this all up. Me. Anyways, here are the next set of games arriving on Xbox Game Pass, and leaving in the coming weeks, with not just Age of Empires III Definitive Edition leading the way, but a host of highly stylised titles to joining it.
For existing Xbox gamers, this is the start of an incredibly exciting journey, and is a showcase of how committed Microsoft is to the brand. For other players, this might just be the push needed to join the Xbox family. No matter what your stance may be, one thing is undeniable: the future of Xbox has never been brighter.
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.
It’s time for yet another podcast and, after Sony unveiled a deep dive into the PlayStation 5 hardware, that’s going to be at the centre of our latest episode. Not only does TheXboxHub Official Podcast Episode 52 contain thoughts on that, but also the disappointing fact that some big games won’t be transferring all of your current progress to the next-gen upgrades, with FIFA 21 being a prime example. So please, sit back and enjoy our musings on all of that… and more!
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!
With the hustle and bustle of preordering next-generation consoles out of the way, the team’s attention switches this week to the actual hardware we can look forward to at launch. That’s right, TheXboxHub Official Podcast Episode 51 features talk about Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5, with a particular focus on the expected storage woes. It also sees a fair few games discussed, including the awesome Final Fantasy VII Remake and the latest WWE offering.
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.
