The game doesn't do justice to the premise and is ultimately frustrating and disappointing as a result. The addiction factor is in full effect relatively early on, but the number of problems it displays will soon put paid to that for most players.

Rock Pocket Games have created a memorable puzzle game that is a solid fit for the new Sierra, even if its control scheme might take some time to get used to.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong is certainly a super-stylish narrative RPG, and it's one that gets off to a strong start, offering up a truly intriguing premise, before falling victim to tedious investigative gameplay, undercooked conversational aspects and a host of bugs that make progress frustrating at points. There's just too much jank here, levels are too rigid, there's not enough freedom in how you go about your investigations or use your vampiric powers to really make things sing and, as a result, we're left with a game that fails to fully live up to its early promise. It's not a bad effort, but with a little more care and polish, it could have been so much more.

To say that Zombie Army Trilogy is a bad game would be far too harsh. It does provide bursts of fun and with multiple players, can be a laugh riot, especially in Horde mode. It's just that while it isn't necessarily bad, it just doesn't have the polish to ever push it past that sort of level.

Getting to play more old-school Tomb Raider titles with the option of modern controls and modern visuals is another win from Crystal Dynamics, and I've had good fun revisiting these Lara Croft adventures. While The Last Revelation is the only game in here I'd consider a classic, both PS1 era games are still worth playing, especially now that Aspyr has given us the option to run through them with OG visuals at 60FPS. Despite being the newest title in here, The Angel of Darkness has aged the worst, and remains a stark reminder as to why the series moved to a new studio after this release. Tomb Raider 4-6 Remastered's adventures might not be essential, but they're worth adding to your library as this era of Lara Croft makes its Xbox debut.

Our time with the game has in no way been brief, yet so much remains to be explored. Community events, an evolving storyline, clans, and the sheer number of missions and locations will keep us returning to this space opera on a regular basis for months, maybe even years to come.

There's some enjoyment to be had here, but it's frequently punctuated by massive bouts of frustration. If you want to try the series, you should grab China, since it remains the best of the three.

If you liked Zuma – which unfortunately for Sparkle Unleashed now runs on Xbox One via backward compatibility – you'll probably enjoy the challenge this provides, even if there isn't anything majorly groundbreaking going on.

This is a title that is cute and fun when you aren't interested in thinking too hard and just fancy turning your brain off for ten to twenty minutes, but it's unlikely to set anyone's world on fire.

Sonic Frontiers is a triumph for the series. Sure, it might be a little prickly around the edges, but overall this is a great experience from start to finish. Director Morio Kishimoto and Sonic Team should be proud of what they’ve accomplished. It’s proof that even after 30 years, the Sonic series can still be taken in new and exciting directions, and SEGA can now build on this new game's foundation. Sonic Frontiers provides one of the most enjoyable 3D Sonic experiences of all time, and we're excited for what the future holds for the blue blur.

A fun distraction for a bargain price, and does a great lot of things very well indeed. It just lacks that little bit of polish that sets the great games apart from the good.

Slender: The Arrival is a must-play for any horror fan who hasn't played it on PC. You may get frustrated with it at times, but overcoming any cheap moments makes beating each chapter and the overall game all the more rewarding.

Battlefield 2042 is a bit of a mixed bag as things stand right now with the excellent Portal mode overshadowing almost everything else on offer. The futuristic large-scale battles are spectacular stuff, for sure, but it's all a little disjointed so far with the all-new Specialists underlining a feeling that solo soldiering has somehow taken precedent over the series' signature teamwork. There's still plenty to enjoy in this meaty package for early adopters, and we've no doubt DICE will be busy improving things as the months roll on but, outside of a mode that celebrates the series' history more than it embraces what's new in this latest entry, what's here struggles to feel absolutely essential at launch.

The lack of any real multiplayer and the repetitive nature of the story mode mean that despite numerous challenges to complete and upgrades to collect, it lacks the 'just one more round' appeal that would make it a real contender in the arcade marketplace, though.

Rocksteady's Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League, despite all of the wailing and gnashing of teeth pre-release, has arrived in perfectly fine form. This is, at launch, one of the most polished looter shooters we've played, an action-packed superhero adventure that dishes up top-notch combat, tons of fan-service, excellent traversal (important for superheroes!), addicting loot, and plenty of surprises and shocks to boot. Yes, the story is artificially dragged out, mission types are repetitive and the store is a right royal rip-off, but the writing, the performances, core mechanics and incredible attention to detail here ensure that this is one squad of misfits who've managed to take the heat and survive intact.

Cyberpunk 2077, in its current form on consoles, is a hard game to recommend getting involved with. There's a strong narrative here, brilliantly written characters, some excellent side missions, fun combat and an astonishing setting but, as things stand right now, it's an experience that's in need of some serious TLC. The Series X backwards compatible version may well perform better than the frankly shocking last-gen console efforts but this is a game that we had constant problems with, one that doesn't feel or play like a fully finished product and one that is truly quite hard to recommend in its current incarnation.

Modern Warfare 3 is quite a tough game to judge. Its campaign is good old Call of Duty fun, even if it's too short, and the game's multiplayer is a great time - built on the solid foundations of two different versions of Modern Warfare 2. However, Zombies is a complete miss this year, and the admittedly-great multiplayer is based on past triumphs more than anything else. If you love playing some CoD multiplayer every year then MW3 is another solid entry in that regard, but if you usually stick to one of the other modes or are looking for a more complete Call of Duty experience, we don't recommend picking this one up just yet. Either wait for a price drop, or bide your time in anticipation of its eventual arrival on Xbox Game Pass.

Bike Mayhem 2 is the opposite of going mountain bike riding. There's no exhilaration to be had, just boredom, as the game never seems to end.

Wanted: Dead is an incredibly disappointing action effort that presents some decent ideas but fails to execute any of them properly. The idea of fusing hack and slash combat with shooter mechanics has lots of potential here, and the cyberpunk setting is initially intriguing. However, in practice it's all very clunky and janky and frustrating and beset by performance issues. There's a bunch of odd side activities thrown in to try to lighten the mood between battles, but it's just not enough in the end. With a very weak narrative, poor voice-acting, rubbish action and drab level design, this is one game that's best avoided.

A tad more polish would have seen this become a real benchmark for the genre, but a number of missed steps mean that it will likely just fade into the darkness.

Toy Soldiers: War Chest could really be something great but unfortunately choppy performance, uninspiring missions and a repetitive single player experience put paid to this. The licensed properties present in the game aren't enough elevate the game to anything more than a very workmanlike version of your favourite childhood moments.

Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water is the weakest of the Fatal Frame games and this remastered version fails to address its biggest issues, namely clunky traversal mechanics and a seriously wooden cast of characters. However, look past these shortcomings and, especially for fans of the series, there's still a lot to enjoy in the solid ghost-snapping action on offer here. It may not be the best game in the franchise, but this remaster will still give your spine a good tingle if you let it.

Beyond Eyes is an breathtaking accomplishment. It's a game that not only entertains, but that also gets across some of the difficulties that a differently abled person would need to contend with, in a way that is entirely understandable by everyone.

As an almost full-price title, things had to be pretty much on point here and though it isn't perfect, the development team have done well to provide a game that does the sport proud.

And in the case of Xbox specifically, it's really hard to find a reason why you'd pay that kind of money when Crazy Taxi is backwards compatible on the platform, and can be picked up for significantly less. That's not to take away from the work that's been put into Taxi Chaos, because it's a competent enough take on the formula, but SEGA's 1999 original has more content, more attitude and a better soundtrack, so it's hard to recommend this one.

There's no denying that there is potential here and there are some very touching moments, but the flaws are so game breaking that at times it's just not any fun to play.

Tetris Ultimate is decent, but if you've ready access to any other version of Tetris, then there's little reason for a purchase.

Matchpoint: Tennis Championships deserves your attention on Xbox Game Pass, as it's genuinely one of the better Xbox tennis games we've seen in years. It has its drawbacks, particularly in the presentation department, but it's also good fun when you get out on the court. Unfortunately, some of that enjoyment has been taken away for us because even on the highest difficulty, the game just feels far too easy at launch, rendering a lot of the strategic elements and Career Mode's features somewhat useless for now. It's still a pretty good game regardless, but definitely in need of a couple of balancing tweaks over the coming weeks and months.

NHL 15 plays a great – if somewhat atmosphere-free – game of hockey, but the sheer amount of modes missing from the package as a whole mean that unless you become obsessed with Ultimate Team or enjoy playing severely limited career modes, there’s very little to actually do.

Bedlam leaves a lot to be desired. We were really intrigued by the game at first, but the more time we spent with it, the less appealing it became to us. That, along with technical issues that shouldn't be present ultimately left a bit of a sour taste.

If you are a long time D&D player or have played any fantasy action brawlers in the past, you’ll likely enjoy this game – either with friends, or even if you go for the more challenging route of playing alone. It certainly doesn't revolutionise the genre, but considering it’s available on Game Pass at launch, there’s no reason not to give it a go. There’s also some free DLC and a paid expansion on the way, giving Dark Alliance a chance to level up in the future.

There's definitely something here for fans of both Adventure Time and Zelda, but because of its familiar design, and because there are consistent imperfections to put up with, the adventure isn't as mathematical as it clearly could've been. We suggest waiting for a price cut or sticking to a rental if you're on the fence.

Starfield: Shattered Space is a big disappointment in almost every way. We loved the base game, for all its flaws, and we were willing this to be the big, exciting DLC drop that'd make us love it all over again. However, what we've got here is a very average narrative expansion that fails to add any big choices, upgrades, new enemies, biomes, loot or anything that could potentially excite or draw in new players. It's buggy, janky, badly acted in places, and there are a myriad of bugs and performance issues to be ironed out. What a missed opportunity.

We Are Doomed makes a good attempt at being a compelling and addictive twin-stick shooter, getting a lot of things right along the way. There are some problems with the basic design though and the very limited amount of modes on offer means that unless you're hooked by beating your own best scores or unlocking the limited (but tough to obtain) number of achievements, it'll be over way, way too soon.

It isn't a bad game by any means and will provide entertainment for a while, but some will find the shackles and repetitiveness to be all too much, not to mention the fact that the all-but-identical mobile version is a quarter of the price.

More than two decades later, Star Wars: Bounty Hunter is a tough one to recommend. If you do have fond memories of this game, you might be more forgiving of its dated design and gameplay, but ultimately there are much better Star Wars offerings out there. Aspyr hasn't changed much beyond adding the modern controls and camera, so unless that's a big enough reason for you to return, this might not necessarily be the Bounty Hunter game you’ve been looking for.

Looney Tunes: Wacky World of Sports is a mediocre collection that does a few things really well - such as the overall presentation and its fun rendition of golf. What drags it down are the other three sports, which are functional but arguably too clunky to attract long-term attention, as well as the lack of online multiplayer and any kind of a proper single-player mode. This game has charmed us for sure, and we'll keep coming back to it now and again, but it's definitely hard to recommend paying £39.99 / $49.99 for it.

We're stuck between a rock and a hard place with Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Earthblood, because while it definitely has its downsides (some of them potentially deal-breaking, especially if buying it at full price) we also enjoyed our time with it. Everything is built around its destructive combat, which remains engaging to the last, and if you're willing to deal with some average-at-best graphics, a mediocre story and a short running length, we still think you'll have a good time with this one. Give it a try, and it might just surprise you.

Don’t get us wrong, Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP is a fun fling from start to finish but it was never really a role model student when it arrived on the scene in 2012. Despite the enhancements and improvements in this latest release, the core gameplay and level design can feel quite outdated at times, and the chapter-breaking bugs have been hard to look past. If Dragami's updates resolve these glitches, or you're just a longtime fan of this one, maybe consider giving the zombie slayer an extra star for her efforts.

Even if it may be flawed, Lifeless Planet is a game that wanted to do something different and that desire should be celebrated.

There is fun to be had for sure, and the achievements are easy to pick up, but ultimately this is a game that despite the graphical overhaul is showing its age and just isn't as good as the premise would lead you to believe.

Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown is a really tough game to sum up in its current state. The game's vast open world and asphalt driving physics give the title a solid base to launch from, and we definitely think this series still has something to offer that differs from the likes of Forza Horizon and The Crew. However, Solar Crown's issues run deeper than launch-week server load, and the game needs quite a bit of tweaking to feel properly finished. Nacon and KT Racing are intending for this to be an ongoing live service game, and as long as the teams stick with it, we definitely think this new Test Drive game will be hugely improved months down the line. We can't recommend Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown right now, but if you're into your big open world racers, we definitely think this one is worth keeping an eye on as it gets fixed up and improved - you should be able to get it on discount that way as well. Solar Crown is yet another rocky launch for the franchise after similar issues plagued TDU2 back in the day - but that game did go on to become a bit of a cult hit, so there's hope for this Test Drive Unlimited title yet. It just needs a bit more time and attention for its solar crown to start to shine.

Wrestling superfans will get more out of the game than others, obviously, as the true-to-life presentation is pretty nice, with all the logos, arenas, music, and wrestlers that you could hope for. However, there’s a distinct feeling that the game was rushed to meet a deadline – something that’s only backed up by the two-week delay from which the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions of the game suffered.

Pumped BMX+ is a good advertisement for mobile game ports on Xbox One.

With a little more time in the oven and attention to detail, MX vs ATV Legends could have been a fantastic off-road racer. As it is at present, it's just an okay one, with a general lack of both polish and event variety letting things down somewhat. The bugs and glitches currently present in the game have knocked our score down a tad as well, although hopefully, they'll be sorted soon after release. The game's cut-price $40 entry point makes this one that bit more appealing, but we can only really recommend it once the bugs have been fully ironed out. 'Legends'? Not just yet.

Gungrave G.O.R.E feels like a perfect title to release on Xbox Game Pass, the kind of thing most people really will want to try before they buy. It's absolutely not for everyone, it's old-fashioned, obnoxiously loud and highly repetitive, but if you fall under its spell, if you get into the murder rhythm of it all, you may well find yourself thoroughly addicted. It's a shame there's not better feedback when you take damage, and we wish there was an option to hold in the trigger for continuous fire, but beyond these shortcomings this one absolutely nails what it sets out to do. This is a loud, silly and gratuitously violent slice of old-school arcade action.

Redfall sees Arkane experiment with melding genres, to mixed results. There's plenty of flashes of the style and narrative flair we've come to expect from this incredible studio as you explore the town and face off with its undead inhabitants. However, the mixing of FPS action and story beats with open world exploration and a relatively relaxed pace leads to a balancing act that may leave hardcore shooter aficionados and Arkane super fans alike wanting more. If you come at it looking for a chilled out bit of vampire hunting there's still plenty to enjoy here, but some irksome AI issues and a lack of clarity over what it really wants to be leave it feeling a little lost in a limbo of its own making.

Taxi Life: A City Driving Simulator is a pretty addictive new addition to the genre, but it's giving us a rough ride at launch. It does the basics well for the most part, and features an impressively large and detailed version of Barcelona to cruise around in, but the unintelligent AI drivers, poor performance and various other irritations are significant drawbacks. This has all the potential to be a good (or even great) game, but it's going to take a few patches to get there.

Painful progression and wonky UI make Albedo a much less enjoyable game than it could have been.

There will likely be some Jedi out there who succumb to nostalgia and enjoy reliving the events of 'Episode 1' in this game no matter what, but for everyone else, Jedi Power Battles is a tough one to recommend. The co-op mode does offer some fun moments and is perhaps the best way to experience this package, but the overall design hasn’t aged the best and we encountered some technical problems on Xbox. Maybe wait for a sale on this one, if you aren’t the biggest prequel trilogy fan.

All in all, the game is a novel way to pass an afternoon but is unlikely to have you clamouring for more.

While there's a moderately entertaining co-op experience underneath the lazy level design, short game length, bland missions, occasional bugs, and minor kinks in the combat system, the quality and value most certainly aren't in line with what we expect from a $50 game.

In conclusion then, Soul Axiom is a slow burning game, but one that satisfies if you engage with the world and its lore.

When push comes to shove, RIDE doesn't get the job done.

It's entirely possible to extract the occasional thrill from the swift racing action, mostly thanks to solid controls and a few well-designed tracks, but stomaching all the bumps in the road along the way make it likely you'll want to get your thrills elsewhere.

At a budget price this would be a tough sell. At $50/£40 though, you can leave this one for the birds.

Active Soccer 2 DX has its moments as it tries to recreate football games of old. However, even if it did that perfectly, that's all it would be doing since there's no attempt at innovation or anything that would push the genre forward. It's more or less a carbon copy of Sensible World of Soccer that doesn't play as well, has no online features whatsoever, has a wretched frontend and which features a comparatively large amount of bugs and oversights.

Ultimately, Goat Simulator is a hilarious mess that is worth experiencing for a few hours, just one you probably shouldn't buy.

If you have children of your own or nieces and nephews with a tendency of hyper-activity, then maybe this is for you.

If you're lucky enough to avoid the bugs, Pixel Piracy will provide a couple of hours of enjoyment while you figure out its intricacies and perfect your crew, though we doubt there's enough variation to keep you hooked beyond your first play through.

Crime Boss: Rockay City is a star-studded shambles, a dull and basic co-op shooter that's the very definition of all mouth and no trousers. Desperate attempts to dazzle with Hollywood movie stars, and an admittedly sweet soundtrack, they can't long hide the fact that the actual gameplay here; the shooting, the heists, the campaign and co-op action are janky, dated and bland beyond belief. If you're looking for a co-op shooter, we suggest you play literally any other game you can get your hands on, because what's here is a cynical and almost staggeringly poor mess.

Spectra is a missed opportunity that doesn't offer nearly enough variation to keep players enticed for very long.

There are moments of brilliance in a few chapters, but developer tinyBuild Games doesn't spend hardly enough time fleshing them out.

There’s potential here that just isn’t ever realised, even if the game can be fun in small doses.

Murdered: Soul Suspect lingers almost exactly at the quality middle point as a game. It doesn't do anything particularly good, nor does it do anything terribly bad; it's just okay.

Nutjitsu's biggest downfall. Being far too shallow to entertain as a main course, the repetitious gameplay — which lacks any real sense of progression outside of earning XP and leveing up — struggled to hold our attention for more than a few moments at a time.

On Xbox, there is definitely going to be some debate about whether or not fans should consider checking out the Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection. If you’re not in it for online play, and only want to participate in solo and local play, we would argue the affordably priced backward compatibility versions offer more than enough. If you do want to relive the glorious online battles of yesteryear in a fresh package though, the extra credits of the Classic Collection may be worth the asking price. [Review in Progress]

Homefront: The Revolution has bigger problems than its myriad of technical issues. Sure, the constant freezing of the game to save is jarring, and the game as a whole is largely unpolished, but even when everything works it just isn't captivating in any way. Pass this up.

Ultimately, LA Cops is a decent, short run through a cop-themed shooter that doesn't do enough to really impress.

While this review of The Legend of Korra reads like a laundry list of problems, there are times when the game is genuinely enjoyable and shows masses of promise. Those times are all too rare however, and you’re less likely to be cracking a smile than you are to be cursing at a game engine that feels cheap, rushed, unpolished, and simply not good enough to compete.

Achievement hunters will enjoy the 20G you get for the first time you jump but other than that, MagNets doesn't offer enough bang for your buck and is difficult to recommend at its current price point and with its multiplayer missing in action.

The soundtrack is the highlight of this mixed bag of good ideas and poor implementation and when all is said and done, it's a shame that the gameplay and visuals cannot live up to the scene set by the music.

Le Tour De France 2015 has a relatively steep learning curve that those who aren't cycling aficionados may find to be just a little bit too steep to be going on with. Those who are bitten by the game will find that there's a good deal of enjoyment to be had and we have to take our hats off to the developers for making the long, drawn-out races as exciting as they've managed to do.

It's a half-hearted attempt at bringing the series into the current generation, and is only barely recommended for the absolute die-hard fans of the original.

Super Toy Cars is a seemingly rushed and unfinished port of a barely average game.

With a price point of $60, it's hard to recommend Balan Wonderworld, especially when other platformers (and even collections such as Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, which contain multiple games) are a lot cheaper and are much better. The ingredients are all there for a great game, but everything has gone off and rotten. What's been cooked up is a bland, uninspired trip into a world that should have been anything but. Balan Wonderworld feels like bargain bin material that should be avoided at all costs... at any discount.

As usual, swinging through New York City as Spider-Man is an exhilarating and empowering proposition, but repetitive open-world events, unfocused/unrefined story missions, and a surplus of technical hindrances/poor design choices keep The Amazing Spider-Man 2 from being a solid movie tie-in.

Coffin Dodgers is a classic example of a good idea backed up by poor execution.

Ironically, Infinity Runner is too short for what it is. The gameplay is as repetitive as you'd expect but the storyline and non-standard features alleviate that somewhat, to the point that it can be entertaining enough at times.

This is far from an unplayably awful game, but there's very, very little depth here, and what is presented is incredibly repetitive to say the least.

There's scope here for a good game were a bit more work put in, but the smart money says that you'll be way more frustrated with Project Root's patently unfair gameplay than you are impressed by it.

Super Night Riders undoubtedly started out as a good idea. 80s and 90s racing games were cool, of that there is no doubt. But when you compare the visuals here to what's on display in upcoming projects such as 90s Super GT or Racing Apex – which aren't even finished yet - and then throw in super-repetitive gameplay and framerate issues, it all runs out of fuel rather quickly.

Rock 'N Racing Off-Road DX is not a game that you'll be coming back to if you bother to put in the hour or so it'll take to complete it. There are very occasional second-long moments where the game is almost fun, but the shockingly bad AI, physics that seem to be both too floaty and too heavy at the same time somehow and an amateurish bare-bones feel mean that you should definitely be looking elsewhere for your arcade racing fix.

Rugby 15 is an absolute shambles of a game.

Fan service is what South Park Pinball does best, so if you're reading this because of your affinity for the television series, rest assured that this mini celebration of the brand totally delivers in that regard.

In short, everything Divekick says it’s going to deliver, it delivers. The problem is that it doesn’t ever actually claim that it’s going to deliver all that much.

The idea is good and it all looks very sharp, but over-zealous presentation causes issues with the gameplay at times.

The Walking Dead is an excellent piece of fan service and a tightly-crafted pinball table that’s sure to be especially pleasing to those looking to further advance their skills. It’s not just very well-rounded when it comes to gameplay diversity, but it also teaches players to learn the intricacies/fundamentals of the game and forces them to practice if they want to survive long enough to bite into any high scores.

Guardians are a group worth signing up with, even if they haven't quite mastered introductions.

Trust us when we say that Danger of the Ooze should be avoided. We’re fans of Metroidvanias, TMNT and WayForward, and we could barely stomach finishing this half-baked adventure — it’s sloppy, rushed, and laden with bugs.

If you’re feeling particularly nostalgic and in need of an RPG that harkens back to your childhood, then Pier Solar may be capable of scratching that itch, just know that there's a good chance that you probably won’t have much fun doing do.

It's light entertainment, it works, and it's something you can go back to without getting tired of.

If you’ve got a few pounds spare in your Xbox wallet then you could do much worse, but just don’t expect to be playing it for very long.

If you're someone that likes to turn their brain off and flip a ball around without considering every shot to be critical, then this table probably won't be for you. However, for everyone else — especially Spider-Man fans — Venom is a big winner. Symbiote-suit up, true believers!

Juju is a great purchase for kids and families that like to play together. It's one of the season's biggest downloadable surprises.

Don Bradman Cricket is a fine, fine game. As a simulation of a sport, it's right up there in terms of quality.

When games from 15 years ago managed to master the basics of the sport better than your brand new game, there's a problem. Not only that, but when a game is free and yet isn't even worth your time to play it, there's a problem.

Age of Ultron is safer and more predictable than Pinball FX2's best tables, and therefore it doesn't sell itself as being essential.