It's a fun game, but with realistically only six hours of playing time on hand, it may leave you wanting.

As a narrative focused experience, The Medium generally impresses. In terms of gameplay, it often just feels too easy and lacking in depth. But even with criticisms towards the latter, if you're looking to embrace a horror game for one dark night or two, The Medium is a worthy choice. It's clearly the vision of a team who loved the concept and wanted to take players on a narrative driven adventure, filled with dark themes and systems such as the dual-reality mechanic that feel integral to the story. If you can accept The Medium for the experience that it is, you're in for a good time that will continuously surprise you with its story beats and absolutely incredible visuals on the Xbox Series X.

Super Party Sports: Football isn't a complex game by any means, as it features just the one mode of play. With that said, it's certainly one that will draw you back in from time to time until you've beaten all of the levels.

There's plenty of customisation available to keep it fresh and the inclusion of AI opponents and a challenge mode will give this more longevity than other couch co-op titles released recently. However, some will find the controls frustrating and it is likely that the frantic madness of multiplayer will have a limited shelf life once the initial surprise of the silliness wears off.

An interesting diversion, but there are definitely ways in which it could have been better.

NHL 23 feels a bit more like NHL 22.5. It plays a good game of hockey without a doubt, but everything else around it doesn't feel meaningfully improved enough to justify another $70 purchase on day one. We really wanted to see some more ambition out of the series this year, and instead it seems to be quietly trudging along with relatively minor new features. You'll still have fun with it, but maybe it's worth waiting until it hits EA Play / Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

Evil West is a thoroughly old-fashioned shooter that manages to entertain in short bursts but can't overcome how lacklustre and unoriginal its level design and narrative feels. If you've got a pal to play through this one with in co-op you could probably stick another star on the final score, otherwise we'd steer clear unless you absolutely must indulge in some seriously last-gen cowboy vs. vampire action.

Don't get us wrong, if this was cheaper, we'd be recommending this in a heart beat, despite our reservations. It's a great trip down memory lane, with some addictive combat that still holds up today. But when you can pick up more modernised and arguably better games for the same price, it makes the trip to Baldur's Gate one that's not worth breaking the piggy bank until a sale.

Undoubtedly, Wreckfest itself is an absolutely fantastic racer and you'll have a blast on Series X regardless of whether you stick with the free 4K, 60FPS patch or go one step further with this paid next-gen upgrade. This is without doubt the definitive way to play the game on Xbox Series X, but thanks to that free patch a couple of months ago, there's really no need to pay the extra money unless you're a devoted Wreckfest nut.

Skylanders Superchargers could have been a contender, but the enforced arena vehicle sections mean that it only sputters along in the middle of the pack.

F1 2014 feels like a half-hearted attempt at providing an annual update.

There could be more to it, but Cubot is a relatively fun experience overall, with a nice mix of difficulty and frustration.

The Callisto Protocol really is a game of two halves. Striking Distance Studios has served up a slice of sci-fi/horror that gets off to a reasonably strong start, introducing a jaw-dropping world and punchy new combat system that impresses until it becomes strained by busy enemy encounters, a handful of miserable boss confrontations and a narrative that goes absolutely nowhere. As much as this one dazzles from a graphical perspective, overall it's a shadow of the game that it most closely seeks to emulate. With little in the way of replayability and a final act we genuinely never want to sit through again, we'll be returning to the USG Ishimura for our action horror kicks long before we set down on Callisto again.

Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened is a remake made under difficult circumstances and for that reason its shortcomings are certainly more than understandable. However, the fact remains that the resulting game falls short of the standard we've come to expect from Frogwares' excellent sleuthing series. There's still some reasonable investigative work and a nice atmosphere for fans to enjoy should they decide to bite the bullet here, but rough edges, a lack of scares, dialled back level design (compared to Chapter One) and detective work that plays it too safe makes for a Holmes outing that's rather hard to fully recommend.

Whilst Blood Bowl 2's strict adherence to the franchise's rules may dissuade some from even trying this out, those that do take the plunge and stick with it will find that despite its faults, it can be a deeply rewarding and enriching experience. The AI isn't really up to snuff though, so expect to ride a long learning curve to be able to become competitive online - if you can find a game.

But even though The Flame in the Flood is somewhat of a disappointment, that doesn't mean there's not enough tinder to sustain the flame for at least a weekend outing. You just have to decide whether or not you want to risk dealing with the pesky bugs hiding in the foundation.

It undoubtedly has the ability to grab players and take them on an outstanding tour of Simply Mad's racing world, and does look absolutely stunning at times. However, the game is ultimately frustrating with a controller and features more than its fair share of bugs.

This is a way off being number one with a bullet, but it will still provide a few hours of enjoyment if you decide to stick with it.

By the time we rolled credits, that was the prevailing feeling we were left with. While we found more enjoyment in the latter two thirds of Flintlock than in the initial intro and opening area, we couldn't help but feel let down by Flintlock in almost every way. It's still a competent action-RPG that you can have fun with, and the pieces of the experience have been stitched together decently - Game Pass is a great way to check it out. However, so much here feels underdeveloped or half-finished that Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn was likely most damaged by its ambition when the project was in its early days. Now, in July 2024, upon the game's release, we get the sense that the ammo in the development chamber simply ran out.

While the game is fun to explore and the sketch-book world is beautifully crafted, we can't help but feel it would be much more accessible on the mobile platforms it was originally created for.

The Lamplighters League is a stylish and smart turn-based adventure from a team that absolutely knows its way around this sort of tactical action affair. There's plenty to like about this game's melding of XCOM-styled combat with a tarot card system that gives you lots of variables to play with as you build out your team of misfits and rogues. However, as things currently stand on Xbox, there are some fairly notable performance issues here that drag the experience down from one we'd love to recommend to something that's a harder proposition in its current form. With a few patches in place you're looking at another decent addition to Xbox Game Pass, but for now we recommend hanging back and waiting for these Lamplighters to receive a little more polish post-launch.

While Episode 2 doesn't quite hit all the targets, the mature and creepy story already has its hooks in us.

Beach Buggy Racing is a decent attempt at bringing a kart racer to the Xbox One.

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.

Just Dance 2016 is a fun party game but its movement tracking does not offer enough precision to appeal to more competitive players. The track selection on the disk is a little lacking; with only a handful of big hitters available unless you are willing to pay for Just Dance Unlimited.

Amazing Princess Sarah is a good retro platformer, of that there is no doubt. There's also plenty to do, although the nature of the implementation means that some will feel that it crosses the line into repetitiveness.

While there are more complex and intriguing crime games out there and it isn't the longest game, The ABC Murders still offers good entertainment for the interested and serves as a decent port into the murder mystery puzzle genre.

It's best enjoyed by three to four players as this will crank up the chaos and avoid the lulls that often occur in two player when both fall into a rhythm of repeatedly smashing themselves into the sun. Alone, the player can only view the tutorial and dream of all the fun they could be having if they had three extra controllers and three people who wanted to engage in beautifully designed space warfare.