Gigantosaurus The Game is a very friendly and easy going title which will provide hours distraction for young children and fun the whole family. It is not too difficult to play and there is a good balance of puzzles, collectable items, races and cut scene animations to keep everyone amused and entertained. It is likely to lose its appeal once the kids reach a certain level of maturity, but it is definitely recommended for families with younger children that need a good diversion and older family members who can jump in and out to help if anyone gets stuck.

If you were looking for the next big open-world racing game juggernaut, you’ll be sorely disappointed by Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown. The dinginess of its Hong Kong setting leaves a lot to be desired, the racing events are uninspired even though the showrooms and the close-knit racing can be satisfying. Much of Solar Crown feels like a throwback to racing games at the start of the eighth generation, rather than a current force on current-gen hardware. Thus, Solar Crown doesn’t do much that’s wrong or egregious, it’s just uninspired and dull for the most part, and lacking in charisma or a sense of excitement. Such a blow for Test Drive Unlimited‘s return, but Solar Crown races with the reliability of a Porsche with a punctured set of wheels.

Fade to Silence offers quite an accessible survival adventure that knows exactly when to push your buttons. The game’s seemingly interesting world is full of possibilities and dangers of equal measure, ensuring that there’s always some event to take on throughout. The drawback, however, is that of its lack of polish and mechanical depth, together with its awkward combat. Shame really, with more time in the oven, this could have been a big hit.

Hired Gun is a game that punches above its weight in that it tries to take on too many things at once and struggles under the sheer weight of the number of ideas it introduces. In many ways it is better than its AAA peers because of its audacity, in other ways it is an example of a game that needed a few features cut.

If you like a challenge, you will certainly find your fill here, but the best types of hard games put the failures on you. Here, too often it feels as though your failure was as random as the level design / item placement / enemies / everything else. Fun in short bursts, but not one to spend hour after hour, trying to perfect.

If the absence of Left 4 Dead 3 has you itching for something alike, Earthfall will just about do the trick. It’s a shame that the game doesn’t do much to innovate, and repetition will indeed sink in once you’ve plugged in a few hours, but with that said, the core structure and its gameplay loop is compelling enough to justify a recommendation. Basic it may well be, but it’s fairly action-packed and exciting nevertheless.

Marooners isn’t anywhere near as exciting as a party game should be. Despite some well detailed maps and a few innovative game types, the overall package just doesn’t cut it. I have no doubt that this will please the younger audience, but there are better party games available on Xbox One that offer much more fun and longevity.

Fall of Light doesn’t quite live up to its inspirational material, but even so, this is well worth your time and attention if you’re a fan of the core “Dark Souls” formula. There’s heaps of weapon, enemy and environmental variation across the board, all of which is tethered to an interesting world that’s full of lore and mystery. Camera annoyances to the side, Fall of Light is one that fans of the genre will thoroughly enjoy.

At Sundown sports a tense and interesting hide and seek-like style of play through the use of its cleverly implemented light and shadow stealth system. However, despite its fairly healthy variation across its weaponry, its modes, and its maps, it all falls victim to repetition a lot sooner than expected. It doesn’t help matters that, even on launch day, its online component seems painfully devoid of popularity.

Liftoff: Drone Racing is bringing simulation drone racing to consoles without missing a beat. While Liftoff: Drone Racing has been tough for me to wrap my head around control-wise I still had fun. With more time I know the first place finishes would start rolling in but even as noob to both virtual and real life drone flying, I had a good time and I’d imagine enthusiasts and general sim racing fans would as well.

To sum up Bluey: The Videogame would be to say that a dad had a fun time playing this game with his kids. It may have been a short experience for us totaling up to a few hours for the story and all collectibles, but they certainly had a good time. Our main feedback comes down to the length and nitpicky details like repeated dialog and camera controls when playing with multiple people. Overall I can recommend this game for families of young kids (or fans of the show I suppose) that want to get together around their Xbox together for a few hours.

As a TMNT fan I am drawn to all content about this tubular foursome, especially the games! TMNT Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants was no exception. Considering I’ve not played the arcade cabinet for this game before I was very excited. It did give me an evening of fun as it felt like I was right there in the arcade hanging out but unfortunately the experience was short lived. While yes, there are leaderboards to entice replay-ability, they weren’t enough to keep me coming back to the game. So, if you are looking for a quick turtles experience (especially if you have some local buddies to play with), Wrath of the Mutants may be what you are looking for.

Defiance 2050 has all the markings that you would expect to find in a game of this type. There’s an interesting story to soak up, heaps of weaponry and enemy variations to enjoy, a large sprawling map to traverse, and decent gameplay mechanics. The drawback, however, is that it looks very dated and comes with far too many technical issues. If this truly wants to survive, the game’s performance needs to be much better.

Overall and whilst MX vs ATVs arrival on current-gen consoles was always one we were going to expect, it’s shocking to see it arrive in such a poor state. With glitches galore and a real lack of polish all around, what has long been an exciting series release has this time turned into something that feels like a rushed release that would have really benefitted from utilizing the extra power of current generation consoles to push out something spectacular rather than another general churned out release. Unfortunately, this isn’t one I want to recommend.

Gungrave G.O.R.E is a clever-dumb game that finds ways to turn mindless shooting into an alternative character action model. Sadly, it is brought down by trying to be too smart and muddying its objectives. When it sticks to what makes it enjoyable, it excels.

Think of the Children’s main drawback is that it utterly lacks any form of balance as far as its difficulty is concerned. The problem this creates is that when playing solo, you’re required to fulfill seemingly impossible objectives through large quantities of frustrating multitasking. The game does indeed shine much brighter with other players helping out, but not quite enough to justify an easy recommendation.

I am pleasantly surprised coming out of G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout after playing through the 17 story missions multiple times. Once you gather the controls it’s a simple game with decent visuals and audio that can entertain you for hours. I wish the game offered more than local co-op only but those with friends should be able to enjoy it together cooperatively and competitively.

With the raft of great horror titles out there already, there’s very little to recommend checking out Yuoni over most of them. The slow paced hide and seek gameplay lacks tension, risk, or any real consequence, and while the visuals can prove quite creepy at times, for the most part this is all too forgettable.

This is just disappointing from all angles. Boring combat in both gun feel and enemy AI, lifeless open worlds that actively discourage exploration, and hero powers that are flat out rubbish to use make not for the fun co-op shooter we were hoping for. A massive miss for Xbox, Arkane, and Game Pass.

Dynasty Warriors 9 is a platter full of mess. Take your pick; delayed rendering, lack of rendering, jittery camera, framerate drops, poor animation, dated visuals, bad voice acting, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The biggest shame is that this game reeks of potential, potential that’s never fully realized due to all of its faults and shoddy design choices.

Gods Remastered is a mixed bag of pros and cons. Whilst the game’s structure and its pace has maintained its quality quite well over the last two and a half decades, the game’s combat and its handling remains far removed from acceptable standards. Still, one has to appreciate the work that’s gone into the remastered aspects here. It’s just a shame that much of the game’s charm is weighed down by its dated functionality.

While the Contra name is renowned, especially amongst older gamers, this modern take on the franchise is simply not fit for that legacy. With dull, repetitive combat, bland and uninspiring visuals and some out of touch design decisions, I’d recommend any one looking for some fun arcade action to look elsewhere.

This is an arcade-perfect port that is fast, flashy and furious. Sadly, this also has no extra frills and struggles to justify an afternoon of play.

As one of the few exclusively next-gen games for the Series consoles, Bright Memory is a bit of mixed bag. It runs excellently, with super smooth frame rates and crisp, 4K visuals and some lovely looking (if slightly over-done) effect’s work. The combat is fast and satisfying, and the extra powers can make the whole presentation look like Doom X Crysis on some kind of strong drugs. That it is so short, the character models look decidedly 00’s arcade era, and some bug and glitches rear their heads means it’s not the must play new title it could have been though. Here’s hoping the full fat Bright Memory: Infinite can use this test bed to launch a truly kick ass, next-gen shooter.

It was a struggle to play this game for multiple reasons. It’s weird story and awkward gameplay just haven’t aged anywhere near well enough to hold up. If you’ve always been curious, and didn’t live in Japan in 2004, then you might find some worth here; but somehow I doubt the wait will have been worth it.

It’s a mostly enjoyable, creepy experience marred only slightly by an annoyingly relentless, yet easy to escape enemy. I did find myself wishing for more however.

Despite some of the glaring issues, MX vs ATV All Out houses a great deal of content. There’s no denying that it’s lacking in performance and optimization, but the weak execution is almost alleviated by its vast and various offerings. MX vs ATV All Out is one patch away from glory, but until that happens, it’s missing out on a lot of its potential.

Atomic Heist is a good game, but it would have benefited from some extra care and attention to its design. The lack of interesting and detailed environments pulls this game shy of greatness, especially considering the implementation of random generation. Still, the game manages to hold its own ground through its tense gameplay, heavy replay value and diverse pool of pick-ups and power-ups.