PJ O'Reilly

Nintendo Life

PJ O'Reilly·Jul 27, 2022

Critic100/100

Agreement—

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a genuine masterpiece and the highlight of Monolith Soft's superb series thus far. There's an emotionally-charged and surprisingly edgy epic to get stuck into here, a sprawling and hugely engaging narrative populated by a cast of unforgettable characters that's backed up by some of the very best combat we've had the pleasure of getting to grips with in this genre to date. Over 100 hours into this one, we're as captivated now as we were when we first booted it up and it has more than delivered every bit of the adventure, emotion, and action that its key art promised it might. Aionios awaits, it's time to seize the future.

Pure Xbox

PJ O'Reilly·Jun 29, 2022

Critic80/100

Agreement—

F1 22 is another super solid entry in Codemasters' superlative run of racers. There may not be any really pressing reason to pick this one up if you own last year's game, but besides a lack of new ways to play and an F1 Life mode that's all a bit pointless in the end, this is still the pinnacle of F1 video game action that fans of the sport will no doubt be enjoying until F1 23 drops.

Pure Xbox

PJ O'Reilly·Jun 25, 2022

Critic70/100

Agreement—

If you can make peace with a few missing options and don't mind the paid DLC aspect you'll still have a great time here, and if you're coming to these games fresh you're in for an almighty treat, it's just a shame that SEGA has chosen to sully the endeavour with unnecessary greed and a few glaring functional omissions that could so easily have been included. So there you have it, Sonic Origins has got it where it counts but a little more TLC would have seen our score bumped up by a few points. Maybe next time, SEGA.

Pure Xbox

PJ O'Reilly·Jun 22, 2022

Critic40/100

Agreement—

With such banal gameplay, we turn to the narrative here for hope and, even though it kicks off in a promising manner, it very soon crumbles and fades away, with a nonsensical and very abrupt ending that left us shaking our heads and wondering what on earth the point was. Coming from a small dev team of just six people, there's still things to admire here; Industria nails the vibe it's going for, there's some terrific music and it looks superb in places, there's no doubt a lot of effort has gone into this certain aspects of this project. However, none of this is enough to smooth over the fact that this is a tediously dull, monotonous, and derivative game that offers up absolutely nothing of any real worth in terms of story or mechanics.

Nintendo Life

PJ O'Reilly·Jun 21, 2022

Critic50/100

Agreement—

If this sounds unacceptable to you, well, we're in total agreement, as there's no excuse for a bug like this, one that should be easily spotted by anyone playing through the port, making its way into this final release version. It's a massive shame, as in terms of overall performance this third entry in the series runs well enough but there's just no getting around the freezing issue here, it needs sorting out with a patch ASAP before we can consider giving this one any sort of positive recommendation. For now, we'd steer clear of another disappointing port for Harebrained Schemes' stellar series.

Nintendo Life

PJ O'Reilly·Jun 21, 2022

Critic90/100

Agreement—

Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes is a thoroughly entertaining mash-up of Musou mayhem, strategy and relationship-building aspects that should more than satisfy fans of both the franchises involved here. It improves upon its 2017 predecessor in several ways, most notably in providing a far more engaging story featuring a narrative that's ripe for several replays. With impressively solid performance on Switch and an action-packed campaign that'll see you blasting your way through tens of thousands of foes for a good 30 hours in a single playthrough, this is right up there with the very best Omega Force has served up thus far.

Pure Xbox

PJ O'Reilly·Jun 15, 2022

Critic90/100

Agreement—

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge is a lovingly crafted and supremely entertaining return to the glory days of early 1990s Turtles action. With a look and feel that painstakingly recreates classics such as Turtles in Time, whilst adding in a ton more detail, refining combat and giving you six player online/local co-op to boot, this is a fantastic slice of arcade beat 'em up nostalgia that old hands, diehard fans and newcomers alike can enjoy in equal measure. It is, in short, one shell of a good time.

Pure Xbox

PJ O'Reilly·Jun 8, 2022

Critic80/100

Agreement—

The Quarry sees Supermassive Games back on top form with a spiritual successor to the superlative Until Dawn that comes mighty close to knocking that classic off its lofty perch. There's a fantastic cast of well-observed characters to get to know here, a narrative that packs in several threats and plenty of twists, turns and light-hearted moments to sit alongside its shocks and juicy revelations. With jaw-dropping visuals, a cracking soundtrack and plenty in the way of replayability in order to see every outcome on offer, this is an interactive horror experience that's well worth jumping into.

Pure Xbox

PJ O'Reilly·Jun 7, 2022

Critic90/100

Agreement—

Assassin's Creed Odyssey may have went bigger in terms of sheer size, and Valhalla has gone on to further improve and enhance the flow of combat - but there's no doubting that Origins' majestic setting, its characters, iconic locations and sense of mystery, have yet to be topped. With some absolutely belting DLC to get your hands on once you've wrapped up the beefy main campaign here, this is one game that we absolutely urge to you pick up on Xbox Game Pass. If you've already played it, it's worth jumping back in here for the 60fps upgrade, and if you're coming to this one new, well, prepare for an almighty Egyptian adventure.

Pure Xbox

PJ O'Reilly·May 25, 2022

Critic90/100

Agreement—

Sniper Elite 5 is the very best entry in this long-running franchise to date. Karl Fairburne's latest WW2 adventure effortlessly mixes jaw-dropping campaign environments, improved close quarters combat and ruthless enemy AI, resulting in a game that puts this series firmly into the top tier of action titles once and for all. With highly replayable missions stuffed full of secrets and side quests, a clever new PvP Invasion mode, full campaign co-op and a ton of unlockables and multiplayer modes to dig into, this is a hugely entertaining offering that's sure to delight long-term fans and new recruits in equal measure. It's time to get to work perfecting those slo-mo X-Ray ball shots.

Pure Xbox

PJ O'Reilly·May 18, 2022

Critic60/100

Agreement—

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.

Pure Xbox

PJ O'Reilly·May 10, 2022

Critic50/100

Agreement—

Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is a distinctly average prequel/spin-off that gets itself bogged down in busywork and repetitive running in circles, overshadowing its core dungeon-crawling and town-building action in the process. The combat here certainly has some reasonable ideas, the story is decent enough at providing a setup and it all looks very pretty, but there's just far too much in the way of unnecessary padding and jank to make it feel as though it's really worth your time and effort beyond gleaning a few insights into next year's full adventure, even at this budget price point. Fingers crossed 505's main course is much more satisfying.

Pure Xbox

PJ O'Reilly·May 6, 2022

Critic80/100

Agreement—

Much like In Other Waters, this is a game you simply need to sit down and play in order to fully appreciate, as no screenshot or explanation will fully do it justice, and having it release on Game Pass is just the ticket to entice interested parties to try their hand. We urge you to dive in here, as this is a game of real style and substance with multiple endings to mop up as you peel back layers and dig deeper into Eldin's Eye and its inhabitants. Citizen Sleeper is a unique and thought-provoking adventure that's truly taken us by surprise.

Pure Xbox

PJ O'Reilly·May 3, 2022

Critic90/100

Agreement—

What you're left with is a sequel that players are more likely to stick with, which makes them more likely to appreciate all the other bells and whistles, story aspects, cool bosses and upgrades that have also been packed in here. Yes, Rogue Legacy 2 doesn't fully escape from the repetition and inherently grindy nature of its genre but, in giving players more agency and control over how difficult things are, it's evolved from a somewhat frustrating - and very often rage-inducing - experience into a far more chilled and, in turn, addictive roguelite that we're genuinely having quite a lot of trouble putting down. This one's up there with the very best we've played so far this year.

Pure Xbox

PJ O'Reilly·Apr 27, 2022

Critic90/100

Agreement—

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe is an excellent expansion of a bonafide classic interactive adventure. We'll admit we were slightly concerned that returning to something so masterful, expanding and adding to such a carefully constructed experience, could somehow dilute the magic, but we needn't have worried. All of the new content here simply embellishes what came before, resulting in a wonderful piece of art that's now better, more ultra and, you might even say, deluxe than ever before. Whether you're coming to this one for the first time or returning to see what's changed, you'll be handsomely rewarded for your curiosity.