Elden Ring is a crowning achievement for FromSoftware and undoubtedly the very best gameplay experience they've yet delivered - and that's really saying something given this developer's incredible back catalogue. The Lands Between deftly combine breathless open world exploration, stunning artistry, immaculate world-building and wondrous adventure with classic Dark Souls combat and dungeon-crawling, resulting in not just the best Souls game to date, but a candidate for one of the very best video games ever made.
Starfield is Bethesda's best RPG to date, an enormous space odyssey that serves up some incredibly evocative and engaging exploration, satisfying combat, and a narrative that had us hooked right to the end. Yes there are issues here with the usual jank, and some very messy and fiddly menus and interactions, but all of these problems feel minor when compared to everything this game gets right. In a year that's been packed full of absolutely essential games, Starfield manages to sit right up top with some of the best of them. After all the hype and bluster, this is just a very, very good RPG and a game we'll be playing and replaying for a long time to come.
Toygoata. After 14 long and thrill-filled years, Forza Horizon has finally landed in Japan; where fans have wanted the series to go for some time now. Heading to Tokyo and its surrounding areas was the no-brainer, the banker, the one that couldn't fail - and Xbox & Playground…
Double Fine has given us another charming Xbox first-party title in the form of Kiln, which might be light on content, but nevertheless is a fun time both on and off the battlefield. The pot-creation system is a genius take on a character creation suite, matches are frantic but offer plenty of room for strategy, and the overall presentation is really high quality. Moving forward though, it's going to need regular new content to remain fresh and give players a reason to keeping coming back, otherwise I fear this online-only game might get doused a little too prematurely.
Resident ol'reliable. During the current generation of gaming, it feels like a good cluster of once-mainstay franchises have started to fall by the wayside. Either by declining in quality or simply due to a less-frequent launch schedule, many of the AAA franchises I grew up…
Black to the drawing board. Call of Duty returns in 2025 with its first back-to-back Black Ops release following last year's Black Ops 6, and the result is an undercooked COD experience that feels like it needed more time in the oven. Truth be told, Black Ops 7 is a bit of a…
Black Ops 7 simply isn't worth playing for its campaign mode, so if that's what you dip into the Call of Duty series for every now and then, you can simply skip this year's entry. Based on my recent beta impressions I have hope that multiplayer and Zombies can drag this game up - and to be fair, if online PvE co-op is of interest to you, your mileage may go further here.
There's a new kid on the block. When it was revealed that PlatinumGames was helping with the fourth major entry in the Ninja Gaiden series, I had two immediate thoughts. How would the Bayonetta studio handle this kind of responsibility, and could another character really lead…
Reviewed across both Xbox Series X and ROG Xbox Ally! I totally understand why Xbox hasn't been marketing Keeper very well ahead of launch. Microsoft has suffered some criticism for not putting the spotlight on Double Fine's new Xbox first-party game, but after playing it, I…
Back to winning ways. EA and the newly-rebranded Battlefield Studios had a lot to prove to me with Battlefield 6. The previous game in the series, Battlefield 2042, left a lot to be desired - and truth be told, I was losing a bit of faith in the series ever getting back to its…
Two ways to play = a better game for everyone. When Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer series closed its doors in favour of a free-to-play Ultimate Team alternative called eFootball a few years ago, I have to admit I was gutted. It's not like I didn't play FIFA as well, but I felt…
Hinako's horror. We played the entirety of Silent Hill F on PS5 for this review, due to our early access code. We have since tested the game on Xbox Series X and S, the details of which are explained towards the end of the review. A quaint, semi-rural Japanese town covered in a…
A near-perfect active reload. We've been here before a few times, haven't we? Yep, the first Gears of War returns in a shiny new package for Xbox Series X|S, with Gears Reloaded largely based on 2015's Gears of War: Ultimate Edition. While this is a wholly new experience for PS5…
The five-year wait was worth it. Back in 2020 when Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 first arrived, I gave it a "Great" 8/10 in our Pure Xbox review - highlighting it as a superb return to form, but with a few issues around its career mode, multiplayer and customisation. However, with…
Launching day one on Xbox Game Pass! Back in the day when Rocket League was just about to come out, I had a feeling after playing the beta that it was going to be something massive. It had that "just one more game" feel - packed with addictive qualities that meant it was very…
Banjo Got High on No Man's Sky. You know, I'd sort of forgotten how much I enjoyed 2020's Journey to the Savage Planet. Typhoon Studios' debut was a fantastically unique and colourful one that challenged you to think at all times, as you made your way across what was - and still…
Glorious Game Pass Gibbings! Id Software's new trilogy of DOOM games, now that I've had the chance to sit down and play them all and a have a bit of a think (I can think, you know), comes across as a rather dazzling package when taken as a whole. It's almost, in hindsight, as…
