XboxEra's Reviews
It may not be the “AAAA” game Ubisoft touted, but with a solid enough foundation, a decently planned bevy of seasonal content ahead of it, and the uniqueness of making the ship and gear the focus, it may be finally on the right course after all.
A Little to the Left is at its absolute best when it’s focusing on finding just the right spot for everyday things, and at its worst when it’s operating on its own, chaotic-puzzle logic. Those two worlds and design choices are at odds in my opinion, and collide to unfortunately produce an uneven end result. However, I feel confident in saying any puzzle game fan will find something to like and perhaps even love here, and with it being available to try on Xbox Game Pass, it’s worth a download.
PlateUp! is barrels of fun if you’re playing with friends or family. You’ll be barking orders to one-another before you know it. And even if you fail, you’ll find yourself starting another run in this fairly addicting cooking slash restaurant management roguelike.
Gunvolt Records Cychronicle works great for what it is: a spin-off game with fanservice to Gunvolt fans, the game including CD versions of the series’ songs and all. But it’s also a fun rhythm game for anyone to pick up and play—it might even be convincing enough for new players to check out INTI’s catalogue of fun action platformers like the Gunvolt series.
Resident Evil 3’s remake is the weakest of the recent trilogy (2, 3, & 4), but it’s still a damned good time. With it coming to Game Pass I don’t feel bad recommending a download, as its short run time means you can finish it easily enough in a night or two.
Aspyr’s remasters of these classic Lara Croft adventures play it safer and don’t really add much to the overall experience, but still a bloody fun time for those who want to revisit these awesome classics – even with their flaws.
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is a fantastic video game. It is the type that raises the medium and shows how incredible these experiences can be. The combat is good enough to rarely hinder your enjoyment as you help or harm the local populace. In an era where new single-player IPs are hard to find, this one deserves to succeed.
It aims to do a single thing, which is being a deep and addictive round-based bullet heaven shooter, with a ludicrous amount of items, weapons and upgrades that allow for quite literally infinite builds. It may lack the variety of Vampire Survivors, the production values of Soulstone Survivors and so on, but Brotato’s short-burst rushes of adrenaline make it one hell of a game anyway.
As disappointed as I was with the first DLC I think I dislike the second one even more. It’s a mishmash of unenjoyable mini-games, and while the music is great the gameplay is not.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has overcome a rough pre-launch time after multiple delays. While the objectives can feel repetitive the excellent gameplay never does. This review will be out of date after a month or two because this is a live-service assed live-service game. For fans of Destiny, The Division, and all the loot-focused games-as-a-service titles, this is a damned good one at launch. We'll see if they can continue to grow and improve it over time.
"But what I think Persona 3 Reload does best is that it brings one of my favourite Persona games to a new audience and excels at it. The visuals are gorgeous, the pacing isn’t overtly stretched out, the combat is fun and fluid, and the story is still great. Anyone can get in on this game’s excellent blend of school life and role-playing genres and I can wholeheartedly recommend this game, not just because Persona 3 is a classic for me, but because Persona 3 Reload is genuinely fantastic."
TEKKEN 8 is an outstanding fighting game. An extremely strong 3D fighter with lots of offline content, strong core mechanics, and all around a fun and stylish game. TEKKEN continues to show the world why it's the winner of the Iron Fist Tournament.
Go Mecha Ball is a fantastic title to get on Game Pass. It looks great and plays incredibly well. The audio package and setup may leave me wanting but I can see this being one I dive back into repeatedly over the coming months to experience its sublime gameplay.
Lil Guardsman is funny, occasionally heartwarming, and a ton of fun. It takes a simple premise and builds it into a unique and excellent video game.
"From cute visuals to the occasional brow-furrowing object hunt, Hidden Through Time 2 is a mostly relaxing object hunting game. Lots of levels to take on that’ll keep you busy for some hours. Though the time mechanism isn’t all that and the single-looping songs might get a bit unpleasant, it shouldn’t stop you from getting a warm feeling of finding a well-hidden book."
It’s not often that I’ll sit down and enjoy a game throughout the entirety of my playthrough. Even the best reviewed games will have parts of it that exist simply to extend the games length for no real reason (I’m looking at you, GTAV). Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth opens 2024 with a bang, showcasing the best of what the series has to offer and more.
Barring a middling ‘middle’ entry, The Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy brings a set of great games from a series I love to the big screen. There’s no beating the bush around this one: this collection does Apollo Justice.
Hellblade is simply a great experience, and after finishing it for the very first time recently, I am even more excited for Hellblade II. The game is available on Game Pass, so if you haven’t taken the journey to Hellheim yet or want a quick refresher before the sequel releases on May 21st, it’s a game I fully recommend.
Turnip Boy Robs A Bank is a damned good time, that is just as long as it needs to be. Whether you’ve played the first game or not it is well worth checking out on Game Pass. Good looks, fun gameplay, and excellent music make it another solid addition to the platform.
The translation to VR, while commendable, doesn’t translate into an enjoyable gameplay experience. Combine that with a game that hasn’t aged well, and constant crashing on both PC and Quest 3, especially at $40, is not something I can recommend.