Recommended Xbox 360 Games
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Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition
After setting a phenomenal trend on PC and selling tremendously well on Xbox Live Arcade, MojangÆs incredibly addictive world-creation game Minecraft has made the jump to physical media!
The charm of Minecraft is in its crude, blocky graphics. As you wander about a seemingly empty map, you soon learn to use your trusty pickaxe to chisel away the environment around you. Doing so not only allows you to rebuild the entire map as you see fit, but can also throw up a number of interesting surprises.
Create buildings, caverns, landmarks... youÆre only limited by your imagination. If you like, you can invite a bunch of friends along to help you build a masterpiece worthy of showing the entire world. But be quick about it, because at night monsters come out to play, so you need to make sure that you have made preparations for you (and your friends) to stay safe until dawn.
The Xbox 360 DVD release of Minecraft includes all of the console-specific features and benefits that the Xbox Live Arcade edition had, including a tutorial mode and various tweaks to make your block-busting activities that much more efficient. If youÆve not had the chance to buy into the Minecraft experience yet, now is a great time to get involved.
£19.99 Buy Now -
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare takes the stellar blockbuster franchise and shifts it in a new direction. The biggest change for fans of the Call of Duty series will be the fact that for the first time, development isn't led by series veterans Infinity Ward or Treyarch, but by relative newcomer Sledgehammer Games. With a new team comes a somewhat new direction. While Call of Duty: Black Ops II pushed things into the near future of 2025, Advanced Warfare takes things further. The game puts players in the futuristic gear of Jack Mitchell. It's a future where the world has been devastated by a global attack and Atlas, a Private Military Corporation, is effectively a superpower for hire. Activision has gone to pains to state that this is a carefully researched future, so don't expect black hole guns or laser blasters. The most immediate impact of this premise, then, is the exoskeleton players wear. This piece of kit enhances the player's movement with bigger leaps, dashes and dodges. The exoskeleton, along with the futuristic weaponry on offer, changes the way gamers will play Call of Duty, and of course that extends to the game's multiplayer. All of this is polished off with a revamped Create-a-Class feature, offering the deepest customisation options in a Call of Duty game yet.
£14.99 Buy Now -
LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham
LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham is the most ambitious LEGO game starring the Caped Crusader yet. While it does, of course, have Batman and Robin front and centre, it could almost have been called 'LEGO DC Superheroes', such is the size of the cast and the scope of the adventure. The 'Beyond Gotham' part of the title is certainly justified. This time out, the Dark Knight is out in space on a cosmic adventure. Braniac, who's more often known for bothering Superman, has been stealing entire cities, shrinking them down using the power of Lantern rings to add them to his sinister collection. So, right off the bat (pun slightly intended) you can see that the scale of the game has been expanded since previous entries to the series, drawing on the mythos of both Green Lantern and Superman. There's a cast to match this newfound scale, with more than 150 characters ranging from icons like Wonder Woman to the lesser-known (but no less important) figures like... well, Bat-cow. Expect The Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, Zatanna, Lex Luthor, The Joker and Swamp Thing to name just a tiny handful. Players can unlock different versions of characters, too, like the 1960s TV Batman (voiced by Adam West!) who lifts his cape to sneak past foes, or Arctic Batman, with a freeze gun. Gameplay is, as series fans will expect, along the usual LEGO lines. There's a dash of combat, a spot of platforming, a fair amount of environmental puzzle-solving and drop-in/drop-out cooperative play. As ever, it's all delivered with a light touch and a healthy dose of humour. That's not to say there's nothing new here, however. In one level, for example, our heroes encounter a battleship belonging to the Reach and the encounter plays out as a 2D shooter, much like Resogun. Let's be honest, though, most players will come for the sense of fun and the chance to play with that HUGE cast of characters.
£39.99 Buy Now -
Dark Souls II
Demon's Souls really established FromSoftware's reputation as a developer that wants to take your sense of hope and gnaw on it using the jaws of zombified rats. Dark Souls, the game's spiritual successor, took that and ran with it. Now the developer is back once again with a sequel in both name and spirit. The game features a new world, new storyline and an unfamiliar world steeped in death and despair. Expect the same uncompromising difficulty, the same epic boss battles and the same incredible sense of empowerment that comes with triumphing against the odds as the first game. Don't, however, expect something quite so straightforward as a re-skinned version of Dark Souls. The game's online has been made a little more approachable this time out. Voice chat is now supported and by aligning yourself with certain in-game gods you'll be able to summon friends to help you lay waste to whatever particular beast is challenging your will to live. You can also now travel between bonfires right from the outset of the game and the health system is a little more forgiving, with life gems complementing the flasks of the last game. Don't despair that FromSoftware has gone soft, however, as you'll lose a little more of your life bar every time you die. The world is perhaps not quite so bleak as those of past games, but it does offer up its own sights to bear witness to. An eerie village sits at the sea shore, with desperate locals trying to pedal their wares, while a tangled, ruined castle lurks at the heart of the forest. So, Dark Souls II is not quite the same beast as the first game. Did anyone want that, though? It's still a fiendishly difficult game set in a rich, brutal fantasy world. And there's still plenty of dying to be done.
£12.99 Buy Now -
Forza Horizon 2
Forza Horizon 2 bursts out of the screen with buckets of arrogance. Opening with an ASMR-inducing cutscene that puts your back up, it presents you with a lead character that'll make you grind your teeth out. It then continues to show off for the next hour or so, with its stunning visuals, vast array of cars and its constant reminders of its 'Drivatar's. For all of Horizon 2's arrogance, it's backed up with an impressive game and what seemed like needless swagger soon turns into endearing charm. The game looks good. The cars themselves reflect their real-life counterparts with seamless ease and when you notice beads of water on your bonnet after a race in the rain, their place sits within the world perfectly. The environments you drive around are impressive, and create a sense of place that's rarely seen outside of a Rockstar game. It may not be the most realistic racer you've ever played, but Horizon 2 shows no attempt to even try and replicate that side of the driving genre. Heading off-road in an Audi R8 wont leave you spinning around as you'd expect. Developer Playground understands that you just want to get back on the road and rejoin the race. Drivatars make a return to the Forza series, with the AI mimicking the play style of your friends so that even when you're driving solo, you get the sense of your mates being around you and the rush of the multiplayer mode. The racing is great - with the focus being on championships made up of a string of conventional races where you build up points by finishing higher - but there's so much more to do in Forza Horizon 2. Speed cameras, rival races and crashing through bill-boards are all here, but this game has a few tricks up it sleeves to offer you more than just deja vu. Discovering classic cars also offers more than simply buying cars from specialist dealers. In Horizon 2 you're given a tip off as to where they might be and you have to go hunting for them. These are the moments that find you exploring. Forza Horizon 2 delivers a looser, faster style than its Forza Motorsports counterparts, and it's a bucket of fun.
£24.99 Buy Now -
Dragon Age: Inquisition
While Dragon Age Origins was hailed by many as a new tour-de-force from famed roleplaying game developer BioWare, many felt that the sequel didn't live up to its predecessor's strong start. Inquisition, though, has been widely hailed as a return to form. An apocalyptic event has thrown Thedas into chaos, opening rifts that are raining down terror. Dragons ravage the sky, casting dark shadows across the land. Mages are in a state of all-out war against the Templars. Nations are warring. Into this chaos you must step, using your strange ability to close rifts and banish demons. The world is bigger and more open than ever before, so players looking to explore are in for a treat. This is a huge game, packed with epic hubs and tons of side content. BioWare says that it will take over 100 hours to complete everything. It's appropriate, as this is the biggest Dragon Age story yet. For players new to the series, or those jumping to a new platform (or even those who don't feel happy with decisions they made in the last two games) EA has an online tool that can be used to select details from earlier games in the series and apply them to your save file. On the combat front, BioWare has drawn on both the previous games in the series, pulling together the more strategic feel or Origins with the action focus of the sequel. The result is combat that has weight, but won't enable players to thrash around like they're beating up angels in Bayonetta. Adding to that is a multiplayer option. It's a co-op mode that works a lot like Gears of War's Horde, forcing players to work together against wave after wave of enemies. In other words, if you're looking for something epic in scope, Dragon Age Inquisition has you covered.
£14.99 Buy Now -
Battlefield: Hardline
Battlefield: Hardline takes the shoot-'em-up action the series is known for and moves it away from the front lines and onto city streets. Hardline adopts a cops and robbers format, pitting criminals against the police against a backdrop of fast and furious heists. It's quite a shift for a series known for hardcore military action. Visceral Games (they're new to the series, but you might know them from the Dead Space series) is aiming to shift the focus of the series, moving away from the po-faced tone many shooters have adopted in recent years and injecting a bit of vitality into the formula. The aim is to make shoot-outs more of a close quarters affair in which you'll see the whites of your opponents' eyes. As ever, multiplayer is the real focus of the game. Heist mode tasks criminals to steal and secure a briefcase from the police in a manner not dissimilar to capture the flag. In Blood Money players vie for three stashes of cash hidden about the city, transporting it back to their vault when they do. The catch is that vaults can be captured, too, and fallen players leave their cash where they die. The result is chaotic. In Hotwire mode drivable cars effectively become the flags of a conquest mode. Captured cars drain away opponents' reinforcement tickets, and the winner is the team that reduces the other lot's ticket count to zero (or whoever has the most at the end of a round). 'Rescue' is a five versus five hostage situation in which cops must rescue civilians, while 'Crosshair' is another five vs five mode in which criminals must eliminate a player-controlled VIP. While Hardline is a shift away from the usual Battlefield formula, fans can still expect widescreen action and lots of explosions. It's just time to step into a different kind of fantasy...
£14.99 Buy Now -
Assassin's Creed: Rogue
While Assassin's Credd: Unity moves the blockbuster series onto next-gen platforms, Rogue has those on older systems (or just those who fancy a double AC dose this year) covered. It's a canny blend of the familiar and the unfamiliar. The game builds on the assets and mechanics established in AC3 and Black Flag, but gives them a serious twist. It's set, once again, during the Seven Years War for control of the colonies. The difference is that this time you're not playing on the side of the assassins - you're a templar. Our (anti)hero is Shay Cormac, an assassin who's an assassin either turning bad or finally picking the right side, depending on where in Rogue's many shades of grey you fall. While much of the game will feel faintly familiar to longtime fans, the developers at Ubisoft Sofia have been able to focus squarely on content thanks to the groundwork laid in previous games. Alabama and Quebec are now part of the picture, providing a change of scenery. Perhaps the biggest change comes from playing as a templar, though. Missions that would previously have been assassination attempts become assassination prevention attempts, with the aim being to keep a target alive. The sailing mechanics that were so popular in Black Flag make a reappearence, with players getting the Morrigan, a slimmer, more manouvrable vessel than the Jackdaw. New bits and pieces have been brought in too. Most notable is the air rifle, which allows players to take out enemies with a fresh range of ammo types. Rogue offers up plenty of the good stuff that Assassin's Creed fans love, with a big enough dash of the new to add spice to proceedings.
£19.99 Buy Now -
Final Fantasy XIII-2
Final Fantasy XIII-2 is, as the name suggests, a direct sequel to Square's 2009 outing. Things kick off in the futuristic world of Valhalla - a somewhat post-apocalyptic city that seems to be the Final Fantasy equivalent of an urban limbo. Lightning, thought to be dead by her sister Serah, is in constant battle with Caius - a nasty-looking chap who's fancy-boy looks and visual kei fashion is lifted right out of the A-Z of Final Fantasy supervillain design. The game makes use of the Paradigm Shift system and Quick Time Events called "Cinematic Actions". And after an early shock, Lightning is left to make a last stand for the sake of humanity, the world and everything else. Serah, who is left in another time and dimension rebuilding civilisation with Cocoon survivors, is apparently the only hope for Lightning and the safety of the universe. However, the gamer also encounters Noel Kreiss, a mysterious kid who teams up with Serah to help get reunited with her sister. Time is of the essence as a former resistance group NORA witness a strange meteorite that's impacted near Cocoon, which Noel and Serah discover is causing timelines between hundreds of years to bleed into one another. This means that Noel and Serah having to hop between historical moments and dimensions via Stargate-esque portals to reach the Historia Crux. Battling enemies in XIII-2 is a very similar affair to its predecessor, using the Paradigm Shift system which allows for the same automatic battling that you could achieve in past Final Fantasy games by hammering the X button, but maintains a strategy in Paradigms that allow you to get creative with team attacks. Square Enix hasn't changed too much to the combat here in that regard. What it has done is add some new features to shake things up a bit. Monsters fought on the field can be captured automatically and added to your own team. Each creature has its own set Paradigm style that you can use to cover any cracks in your strategy. Cait Siths are Medics, for example, while Zwerg Scandroids are Ravagers that can cast spells in your stead. There's plenty here for anyone who enjoyed Final Fantasy XIII to sink their teeth into.
£14.99 Buy Now -
TitanFall
TitanFall is, first and foremost, a multiplayer first-person shooter. It's similar to the countless other FPSs out there in some aspects, but it has a very important stand-out element - it lets the player get into giant mechs and deal some Grade-A destruction. The selling point lies within the idea that both mechs and human players interact with each other on the same map, and do so in a very interesting manner. Given that TitanFall is online multiplayer only, the modes on offer are pretty important. Attrition is your run of the mill kill everything that's not your team mode. You start off on foot and the more you kill, the quicker you can request your Titan to be deployed to you. Hardpoint is the second game mode. You have to have a presence around certain points in the map and make sure that the other team doesn't get to them. This becomes a "Guard the Base" type of an event and you get points as to how successful you guard a point or capture it. The third one is a very interesting LTS or Last Titan Standing mode, where the game begins with you being inside a Titan, doesn't allow respawns if you die while on foot, and win by wiping off Titans on the other team. You might be wondering how human players can stand up against giant mech suits. The game spares no sympathy for puny humans and adheres to realism that lets you get crushed by a Titan's feet. Simply walk over enemy pilots and other AI units while piloting a Titan and that's the end of them. To balance things out, elements of parkour, and cloaking mechanisms are introduced to the pilots on foot, which in turn allow some impressive takedowns of Titans in a non-head on manner. Specialist weapons are also available for human players to combat Titans which deals a bit more damage than the average pistol/rifle/shotgun. These however, when used on other human players, simply vaporise them into a mist of blood. The Titans can be manned or left unmanned to auto engage the enemy or guard a particular spot. This gives a rather interesting freedom to the player, allowing him/her to select the sort of gameplay one wants to engage in. Pilot a Titan and rain down hell on minions, or let the Titan do its own thing while you dash about the map, getting some stealthy and quick kills!
£9.99 Buy Now -
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
Longtime Metal Gear fans might have been concerned that this spin-off could have been a thin, watery imitation. Within the first ten minutes of gameplay, you battle a modified Metal Gear Ray (!), run down the side of buildings (in an obvious nod to spiritual predecessor Bayonetta), hop over rockets and slice colossal mechs right in half. And that's just the tutorial stage. So don't worry about things being dull. There's no doubt that Raiden makes you feel like a cool, techno-ninja badass right from the start. There's also no arguing that, because of such aforementioned insanity, this has Platinum Games written all over it. While the gameplay mechanics and controls have a great amount of depth, the learning curve and impressive presentation makes you feel like a bona fide gaming wizard before things really hit the fan. It all involves an organisation known as Desperado Enforcement LLC and its association with a cyborg terrorist uprising led by a rather nasty chap called Dolzaev. At the beginning of the game, Desperado's cyborg samurai attack a convoy that Raiden (and the "private security firm" that he is enlisted in, Maverick) is protecting and leaves our hero for dead. So there's bad blood between the two parties, for sure. For anyone who's familiar with Bayonetta, Metal Gear Rising's brand of gameplay pacing will not be such an obstacle. But there are many design and control traits that make Raiden's game his very own, and it all comes down to his cybernetic abilities and swordplay. By holding L1 to run, you can automatically hop and slide through intricate areas of a stage, while it also allows you to deflect standard enemy bullets. There are many nods, winks and blatant references to the Metal Gear franchise in Rising. The Codec is still present and correct (and a bit easier to navigate this time too), and VR missions can be discovered throughout the game to tackle at your own pace. There's a fair bit of Metal Gear lore in there too, with references to Legionnaires to name but one spoiler-free example. Even a bizarre sense of humour, worthy of Kojima, is in there - Raiden in a sombrero? You better believe it. Such franchise favourites are fused with Platinum's unique presentation style to create something that's the best of both worlds - a story-led Metal Gear game with the flair and fast-paced action that Platinum is best known for.
£4.99 Buy Now -
Call of Duty: Ghosts
Infinity Ward, the creator of the Call of Duty series and the blockbuster Modern Warfare sequence of games is treating a new generation of consoles as a new opportunity. It doesn't matter what machine you're playing on, though, you're getting a brand new Call of Duty experience with Ghosts. Set in a new game universe, the events of Ghosts take place in a near future in which the US has been ravaged by a catastrophic attack and the West is on its knees. A new superpower has emerged south of the equator and is laying seige to the States. The once-mighty America now relies on an elite squad of soldiers, modeled on SEAL Team 6, to defend it. This new storyline effectively turns many of the Call of Duty series' tropes on their head. You're no longer top dog with an endless supply of state of the art weaponry behind you. You're the underdog, up against enemies with superior firepower, technology and numbers. You, however, do have a dog on your side... Multiplayer, of course, has been overhauled. The biggest addition set to shake up the more tradional multiplayer modes is the inclusion of dynamic events such as collapsing buildings. Some of these can be triggered by players, some will occur naturally. All of them will shake up the field and keep things interesting. Another notable inclusion is female soldiers, who will be playable for the first time in a Call of Duty game. Perhaps the most interesting addition to Ghosts' multiplayer offering is Squads. In it, players can design and customise their own squad and take them into combat against either other players or AI. The idea is to give you the thrills and gameplay style of multiplayer combat, but with the oversight and tactical vantagepoint of a squad commander. You don't even have to be online for your guys to get in on the action - players' squads can be challenged while they're not available. Even better, all the XP you earn can be brought back into the regular multiplayer experience with you. Infinty Ward is set to deliver yet another first-person blockbuster.
£9.99 -
Sacred 3: First Edition
Sacred 3 might be the first entry in the series to be developed by newcomer Keen Games, but the developer looks set to show it understands the guts of the franchise with a back to basics approach. Favourite characters such as Seraphim, Ancarian, Khukuhru and the Safiri return, doing battle against anarchic green-skins in this action role-playing game. The floating camera returns to give players a birds-eye view of environments swarming with enemies, giving the game a feel that puts it right in sync with previous entries. One crucial difference, however, is that the game has been developed with more focus on the gamepad. This means that the click-click combat of previous Sacred games is less prevalent and there's more of a focus on action. The game's physics are more realistic meaning that, for instance, a powerful blow will result in an enemy flying across the screen with a satisfying oomph. Sacred 3 has a very strong focus on co-op play. Even if you're not playing with friends online (and you don't need to be connected at all times to play) you'll have three AI companions on-screen with you at all times. This pays off with move-sets that combine the abilities of all four on-screen characters for devastating attacks. A drop-in/drop-out co-op mechanic really seals the deal to make Sacred 3 a full-blooded co-op game, rather than an RPG with multiplayer as an afterthought.
£37.99 Buy Now -
Call of Duty: Ghosts: Hardened Edition
Infinity Ward, the creator of the Call of Duty series and the blockbuster Modern Warfare sequence of games is treating a new generation of consoles as a new opportunity. It doesn't matter what machine you're playing on, though, you're getting a brand new Call of Duty experience with Ghosts. Set in a new game universe, the events of Ghosts take place in a near future in which the US has been ravaged by a catastrophic attack and the West is on its knees. A new superpower has emerged south of the equator and is laying seige to the States. The once-mighty America now relies on an elite squad of soldiers, modeled on SEAL Team 6, to defend it. This new storyline effectively turns many of the Call of Duty series' tropes on their head. You're no longer top dog with an endless supply of state of the art weaponry behind you. You're the underdog, up against enemies with superior firepower, technology and numbers. You, however, do have a dog on your side... Multiplayer, of course, has been overhauled. The biggest addition set to shake up the more tradional multiplayer modes is the inclusion of dynamic events such as collapsing buildings. Some of these can be triggered by players, some will occur naturally. All of them will shake up the field and keep things interesting. Another notable inclusion is female soldiers, who will be playable for the first time in a Call of Duty game. Perhaps the most interesting addition to Ghosts' multiplayer offering is Squads. In it, players can design and customise their own squad and take them into combat against either other players or AI. The idea is to give you the thrills and gameplay style of multiplayer combat, but with the oversight and tactical vantagepoint of a squad commander. You don't even have to be online for your guys to get in on the action - players' squads can be challenged while they're not available. Even better, all the XP you earn can be brought back into the regular multiplayer experience with you. Infinty Ward is set to deliver yet another first-person blockbuster.
£14.99 Buy Now -
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel
Set between Borderlands and Borderlands 2, you'll play as four new characters classes fighting alongside Handsome Jack, witnessing his transformation into the ruthless tyrant you loved to hate in Borderlands 2, and assisting with the rise of the Hyperion Corporation. The signature shoot 'n' loot gameplay of the Borderlands series expands with the addition of low-gravity and oxygen-powered jetpack combat, the icy 'Cryo' elemental damage type, the deadly laser weapon class, and new vehicles to help you explore the lunar landscape.
Who will those four new playable character classes be, you ask? Well, they are all familiar faces from the Borderlands universe:
- Athena, the Gladiator: Uses her Kinetic Aspis, which is a shield that can absorb incoming damage, then convert it back into energy to use against enemies. Athena made her debut in The Secret Armory of General Knoxx DLC for the first Borderlands game.
- Wilhelm, the Enforcer: Wilhelm was previously seen in Borderlands 2 as one of the first deadly bosses in the game.
- Nisha, the Lawbringer: The sheriff of Lynchwood from Borderlands 2, Nisha will be dealing out her own brand of justice.
- Claptrap, the Fragtrap: Wait - Claptrap? The goofy robot companion from Borderlands 2, now playable for the first time? Fragtrap is his character class? Well, you can play him too!£9.99 Buy Now -
FIFA 15
The beautiful game is back, and with the 2014/2015 football season now well underway, Electronic Arts has another FIFA game for fans to dig their studs into. This year, the latest iteration of the game isn't about big, flashy updates attempting to overhaul the game. Rather, it's about focusing on the series' core gameplay and making the tweaks and refinements that might not seem huge to the casual observer, but to the hardcore fan will be hugely evident. EA has really doubled down on maintaining the pedigree that has made FIFA the dominant soccer game over the last few years. The new bells and whistles EA is touting include (as ever) improved graphics, with pitches that show wear and tear over the course of the match and improved player visuals. There's also the inclusion of the Turkish league and 'emotional intelligence' that delivers greater authenticity in how players react to the on-pitch action. On the pitch, though, players will notice other changes that might not be as obvious on the game's surface, but run a lot deeper. Defenders now turn with greater deliberateness and are more likely to catch attackers rather than standing around and looking nonplussed. Similarly, AI is better on the attack. Your players will burst into space on the overlap for a return ball without your prompting. You can also pick up control of the reciever of a goal kick, corner, throw-in or free kick, meaning you don't have to just hoof the ball in and hope your team makes the best of it. It's these new tweaks - tweaks that will keep on surprising you hours after you've fired up the game - that will make all the difference for FIFA fans, building on what's already gaming's premier football series.
£9.99 Buy Now -
Watch_Dogs
In Watch_Dogs, Ubisoft's open-world thriller that has been hyped to the moon and back, you play as Aiden Pierce, a hacker in Chicago on the hunt for his niece's killer. Yes, it's an open-world thriller. No, that doesn't mean that its defining feature will be driving over pedestrians as it has been in every Grand Theft Auto-alike since the dawn of... well, Grand Theft Auto. In Ubisoft's vision of Chicago, the much-vaunted 'Internet of Things' is already a reality. For those who don't spend their free time reading the tech blogs, that means that pretty much every machine that could have a microchip does have a microchip. All systems are run through a centralised operating system, CTOS, which provides city-wide wi-fi and keeps the traffic lights changing when they should, the trains running on time and... well, everything's automated, basically. The downside of this is the near-nonexistence of privacy as the all-seeing CTOS captures all your data and knows everything about you. It's all hackable, too, and as Aiden you'll make your way in the world by hacking all that personal data, not to mention all those lovely automated systems. When confronting an enemy, for example, you might use your smartphone to identify their location through a wall, hack a crane to drop a container on them or even send a fake text to distract them while you line them up in your crosshairs. It can all get a bit underhand if you want it to, and strategy is a definite must. The tables can be turned, however. If you play online, another player can slip into your game and hack your smartphone, then it becomes a race against time to identify who among the in-game characters is actually the interloper. Watch_Dogs is cyberpunk for the 21st century, and it may be your first taste of what's to come...
£22.99 Buy Now -
Resident Evil Revelations 2
While the Resident Evil series has shifted further and further towards action-oriented, shoot-'em-up gameplay in recent years, Resident Evil Revelations marked a move back towards the series' roots. Revelations 2 leans into that tonal shift, emphasizing survival-horror and suspense while offering its own contribution to the series continuity. The game's story takes place between Resident Evil 5 and 6. There are four playable protagonists to try your hand with. Series favourite Claire Redfield is back but she, along with newbie Moira Burton, has been kidnapped by mystery attackers and taken to a prison island laden with all sorts of nasty creatures and traps. Also in the mix are the pair's would-be rescuers: Moira's father Barry Burton (longtime fans might remember him from RE3) and the enigmatic Natalia Korda. The main story is structured into four episodes, each featuring two campaigns, with two bonus episodes changing up the gameplay. They've all been designed with co-op in mind, and two players can team up on the same machine. Different characters have different strengths. Barry, for example, is a tank with plenty of firepower, while Natalia specialises in pointing out hidden enemies. If you don't have anyone on hand to help, however, fear not. Solid computer-controlled companions and the ability to switch between them at will make the life of the lone wolf much easier. Playing to Resident Evil's survival horror roots, ammo is scarce and players who can take a stealthy approach will be rewarded. Scavanging is rewarded by hidden items such as ammo, keys and plenty of goodies to upgrade weapons with, so playing close attention to your environment is crucial. Raid mode also makes a return, with players charged with completing ever-more-difficult challenges such as eliminating enemies or defending positions. There's an RPG-ish feel to the mode, with monsters having level-based strength and buffs such as elemental effects and shields. Best of all is the fact that the mode features playable characters, enemies and environments not in the core campaign. Resident Evil Revelations 2 is a return to the series' roots, but comes with plenty to keep newer players happy.
£14.99 Buy Now -
F1 2013
Codemasters is back to give players the fastest of the fast in F1 2013. You can, of course, play as any team of this season and drive like one of the legends like Lewis Hamilton or Sebastian Vettel. But, there's also a new Classics mode that delivers nostalgia for those who are old enough to remember the 80s, or a history lesson for those who aren't. F1 Classics is basically 80s mode. In this mode you have access to a load of vehicles and tracks from the 80s and the entire colour palette goes a bit toward the sepia end of the scale to give it a retro feel. In the Classics section you can play Grand Prix, time trial, time attack or scenario mode. Classics can certainly be as challenging as the 2013 stuff but in different ways. The cars don't hug the track like modern ones, making it harder to corner and easier to crash, for one. At the same time they don't go quite as fast so it's easier to stay in control. The Scenario mode has made a welcome return in which there are many scenarios (obviously) that each pose an unusual challenge for you to overcome. Each one of these is really just a story that masks a simple goal like "overtake everyone and finish 10 seconds ahead of the leader". For the more dedicated F1 fan, there's the option to turn off all the things put in to make life easier such as braking assists and customise your car to the nth degree. It's this kind of fine attention to detail that will really set fans' hearts a-flutter. Of course, online and multiplayer functionality make a return. As well as online and split-screen multiplayer, gamers will be able to make use of Codies' RaceNet community hub, which offers connected players in-game challenges to better their friends and community-wide challenges to pit them against the wider world.
£12.99 Buy Now -
Tomb Raider
After a less than stellar performance in the prior few Tomb Raider games, Lara is back with a reboot and a new origin story. You might already know the drill: a young Croft begins her journey with a rag-tag band of archaeologists, en route to Asia to look for some ancient ruins. Her vessel gets shipwrecked near an island in a freak natural disaster, and she is separated from her team - forced to survive a series of unfortunate events in a story that ultimately shapes our heroine into the bold, tiger-shooting Tomb Raider that we know and love. For the most part, all of this feels exactly as you would imagine a Tomb Raider should, with lush forests, dank underground tunnels and ancient temples forming the majority of the game's backdrop. There are also plenty of platform-based puzzles that allow Lara to clamber atop of debris and buildings buried deep within large environments. It's equal parts classic Tomb Raider and Uncharted, with an added smattering of Quick Time Events to punctuate near-death encounters with wolves and desperate escapes from deadly caverns. It's great at capturing tension in rare instances, but the QTEs aren't over-used. There's a lot of shooting in Tomb Raider too. At first, it fits in quite well with the whole survival ethos and the essence of the franchise - Lara uses a bow and arrow to fend off dangerous animals, hunt docile creatures, and silently take out or distract human enemies. But once Croft picks up a pistol, the game quickly steps into 'cover shooter' territory. Investigating all the nooks and crannies in each expansive area will throw up relics, diaries, equipment upgrades in the form of salvage and experience points that can be exchanged at campsites to improve Lara's abilities. The game contains three skill trees, which boost survival, shooting and melee techniques. With plenty of discovery and exploration on offer though, expect the sort of action that will thrill survival experts and long-time Lara fans.
£17.99 Buy Now
