Xbox Tavern

• XONE
• 8 / 10
• États-Unis

I had a rather great time with Journey to the Savage Planet. With bright visuals full of colour and character sucking you in and some funny, engaging writing encouraging progression, Typhoon have done a solid job on their first outing. Great exploration and combat are just the icing on the cake, with more than enough to do to keep you coming back for some time.

• XONE
• 7.6 / 10
• États-Unis

• XONE
• 8.3 / 10
• États-Unis

DBZ: Kakarot has taken some interesting steps to move on from the Xenoverse games, but only some of them have paid off. While it’d great to follow Goku’s arc through the Z saga’s, the fact remains that this is far from the first time we’ve done so. The graphics, music, voice acting and cut scenes all look great though, and take some of the sting out of the repetition. The RPG elements are laid on quite deep, though the “open world” is hardly as open as first impressions suggest, with proper progression – both in the world and for your characters – locked off until you get to certain beats in the story.

• XONE
• 6.8 / 10
• États-Unis

AO Tennis 2 is a greatly improved second instalment to the franchise. Trying to overshoot your hits is a satisfying experience. Career mode is the best part of the game, building your character to be a dominant force and trying to get that world number 1 ranking and winning all 4 Grand Slams. If you are a tennis fan, I would recommend buying this game as you’re unlikely to be disappointed. It’s a shame more big tennis players didn’t put their name into the hat, but with the brilliant editor and the ability to publish your creations this can be overlooked.

• XONE
• 5 / 10
• États-Unis

But these can’t quite make up for the repetition found in the main campaign. If the waves were a bit shorter, or if there was more variety in the gameplay – and no over-heating main guns – I could probably have stomached more time with XenoRaptor. As it is, before too long I found my mind wandering to one of the many other unplayed titles on my hard drive. In short bursts, XenoRaptor is fine, but there are far more enjoyable examples in the twin stick shooter genre already out there.

• XONE
• 5.8 / 10
• États-Unis

Iro Hero is everything you expect with a vertical shooter in that it’s tough, fast-paced and repetitive. The extra mechanic of changing colour is fun to use, and it does test your reflexes and gives you a bit more chance of completing the game. There is not a great deal of content to keep you interested in the long haul, but it still a good enough game for you to jump in straight away and get going.

• XONE
• 8.6 / 10
• États-Unis

What we have here is a game that is life-affirming, heart-breaking and utterly wonderful. Arise: A Simple Story does exactly what it sets out to, it tells us a simple story. It is the one we can all relate to, it is a tale about life. Where some games hit heights of gameplay or emotion as their main selling point, Arise finds a rich middle ground where it scales the dizzying heights of both. It holds just one solitary word, yet is deafeningly beautiful. The manipulation of time and space works like a dream, the soundtrack and effects are truly brilliant and the visuals are sumptuous throughout. Despite very slight niggles over control and getting myself lost, the reality is that Piccolo Studio have delivered an incredible debut full of rich storytelling, tear-filled beauty and unforgettable moments. Their own attention to detail and the obvious love they have poured into this game lift it far beyond the heavens their hero seeks. Whether a debut outing or otherwise, the game is outstanding. They may have also just delivered my game of the year.

• XONE
• 8.1 / 10
• États-Unis

Blacksad: Under The Skin is an enjoyable detective game and the gritty noir story is very gripping. You care what happens to your cat-man detective and you’ll want to get to the bottom of the crime. All the other characters in the game are interesting and varied and the fact they are animals makes things a bit more entertaining. But the controls when moving Blacksad are so slow and clunky that they let the game down a tad, ruining the will to explore the world fully.

• XONE
• 7 / 10
• États-Unis

Like a popcorn popping Hollywood blockbuster, My Friend Pedro offers a bullet-bonanza ballet that’s hard to ignore thanks to its slick moves, combining a great sense of fast food action gameplay that escalates in challenge as you grow accustomed to the many flourishes it adds throughout. Regrettably the characterisation and story falls short, but in all likelihood these fundamentals won’t matter if you’re looking for an action-packed thrill ride, and boy does My Friend Pedro offer that in spades. If you demand something more in-depth or intricate you won’t find it here, but everyone else will find that My Friend Pedro scratches an impulsive itch that’s able to impress with its penchant for grace and unabashed style.

• XONE
• 8 / 10
• États-Unis

SuperEpic: The Entertainment War lays its feelings out for all to see on the current state of the big buck chasing corporate side of the game industry. That it does so with enough wit and entertainment factor is commendable; it would have been easy to fall on the wrong side of parody. The core gameplay is fun and engaging, the art is fantastic and – odd typo aside – the writing manages to get the message across in an entertaining way. Undercoders perhaps lent a little too heavily on the MetroidVania aspects with a hard to read map and even harder to keep track of side missions, but overall I had a blast with SuperEpic.

• XONE
• 8.5 / 10
• États-Unis

• XONE
• 6.6 / 10
• États-Unis

• XONE
• 8.3 / 10
• États-Unis

Civilisation VI is very much a marmite kind of game – you’ll either love it or hate it. While I am indeed a fan (of marmite and Civ), I did feel slightly let down by the laggy performance and seemingly slower pace than I remember. The wonderful aesthetics manage to make up for this to a degree though, and if you’re after something to sink some real time into the Civ VI will absolutely be your cup of tea.

• XONE
• 6.3 / 10
• États-Unis

• XONE
• 7.5 / 10
• États-Unis

• XONE
• 4.5 / 10
• États-Unis

Rift Keeper throws its hat in the Rogue-like genre but unfortunately comes up a little short. There are some solid ideas buried in there and it’s clear to see the team ambitions. but some technical hiccups held the experience back.

• XONE
• 7.3 / 10
• États-Unis

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey is an ambitious game. It’s beautiful, deep, and compelling but suffers from a lack of clear direction on how to navigate and appreciate everything that it contains. There hasn’t been a game quite like it before, which unfortunately doesn’t work in Ancestors favor because more time is spent figuring out it’s mechanics than actually enjoying it.

• XONE
• 5 / 10
• États-Unis

With mixing ingredients, laying down machines and belts and money management Big Pharma certainly keeps you busy. However, when you get to a point where you are short some cash, you will be left to wait until you earn more money – and this means a lot of waiting. This isn’t helped by already slow gameplay and the meticulous amount of attention to detail needed, leading to easily made but hard to rectify mistakes. In the end, the time invested rarely feels worth the reward.