Xbox Tavern

• XSX/S
• 7 / 10
• États-Unis

Rollercoaster management games are few and far between these days but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some great games out there for the category. Luckily Park Beyond is coming out swinging as this is a really fun entry in the management genre. It offers some crazy impossibilities to the theme park rides that make the experience so much fun. Unfortunately the launch hasn’t been the best for me with crashes and technical issues with the AI, however I have the upmost confidence they will be fixed in the near future. You know if this type of game is for you and if it is, Park Beyond isn’t a bad one to take a try on.

• XSX/S
• 9 / 10
• États-Unis

• XSX/S
• 9.7 / 10
• États-Unis

Blizzard has proven that AAA games CAN launch in a ready state and be a game of the year contender straight off the bat. It’s going to have to be something special that beats Diablo IV to the top of my list.

• XONE
• 9 / 10
• États-Unis

I had a bloody excellent time with The Tartarus Key. It hit me hard with the nostalgic presentation, and hooked me in with clever, well-crafted, and almost perfectly pitched puzzles throughout.

• XSX/S
• 8.9 / 10
• États-Unis

Camera control aside, Tin Hearts has been an utter joy to play. It’s charming, clever, looks and sounds lovely, and has just the right puzzle difficulty to have us looking forward to coming back for an hour or so each night.

• XONE
• 2 / 10
• États-Unis

With a dizzying number of poorly thought-out design decisions, and punishing level design. War Mongrels should be taken out back and shot.

• XSX/S
• 8.5 / 10
• États-Unis

Mia and the Dragon Princess is another solid effort from the teams at Wales Interactive and Good Gate Media. The cast all put in some excellent performances, the story is brief but also full of interesting twists and turns, and it had us laughing far more than expected to with some classic British humour. For our money, this is one of the best live action adventures out there.

• XSX/S
• 7 / 10
• États-Unis

Disney Speedstorm has the potential to be something great. The driving is smooth and fluid, the maps are vivid, and I love the characters and how they’re made to perform. But let’s be real here, gacha mechanics shouldn’t even have been considered for a racing game. This won’t be the last action racer we’ll see and I don’t expect any of them to be the next Mario Kart killer. I do expect them to at least not be a cash grab hidden behind a mask of beloved iconic characters, cool power-ups, flashy tracks, and cool funky music.

• XONE
• XSX/S
• 6 / 10
• États-Unis

There’s enough here for fans of the Sherlock Holmes style detective games, though for me the constant back and forth between menus and uneven movement through the world left me uninspired to continue playing.

• XSX/S
• 4.7 / 10
• États-Unis

Artistic expression is what will strike the biggest chord in Strayed Lights. There are lovely moments of beauty to unearth, and you will no doubt find a game ignited with a love for tranquillity and colour. However, empty spaces make Strayed Lights world feel uncomfortably abandoned at times, and the combat is based too heavily on precision and colour matching to engross. Thankfully, Strayed Lights is short, but it runs out of momentum too soon despite some impressive boss encounters and some gorgeous skies. Give it a whirl then, but you won’t feel like Strayed Lights is anything but a shallowly gentle gust that will blow by without the force it needed to stick in the mind.

• XONE
• 5.5 / 10
• États-Unis

• XSX/S
• 8.9 / 10
• États-Unis

I am impressed with Dead Island 2. The first Dead Island didn’t grab me as much and it was only when I tried the demo at the recent WASD event that it piqued my interest. There is a lot to enjoy about Dead Island 2. It looks stunning graphically, the story – although surreal – is gripping enough and the skill card level progression is refreshing. The combat is the feature that feels familiar and could have been quite dull over time, but Dambuster have introduced many things (such as curveballs) to keep things interesting. Fun solo, but even more enjoyable with a few friends, this long awaited zombie slasher comes recommended.

• XONE
• 6.7 / 10
• États-Unis

Itorah is a wonderful world, with great level design and characters, hindered by one small mechanic that blemishes what should be a great game. Instead, it is just a good one.

• XSX/S
• 7.7 / 10
• États-Unis

Warm, inviting and pleasant, Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus And Butterfly is a wonderfully accessible and gentle graphic novel game with a beautifully well-meaning heart. Changes from its predecessor are minimal, but Hibiscus And Butterfly encourages you to discover an array of comforting drinks, while the cast of fantastical and not-so fantastical characters tell you about their life predicaments, their perils and their successes. Much like a good pick-me-up, Coffee Talk Episode 2 is as easy as you’d like but has space for you to master the fine art of being a top-tier barista in a busy bustling café. The addition of Hibiscus And Butterfly Pea brings a classiness and a radiance that will lighten your day, and there are reasons to replay the story several times through to see everything it has to show for itself. There’s still plenty of room for Coffee Talk to grow and flourish, but this sequel is well-worth diving into if you just want to take a pew, grab an eye-opener and relish in a bevvy of stories.

• XONE
• 8 / 10
• États-Unis

The visuals are amazing, the game is simple and it has a heart, that I can say about Minecraft Legends. There are things that could’ve been done better and it’s not as complex as the Civilization games – or any strategy game for that matter – but Mojang and Blackbird Interactive get my respect for venturing off into the unknown and finding a treasure like this.

• XSX/S
• 5 / 10
• États-Unis

While the idea is novel and decent on paper, God of Rock left us wanting thanks to a tricky learning curve and music that fails to inspire replayability.

• XSX/S
• 9.5 / 10
• États-Unis

Not For Broadcast is unlike anything I’ve played before. The tv-editing simulator gameplay presses all the right buttons, keeping you engaged in a well-written story packed with humor. The writing really clicks with many elements, riffing on real-world events over the past few years. I don’t know how well the story will age, but the gameplay is so unique that I have no doubt it will stand the test of time. I give Not For Broadcast my full recommendation. I know some of the games I get behind can be somewhat niche and might not be for everyone, but I really believe Not For Broadcast has mass appeal, scoring high in all demographics.

• XSX/S
• 6.6 / 10
• États-Unis

Mile 0 is something of a pleasant surprise. The inclusion of Rides makes storytelling and decision-making riveting and fresh, underpinned by an insatiably likeable arcade hook. Mile 0 also boasts a greater focus on characters and relationships than the original, helped along by a pleasantly bite-sized price tag. The big dinger though, is that Rides can feel too on-rails for its own good despite its novel use in storytelling and decision-making. Mile 0 also fails to transmit the fervour of Rides to the rest of the experience-this despite some flashes of playful subversiveness and youthful hijinks present throughout. Ultimately Mile 0 can be softly recommended for what it does offer, but it is a lightweight entrée more than a transcendent main course-this one’s lacking the protein and bulk required to truly satisfy over the long haul.