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Master web developer by trade, Ken guided Pure Xbox through its first incarnation around the time of the Xbox One. Nowadays, you'll find him selling a wealth of retro goodness via SuperChallenge.
Latest Reviews
Review Dangerous Golf (Xbox One)
Out of bounds
They say that golf is a good walk spoiled. The ex-Burnout developers at Three Fields Entertainment have attempted to put paid to all that walking nonsense though, instead opting to take the sport largely indoors. With Dangerous Golf, their goal is clearly to take the essence of Burnout's "Crash" mode and apply it to a very different...
Review Dead Island: Definitive Collection (Xbox One)
There and back again
While fans of the Dead Island franchise try to work out exactly what is happening with Dead Island 2 – a game that's doing a great impression of being a feline owned by Erwin Schrödinger – Deep Silver and Techland have decided to hold back the hordes of rabid fans by releasing this remastered collection of the first two...
Hurt me plenty
Making a game that's due to be a part of one of gaming's most cherished franchises must be an absolute nightmare for developers. Remastering something that came out a few years ago so that it has shinier graphics and tweaks but still retains the feel of the original must be difficult enough, but to take a game that's so well thought...
Review Not a Hero: Super Snazzy Edition (Xbox One)
Get snazzy, ya clown!
Not A Hero is a side-scrolling 2D cover-based shooter where you're employed by a pink rabbit who wants to be the mayor but who needs to show his ability to clean up the town so that people will vote for him. To do this, he's hired you, playing as one of several anti-heros, to pretty much go in and blow away bad guys in order to...
Review Super Night Riders (Xbox One)
Burnt rubber
They say that you can't judge a book by its cover. The same could be said of videogames and trailers. In the case of Super Night Riders though, you can throw all the sayings out of the window. We had our reservations about the retro motorcycle racer when we first clapped eyes on the announcement trailer but – as we have to - gave it...
Review Grand Prix Rock 'n Racing (Xbox One)
The Pits
Fast forward seven months from EnjoyUp's first Xbox One release – the dire Rock 'N Racing Off Road DX - and the developer is back again with a slightly more ambitious title. Grand Prix Rock 'N Racing is another almost-top-down racer, but this time we're looking at F1-style cars racing around much larger tracks with a helicopter-based...
Review Coffin Dodgers (Xbox One)
Over the hill
It's been a while since we were in the era of a new licenced kart racer turning up every week. On the back of Super Mario Kart's success, pretty much every publisher decided that games of that type were easy to make and ship, most of them overlooking the things that made Nintendo's evergreen champion just as good as it was and still...
You are not in control.
When SUPERHOT made its debut on the E3 stage back in 2015, the trailer raised more questions than it answered. Originally created as part of a game jam event, the developer – also called SUPERHOT – managed to raise over $250,000 through crowdfunding to bring the strange FPS to life. Fast forward to the present day and the...
Despite being fans, we fight for the users
If there was ever a movie franchise that should lend itself to a whole host of entertaining videogames, it's TRON. The two films are set in a digital world where everything crackles neon, feature intense disc battles and of course, contain fantastic sequences on light cycles. The latest (and probably...
Get dirty
When you first fire up Codemaster's latest racer, you're warned that DiRT Rally is a simulation that shouldn't be taken lightly. You'll wonder if that message was even necessary approximately two minutes later, when your car has flown over a sandy bank at an angle in the Greek hills and the sky and the ground have swapped places. Make no...
Latest Feature Articles
Feature So, Did Much Happen While We Were Away?
Following a 4-year slumber, we're back. Former editor Ken fills you in...
Four years is a long old time, huh? It’s the time between England losing in one World Cup and losing in another World Cup. It used to be roughly the amount of time a console generation would last. It’s almost as long as Pure Xbox has been offline. So, I thought it would...
Site News So Long, And Thanks for All the Clicks
Game Over
On July 18th, 2012, I took over as editor of the very site you're reading. Back then, of course, it was a Kinect-focused publication by the name of KINECTaku. Within a relatively short space of time, it was obvious that we needed to refocus on the bigger picture. There's only so many times we can write articles about the different voice...
Feature The Weird World of Awful Xbox Hardware Ripoffs
Attack of the clones
When it comes to console hardware design, Microsoft have always gotten a bit of a bad rap. The original Xbox was the size of a tank (and about as heavy as one) and the follow-up Xbox 360 wasn't designed well enough to stop boards from warping and giving millions of people the infamous "Red Ring of Death" error. The Xbox 360...
Editor's Opinion Give Me A Quantum Break
Bellowing at a stratocumulus
Help me, pX Community, for I am confused. I've been trying to work out why Xbox fans would boycott a video game that they want (not that they actually will, given that it's all talk and standard internet rage and we LOVE looking for things to be outraged about now) because it's coming out on another platform as well as...
Feature Editor's Opinion: Indie Game Promotion on Xbox One Has to Change
Evolution required
Back in the Xbox 360's heyday, Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade was a stellar way to bring new titles to gamers. A platform within a platform, it appeared to have the full backing of the console manufacturer, with regular arcade-focused promotions and a dedicated area on the dashboard for people to find out about what was available...
Pure Retro Pro Evolution Soccer 5 - The Master of The Leagues
Better than the rest
Back in the day (I promise not to use that too much in our retro articles, but just let me have this one) things were very, very different to how they are now when it came to console football. Now, we have the yearly battle between EA's FIFA and Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer franchises and that's pretty much your lot. Any new...
Editor's Opinion Why Refusing Review Embargoes Isn’t the Way to Go
Taking a stand by not taking a stand
Well, it’s all been kicking off this week, hasn’t it? You probably already know the story, but I’ll give you a brief bit of background. Background Players: Assassin’s Creed Unity was set to come out digitally in the US at midnight on Tuesday, 11th of November. Ubisoft decided to set a review embargo in...
Guide How To Make Your Own Xbox One Dashboard Background
Creatives, assemble!
If you're in the Xbox One Dashboard Preview Program, you'll already have the ability to create and set custom backgrounds on your Xbox One. If not, you'll need to wait for the November dashboard update to roll out to all users. For those who fancy making their own backgrounds using Adobe Photoshop, we thought we'd put together...
Guide Moving Games and Content to Your Xbox One External Drive
Logical progression.
So, you've set up your external drive on your Xbox One, and you want to take the logical step of making a little breathing room on your internal drive, by moving some stuff to your shiny new storage. Fortunately, it's as easy as 1, 2, 3...well...1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, anyway. 1) Head into the "Games & Apps" area of the Xbox...
Guide Setting Up External Storage on Xbox One
Step by step.
The Xbox One June System Update is now live, and it gives you the ability to add external storage to your Xbox One console. All you need is a USB3.0 compatible external drive which is 256GB in size or larger, and you're away. But, how do you set it all up? Well, let us show you via the medium of dance. Or just with some screenshots...
Latest News Articles
News New Backward Compatibility Releases Teased for This Week
The fog lifts
Update (16/06 17:54 UK): Well, it's not even remotely as we'd imagined. So far today, Left 4 Dead, Portal 2, Flashback, Babel Rising, and Brain Challenge have joined the backward compatibility list. There may be more to come... Original Story: Back in May, Amazon US listed a whole wave of new backward compatible titles that were set...
News Xbox One Prices Crash in Wake of Xbox One S Announcement
Rock bottom
Microsoft announced the upcoming Xbox One S console at their E3 press conference on Monday and, as expected, that's had a knock-on effect at retail with regards to the price of the currently available models. With the new console due to launch in August at varying price points (depending on the size of HDD you go for), retailers are...
E3 2016 Xbox One S Has No Kinect Port, But Don't Worry
Don't worry, Kinect fans
Earlier on today, Microsoft announced that the Xbox One S will be launched in August. Being 40% smaller and yet somehow containing on-board power, so you don't need that ugly external power brick anymore, you'd expect some things to have been cut. It seems that everything has survived, with the exception of the dedicated...
E3 2016 Xbox One S Release Window and Pricing Confirmed, Stand Sold Separately
Well, sort of
Update: The Xbox One S with 2TB drive and the streamlined controller is actually $399.99, according to Amazon.com, who are accepting preorders now. The $299 model is the base device containing the 500GB drive, while the 1TB drive bundle is $349. It will also include a 4k Blu-ray drive, so will play 4k Blu-rays, as you'd sort of...
E3 2016 Microsoft Conference Liveblog
The next year of Xbox gaming, revealed!
The show starts at 5:30PM UK time, so we'll be back then...feel free to chat away in the comments box! [liveblog=XboxE32016]#XboxE32016
E3 2016 Xbox One S Details, Image Leaks Ahead of Microsoft Conference
With a vertical stand
Those intrepid devils over at NeoGAF have turned up the first image of the much-ballyhooed Xbox One Slim, ahead of Microsoft's E3 Conference tomorrow. The new console - called the Xbox One S - will be available in (at least) white, with a black base. The machine is 40% smaller than the original Xbox One, will come with a 2TB...
News Microsoft Adds New Free Xbox Live Gamerpics For All
Spice up your profile
Microsoft has released a whole batch of free Xbox Live Gamerpics for players to use on their profile. From right now, you can get your hands on new pics from Minecraft, Killer Instinct, Quantum Break, Gears of War 4, Tom Clancy's The Division and a fair few others. All you need to do is hit up the profile customization page on...
News You Didn't Get Fallout 4 For Free, Collect $10
You have won a beauty contest
On Thursday evening UK time, there was a bit of a bug on the Xbox Games Store that set the price of both Fallout 4 and the Fallout 4 Deluxe Edition to approximately $0.00. A whole stack of people obviously cottoned on as soon as it was posted on Reddit and waded in to get their free game. The price was fixed an hour or...
News Microsoft Ditches Xbox One DVR Plans to Focus on Gaming
Cord cut
Last year, Microsoft announced that they were working on adding a DVR feature for over-the-air TV to the Xbox One. Reaction to the announcement wasn't particularly what the Redmond giant expected, with most people sweating over the fact they'd doubtless need to buy another external drive. That, and the fact that more and more people are...
News New Xbox One Dashboard Update On the Way
But what does it contain?
It seems that Microsoft are gearing up to resume their periodical dashboard updates for the Xbox One, at least according to a message that has been doing the rounds from the Xbox Live team in the last 24 hours. The message, which has been sent to select Preview Program members, has been sent via the Xbox Live messaging...
