February2024
Review Dead Island 2 (Xbox) - Long-In-Development Sequel Embraces The Absurd
Infected on set
Update (Thu 22nd Feb, 2024): Dead Island 2 is now available on Xbox Game Pass, so we thought we'd republish this review to give you an idea of what it's all about. We've also covered the XGP news separately on Pure Xbox: <related ids="162559"> Original review (Tue 18th Apr, 2023): Emerging from the flames of development hell...
August2022
Review Saints Row - A Truly Disappointing Return For The Saints
Saints Low
Volition's decision to reboot their long-running Saints Row franchise has had us intrigued, excited even, ever since this brand new entry was officially announced back in 2021. A ground-up reworking seemed like a great opportunity for the developer, a chance to make a clean break, to refresh and reset a series that was struggling somewhat...
June2016
Review Homefront: The Revolution (Xbox One)
Brotherly Loathing
Homefront: The Revolution has had a rocky road during its development, and that's putting it nicely. Employees went unpaid, although Crytek claims they were totally never on the verge of bankruptcy, and eventually the game switched not just publishers, but developers too. It's pretty incredible that the game exists in a finished...
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...
February2016
Review This War of Mine: The Little Ones (Xbox One)
War is hell
Inspired by the 1992 – 1996 Seige of Sarajevo during the Bosnian War, This War of Mine is a bleak and desolate game. The entire thing is rendered pretty much entirely in a monochrome pencil drawing style, with only the minimum level of highlighting in place to show off things that you can select. It sounds bland, but that's far from...
October2015
Review Wasteland 2: Director's Cut (Xbox One)
Putting The Fun Back Into "Dysfunctional"?
First released on the PC back in September 2014, Wasteland 2: Director's Cut is a sequel to the 1988 title Wasteland, a game that has been credited with providing the inspiration for the Fallout series of games. So, it has quite a legacy to live up to, and some mighty big boots to fill! The question we hope...
January2015
Review Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell (Xbox One)
Into the depths
It has to be said that there can be few people who weren't salivating at the prospect of a new game set in the Saints Row universe being released for less than £16. Even fewer when you consider that the new title would also be available with a rehashed edition of the excellent Saints Row IV for less than £40 for the pair. Indeed,...
September2014
(Re)mastered Blaster
When it comes to re-releasing older titles on a new platform, there are a number of ways a publisher and developer can go about it. They can just put the game out as it was and drop the price. Alternatively, they can bundle in a load of DLC and call it a “definitive” version. Failing that, they can tweak the graphics and...
August2014
Ruining the gauntlet.
When a game series throws out fistfuls of features that were part of the very reason that fans of the series became fans of the series, people aren’t usually all that happy about it. There’s a desire for improvement and growth of course, but there’s also that desire for more of the same. Fans of the first two Sacred...
September2013
Review Saints Row IV (Xbox 360)
The Saints go marching in.
Saints Row IV is insanity itself. There's no other way of really opening proceedings, other than to say that. From the various “homages" to great video games that have passed before, to the off-the-wall comedy and the racier portions of the game, the whole thing feels like it's assaulting your brain from start to...
April2013
Review Sacred Citadel (Xbox 360)
Old-school meets new-school.
Back when the excellent Castle Crashers released in 2008, the gameplay contained within the adorably-designed package was something of a revelation. You could have a number of characters on the go at a time, playing through the game as each of them in turn as you tried to get them all levelled up to the point of being...
August2012
Review Summer Stars 2012 (Xbox 360)
Going for Gold
In an Olympic year, there’s always an official game release – such as London 2012: The Official Videogame of The Olympic Games – and then a bunch of pretenders to the throne with publishers who are looking to make a quick buck. On a few occasions, the unofficial titles have surpassed the official attempts in terms of quality...
December2011
Review Winter Stars (Xbox 360)
Stay frosty
Any prospective Kinect sports compilation has a rough road ahead of it: Kinect Sports set the bar pretty high, and so far no competitor has been able to get close. That's why it's so surprising that Winter Stars is actually quite good. For starters, it's not just a mini game compilation like Big League Sports or its associates: events...
