The start of the current console generation was not kind to Microsoft. As the PS4 demolished the Xbox One in sales, it seemed as if the latter was dead on arrival. Some might even say the console was dead before arrival, as some of the features first announced (games would be linked to a player’s account, the system would require the Kinect sensor to be running constantly) provoked a massive backlash that did most of Sony’s marketing for them. Despite a rough couple of years, the Xbox One has endured, and indeed seems to be thriving. Sales are up and, more importantly, the console has a good, diverse selection of games. Whether you want AAA spectacle or infinitely replayable indie games, here are our picks for the best games available on the Xbox One. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt ($40) Please enable Javascript to watch this video The prestige of the AAA game has faded a bit in recent years, as year after year big releases come out seemingly half-finished and riddled with bugs. Amidst a plague of disappointing franchises and broken open-world games, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt emerged, a savior every bit as welcome as its weathered protagonist. Developer CD Projeckt Red’s commitment to its audience (a slew of updates and free DLC followed the game’s release) stands out at a time when most big games seem hastily assembled or even exploitative, but make no mistake: in any era, no matter how great, The Witcher 3 would stand out. Following up on the events of The Witcher 2 , the game follows the continuing adventures of Geralt of Rivia, a monster hunter searching for his lost lover, Yennefer, and Ciri, the child they raised. Although this particular plot offers a long and entertaining quest, there is far more to game than finding Geralt’s loved ones. The world is massive, dense with characters great and small who have their own problems they’d like Geralt to solve. Whether exorcising a spirit haunting a village or helping a blacksmith rebuild his business, there are hundreds of little adventures to go on, and some even intersect in surprising ways. The world of The Witcher is dark. An early scene finds Geralt riding into a war-torn province, the camera pulling back to reveal a massive tree from which prisoners of war have been hanged. It’s a grim image, and it sets the tone for much of what is to follow. Often the game will present choices that can have wide-ranging, unforeseen consequences. Not everyone gets a happy ending. Despite all the gloom, there are moments of warmth: an orphan reunited with relatives, drinking games with Geralt’s war buddies, a night of passion with an old flame. Wildly ambitious and truly epic in scope, The Witcher 3 is a watershed in gaming, the standard-bearer for games to come.- Read our full review here. Buy it now from: Amazon-GameStop-Best Buy Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain ($35) Please enable Javascript to watch this video Hideo Kojima is one of the few big budget auteurs in the games industry, and after more than twenty years and an apparent feud with publisher Konami, his work on the Metal Gear series seems to have come to an end with Metal Gear Solid V . If this truly is Kojima’s last performance with the franchise, it’s a hell of a note to end on, as MGSV refines the series’ signature stealth gameplay to near perfection, while expanding the the setting from confined military bases to an open world. The Metal Gear series has a long and winding plot, but newcomers will find V relatively easy to slide into, as Kojima has jettisoned much of the mythology in favor of a more straightforward revenge tale. Nine years after the events of the prequel Ground Zeroes , in which the mercenary crew led by protagonist Snake was destroyed by the mysterious organization Cipher, Snake awakens from a coma, missing an arm and under threat from assassins. After a harrowing escape from the hospital he’s been sleeping in (a nightmarish opening that shows off Kojima’s directing chops), Snake joins up with his old comrades to rebuild their mercenary army and take revenge on Cipher. Although story has always been the main draw for Metal Gear , V eschews lengthy cutscenes and monologues, instead focusing on open world gameplay that provides the player with countless ways to approach any mission. Tranquilizers, sniper rifles, shotguns, a remote controlled robot arm; all this and more is available, giving the game an endless sense of replay value. After completing a mission using a stealthy, nonlethal approach, one may feel the urge to replay the same mission, marching into an enemy outpost with a machine gun and a rocket launcher, burning the whole thing to the ground. Few games encourage experimentation like MGSV .-Some questionable narrative choices aside, MGSV is a powerful ending to one of gaming’s most important franchises, setting a new bar for open-world gameplay. Read our hands on-review here. Buy it now from: Amazon-GameStop-Best Buy Rise of the Tomb Raider ($60) Please enable Javascript to watch this video Crystal Dynamic’s 2013 reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise was a surprising accomplishment, reviving a franchise that had long been-known more for titillation than gameplay. Reimagining iconic protagonist Lara Croft as a young archaeology student, the game took a more grounded approach to the adventure genre, requiring Lara to scavenge for supplies and try to survive harsh environments. The sequel, Rise of the Tomb Raider , builds on the foundation laid by the first game, with a more mature Lara building weapons from scrap and spelunking in some gorgeous tombs. The tombs are perhaps the most notable feature. The reboot was light on ancient puzzles and grandiose booby traps, with players spending most of their time running through jungles. Rise makes up for this, scattering tombs big and small around the world for players to explore. This emphasis on puzzles and platforming make Rise feel action-packed without needing to throw hundreds of enemies at the player. Which is not to say that the game lacks for combat. As in the first game, Lara is not the only person rummaging around ancient cities. In Rise , she is at odds with the mysterious Trinity group, an organization dedicated to unearthing supernatural artifacts, and one with no compunctions about killing intrepid archaeologists in their way. Lara has a variety of weapons at her disposal, including bows, knives, and guns. Lara can dispose of enemies quietly or run around guns blazing. This tactical freedom, as well as the game’s slick controls, makes combat in Tomb Raider a tense, thrilling experience.- Read our full review here. Buy it now from: Amazon-GameStop-Best Buy The Jackbox Party Pack ($30) Please enable Javascript to watch this video One of the best things about owning a console is being able to gather a bunch of friends in the living room and play games together. Although local multiplayer became a bit rarer as online services gained traction, there has recently been a minor boom in games designed to be played together in the same room. The Jackbox Party Pack , from the creators of long-running trivia game You Don’t Know Jack, is a welcome addition to any gathering, featuring five party games of admittedly varying quality. The games all share a distinctive feature, using the players’ cell phones as controllers and personal screens, so there’s no need to own a bunch of Xbox controllers in order to play. Of the five games provided, Fibbage , Drawful , and the latest edition of You Don’t Know Jack are the real draws. Fibbage provides questions and tasks players with creating convincing fake answers; the more people you fool, the more points you get. Drawful gives each individual player a prompt and requires them to draw a picture on their screen that will convey the prompt to the others. You Don’t Know Jack , as always, is a four player trivia game that cuts a snarky path through pop culture. All three are are a fountain of laughs when played with the right group of people, with Fibbage and Drawful in particular rewarding creativity and humor. The remaining games,- Lie Swatter and Word Spud , seem a bit lackluster in comparison, though some may find them a nice change of pace. Buy it now from: Amazon-GameStop-Best Buy Alien: Isolation ($20) Please enable Javascript to watch this video Has any franchise fallen so far from grace as Alien ? The original film is still held up as one of the greatest horror movies of all time, and the sequel set the template for pretty much any sci-fi action film that involves space marines. From those hallowed origins, however, the franchise has declined deeper and deeper into B-movie schlock. It seemed improbable that the franchise would ever be scary, or even competently made, again. Those fears were assuaged (and others rekindled) with the release of Alien: Isolation , a survival horror game that traps players aboard a derelict space station with the iconic xenomorph. Recent horror games have experimented with preventing the player from fighting enemies, in stark contrast to older games (i.e. Resident Evil ) that allowed players to mow down enemies with various guns, provided they had the ammo. Alien: Isolation splits the difference, providing players with weapons and tools that they can use to fight the various denizens of the station (rogue androids and human scavengers,) but the titular alien cannot be killed, only driven off at best. The alien is persistent, stealthy, and disturbingly quick, so players will need to keep their wits about them and keep an eye out for places to hide. Isolation is a harrowing experience, hopefully a blueprint for horror games to come.- Read our full review here. Buy it now from: Amazon-GameStop-Best Buy Next Page: Five more great games for the Xbox One Diablo III: Reaper of Souls – Ultimate Evil Edition ($50) Please enable Javascript to watch this video On paper, it shouldn’t have worked. Diablo , one of PC gaming’s greatest franchises, being ported to consoles? It should have been a disaster, a watered-down cash grab by a once-revered developer. Somehow, Diablo III was not diminished at all in its transition to consoles. This port (dubbed the “ Ultimate Evil ” edition) includes both Diablo III and it’s expansion, Reaper of Souls . For those unfamiliar with Diablo, there is a narrative veneer about a war in the heavens and black soulstones and so on, but it’s all just there to give flavor to the essence of Diablo: killing hordes of monsters in pursuit of loot. When players start, there are five classes to choose from (Barbarian, Witch Doctor, Wizard, Demon Hunter, Monk, and Crusader), each with their own unique abilities and style of play. Players can team up with friends online as they progress through the game’s five distinct acts, dropping in and out as they see fit. Since the original release of Diablo III , Blizzard has refined the game, balancing classes and adding new modes of play. The console version includes all of these changes, which have made for a game with incredible replayability. The most important aspect of porting a game from PC to consoles is the controls; after all, keyboard and mouses offers a lot of options that controllers just don’t have. Thankfully, the controls map quite well to the Xbox controller, and the joysticks allow for smooth movement. Diablo III is a bit of a blow to the image of PC superiority, but a welcome boon for Xbox owners.- Read our full review here. Buy it now from: Amazon-GameStop-Best Buy Fallout 4 ($60) Please enable Javascript to watch this video What is there to say about Fallout that hasn’t been said before? The latest game from Bethesda has everything one expects from their games: a massive open world, hundreds of ways to customize a character, quests and stories hidden in every nook and crannie, and of course an unfortunate (if funny) slew of bugs. Fallout 4 doesn’t reinvent the Bethesda formula, but it does build upon it in some interesting ways. As with Fallout 3 and New Vegas , the game drops players in the middle of a postapocalyptic wasteland with a big overarching goal (in this case, to find your kidnapped son.) From there, players are free to explore the world, doing whatever quests they feel like, and treating the wasteland like one big sandbox. There are guns to collect, mutants to fight, wacky characters to talk to (or murder, if that’s your thing.) This should all sound familiar to fans of the series. Perhaps the biggest addition is that players can help build settlements, constructing homes, defenses, and other things a community needs to thrive in the wastes. The crafting system encourages obsessive scavenging, and provides a regenerative aspect to a series that has so often seemed bleak. Watching towns rise from the rubble provides a sense of hope, echoed by the relatively lush environments, where the gray and brown are tinged with fauna returning to the world. Fallout 4 won’t convert anyone who has disliked Bethesda’s past games, but veterans of the wastes will feel like coming home.- Read our full review here. Buy it now from: Amazon-GameStop-Best Buy Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin ($40) Please enable Javascript to watch this video The success of Dark Souls seems ludicrous. It’s the type of game that would make executives at EA wring their hands; a game with challenging combat that rewards careful play, that drops players into a strange world with almost no indication of where to go or what to do, with a plot told through scattered dialogue and weapon descriptions. In spite (or because) of the game’s peculiar choices, Dark Souls became a hit, spawning a lively online community and thousands of Youtube videos. When a sequel was announced, there was naturally some trepidation. On the one hand, more games like Dark Souls are always welcome. On the other, the devs could easily crank out a more casual game to appeal to a broader audience. Dark Souls II does make some changes in favor of a more friendly experience, but that does not make the game particularly easier. Rather, the game makes changes to ease the burden on new players (such as introducing a fast travel system) while maintaining the punishing nature of the fights. Dark Souls II is a combat-focused RPG, wherein most of the player’s time will be spent attempting (and failing, often) to kill a variety of brutal enemies. There is a large variety of weapons, ranging from daggers to giant cudgels, and the various weapons have their own distinct stats and attack animations. Getting a feel for how a particular weapon moves is key to success in Dark Souls, as is studying the abilities of enemies. A single blow from even the smallest foe in Dark Souls II can be devastating, to say nothing of the game’s gargantuan bosses. As in the first game, death is your constant companion. Yet, unlike in many difficult games, Dark Souls II never feels unfair. Every failure is a chance to learn and improve, whether by trying to a new tactic against a difficult enemy or tightening the execution on dodge rolls. Unwilling to simply divulge its secrets to the player, Dark Souls II rewards patience and persistence, an unapologetically hardcore game in an increasingly casual industry.- Read our full review here. Buy it now from: Amazon-GameStop-Best Buy Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor – Game of the Year Edition ($40) Please enable Javascript to watch this video The fantasy world of J.R.R. Tolkien, much like- Star Wars and Marvel , seems less like a franchise and more an empire these days. From humble beginnings as fantasy novels, the series has spread into every medium: two epic film trilogies, one largely forgotten animated film, a colony in the Lego universe, and quite a few video games. The games have long been the weak link in the Tolkienverse, including passable brawlers, shoddy platformers, and a shockingly long-lived MMORPG. Given the glut of Middle-earth games, Shadow of Mordor only needed to be competent to stand out. The fact that it transcends expectations, crafting a fresh adventure with tight gameplay and an intriguing new system for designing enemies, makes it a delight. Shadow of Mordor is an open world game, with many quests to complete and abilities to unlock. Taking a lot of cues from the recent Batman games, Shadow of- Mordor often surround the player with enemies that have various abilities and weakness. The player has their own arsenal of tools, and fights develop a rhythmic quality as they progress; cut down one enemy, parry an incoming attack in time, roll out of the way of a sword and dispatch an orc with an arrow through the eye. The variety of weapons and fluid combat keep things interesting throughout the game. While the combat and progression are well executed, the most compelling aspect of Shadow of Mordor is the nemesis systems. Among the hordes of enemies in the game are orc leaders, stronger named characters-whom the player can kill or be killed by. Dying to an orc means they will become more powerful. Moreover, a rank-and-file-orc who kills the player can be promoted to a leadership position. On the flip side, the player can wound or even manipulate the orc leaders. The game keeps track of the various leaders as well as their relationship to the player; an orc whose face you burned in a fight may have some choice words when next you meet. It’s a revolutionary-system, giving life to enemies that would, in most games, simply be mindless mobs.- Read our full review here. Buy it now from: Amazon-GameStop-Best Buy The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth ($15) Please enable Javascript to watch this video One of the most interesting trends in indie games recently has been the rise of “roguelikes,” a genre named after the early PC game, Rogue . It’s a strange trend because the philosophy of rogue-likes seems so at odds with mainstream games, the most notable example being how death factors in. In most games, death is an inconvenience, a temporary setback, alleviated by systems like checkpoints. In rogue-likes, death is permanent, requiring players to start the game anew. One of the leaders of this resurgence has been The Binding of Isaac , a charming yet grotesque game from indie dev Ed McMillen, which has been iterated on a few times since its first release in 2011. BoI drops players in a procedurally generated dungeon, requiring them to survive numerous hazards and defeat bosses in order to descend further. There are randomly generated items to collect which provide a variety of odd abilities, as well as dramatically altering the player’s appearance. It may be more accurate to describe The Binding of Isaac as a rogue-lite, as while death does end the player’s current run through the dungeon, new items and characters can be permanently unlocked, giving the game a sense of progression even in failure. This is a welcome mercy, as the game can be quite difficult, especially if the player is stuck with weak or double-edged items against the later bosses. However difficult it can get, the fun in BoI comes from making the most of what the game gives you, just managing to scrape by against the odds. Moreover, the random nature of the dungeon layout and items spawned means that the game has nigh infinite replay value.- Read our full review here. Buy it now from: Xbox Store Next Page: Five more great games for the Xbox One Rogue Legacy- ($15) Please enable Javascript to watch this video Like The Binding of Isaac , Rogue Legacy is a rogue-like with an overarching progression scheme, however in the latter much more carries over from one run to the next. Drawing on games like Castlevania , Rogue Legacy tasks players with exploring a giant 2-D castle, collecting items and slaying monsters along the way. When starting a run, you are given three randomly generated characters to choose from, with distinct abilities that may be good, bad, or just plain weird. The castle is procedurally generated, with rooms and items being randomly placed each time the player starts. As in Castlevania there will be rooms and items that are out of reach unless the player has specific abilities. Although dying ends that particular character’s run, the gold they collect can be used to upgrade the player’s home base, permanently adding bonuses to future characters. This allows the player to feel a sense of satisfaction even when they die, which they often will. Rogue Legacy can be quite difficult, with even minor enemies proving lethal, and the upgrades that can be unlocked are key to surviving all the way to the final boss. Though rogue-like purists may decry Rogue Legacy’s more charitable aspects, the game is still a tough mountain to climb, and every bit of help is welcome.- Read our full review here. Buy it now from: Xbox Store Forza Horizon 2 ($50) Please enable Javascript to watch this video The Forza Motorsport series has long been Microsoft’s counter to the Playstation’s Gran Turismo , a series of racing games that replicates real cars in meticulous detail. The automobile worship is still faithfully observed. Old standards like the Ford Mustang and Pontiac Firebird, as well as supercars like the Bugatti Veyron and McLaren P1, are all reproduced in immaculate detail. As expected of a Forza game, the controls are tight, and each car feels uniquely tuned. Where Horizon 2 diverges from other games in the series is in the setting and structure of the races. The game features a vast open world, allowing players to drive around Southern Europe, seeking out hidden features or simply enjoying the sights at their leisure. Though longtime Forza fans may lament the lack of famous tracks disappointing, these jaunts around the countryside are a treat, with lush greenery and spectacular weather effects. However, Forza games are, at their core, about the racing, and Horizon 2’s open world has plenty of that to do. Races and other events are scattered around the world, and players can compete to win money and unlock new cars. There is also multiplayer, and the game tracks player’s driving habits, using the data to program AIs (called “Drivatars”) that players can race against. The “Drivatars” are more intriguing than well-executed, but they make for a fun way to test yourself against other players. In many ways, Horizon 2 is a radical departure from the Motorsport line, but the sharp driving and stunning assortment of vehicles is sure to impress any gearheads with an Xbox.- Read our full review here. Buy it now from: Amazon-GameStop-Best Buy Ori and the Blind Forest ($20) Please enable Javascript to watch this video So much is made of the technical aspects of graphics, it is easy to forget how far a strong grasp of style can go. With striking watercolor backgrounds and character designs that evoke Miyazaki films, Ori and the Blind Forest is among the most beautiful games of this or any other generation, putting many AAA titles to shame. The sensuous visuals would suffice to make a great film, but a game needs gameplay, and Ori shines there as well. Inspired by classic games like Metroid, the game puts the player in control of the nimble forest spirit Ori, who must navigate a large 2-D world, collecting items and abilities that allow Ori to reach new areas. Certain abilities are necessary to complete the game and thus are easy to find, but there are many things hidden off the beaten path, rewards that adventurous players will find useful. Despite its adorable protagonist, Ori and the Blind Forest is a viciously difficult game. Combat often requires the player to dodge numerous projectiles, pirouetting through the air as they fight enemies, and some sections add difficult platforming into the mix. Thankfully, the game is generous with checkpoints, a welcome gift from an otherwise harsh mistress. For those who long for the challenges of old-school games, Ori and the Blind Forest is a revelation, infusing Metroid’s style with modern sensibilities. Buy it now from: Amazon-GameStop-Best Buy Mortal Kombat X ($50) Please enable Javascript to watch this video The Mortal Kombat series has always been more famous for its cartoonish violence (it was one of the games that led to the creation of the ESRB rating system) than for its gameplay. That’s a shame, as Mortal Kombat is one of the most consistently fun franchises in the fighting game genre. Mortal Kombat X , the sequel to 2011’s reboot of the franchise, represents a change in course for the series, replacing many of the series’ iconic characters with new faces, and mixing up the gameplay by adding a new version of the fighting styles system from Deadly Alliance. For those unfamiliar with the notorious franchise, Mortal Kombat pits two players against each other on a 2-D plane. There are more than 20 characters to choose from, each with a unique set of skills that can greatly alter how matches play out. Each character has three different “variations” which affect how they are played. For example, Scorpion’s Ninjutsu variation allows him to dual-wield swords, while his Hellfire variation gives him a suite of fiery attacks. The variations allow players to tailor their characters abilities based on their playstyle. In addition to standard 1v1 fights, MKX has a number of different modes to keep players entertained. A lengthy story mode follows up on the events of the last Mortal Kombat , which left much of the cast dead with a new threat looming on the horizon. This time, the core cast are the children of the former protagonists. The Living Towers provides a series of odd challenges for players to complete, while the game’s Faction Wars provides a persistent online competition between players. For as much as Mortal Kombat refuses to grow up (the Fatalities only seem to grow more clownish with every installment,) MKX mixes things up in some interesting ways, a good sign for the series going forward.- Read our full review here. Buy it now from: Amazon-GameStop-Best Buy Divinity: Original Sin – Enhanced Edition ($60) Please enable Javascript to watch this video Originally released on the PC in 2014, Divinity: Original Sin was an attempt to resurrect the CRPG genre, bringing back the complex skill trees and character choices of classics like Baldur’s Gate , but more accessible to modern audiences. The experiment was a success, resulting in a game possessing incredible depth without being too difficult for beginners to grasp. For their next trick, developer Larian Studios decided to port the game to consoles, an astounding proposition that never should have worked out. Somehow, they made it work. Original Sin’s controls easily map to the XBOX controller, and the in-game text and menus have also transitioned well. The game’s dense world and quests are a rare sight on consoles. Combat is a huge part of Original Sin , with an incredible mix of systems that makes every fight improvisational. In addition to the many abilities at their disposal, players can also use the environment to their advantage, such as by using a pool of water to spread an electric current. Likewise, players must be wary of how natural features can be used against them. Divinity’s combat is refreshingly deep, rewarding players who can learn its intricacies and think on the move. Perhaps the biggest draw for console owners is the addition of local multiplayer, a feature sorely lacking in console game these days. So robust is Original Sin’s multiplayer that both players can participate in dialogue. RPG fans who own an Xbox may have felt like they were wandering a desert the last couple years; for them, Divinity: Original Sin will be manna from heaven. Buy it now from: Amazon-GameStop-Best Buy



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