We Own the Night
It is immediately extremely pretty, though. There are dark and gritty instances where it feels a little like the whole thing has been shot on Michael Mann’s iPhone, but racing at speed through the soaked streets here (particularly in bumper cam) is really something else. The cars glisten with beaded water droplets and the streets gleam, a shiny tapestry of mirror-like asphalt reflecting artificial light from all angles. Need for Speed also sounds nearly as good as it looks; the throaty burble of performance-tuned engines is well-realised and the crackle of exhaust overrun and the ker-chunk of slamming gears is similarly respectable. However, the sudden, jarring transitions from the dead of night, to pre-dawn, and then back to night again are horribly ill-conceived. These transitions seem to be baked into parts of the environment so they can actually happen multiple times over the course of a single race.
The cars glisten with beaded water droplets and the streets gleam, a shiny tapestry of mirror-like asphalt.
The eclectic roster of cars is only a fraction of what’s on offer in, say, Forza Horizon 2, but it has a little something for most gearheads. Garage spots are limited to five but the focus here isn’t collecting; it’s perfecting. I completed most of Need for Speed in a single car, constantly cramming upgrades into it to keep it ahead of the competition.
Performance customisation is the basic kind (bolt in everything you’re eligible to purchase and your car will go faster) but there’s a little more to visual customisation. You can sweep around your car, swap external panels, add flair to fenders, install canards, adjust stance, and more. There’s also a freeform livery editor, which definitely beats having to make do with simple, pre-set designs and wraps. You can’t modify everything, though; after I completed the story mode I splurged on a classic Ferrari F40 but was disappointed to discover I could barely do anything to it. I couldn’t even change the rims. It seems at odds with the game’s philosophy.
Need for Speed - Cars and Customisation Trailer
It’s still good to have customisation of any sort back in Need for Speed, and with it comes several basic tuning options you can use to alter your car’s driving characteristics. The main slider adjusts all settings, nudging your car towards a drift setup or a grip setup, but you can dive deeper and massage certain steering, tyre pressure, and braking power settings individually to fine tune your ride. I much preferred the drift setup for all race types because I found it far easier to get around corners by poising my Focus in a slide via a bootful of throttle and liberal use of opposite lock, rather than navigate the bends with a grip tune. The latter feels too twitchy at low speeds and too prone to understeer at higher ones, and I found myself getting frustrated trying to find the balance. Odd is the fact that, while Need for Speed has brought back tuning in a big way, the option for a manual transmission hasn’t made an appearance.
First-person Fist Bumping
Need for Speed’s light narrative plays out in a series of short, live-action cut-scenes, brimming with slang I don’t understand, excessive energy drink consumption, overuse of the word “hashtag”, and a slightly comical amount of first-person fist-bumping.
There are five main characters who, when they aren’t speaking to each other like living, breathing internet memes, each represent a different one of Need for Speed’s five themed racing threads. All of these threads lead to an encounter with a real-life automotive icon; an idea which I genuinely like.
The lack of any drag racing in Need for Speed seems like a misguided omission.
The best thread is ‘Outlaw’, which is really just a mix of all the game’s race types with the cops on your tail. The cop action is scaled back from Hot Pursuit and Rivals but I certainly appreciate how the police AI seems a lot more fair and bound by the in-game physics than it ever did in Ubisoft’s The Crew. Considering it was the standout mode in the old Underground games, the lack of any drag racing in Need for Speed seems like a misguided omission.
It’s not an especially long story, though. There are 79 main events, but I blasted through them in just two days. The often shameless rubber band AI screwed me out of a few wins here and there but, for the most part, there were only a handful of races I needed to repeat. This modest length might be less of a problem if the multiplayer was more robust, but it isn’t.
Need for Speed - Official Launch Trailer
Like The Crew, Need for Speed requires a constant internet connection to play – even if you want to play solo. Unlike The Crew, you can’t just simply opt into multiplayer and rely on the game to take care of matchmaking and enlist you into a series of events. This really didn’t need to be an always online game, and because it is, you can’t even pause the game, which I found extraordinarily annoying. Plus, without decent PvP, the only thing left after the brief campaign is hunting down Need for Speed’s frankly boring collectables. Exactly why are we collecting photographs of plain, dimly-lit parking lots and anonymous warehouses?
THE VERDICT
Need for Speed looks the part, sounds the part, and is surprisingly reverent to real-world car culture. I like the direction Ghost has taken here, and I think it’s the right one, but beneath its flashy exterior it's not quite firing on all cylinders.

Developers Yukes and Visual Concepts were on the right track last year when they added a stamina system and a chain wrestling system to create a greater sense of pace, and they’ve built on those successes beautifully.
Educated Feet
At the center is the reworked reversal system, which makes reversals a limited, slowly regenerating resource. Managing it correctly means you’ve got the ace in the hole you need to escape scary late-match situations, where a less frugal opponent might find themselves forced to absorb a beating. Not only does this create a welcome layer of decision-making previously absent from the series, it adds an extremely meaningful differentiation between characters, as some have more reversal stocks than others.
WWE 2K16 - Raise Some Hell Gameplay Trailer
Working in tandem with the excellent reversal system are the new Working Holds. Wrestling smarks know these are holds that performers use to catch their breath mid-match, and WWE 2K16 smartly incorporates them in a competitive context here. Successful working holds restore your stamina while sapping your opponent’s - effectively allowing you to stall out their offense until you can get some reversal stocks back. That’s just one possible tactic you might employ. The pressure to stall or scrape by until you have the resources you need, and the incentive to force your opponent to waste theirs opens the fighting up tremendously.
The net result is matches that have a greater sense of variety and ring psychology.
Options I used to never care about, like escape-rolling out of the ring, or having a manager distract my opponent suddenly become totally valid choices, since it buys me time to catch my breath. I’ll lay on the ground and let my opponent land a few kicks if I see them getting close to having a finisher, since that’s the bullet that needs dodging. I even started learning which moves, when reversed, give me a big enough window of opportunity to get an attack in, letting those that don’t slide. The net result is matches that have a greater sense of variety and ring psychology; blurring  the line between playing to win and putting on a show.
Holes in the Show
Most wrestling fans agree that showmanship is at least as important as technical, in-ring ability, and WWE 2K16 doesn’t quite nail all its big spots in this regard. Technically, it’s kind of all over the place: there are no load times between ring entrances, lending a seamless, TV-broadcast feel to match openings, but the loads between other modes, and even just to preview a costume piece in create-a-wrestler can be painful. Sometimes the AI behaves uncannily like the wrestler you know and love, like when Seth Rollins tries to DQ himself to retain the belt, and other times, they quizzically zone out and sort of stare off into space.
WWE 2K16 - Seth Rollins' Full Ring Entrance
This same inconsistency spills over into other areas. Visually, some character models and effects look terrific, like during Randy Orton’s ring entrance, while guys like Chris Jerico seem to be holdovers from the last-gen days. 
WWE 2K16 doesn’t quite nail all its big spots
Finally, the commentary has improved greatly, with far fewer repeated phrases, and more specific insight into many wrestlers’ fighting style and history, but it’s not all the way there yet. There are still a few too many general move callouts, making the play-by-play a bit flat at times. No one issue is big enough to ruin the fun, but together they can periodically undercut the tension and excitement the in-ring action builds so effectively.
Feed. Me. More.
The biggest criticism leveled at last year’s game was the anemic roster, and the overall lack of modes and features compared to prior years. WWE 2K16 largely rectifies this, but its bag of tricks hasn’t quite gotten back to the point of overflowing yet. The one exception is in the roster which is, quite frankly, nuts. In terms of separate individual wrestlers, you’re looking at over 120, including many NXT-born stars, who fans were clamoring for last year. Not only are they a joy to play in their own right, but they add some much-needed diversity to the roster.
Finn Balor vs Kevin Owens Gameplay
In terms of match types, much of what we lost last year is back. There are exceptions: no backstage brawl, no 2 out of 3 falls, no inferno etc. Honestly, very little that I cared about hasn’t returned, but it would be nice to see these modes come back in future iterations. Still this represents a huge improvement over last year’s sparse match offerings.
The roster is, quite frankly, nuts.
Core modes like create-a-wrestler and MyCareer have been expanded considerably, with the latter spanning multiple years instead of ending with a single Wrestlemania appearance. Diva, belt, and arena creation are thankfully restored. Universe has even more ways to customize your WWE sandbox, including detailed personality sliders that affect in ring behavior.As has become expected, 2K Showcase is back, and is still a great mix of history and fantasy recreation. I miss create-a-story and create-a-move, but even without them, there’s still plenty you can do with this toolset.

Divinity: Original Sin is one of the most rewarding RPGs to come along in years. Its quests and combat compelled me to think hard about my actions and choices, which is more than I usually get to say about contemporary RPGs. Its depth, personality, and combat challenges easily allow it to hold its own against the likes of heavyweights like Dragon Age: Origins."
It was difficult to imagine Original Sin’s old-school complexity working on consoles (read our full review for Divinity: Original Sin for complete details), but Enhanced Edition successfully makes it happen without any sacrifices. Though the same inventory criticisms apply, the highly interactive world of Rivellon and the finely detailed RPG systems therein are completely intact.
Divinity in the Details
Because of all of its complexity, there's an enormous amount of information to process in Original Sin, and Enhanced Edition does an excellent job of displaying it on a TV screen in a way that’s easily readable from the couch, and mapping controls to the gamepad accordingly. Independently managing the inventories of every member of my party is still the pretty fiddly and cumbersome , but thanks to smart use of selection radials and intelligent button mapping, it’s not too much of an issue. Triangle or Y always gives detailed info about what you’re looking at, and square or B always brings up a list of actions you can take on whatever you’re targeting. This consistency kept all the options and information readily and intuitively available, so I could make informed roleplaying decisions.
Divinity: Original Sin - Console Gameplay Demo - IGN Live: Gamescom 2015
Enhanced Edition looks in line with the PC version at ultra settings.
Visually, Divinity isn’t the flashiest dancer at the ball, but Enhanced Edition looks in line with the PC version at ultra settings, plus some reworked special effects. Its humble, Euro-Fantasy aesthetic serves dutifully, creating the right vibe for the D&D-esque trappings and mechanics.  And though it runs at only 30 frames per second on both consoles, performance is reliably steady, even during split screen co-op.
New Pages in the Spellbook
In terms of new content, the biggest addition is the full voicing of pretty much every NPC, which adds a layer of immersion to a world that was already very well-realized. New areas and skills have been added too, and while they’re appreciated, Divinity is already so large and exhaustive these feel more like cherries on top as opposed to a whole new scoop. For instance, the addition of dual wielding as a combat style helps make off-hand weapons more viable, but it isn't exactly a reason to replay if you've already sunk 100 hours into the original.
Divinity: Original Sin -- Enhanced Edition - Console Co-Op Trailer
What might convince veterans to play again though, is the inclusion of split-screen local play, making the unique co-op potential of Original Sin easier to discover than with the online mode. Splitting your party up to explore separately and settling disputed quest choices with a virtual game of rock, paper, scissors adds a wonderful slice of actual pen-and-paper roleplaying to an experience that already feels like the genuine article. All of these features, including controller support and split screen co-op, are available on the free upgrade for the PC version.
THE VERDICT
If you want the RPG with the most skills, the most stats to consider, and a world that constantly makes meaningful use of every line on your character sheet, there’s nothing else quite like Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition. You can find RPGs that are prettier, more accessible, or less busy, but very few are as dedicated to the true spirit of role-playing as this one is.

In almost every way, Halo 5: Guardians is bigger than the already large and excellent games that came before it.
Developer 343 Industries has engineered the strongest combat Halo has ever seen, with tons of excellent weapons, varied maps, an expansive and intense new multiplayer mode joining a host of returning greats, and some game-changing new mobility. At the same time, Guardians repeats Halo 4’s mistake of telling a story that can’t stand on its own without Halo’s expanded universe. This hurts, but doesn’t ruin, its otherwise impressive cooperative campaign.
I Need a Hero
Make no mistake: though Spartan Jameson Locke and Master Chief share the cover of Halo 5, Locke is the main character. You play as him, leading Fireteam Osiris, in 80% of the campaign’s 15 missions, but he doesn’t have the charisma needed to fill that role. He falls into the same trap that ensnares many similar military-type main characters: Locke doesn’t really want anything for himself; he just wants to complete the mission that someone else gave him.
Locke doesn’t really want anything for himself; he just wants to complete the mission...
The lack of a hero with a cause to root for costs Halo 5’s bigger story dearly, which wastes some good potential. Though the plot is overly complicated and unclear at times, it’s interesting that the new threat is less black-and-white in its motives than the Covenant, the Flood, or the Forerunners.
One great thing about this new story is that, after spending so much one-on-one time with Cortana in previous games, it’s refreshing to hear new voices share their stories about Halo’s universe. Learning backstories, such as how Osiris’ 22-year-old Spartan Vale came to learn the Elites’ language, is a neat, believable touch that’s well conveyed just through background chatter. Unfortunately, Master Chief’s Blue Team doesn’t get the same treatment.
GAMINGEON GAMES !
If I didn’t know them from Halo’s expanded universe, I’d have only a weak idea about who Fred, Kelly, and Linda are, where they came from, or why I should care about them. What should be a meaningful reunion for Chief – a chance to again fight alongside the few who truly understand him – feels like business as usual, except with three extra guns behind his back due to lack of context. 343 has released an animated Fall of Reach series alongside Halo 5 that explains the origins of Blue Team, but it’s only included with pricey special editions.
Divide and Conquer
It’s surprising the characters’ backstories weren’t worked into audio logs or something, considering how dense the seven-hour campaign is with other important stuff and secrets I missed at first glance. After a battle, I’d wander around Halo 5’s diverse locations looking for the thoroughly hidden skulls and realize I hadn’t even seen whole other rooms, hidden pathways, weapons, vehicles, and more. Halo 5’s levels often aren’t physically as big as areas in, say, Halo 3, but they’re so dense with things to discover that I didn’t miss the breathing room.
There are many more options available than “point four guns at the thing and shoot.”
This kind of design makes Halo 5’s campaign ripe for replaying, and well suited for the convenient drop-in, four-player (online-only) co-op it’s clearly made for. You and your friends can spread out, grab a variety of weapons, and use these levels to their fullest – maybe have one person sniping priority targets from the high ground, another sneaking off to activate auto-turrets, and the other two people engaging the rest of the enemies in mid-range fights. There are many more options available than “point four guns at the thing and shoot.”
When playing solo, the new squad commands for your AI-controlled team (mapped to the D-pad) are about as simple as possible: stand over there, get in that vehicle, or shoot that enemy. This is a great quality-of-life improvement over past Halo games, where the only communication you could have with your NPC helpers was “Gimmie that gun you’ve got.”
In addition, they seemed to know what I wanted them to do. I spent very little time waiting for allies to jump on my Warthog’s turret, or getting them to hop into a spare Ghost for some extra firepower and mobility. The targeting command is useful for taking out elusive enemies, especially if you and your teammates are spread out and have different angles on the same area.
A Full Match of Halo 5 Early Access Multiplayer
The one issue I had with squad commands is that sometimes teammates just didn’t listen. I get it: If I run out into the middle of the enemies, die, and need to be revived, that’s a dumb move on my part and no sane teammate would want to make the same mistake. At the same time, when they sometimes decide to let me bleed out, it’s game over... so it’s frustrating when they inconsistently decide they don’t want to take one for the team.
Old Guns, New Tricks
Halo 5 also has the most satisfying arsenal in the series going for it, thanks to returning classics and design facelifts for guns that used to feel worthless. Old favorites like the battle rifle, Spartan laser, and trusty assault rifle look and feel great, and work in new ways with the new hover mechanics. One unexpected standout is the Suppressor, a Forerunner assault rifle that’s mediocre in Halo 4. It now fires homing projectiles, which are perfect for hunting down Halo 5’s quicker enemy types.
I was constantly trying to fit three or four really cool weapons into my two slots.
A few weapons are disappointing, like the new Hydra Launcher. That monstrosity looks huge and menacing, but the homing rockets it fires don’t do enough damage to warrant a spot in my holster – especially since the campaign is so generous with handing out great guns. I was constantly trying to fit three or four really cool weapons into my two slots, which is a great problem to have.
You’ll have plenty of things to shoot, thanks to Halo 5’s strong enemy variety. Forerunner troops are highly mobile and will dodge slower projectiles if you’re not careful. The annoying flying enemies that provide shields are much less prevalent than they are in Halo 4, so they still provide an occasional challenge without becoming overbearing.
Halo 5: Launch Gameplay Trailer
The major negative standout here is the series of boss battles with a similar enemy type, who really drives home that Halo 5 is a co-op-first campaign. This guy’s weakest point is on his back, which is hard to shoot without a real human being helping to distract it. In co-op it’s fine, but if you’re playing solo there’s no way to spread out your AI to get different angles, making it more frustrating than fun.
Invisible Elites have much more convincing active camo...
Old-school Covenant soldiers are as strong as they’ve always been, with tough enemies like sniper Jackals and Hunter pairs. One major improvement is the invisible Elites, whose much more convincing active camouflage effect is one of the benefits of Halo 5 being native to the Xbox One. I was taken out by surprise much more frequently by the stealthy warriors, but not so often that it felt cheap – it was nice to be surprised and outsmarted.
Of course, Halo 5 also looks better in all the ways you’d expect from a generational leap forward. The campaign takes us to an eerie abandoned research station, a backwater planet ripe with odd, gorgeous life and vegetation, ruins with ancient and worn-looking monuments, and several other excellent looking locations. There is detail everywhere, and it contributes greatly to the fantasy.

Every year, the Assassin’s Creed series struggles with the idea of inheritance. Like its Templars and Assassins, who are locked in a never-ending struggle for relics, each game picks a side in the question of how strongly should it lean into its now-convoluted ancient lore and incorporate the still-underdeveloped present-day elements. Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate chooses wisely, leaves out multiplayer entirely, and pushes a lot of that baggage into the background, largely freeing itself up to make the most of Victorian London and have fun with sneaking, climbing, and stabbing.
Sibling Rivalry
Syndicate smartly negotiates this internal conflict by dramatising it in the form of its twin playable characters, Evie and Jacob Frye. The former is a devout Assassin, intent on stopping the Templars by tracking down the remaining pieces of Eden. Her brother Jacob, however, is a pragmatist – a social reformer who rails against the Assassin’s burdensome legacy and wishes to help his city in more immediate ways, seemingly embodying my desire to move on from the tangled mysticism. They’re both extremely likeable, well-drawn protagonists, and the interaction between the two is laced with a lively sibling rivalry that brings levity to otherwise-earnest cutscenes. But their contrasting worldviews have the greatest positive impact on Syndicate’s structure, which is both engaging and meaningful.
The First 15 Minutes: Assassin's Creed Syndicate
You can freely switch between Jacob and Evie at most points, with side missions and open-world activities open equally to both. Campaign missions, however, are different, with Jacob taking the lead in the majority of the core assassinations. This is frustrating, especially since Evie is pitched as the more stealthy of the pair. But I soon realised that Syndicate is just not that interested in exploring forgotten tombs in search of dusty relics; it wants to liberate the great city of London from its terrible oppressors. And to be blunt, Syndicate’s a much better experience for identifying more closely with the goals of Jacob.
Syndicate is just not that interested in exploring forgotten tombs in search of dusty relics
Despite being sidelined so often, Evie comes across as the more nuanced character, struggling with her sense of duty, where Jacob is a more straightforward bloke with clear goals. By the end of the 20-hour campaign, I felt like I’d probably spent more time with Evie due to prefering her in side missions, and I certainly knew her better. She sees the bigger picture, with her missions tackling problems Jacob can’t even comprehend. Evie also stars in my favourite assassination mission – a nighttime infiltration of the Tower of London.
Given their differences, I was disappointed with how similar Jacob and Evie are to play. They each possess three high-level abilities designed around their supposed strengths of stealth and combat, respectively – Evie can effectively become invisible when stationary, for example, while Jacob can string together longer combos. But the rest of the abilities are identical. At first, I exaggerated the differences by investing all of Evie’s points into the stealth skill tree and Jacob’s into combat, thinking I could switch between the two depending on the situation. But since you can’t switch between characters within campaign missions, that’s not a viable approach. In one mission, I was playing as Jacob and it would’ve been really useful to unlock a specific door to make a quick escape, but because I’d only unlocked advanced lockpicking for Evie – who was unavailable – I had to take a longer, more hazardous route out of the building.
AND BIG THANKS TO JALAL HELOU, THE NUMBER ONE SUPPORTER OF IBRIX GAMES!

The first and most welcome change is its open world. Zestiria removes the pen that once confined us to narrow corridors of trees and bushes and lets you freely journey through a nice variety of locations that include green pastures, sand-swept deserts, and gloomy swamps. This gives Zestiria’s world a sense of immersion that some of its more linear predecessors lack. Treasure chests and stat-boosting herbs found throughout a typical Tales world are still there, but I like that Zestiria also includes Normin: cute little critters tucked away in  hidden corners that grant special skills to equipment. There are also Lords of the Land, helpful deities that let you do things like fast-travel and replenish treasure chests if you establish a good enough rapport with them. These are all nice rewards for putting on your wide-brimmed fedora and venturing through the landscape.
Zestiria’s world has a sense of immersion that some of its more linear predecessors lack.
Downer Dungeons
The one hiccup in the world design is the linear dungeons. They’re short and contrived, with right-angled corridors and bland, monochromatic walls. Puzzles are used as cheap padding to make some dungeons appear longer or more complex than they really are. The prize for worst puzzle goes to the Water Temple, where eyes in the walls teleport you all the way back to the entrance if they see you. Though some of these puzzles include the clever use of map actions like burning spiderwebs with fire magic or using wind to teleport across gaps in the floor, most just feel like a chore.
Tales of Zestiria - First 15 Minutes of Gameplay
Luckily, dungeons feature fantastic music, which helps alleviate some of the tedium. The Wind Temple theme is particularly impressive with its soaring strings and heavy drumbeats. There’s also a nice variety of enemies: killer starfish and aggressive elephants require different strategies to defeat, which prevents battle fatigue from setting in.
A Zest for Combat
Like the world map, the series’ traditional Linear Motion Battle System combat has had some new life breathed into it. Characters still dole out pain on an enclosed field by using physical and magical actions known as Artes (which can be chained together in brawler-type combos), but the new Armitization feature ratchets up the fun by allowing protagonist Sorey and his human companions to fuse with their seraphic friends and become powerful entities on the battlefield.
Trailer: Tales of Zestiria
The Armitized character designs are wonderfully over-the-top (think capital “A” anime), and it’s amusing to watch my heroes unleash spells like Ocean Blitz -- a pinwheel torrent of water resembling a hose turned on full blast --on enemies. This doesn’t mean that going super Saiyan on enemies is always the right approach. Zestiria does a nice job balancing the scales of combat by binding Artes to a series of gauges that, when depleted, must be refilled before you can use your skills again. Artes are also tied to a clever rock-paper-scissor mechanic that encourages you to adjust your battle plan according to an enemy’s particular strengths and weaknesses; no mindless spamming allowed.
Getting ready for combat is almost as enjoyable as combat itself.
Getting ready for combat is almost as enjoyable as combat itself. Zestiria’s customization is fairly deep, which makes dressing for battle fun. Each piece of equipment has four skill slots, three of which can be filled however you see fit, and items of the same type can be fused together to create powerful pieces that sport new and better skills that can be used in battle. I enjoyed mixing and matching my inventory and getting varying results, a process made easier by a skill sheet that shows you different ways to stack or arrange your skills for maximum benefit.
A Forgettable Tale
I wish I could be as enthusiastic about the story, but alas, I found it to be pretty weak. Despite an intriguingly cynical view on the human condition (some people are evil because of the strength of their convictions, not because they’re possessed by demons), the story never truly deviates from the typical trope of “young country boy is tasked with purging the world of malevolence.” The cast of characters also lacks a certain spark. Aside from the ever-earnest Alisha and the spunky, effervescent Rose, Zestiria’s heroes are fairly forgettable.