Review: Fortza Racing

Fortza was one of the first Xbox One game releases. It was the first game I played on Xbox One and I have to say, I was very impressed. The game starts by taking you through a race as you might expect – but not against other people, which lets you learn how it all works before making it too competitive. What you do in that race has no impact on your career, and in the race you are equipped with one of the best cars around one of the most beautiful tracks. It’s enough to hook even the type of gamer who, like me, doesn’t really play racing games.

Then, it introduces you to the graviconidea. Basically, as you play the game it builds up a AI equivalent of yourself and your driving style, and this means you compete in races even when not online, and you get credits for this. Once completed, friends playing Fortza will find them playing side by side… Quite literally. They will also push you off the track, ram into you, shatter your windscreen completely. Sorry about that, Jo.

That’s the other great thing about the game: the cosmetic damage to the car is shown after every race in great detail. And so, for those of us who are… More of an aggressive tendency and like to smash into cars, we will find both our and our opponents cars smashed up as appropriate. It then becomes a competition to see who can smash their car up the most. And the best thing? It doesn’t cost to repair, and is only cosmetic for entertainment value.

As an introduction to each section of car, it’s an introduction by Top Gear with some amusing descriptions of cars and car types.

And you don’t have to be a car geek to play. I know nothing about cars, and yet I can still play, but there are technical details about each of the cars too.

It’s a really good game, with a lot of cars and a lot of tracks. There are always challenges for people to beat and the game is constantly encouraging you to get better, faster, and amass enough wealth to buy the ultimate car toys.

There isn’t enough words to say everything about this game. I never thought a racing game could be such fun, but it really is. Each car feels different through the controller, and there are many tracks. Each of the tracks has reverse versions, and sections of the track available to race. Credits are earned the higher you rank, and as you play more you level up higher.

Overall, it’s a great game making use of the sleek design of the controller and the new system. I’m sure there are many more features to be discovered, with a wide range of settings I haven’t even touched yet, including head tracking and various assists (power assisted steering is an assist which can be turned off for a more challenging experience) and some profile changes including showing off your latest achievement in the form of a badge, which can be selected by going to said achievement when it is earned or by

Review: Angry Birds Star Wars [Xbox One]

Angry Birds Star Wars: I won this game as player two with a score of 48,500 (and I won two out of three rounds too.) More by fluke than actual skill, but still, it’s a (insanely) fun game.

This is a review of Angry Birds: Star Wars Xbox One edition. Angry Birds has been a popular game for a long time, and there have been many different versions released for Chrome, various apple devices and mobile devices. However, this is the first Angry Birds version (as far as I’m aware) released for Xbox.

Xbox One is a fantastic new console – I’m doing a separate review for it later, check back for the link to it here – and  combined with this entertaining take on Angry Birds, it’s a great game either played alone or great as a family.

Firstly, there is a good multiplayer section. Play either cooperative to take down a level (good for beginners working together) or, for the more competitive amongst us (read me, my dad and stepmum) there’s score attack which is competing to see who can complete the level and get the highest score possible using a set amount of birds. There are groups of one level, three levels and five levels to play from, and they are selected at random ranging from the early on (very easily) to the more advanced (very, very hard). There’s also a range of different birds, each made to look like and with powers relating to their character from Star Wars. Luke Skywalker has a lightsaber that circles around the bird when activated. Han Solo shoots in whatever direction you move the left stick to hover over. Chewbacca has a force push and is generally a large, furry thing that barges into anything in it’s path – and there are many more characters to be discovered.

I’ve not done the single player mode, but it appears that as the primary player (player 1) unlocks more “stickers” or characters in the single player “career” mode, they also unlock them as stickers for the multiplayer. However, these stickers are only  cosmetic and don’t have any impact on the multiplayer mode.

Overall, it’s a great game for the family and is a smooth little game. There has been no glitching while we’ve been playing, and even a “challenges” section. If you’re a fan of Angry Birds, or want a family game that everyone can play – regardless of whether you’ve got one controller or five, all the family can play on one or spread out amongst them – I’d really recommend the game.

Angry Birds Star Wars: Multiplayer mode with three players in a score attack mode. Everything is Star Wars themed!

Review: Xbox One

The release of Xbox One was well anticipated. After the giant leap from the original Xbox to the Xbox 360, it made me wonder what Xbox One would bring. And I wasn’t disappointed. Voice control means that your Xbox listens to you and (mostly) does what you ask. Walking into the living room and saying Xbox On to find that the Xbox has turned on just like that is such a great concept.

There is so much more to the Xbox than is being used by the current games on the market – I suspect it may be a few years before the software is being used to its full potential.

I’m excited to see where this will go, because I believe and have always believed since being told there was plans for a next Xbox that this one would be something entirely new and exciting. I wasn’t let down. Thank you, Microsoft, for giving gamers more shiny stuff to at with. And thank you for doing it well.

If you’re a gamer who liked the last Xbox, you should get your hands on one. It’s bigger, better and has one hell of a shine to it.