LAUNCH ME
The available games on the One have proven extremely fun; at least for the almighty Christ-ine, it was a very successful launch lineup. You had the exclusives, which I’d probably rank best-to-worst: Dead Rising 3, Forza 5, and Ryse: Son of Rome. Worst in this case by no means indicates that the game should be avoided. I liked Ryse! I thought it was gorgeous and did a great job making you feel like a bloodthirsty gladiator. However, it was buckled at the knee by a stabbing lack of variety in the attack sequences. After a while, the combat got stale. Forza, on the other hand, felt more like a cash-grab than anything else. As a technical racer, you can’t find anything better, and I felt it left Gran Turismo 6 stalling in the pit this year. However, I wasn’t a fan of having to buy almost half of the content available at launch, in addition to the core game.
But this is why Dead Rising was the best. Gameplay ranges from insane to hilarious (Wesker outfit and Ultimate Grim Reaper all DAY!), an incredible on-screen presence of zombies, really showing off the render power on the console and a quirky story with great replayability made this my favorite. But let’s not forget about the multi-platform games. COD: Ghosts was everything you’d expect, with a particularly awesome story and multiplayer that keeps you coming back for one more killstreak. Need for Speed: Rivals, more arcade-y than Forza with a large focus on multiplayer, totally impressed me with its visuals and overall fun vibe. Assassin’s Creed IV is a ton of fun, but there are just… so many… collectibles! I can’t progress the story until I find everything in an area (but you can! Please don’t be me). The various sports titles look fantastic as well, with standouts NBA 2K14 and FIFA 14.
Looking ahead to February, we’ve got Thief and Titanfall to enjoy. Respawn Entertainment’s Titanfall is the new generation of shooter, and it looks like a complete blast. I feel it’s going to do for the One what Halo 3 did for the 360; you take a great piece of hardware and put a killer shooter on it early in the console’s life-cycle, it’s going to be an essential title for the Xbox One owner.