obie1980

The One We Found is a fantastic indie title which will please anyone looking for some Halloween survival horror. I was lucky enough to get my hands on The One We Found before release and I have to say it's an incredible achievement. Most games developed by a single person don't usually offer such immersion and tactical gameplay. but The One We Found doesn't just offer a genuine challenge, but the immersion to keep you on the edge of your seat and petrified of that eerie music that surrounds Harmony. While many games rely on a one trick-pony, The One We Found uses exploration, puzzles and varied enemies that force you to take a different approach, time and time again. It's great to have weapons, but the essence of Harmony (being invincible) forces good old fashioned stealth and avoidance. I would really expect this game to cost £30, but at £16.74 ($19.99) It's great value for money. The campaign alone will take most people 8-10 hours to get through, depending how thoroughly you search your surroundings and how quickly you find those all important clues and survival mode offers countless hours of praying you get anywhere near your best score. Graphically, there's a little room for improvement but I was pleased to hear the devs will soon be releasing 4K textures, with ALL future DLC being completely free. The survival mode is also a great addition, I found the different locations, each offering a different approach to other wave based, survival and horde modes, and it's certainly not simple as anyone who passes the easy first 5 waves will find out. I can imagine some people will expect the next resident evil, but while you wait for Resi 2 remake, this is a great nod to the classic survival horror genre.

Kung-Fu for Kinect will be out on Friday 24th of June, and here at Xbox Sector we are proud to bring you the exclusive first review of the game built from the ground up using the Unite engine from the team behind the fantastic Kung-Fu High Impact on Xbox 360. Back in the glory days of the Xbox 360, the Kinect was seen as an optimistic peripheral that never quite got the backing it deserved, with the dawn of the next-generation and the initial stance of a mandatory Kinect sensor it was obvious Microsoft had high hopes for the device, but after a public backlash, Microsoft backed out and the Kinect became more of a luxury extra. Over the last two years, there’s not been the widest selection of games, but developers Virtual Air Guitar Company have remained loyal to the high-tech gadget releasing Squid Hero, Boom Ball and the fantastic BeatSplosion. It’s obvious the developers have some fantastic experience and when we exclusively revealed the news of Kung-Fu High Impact coming to Xbox One, we’ve been waiting for release with high hopes. Thankfully we’re not disappointed. Just as with any niche area, there’s going to be a marmite reaction, but it seems obvious more will love the game than hate it, with clear and accessible menu’s the whole title is easy to navigate, with a colourful and fresh gloss. Venturing through the modes, you’ll find the first allowing you to build your own comic, firstly performing a few set stances depicted by a humorous screen overlay that does a fantastic job of suggesting both the position and facial reaction. These are then compiled into a comic-sequence that flows fluently to outline the story and your progression between levels. You’re then given a task, such as clearing a set number of enemies or waves, before moving on. From the initial presentation, you expect maybe half a dozen levels, but this continues on to over 20 levels with the same level of quality and the same fun approach to hitting, kicking and punching everything in your path. Combat is easily accessible, and it’s certainly worth paying attention to the early stages as your introduced to various maneuvers such as drawing a circle in the air with both hands to summersault, punching out with both hands simultaneously for the important power-punch and a little later on other special power’s which certainly light up the ways you can dispatch your foes. Thankfully punching and kicking around your front room is far less demanding than I remember from Kung-Fu Impact, the improvements to the Xbox One Kinect sensor mean less space is required and your actions are picked up clearly, this makes it even more accessible and allows you to concentrate more on the game and less on your surroundings. After watching numerous videos and streams of people playing it was spectacular how little space some had, and how well the game did to recognise various gestures even some that are quite similar to others, but the real fun was actually playing the game, Kung-Fu for Kinect is without the doubt the most fun I’ve ever had with Kinect, There’s an accessible curve meaning you will need to maintain concentration through the later levels, and more than enough variety to stop it feeling old, I think it’s safe to say your body will be feeling old long before the game will because there’s plenty of exercise when you’re into the game and jumping around like a lunatic, I can’t guess how much fun my wife had watching me leap around the front room, but I know I easily had as much fun fighting off the hordes of comic book villains. Graphically, Kung-Fu for Kinect isn’t trying to merge super realistic graphics, so it’s pretty difficult to judge this against AAA titles, however the comic book style is carried throughout the title and incredibly well, on screen indicators alert you of stray enemies, and the villains remain clear, easy to recognise and varied as some will put up a slightly different challenge meaning you’ll need to remember which approach is best, and mix your fighting style especially on levels packed with various types of foe. As mentioned earlier Menu’s carry the presentation perfectly, and while the overall textures aren’t going to be winning any awards, If there’s one for comic-book depiction in a video game, it certainly would be considered and as you’ll see from the accompanying screenshots, we’re certainly not talking about above average visuals for a low priced release. Gameplay - 8.5/10 Graphics - 7.5/10 Sound - 8/10 Story - 8.5/10 Value - 8/10 OVERALL - 8.1 / 10 Full Review at XboxSector,com

Review by **** (Freelance Gaming journalist) Bullfighting is one of those sports activities that still raises many question marks over the well-being or in certain regions intentional death of the bulls. So when I knew that Toro, a bullfighting simulation was heading to Xbox one I was eager to see how it would be portrayed in the non harmful digital world of the Xbox One. After a short intro sequence you find yourself on the main menu with the only option starting career mode, during which the first two levels are embedded with a tutorial to explain the techniques required. After that you can head back to the main menu which has options a quick game allowing you to select an arena of your choice and the opposing bull. There's also an even more pointless training mode, which does a pretty good job of repeating what you're forced to endure in career mode. For the light-hearted there's two separate mini-games to try, both are certainly mini, one see's you pressing alternate buttons to build power before hitting another to select the angle as your bull fires a bullfighter into the air, Secondly you have a 'quick time event' as you attempt to break through as many doors as possible, this rather repetitive QTE gives you increasingly shorter times to press the required button, get it right, you break the door, fail and..... well, you fail. Both Mini Games have an achievement attached, but with no other challenges or leaderboard these will literally last you a few minutes before you head back to the main menu knowing your unlikely to visit them again. The last few menu items are options, gallery and credits. Options cover the basics allowing tweaks to sound, language and contrast and the gallery allows you to view all the items in the game including the costumes, most of which look very similar. The bulls, most of which look very similar and even bullrings which at least two of, have some quite distinct differences, apart from a big circle of dirt in the middle, that's still the same. Obviously the credits serve their purpose to give the developers a little recognition for their work on the title. So we head back to the Career mode, and let's start by saying, it's certainly not a story mode, because there is no story, you're plonked into the ring of a small and quiet bullring to learn two basic moves for evading there's some glossy names for various twists and turns all controlled by holding LT to face the bull and then a combination of two buttons, and I'm sure Bullfighting aficionados will know far more about these than I do, but I don't mind admitting that like 90% of people who are probably reading this, my knowledge of Bullfighting is sparse to say the least, so maybe they didn't want to confuse us with details or background information. Your career consists of about 25 events, which see you face a bull in a selection of mini-games, the first with a large cape, allows you to choose up to 4 of your favorite 2 button commands and then tasks you with repeating them consistently until the timer runs down, If you get a combo of moves without getting hit, then your points rack up but so does the bull's anger meter, this then initiates a quick time event. Here you simply press a combination of buttons as they pop up on the screen and then upon completion the bull suddenly chills out and starts charging as normal, other than breaking up your combo this also gives the crowd a small boost although they seem to make more noise when the bull runs straight into you. This same sequence is repeated later with a small single-handed cape, thankfully you can choose a complete separate list of two button commands which look very similar, and often have exactly the same commands but hey, at least they have a different fancy name. As well as this you have the part of Spanish bullfighting which is most controversial of all, first you stab two small barbed flags into the bulls shoulders in real the real world this would be to further anger the bull but weaken it too forcing its head to drop for the finale of stabbing the bull behind its head with a small sword. These two rather unneccessary sections are both simple button commands and don't really offer anything to the game, there's no congratulatory bulls ear for an exceptional performance, nor is the bull ever pardoned for a life as a stud, you simply kill the bull and move on. Thankfully due tot he lack of any cut-scene after the intro, there's no gory scenes, no blood splatter on the screen, and with graphics looking closer to the original Xbox than the Xbox One, it's almost good that the graphics and presentations are so poor. As you've probably guessed, I've not enjoyed my time with Toro, I'm sure it will appeal to a few people and if you have the patience to tolerate the repetitiveness then there's enough to keep you occupied for more than an evening, but I feel that far more could have been done with a game about bullfighting.