The chief beauty of the Xbox One is that, alongside its legion of distractions - the apps, the multimedia plugins, the camera powered by magic - it's constantly tempting you back to play games. It's like some dark, rectangular figure in the corner of your living room: "oh, you want to watch TV? I'll show you something far better". It stands to reason, then, that we at Official Xbox Magazine, hardened veterans of the Xbox One frontline, let you know our picks of the gaming bunch.
Updated every month in the magazine, the Essentials list is our constantly-evolving rundown of the best the console has to offer. Opinions change (particularly when you consider how many upcoming Xbox One games there are to look forward to), so we don't include scores - our team of experts has fought and very nearly died (it was all settled out of court) to wedge their favourites into this list. Enjoy the spoils of war.
Already picked up an Xbox One? If so, which games do you think should be topping the list? Let us know in the comments below.
Think the grass is greener on the other side? Check out the best PS4 games, and the best Wii U games.
Source GamesRadar - Xbox One Features http://ift.tt/1ctw7OH
Insomniac is back. After a fair few years in a very grey wilderness, the developer's returned to the Xbox fold with a nu-rave hued weapons-fest deserving of the studio that made Ratchet and Clank. Some of Sunset Overdrive's hipster humour might not quite stick, but the basic idea - that it combines straight-up fantasy shooting with skating games' constant movement - is endlessly satisfying.
It's also, quietly, pushing out some of the best story DLC going - the ending to the second pack is absolutely inspired. And that's the point - this is a game about throwing ideas around constantly. It doesn't always work, but when it does, there's little else to match it on new-gen.
We've got a sneaking suspicion that Tales from the Borderlands will supplant this soon, but their noir crime fantasy is truly great work. TellTale's storytelling magic brings Bill Willingham's dark Fables - of fairytale heroes and villains struggling to adapt to the real world - to glorious life.
A rich, stylised world and some marvellously two-faced characters make The Wolf Among Us something truly different amongst legions of shooters and magic-ers and racers.
Originally touted as a Kinect-specific experience - and, to be fair, it's the only game so far that's let us physically push over an owl, so we'd still recommend it - this is actually a far broader take on the point 'n' click renaissance Telltale have spearheaded.
D4's an off-kilter adventure starring a private dick who does most of his thinking on a toilet, and is haunted by a giant in a surgeon's mask - it's never short of weirdness, but has a more than fair share of great ideas to go with it.
Honestly, if you got upset about Dante's change in hair colour, you don't deserve a game this good. DmC is a lurid, breathless, joyful stomp through a SSSickening world of creatures and combos. Ninja Theory's updates both honour the series' legacy, and give it a sense of style almost no other developer can muster.
Plus, it's a a masterclass in remastering. DmC: Definitive Edition isn't just old-gen scraps reheated for a new generation: smart tweaks to the combat system make this an exciting, worthy entry in the series.
FIFA's aim has always been to recreate the spectacle of watching the beautiful game; every match should be the perfect presentation of the best game you've ever seen. From its high-gloss recreation of modern television presentation to improved ball control and dribbling, FIFA 15 is EA's best attempt yet.
It's also easily the most enduring - Ultimate Team shores up lasting single player appeal, while co-op Seasons mode makes it one of the best multiplayer games going. Buy it quick - who knows when EA will make a new one?
For when modern warfare simply isn't enough. Jetpacks, homing grenades and other sci-fi gadgetry bring the somewhat tired template into the (mid-)21st Century, and with it a host of new possibilities. There are some subtly futuristic changes hidden in here too, not least the Pick-13 loadouts, giving every (multi)player a chance to craft a basically unique supersoldier.
Who knows when Activision will snap the series back to the Dark Ages or something, but for now we're more than content with an Advanced Warfare exo-suit, a few hours to kill, and a few strangers to kill in them.
Resi creator Shinji Mikami is back, and he's more unforgiving than ever. This amalgam of most of his previous work (sorry, Vanquish fans), not to mention all the other people's work who copied from him, is a bewildering trip down nightmare avenue.
The Evil Within is gory, terrifying and wholly worthy of Mikami's legacy, from the birth of survival horror, down to reinventing the genre to make for the quintessential action game.
We expected the mech-Nazis, and ultra-violence, and lovingly grotesque alternate history backing. We didn't expect the clever stealth mechanics, brilliant characters and strangely touching tale tying it all together.
MachineGames hasn't proved it's a worthy caretaker for the classic series, but one who'll yank Wolfenstein forwards into the present day, dragging its classic ideals along with it. Just because we want to dual-wield shotguns doesn't mean we don't also appreciate a good story. The New Order has it all.
Two’s company in this episodic survival horror, which pairs weakling with bruiser. We expected a retooled return to the series' last-last-last-gen roots, but there's a neat twin storyline at work, not to mention a fantastic bonus mode in the form of Raids.
Capcom might be taking the main series in new and occasionally unwelcome directions, but Revelations 2 proves the legendary developer still has the chops to make something equal parts terrifying, stressful and thrilling. You'll come out with a whole new respect for torches.
This brutal platformer is as fun as it is punishing (read: very). Packed with platforming ideas that draw on the best of retro and throws in some modern thinking, too (including a Dark Souls-indebted checkpoint/gambling system). Shovel Knight is funny, heartwarming stuff that brings to mind the best of the gaming past - but is almost certainly better than the majority of the games it reminds you of. Plus, you get to smack people with a shovel. Sublime.
Destiny is many things to many people. It's a PVE shooter that rivals the very best of MMOs for complex, teamwork-focused raids. It's a true successor to Bungie's multiplayer legacy, taking Halo's strategic combat and repurposing it in the Crucible. It's a game where you get to ride cool Star Wars speeder-bike knock-offs and dance on cliffs.
Viewed as a whole it has problems, but all of its individual pieces are almost perfectly formed. It's an insanely addictive MMO space shooter - oh, and also has some of the nicest skies you'll see this side of your front door.
This is silly. We don't really need to tell you what Minecraft is, because even if you didn't know, every child in the world could tell you, in detail, like an enormous swarm of snotty billboards.
Fine. Want to go hiking? Explore the depths of hell? Recreate Buckingham Palace? Test your survival skills for a cutesy apocalypse? Visit other dimensions? Keep a sea monster as a pet? Chop down wood all day? Go ahead - all possibilities are open to you (as long as you have as much time as a schoolkid, or a professional YouTuber).
The team that brought you Call of Duty 4 takes online multiplayer a large step forwards - and upwards - with roof-clearing mechs. It might not have had the seismic impact Respawn will have hoped for, but it remains the only true reinvention of the FPS on new-gen.
The feeling of switching from fleet-footed foot soldier to man-stomping dreadnought is still absolutely thrilling - not to mention a tactical marvel. Literally, all a Titanfall sequel needs to bring is more of the same - this is a rare case of getting it right first time.
It's faintly ridiculous that a blatant Assassin's-Arkham clone could change the face of gaming, but Shadow of Mordor's Nemesis system might do just that. In among the stabbing and magic and grumpiness, every Orc NPC can become a captain, a warchief and a fully fledged final boss - until you shank the life out of them, or pump mind-controlling ghost vapour into their green brain, that is.
It's one in the eye for dull game storytelling, and a line in the sand for player-driven role-playing. If we don't see it copied a hundred more times in the next couple of years, we'll eat our leather greaves.
Forget its landlubber siblings: this pirate-'em-up proves the parkour's better down where it's wetter. Transplanting the series' cramped action-stealth to the wide-open Caribbean was a masterstroke - if you got tired of the haystack-kill man-haystack rhythm, you could jump behind the wheel of the Jackdaw and literally go searching for buried treasure.
Semi-sequel Rogue might prove that the formula doesn't quite have (sea)legs, but as a one-off, Black Flag was a welcome holiday for the series, and proof that Ubisoft is willing to experiment with a franchise famously scared to kill off its own shortcomings.
Imagine a lavish, beautiful storybook world… that slams shut on your stupid, bleeding fingers for seven brutal hours. This is Ori and the Blind Forest, the result of Microsoft handing a group of retro fanatics enough money (and freedom) to make a worthy successor to the platformers of old.
Not only is this a pitch-perfect update to the formula set up by Metroid and Castlevania, combining mechanical satisfaction with tear-jerking narrative sequences, it's also quite probably the best-looking 2D game of all time. So yeah, it's pretty special.
It's like a zoo, but with explosives and guns and dictators and gyrocopters and homicidal tapirs. Oh, we forgot some stuff: and wingsuits and revolution and mountain climbing and psychedelic experiences and swearing.
Ubisoft might not have reinvented the series for a fourth time straight, but it does mean they've had time to refine what they had - Far Cry 4 is top-notch open-world shooting.
Arcadified Forza fun for those that can't tell their exhaust from their elbow, Horizon 2 is part open-world game, part racer and, with its focus on lines, trick, points and very irritating men in sunglasses, part skating game.
It's also reason alone for new-gen's existence - dynamic, world-altering weather and the Southern European setting outstrip everything that's come before. Tearing up the Mediterranean brings a tear to our eye.
Enormous, handsome and in love with the subtleties of world design, storytelling and combat, Bioware's many years toil on their sexy world's-end combat fantasies has paid off with their best game yet.
Thedas is magnificently beautiful and populated by some of the most likable characters the medium has to offer - proven by ex-writer Kate's near nervous breakdown when one of them rejected her advances. Dragon Age: Inquisition is the best RPG on Xbox One so far.
Rocksteady finishes its Arkham trilogy on a high. Arkham Knight's a heady, silly, rain-slicked romp around the Gotham. There's crime to fight from sewer to stratosphere, and Batman's as powerful as he's ever been. With some genuine surprises along the way, not to mention some of the neatest open world storytelling yet pressed to disc, it's hard to see why Batman's so grumpy about it all. We at OXM are firmly in the pro-Batmobile camp, too. Take it for a spin and you’ll wonder how you ever explored Gotham without it, crunching through buildings are shocking baddies, before changing into a tank that plays like some Japanese mecha. We love it.
One of the most immersive RPGs ever made - a standout, mutable storyline, endlessly satisfying detective-cum-hitman Contracts, and side quests deeper than many games' main campaigns. The Witcher 3's world is one of the few game spaces to deserve that title - full of political intrigue, folklore and gross beasts to slice into ribbons. And all of that's failing to mention CD Projekt RED's raft of free DLC, and a couple of forthcoming expansion packs that promise to be bigger than the entirety of The Witcher 2 by themselves. Beautiful, rewarding and essential, this is a game we'll remember for years and years to come.
*braces for complaints* Yes, we are well aware of the problems that plagued this particular entry, but now that it works, there's no doubting the craftsmanship here. Bungie's genius meets 343's love in a package that truly does justice to an industry-shaking legacy.
Buffed-up, revarnished and back in the shop window, The Master Chief Collection leaves us to wonder if Halo always looked so lovely. And you know what? It more or less did.
Pop a Valium and buy some brown trousers, because this tense masterpiece will trick you into thinking you're safe. You're never safe. That's primarily because Creative Assembly's managed to create the most effective gaming slasher villain of all time.
You'll know Alien: Isolation's got you when you're cowering in a space-box for twenty minutes, just because you heard a vent open as you went past, sprayed precious fire at thin air and ran for the nearest corner.
Press Play's been making Microsoft-exclusive projects for a while, and this is their high point. Steer two totem-pole stumps through a dastardly platforming gauntlet in the puzzler that'll tie your fingers up like Flumps.
Precise, taxing and faintly adorable, it's the One's secret platforming weapon. Got a sneering Nintendo fan coming over? Show them Kalimba and their happy, colourful brains will be blown into rainbow chunks.
Gaming's biggest blockbuster deserves its place at the head of the list. GTA V was already an excellent, brutal, beautiful open-world game, and is made even more so on Xbox One with a visual tidy-up, a glut of new content and the addition of first-person pedestrian-beating.
With the addition of online Heists to make its online component even more enticing, Rockstar edges closer to making a game world so vast and varied that you could start to do away with anything else. Which, come to think of it, was probably the plan all along.
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