The top 10 best Xbox One games

The absolute essentials for the world's most powerful console and its little brother.

6. Gears of War 4

Among the handful of video game franchises that really knows what it’s about, and has stuck to its monstrous guns from the very beginning – minus one tiny wobble, Judgement, which wasn’t even all that bad. Though no longer forged by Epic Games, the series’ truest believer, long-term producer and self-proclaimed ‘Gears Viking’ Rod Fergusson took the reins at The Coalition. The result is authentic Gears, from the cool quips among the roughneck squad, through ridiculous (incredible) enemy encounters and fun PvP. The X enhanced version has Preferred Rendering, giving the choice between visual fidelity and smoother performance.

7. Forza Motorsport 7

With every iteration, Turn 10 Studios has delivered on its much publicized passion for motorsport with best-in-class console racing. The Forza Motorsport brand is now the benchmark experience, and doesn’t show any signs of slowing. In Forza 7 it’s the new dynamic weather effects that bring more for drivers to contend with, they’re visually arresting, especially the heavy downpours, but mainly interesting owing to changes in handling. We feel how the cars lose traction before tires regaining grip, invited to push simulation aspect to the limits with assists turned on or off. At 60fps it’s wonderful.

8. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds

This is by far the biggest news on Xbox One right now, and likely the foreseeable future. Brendan ‘PlayerUnknown’ Greene’s genre-defining battle-royale FPS rocketed in popularity at an impossible rate through 2017, making the Microsoft exclusivity such a smart move. Sadly there’s no cross-play with the millions-strong PC user base, but Xbox One players do get the whole package, launched into the 100-player cat-and-mouse madness by parachute, as a lone wolf or predatory pack. The concept is easy to understand, but survival is difficult. Knowing you can do better next time, that’s the draw.

9. Halo Wars 2

Regardless of where you stand in terms of support for 343 Industries’ interpretation of Halo, Bungie and Microsoft’s universe as it approaches its 20th anniversary remains magnificent. Creative Assembly’s RTS adaptation of the rich lore is wondrous to behold and compelling to play, with production values that we’ve learned to expect from the studio that originated Total War and the 2014 classic Alien Isolation. In Halo Wars 2 we re-join the UNSC Spirit of Fire (good guys’ warship) as it stumbles across a Forerunner (possible bad guys) installation called the Ark, and new threat: The Banished!

10. Halo 5 Guardians

The iconic Master Chief steps aside to let Lieutenant Commander Jameson Locke take centre stage, resulting in a Halo campaign that feels grittier and somehow more believable. Unlike Chief, Jameson is a SPARTAN-IV, he’s powerful but not super-human indestructible. Jameson values his team, whereas Chief famously fights alone (most of the time), and this vulnerability requires that he is resourceful, a concept that the gameplay upholds so well. Campaign maps offer multiple routes through, with many secret areas worth uncovering. The four-player online co-op makes this feel like a true team effort, the best since Reach.

Writer

Paul’s first videogame was Space Invaders in 1978, which gives away his age a bit. We put his encyclopedic knowledge of the beforetimes to good use in our Retro coverage. If you want to reach Paul, you can email or tweet him @FutureKick.

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