Jack Ford

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is a flawed game but in amongst its problems is a solid, atmospheric and enjoyable open-world game that meets and sometimes exceeds expectations

Kinect Star Wars is certainly an odd game but while it may be too irreverent for die-hards and too simplistic for serious players, it is possible to have some fun with it if approached with the right frame of mind.

Picture the scene: it’s November 2011, you’re the parent of young children (or the partner of someone with low expectations) and are being nagged constantly about a holiday to Disneyland. You balk at the price tag, distance to travel and the general sense of unease in filling the pockets of one of the world’s most amoral and ultra-capitalist conglomerates. Fortunately, there is a cheap, easy and guilt-free alternative to visiting any Disney property. One that recreated the experience to such a degree that, for the most part, it still holds up a decade later. It is the game Kinect Disneyland Adventures.

It was the surprise announcement of E3 2021: that Ubisoft and Massive Entertainment will be taking gamers into the world of the number one film of all time in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. What was most surprising about it was actually how out of left-field this came.

Despite now being ten years old, NHL 12 is the ice hockey game that gets everything so right it has become a timeless example of its genre. From mechanics to presentation it remains endlessly playable even a decade after it was first released, it remains a definitive hockey game and should be remembered as such.

First released in September 2011, SEGA’s Rise of Nightmares was made especially for Kinect on Xbox 360. Among the range of games available for the peripheral, it is the least likely title ever made for the Kinect - there’s no dancing, no pets, no sports. (Though by its end, hacking through hordes of re-animated corpses here starts to feel like a sport.) 

Before viewers who raved about The Witcher Netflix series could be called posers by those who have played The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, gamers who raved about The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt could be called posers by those who already played The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings.

Back in March 2011, the first-person action shooter Homefront arrived on the Xbox 360 from THQ, along with a storm of publicity which included a really cool live-action trailer

Not every video game has to be perfect or original to be a winner; some can succeed simply by being well-made and straightforwardly enjoyable. Tron: Evolution is one such game.

As soon as it dropped in 2018, Marvel’s Spider-Man became an instant classic. Rightly so; it was probably the most realistic recreation of the beloved superhero yet seen, but that’s not to say it was his definitive video game. Another notable outing, released for the Xbox 360 back in 2010, was Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions.

Though The Dark Knight gets the most attention, coming three years sooner it was Batman Begins that changed the superhero film as we know it. Christopher Nolan’s original interpretation of the character was one that was rooted in reality and was, crucially, believable. It was the first time it felt that characters like this could exist in the real world. It’s only fitting, then, that such a film’s tie-in video game would also be one that goes against the grain.

On release in 2010, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction on Xbox 360 and PC saw good reviews and sales – more than one million overall - but it won over few new fans.

In 2011, McGee brought his interpretation of Wonderland back, this time for the Xbox 360, in Alice: Madness Returns.

“Are video games art?” This is a perennial argument, one with staunch advocates on both sides who are hard to sway. Naysayers, though, can be shown examples of art in video games that are hard to deny – such as the visuals of the sadly overlooked Child of Eden, released for Kinect in 2011.

After a lot of speculation, the latest instalment in the long-running blockbuster Call of Duty franchise was recently revealed – and it’s a reboot of the groundbreaking Modern Warfare series. However, the makers of the new game say it will be set in a new timeline, and the events of the original Modern Warfare trilogy will be re-written. So as to never forget the revolutionary series that paved the way for Call of Duty to become the best-selling shooter franchise of all time, this list charts five of the best missions - not individual moments, but complete missions – from the Modern Warfare series.