New Xbox One owner here! What are your recommendations for me?

Hi everyone - Happy New Year. :-)

Now that I've spent a bit of time here, I think I pretty much fit into the Manticore club on GameSpot (as I understand it, this is the gamer who pretty much appreciates everything and loves games in general, regardless of brand).

I say this because in the previous console generation, I had a Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3 - and in that generation, the Xbox 360 was my most played console by far.

In this gen, it's been different. I picked up a Wii U on launch, and I also snagged a PS4 pretty early on. So far, the PS4 has definitely been my most-played console by a pretty wide margin. I absolutely love it, and I'd say it's one of my favourite consoles of all time at this point.

I never picked up the Xbox One, partly because it just didn't seem to have the exclusives that the 360 had, and I wasn't going to get it for multi-platform releases. But I definitely felt that there was a gap in my collection, so just a couple of days ago, I went out and picked up an Xbox One S.

I won't provide full impressions of it here, but I will say that I grabbed a few games to start off my Xbox One collection:

• Sunset Overdrive
• Ori and the Blind Forest
• Rare Replay

I feel like these were pretty good starting choices! I love all of them; Sunset Overdrive is absolutely nuts, in the best possible way. It reminds me of Jet Set Radio (which is one of my favourite games), but with far better mechanics and more interesting gameplay. I even like the cheesy self-referential humour! :P

Ori and the Blind Forest is absolutely gorgeous and I'm thoroughly enjoying it so far.

And Rare Replay is simply great from a value perspective! So many awesome games in a single bundle. I'm looking forward to diving deeper into the collection over the next couple of weeks.

As you can see, I'm trying to take advantage of Xbox One's uniqueness - I'm really interested in the exclusives, the games you just can't find anywhere else.

I know there are a lot of people out there who appreciate the Xbox One, so my question to you is: what Xbox One exclusive games would you recommend for a new Xbox One owner?

Thanks in advance for your recommendations. I'm keen to read about what you're enjoying the most. :-)

Edit: I should add...don't worry about genres and stuff. I love great games, and I don't really care much about the genre - feel free to recommend whatever you like best.

It might sound like a cliché but Id say skyrim and final fantasy xv.

Also gears of war 4 and forza horizon 3.

Halo 5.

Nice 3 choices to start. I also liked:

Rise of the Tomb Raider, Recore, and Killer Instinct. I'm pretty sure Quantum break is good and i've been waiting for that price to drop.

Of course the gears of war games, Halo, and Forza games are all really good too.

I'm normally a Sony/PS guy.... but i'm really liking the Xbox experience on the Xbox one. I had an awful experience with 360, but the xbox has done a 180 imo. From the interface, controller, games, i've been very satisfied. Now the only question i have is if Xbox can keep up their momentum this spring/summer pre-scorpio. Looks like Microsoft has some good games in the 1st and 4th quarter of 2017, but not much in the middle.

Hmmm...Ori and Rare Replay but you already have that.

Some others you should check out:

1. Halo games (Halo Wars: Def edition, Halo 5, Halo MCC, etc)
2. GeoW games (GeoW Remaster and GeoW 4)
3. Forza games (the main series and the Horizon arcade spin offs)

Thanks for you recommendations, they're very appreciated.

@atomolog: I actually already have Skyrim and Final Fantasy XV (both on PS4). I just finished Final Fantasy XV, but I have to admit, it might take me a while to get back into Skyrim - after spending so long on the original, I'm not sure that I'm ready to jump back in yet (despite buying the remaster...ugh, I couldn't help it!) I'm definitely more interested in the stuff that is exclusive to Xbox One. :-)

@The-Butcher248: Interesting that you mention ReCore. That seemed to get very mixed reviews. Do you mind telling me a bit more about it? What you liked/disliked? When I saw the original trailer I thought it looked really promising - I love the art style and the overall concept. I'm just a bit hesitant to dive in with that one based on the reviews.

Yes, I'll start by saying it's not a perfect game... and i'd probably rate it a 7.5 out of 10. It clearly had potential to be a 9 or 10/10... But overall it's I thought it was a fun action/platformer, even with it's flaws. I really liked the platforming, which is probably the best platformer this year. It's a interesting open world, and you explore / unlock new areas. The combat is good. Upgrading the robots is fun. What i didn't like.... the difficulty and grinding felt a bit off. I actually didn't beat the game even... because i knew the last 10-20% of the game wasn't worth it to me. I sold the game a week or two after launch, and actually repurchased it around black friday.... so i'll go back. Towards the end, you make you collect all these orbs to advance (grind) and really didn't want to put the time/effort into it at the time. That was my only complaint. The minor tech difficulties were a non-issue for me. There were some tough bosses too, but not impossible. I'd recommend it too, bc now you can get it new for like 20$ if you watch the sales or less used. I pretty much agree with the IGN review, other than the technical flaws with the xbox one.

So i wouldn't run out and grab the game ASAP, as i'm sure there are probably some higher rated games... but i think it's def worth giving it a shot.

Personally I loved Ryse: Son of Rome, it's a graphical game, fun to play with a friend online and the story, even though it is not 100% historically true is still fun to play.

If you loved Sunset Overdrive you might like the unserious over the top Saints Row 4 as well.

For diversity, get an EA acces account, Fun shooter Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare (1&2), serious shooters Battlefield 4 and Hardline, Mirror's Edge Catalyst, Star Wars Battlefront, Unraveled, Need for Speed Rivals and NFS 2016, that's beside the ridiculous amount of sports games you'll also get.

Congrats on the pickup! New hardware is always so exciting :)

My personal recommendations to add to what you have would be...

• Master Chief Collection - So many classics remasted in one package.
• ReCore - Flawed but extremely fun, you can tell the game was rushed, but the gameplay is great and endearing, it feels like an old school game that you'd wake up exciting to play on Christmas day as a kid or something. It definitely feels incomplete, but what is there is great fun. I'd recommend getting it when it's on sale.
• Forza Horizon 3 - I'm not a racing sim fan at all, much more of a mario kart person, but Forza Horizon 3 is my favorite racer of all time. It's just arcadey enough to be fun and forgiving while still giving you intense racing, plus there is a TON of fun content. You're just as likely to dragrace through the city as you are to sprint down the highway, tear through the outback, race through a foggy haunted forest to get to a haunted house before the time runs out, or drive the warthog down the beach to find the silent cartographer in time. It's an amazing game everyone should play, even at full price its a bargain.

@djura: If it isn't too much extra cost I'd probably trade Skyrim for PS4 in to get it on the X1. The PS4 version is extremely limited in terms of mods due to Sonys restriction to only use assets on the disc. Xbox is a lot more mod friendly and has a bunch of really awesome mods for the game that add new playable areas and everything. Look up Forgotten City, Falskaar, and Cutting Room Floor mods, all only playable on Xbox and PC. There are several other really big mods for the game as well that add new areas to explore, new enemies, new spells, etc.

I also liked ReCore, agree with the 75/100 score others have given the game. You'll have a lot of fun, just that about 2/3rds through the difficulty will spike real quickly, you'll get your ass handed to you w/out warning in the shifting sands. I also liked pretty much all the previously mentioned games plus Dead Rising 4 and Quantum Break. Also really looking forward to Sea of Thieves(entering beta soon) and Crackdown.

Every X1 owner owes it to themselves to have MCC as part of their library. So that's my 2 cents.

Oh man. You guys are so awesome! Thanks for the detailed and thoughtful posts. <3

@The-Butcher248: Thanks for that. I can see what you mean in terms of it being worth trying out but not necessarily urgently. Like you, I hate needless grinding - especially in a platformer. Having to do last-minute collectathons really irks me. That said, I'll look at the pricing...if it's fairly cheap on the store over here (Australia), I might pick it up.

@mmonsterd: Hm, I'll have a look at Ryse. I don't know much about it, admittedly.
I am not sure about getting an EA Access account, just because I currently have both PS Plus and Xbox Live Gold. That said, I'm kind of interested in checking out Mirror's Edge: Catalyst - but if it's better on PS4, I'll get that version. With Xbox One, I'm mostly interested in the system exclusives. :-)

@WreckEm711: Yes, agreed! Although I'm a bit of a collector, I always love getting a new console (even a new old console...haha). :P
Thanks for your great recommendations. I am kind of tempted to try Forza Horizon 3 now...the fact that it's set in my home country is a bit of a bonus, too, as I'm familiar with all the locations (and there aren't many games set in Australia...).

Also, as you're the second person to suggest I check out ReCore, I might jump on the store tonight and see how much it is.

@suicidesn0wman: Oh yeah! About the mods...geeze, I got Skyrim before I really thought about getting an Xbox One. Honestly, it was a bit of an impulse buy. The problem is that I got the digital version from PSN! Ouch. :-\ Otherwise, I really like your recommendation. The Xbox One version just has so much more to offer I think. Sigh.

I'm really psyched about Sea of Thieves and Crackdown! These look like great reasons to jump in at the moment. I can imagine spending ages in both games, especially with the online component.

As for Dead Rising 4 - what are your impressions of it? Honestly, I only played the very first game. I liked it enough, but it got a bit boring and repetitive for me. I haven't played any of the sequels. Is DR4 a good point to dive back in? Is there more variety than in the original game now? It sort of felt like the original game was an experiment and they didn't quite know what direction to take.

@SecretPolice: Thanks for that - I own Halo 3, Reach, and Halo 4 on Xbox 360 and I loved all of them. I played a bit of the original, and (I think) I finished Halo 2 although I never owned it. It looks like the issues with online are now fixed with MCC as well, so I might pick that up.

@djura: I think Dead Rising 4 is a great game for someone to pick up and have a blast without needing to know much about the history of Dead Rising. I would say I was similar in that I never played Dead Rising 2, though I did play a 3 for a few hours. Overall I liked the changes to the series, the game actually has a pretty fun and humorous story to it, and the co-op is pretty fun as well. The crazy weapons you can build just add to the hilarity of the game, at one point I built a weapon that i think was supposed to be like a magic wand, basically wave it at a group of enemies and they turn into gigantic christmas decorations.

One thing I didn't like was the forced replay on co-op in order to open new levels, plus progress is lost between them. It's basically 4 episodes, 2 missions each, but you have to successfully complete 8 missions to unlock episode 2. I think this is to make up for the fact there are only 4 episodes and you can beat all 4 in a single day. Even so, the missions tend to vary a bit, doesn't seem to repeat the objectives all that often, and it's a blast mowing through enemies with the crazy weapons you can find/build. One thing lost in co-op that my friends and I didn't appreciate was that you can no longer change your clothes in co-op, only in single player. So while Frank West can dress up as Ryu from Street Fighter, the co-op characters can not. I'm hopeful this gets patched in later because it can be pretty hilarious mowing down zombies in style.

I did beat the game a few weeks ago, haven't gotten to Episode 4 of co-op yet though. I didn't like the ending much, but I still really enjoyed the game. I'd say its an 85-90 out of 100. I still haven't settled on a final score for my review.

If you enjoy racers, definitely try to pick up Forza Horizon 3. While the previous titles were very good in their own rights, FH3 introduced 4 player coop campaign for the first time and is bigger and better than any previous Forza title imo. It's pretty much the best racing game I've ever played, so if you enjoy racers you should check it out.