Games of the week – FIFA 21, Orangeblood, Monster Truck Championship and Star Wars: Squadrons
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Star Wars: Squadrons
Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Genre: First-person shooter
Price: £34.99
Feel the force of the pilot seat
If there’s any franchise fans desperately needed VR for it’s Star Wars, bringing to life the experience of flying in familiar ships and immersing in space combat. There’s nothing quite like looking around the cockpit and glancing out the window, while learning flying tricks and exploring the weapons at your disposal. If you can add a flight stick, even better. VR is only available on PS4 and PC, but the game still has plenty to offer without it. The addition of 5v5 first-person space combat is an added bonus, though not quite as exciting as the single player mode.
Skip to the end: An absolute must for Star Wars fans, especially in VR, offering engaging game play from a story-rich franchise.
Score: 8/10
FIFA 21
Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC
Genre: Sport
Price: From £54.99
Time for a change of management?
With a regular annual cycle, it’s increasingly hard for FIFA to differentiate from previous years in a meaningful way – perhaps bigger upgrades are being saved for the next-gen consoles? That doesn’t mean to say FIFA 21 isn’t great to pick up. Career mode is the biggest winner this year, with an interactive match sim option. There are also new features, such as Agile Dribbling, that provide more in depth play on the pitch, as well as Volta squads, a new way to join together with up to three friends or drop into the community with other Volta football players and win as one in 5v5 online cooperative play.
Skip to the end: FIFA clings on with limited new features but still plenty to keep die-hard players happy.
Score: 6/10
Monster Truck Championship
Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Genre: Racing
Price: £34.99
Trucking good
Chaotic destruction has never looked so good, but Monster Truck Championship makes it a reality. With five challenge types, ranging from a standard race, time-trial to set new time records, drag races against one other driver on a small section of the track, freestyle, as well as a destruction mode which rewards you for destroying every obstacle you can, there is plenty squeezed into this title. A choice of 25 circuits and 16 customisable trucks provide plenty of variety. The handling and physics are challenging yet accessible to get your head around.
Skip to the end: Big scale racing entertainment gets messy in a good way on Monster Truck Championship with loads packed in for replayability.
Score: 8/10
Orangeblood
Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
Genre: Role-playing game
Price: From £13.99
Stylish yet vanilla
Orangeblood describes itself as a JRPG – Japanese role-playing game – inspired by 90s hip-hop. The art and music are the two clear winners throughout this often frustrating tale mixed with cringe-worthy dialogue. You play Vanilla, a gang prisoner charged with a secret mission, who must assemble an all-women crew to escape the artificial island of New Koza. Developers have tried to spice combat up with so-called Action Points which serve as ammo, and Special Points allowing you to stock up for an even greater move, but overall combat is unbalanced and left us confused about where the game was heading.
Skip to the end: Ace style and music charm are not enough to hold Orangeblood up to the end – though the price is more appealing than most games currently on offer.
Score: 5/10
