The last few weeks I've been mulling over the idea of purchasing an Xbox One or PS4. I don't make a ton of time for playing games, but both consoles have lowered in price and have pretty large libraries to select from.

The only games I try to play on day one are on Nintendo consoles, so I do own a Switch and 3DS.

Anyway, I bought an Xbox One S today, on sale for $199 with Forza Horizon 3 bundled in. I've really missed playing the Forza games so I'm happy to have access to them again, I even ordered Forza 7 on Amazon to secure the 20% discount.

At any rate, I'm now racking my brain to remember some of the games along the way that I thought looked interesting. Are there any major standouts or hidden gems that you would recommend in particular?

I really enjoyed my time with Sunset Overdrive, probably my favourite xbox one exclusive.

If you have an Xbox One I would highly recommend Sunset Overdrive if you like open world games, Insomniac's crazy weapons, and traversal based mechanics. It got a bad rap because it has a tryhard sense of humor, and it's true that it's not nearly as funny as it thinks it is, but it is a joy to play and looks great, and has vastly more varied mission design than most openworld games.

You should also play Inside because it's a great spooky puzzle platformer (though stronger on atmosphere than on gameplay) and you should play DOOM because it's DOOM.

Beyond that, it really depends on your taste. There are LOADS of games on Xbox One so it's hard to recommend specific titles without knowing what you like. Looking for multiplayer? Overwatch and Rocket League are both great (though people are really good now.) I like Halo 5 a lot, though some people don't.

More of a roguelike fanatic? Enter the Gungeon, Flinthook, Rogue Legacy, and Ziggurat are all just aces in my book.

Prefer AA indies? Massive Chalice and Super Time Force are were both massive, super, successes in my opinion.

There's Wolfenstein the New Order and the Old Blood. There's Resident Evil 7 and Rise of the Tomb Raider.

There's just a ton of great stuff out there and if you don't have time to play a lot of games then you will definitely have to pick and choose carefully, so it all depends on your tastes.

Have Fun!

I guess I should mention, I'm not huge on multiplayer games. I will make an exception here and there.

Overwatch interests me, but I'm a little intimidated by it.

ps4 all the way, way more games, and way more games to come

xbox has made it clear this past year that they pretty much have 0 fresh ideas for single player experiences, and at one point they were pretty much ready to drop them all together. they cant be a trusted service if you like rpg's at least ...

Why do people post things like this in a thread about someone being excited for buying a new Xbox and wanting to know what to play? It's just such an unhelpful, unkind, attempt to crap all over someone's excitement with absolutely zero value. I don't understand it.

Most games this gen are on both PS4 and Xbox. If OP doesn't get a ton of time to play games (as he said) then his dance card will be plenty full regardless of what system he buys. And Forza Horizon 3 is an amazing game better than any racing game on PS4, so if he's into racing games it's a smart and reasonable choice.

Have you heard word of our lord and savior John 117? The Xbox One has all the Halo you could ever want. Actually, counting the Halo Wars: Definite Edition and Halo Reach in back-compat, it has all of the Halo.

UNTRUE!

I always thought it was weird they didn't put Strike on the Xbox One, since Assault is. It's not a huge deal, but it is technically a Halo game not on Xbox One!

For exclusives: the Forza Horizon games and Sunset Overdrive are great, plus any Halo you could want.

In terms of multiplatform: Far Cry 4, Firewatch, Valiant Hearts, Life is Strange, Metal Gear Solid 5, Stardew Valley, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Batman Arkham Knight.

I would say titanfall 2 if you haven't played it yet and Sunset Overdrive is a lot of fun.

Prey was also really good this year, if you're into bioshock/system shock type games and metal gear solid V has a ton of great content

@bigsocrates:

I'm assuming they just missed the part where I mentioned that I already purchased a console. I understand why someone would really push for PS4 over the Xbox, I was honestly close to going that route. But between having backwards compatible games I'd like to return to (don't have a 360 anymore), loving the Forza series, and mainly being drawn to non-exclusives, I decided to just go for whatever console went on sale first.

this is the only game I really ended up missing after I sold my xbox. That said, Forza hozirzon 3 is amazing! But i play it on pc ;)

I don't know if you like platformers, but I'm playing Ori and the Blind Forest and I'm having a great time with it.

Ori and the Blind Forest is a great metroidvania, be warned that the platforming is very hard at times.

Pit people (previously known as "game 4" from Behemoth) is still in early access, so the story only is about 3 hrs with more side missions. But it has online and local 2 player coop, which is rare for turn based strategy games. I bought the game ($15) when a friend was in town, and we really enjoyed the game. Goofy writing and strange mechanics, also on the easy side.

Xbox has some decent exclusives that were seen as disappointments at release. With patches and lower price points, they are interesting to consider visiting.

If you had xbox live gold in the past you might already have a lot of characters unlocked in Killer Instinct. So check that out. It has 3 seasons of characters and an ok single player mode (main complaint for the shadow lord mode is the business model is similar to free2play mobile stuff).

Recore Definitive Edition added new (glaringly missing) content and patched load times, making it a competent platformer. (Brad really liked the vanilla game until the end)

Quantum Break is a strange one. It's an interesting idea, but a lot of people ended up hating the 20 min TV cut scenes. Others swear by the game as underappreciated.

Zoo Tycoon is actually remembered fondly, but unfortunately had a building limit that players would hit far too early. The new "4k" version coming soon supposedly has no such limit, and new animals. So keep an eye on that for the holiday season.

Ryse is beautiful to look at, but the combat is somewhat repetitive. But if you are looking for a setting in Rome, or online 2 player coop, maybe take a look.

you can play....other forza games? that and the halo remasters are the only thing ive used my xbox for other than media server. plenty of multiplatform games though!

Here are some I don't think ppl have mentioned for your consideration:

• Hitman - if you like murder puzzle
• The Witcher 3 - if you want to just take in a world and its characters through your eyeballs for hours and hours
• Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag - if you want to see something once thought not possible, a good AC game
• Life is Strange - maybe you've already watched it on GB but I think it's still worth playing this melancholic teen drama
• Hyper Light Drifter - super cool world to explore with satisfying swift combat and perhaps one of the best soundtracks ever made for a game
• Abzu - it's a good laid back underwater scuba game

May I recommend:

• Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain* (*If you are up to the baggage that is the MGS series and a couple weird issues towards the end of the game): One of the best action/stealth/open world sandbox games ever made.
• Titanfall 2: I only played the campaign, but hey, that's a great campaign!
• Hitman: <Insert basically what everyone else says about this game>
• Life is Strange: This is easily my favorite "choices matter" style of adventure games. It's hella good.
• Overwatch: It seems like most of its legs are on PC, but dammit this game is great.

Sunset Overdrive is the main reason I bought an Xbox One, so I'd recommend that.

In addition to all of the above suggestions, maybe give the Game Pass free trial a shot. Seeing as you have not played a ton of recent games it may end up being a good value for you.

game pass is a great deal, i got recore definitive edition through it this month so im really looking forward to playing that.

crypt of the necrodancer! i've been playing that a bunch recently

every week there's a sale on xbox for digital games too

my first reply wasn't as helpful as it should be....when I go a game-hunting i usually go to a review site, filter by console, then descending by review score. I don't put a whole lot of stock in specific scores, but there will definitely be a general grouping of quality games at the top, and trash at the bottom. http://www.ign.com/reviews/games/xbox-one?sortBy=score&sortOrder=desc . anything that sounds interesting, throw on a GB quick look and see!