Gnomes Garden (Xbox One, 2018)

Gnomes Garden
Developed by SPL/Workroom7
Published by 8Floor
Released for Xbox One (10/2018)
Also on PC/PS4/Switch

Gnomes Garden shares much in common with real-time strategy games, featuring a similar 3/4 overhead perspective view with gameplay primarily consisting of gathering resources and using them to build/upgrade various structures. Unlike most real-time strategy games that feature vast, sprawling maps to explore, each of the scenarios in Gnomes Garden are limited to a single screen. A dry summer has withered up the king's beloved garden and all the other gardens in kingdom. Due to this the king has become ill and the land is in danger, so it's up to the gnome princess and her crew to help save the gardens and make the king better. It's a silly story and is only revealed through occasional text boxes, but it does enough to set up why you're gathering resources and restoring trees.

When you begin a stage in Gnomes Garden, you'll have command over a single worker gnome. You're unable to control the gnomes directly, though you can command them to perform specific actions by clicking on the appropriate spots on the screen. Clicking on a resource or building will send a gnome over to collect or construct what you've commanded them to. Buildings can be upgraded to level 3, which will boost the production of that building. Upgrading a worker house will give you additional worker gnomes (up to 3), allowing you to gather resources faster. Building a mage home will give you access to the sorceresses, who have the ability to deter large gnomes (who block pathways). Sorceresses can also sprout trees on designated dirt plots, though you'll need a fireman to get the tree to bloom (more on this in a bit).

There are four different resources to gather: food, stone, wood and crystals. Food, stone and wood serve as the basic building blocks for most structures and the crystals aid your sorceresses in performing special feats, such as removing a large troll from blocking your path. Certain levels also features trolls that walk around the pathways, slowing down your workers. The trolls will stay on the screen disrupting your workers until you've constructed a firehouse. The firehouse allows you to command the fireman to dismiss these annoying trolls. The firemen will also be used to water the trees that the sorceress can sprout, which means growing the trees are a 2-part process requiring both classes.

Gnomes Garden features 49 levels that cover four different terrains. On each stage you can earn up to a 3-star rating, which is rewarded for completing that stage within a certain time. Gameplay remains the same as you progress, though the game does mix it up occasionally by throwing in new structures to build like teleporters and signal fires. You'll have to use your worker, fireman and sorceress gnomes frequently, especially in later levels. Objectives are typically varied enough that no 2 levels feel exactly the same, though they are all undeniably a bit similar.

As you progress through the game, you will start to unlock special abilities. There are 3 of these in total, which can be used as often as you like, though their use is limited due to a cooldown between usage. The first ability you'll gain will speed up your workers, allowing them to zip around and gather resources faster for a limited time. The second ability allows you to speed up the building process, shaving valuable seconds off the time it takes to construct a new building. The third and final ability allows you to stop the clock for a brief period, making it a bit easier to finish certain stages in time to get a 3-star rating.

Gnomes Garden is a bit limited in the music department, as there's only one song that plays throughout the entirety of the game. While the song isn't terrible, you'll certainly grow tired of hearing it play endlessly and will want to put on your own soundtrack if you play through the whole game. There's not much as far as sound design is concerned, just the basic sounds you'd expect for stuff like chopping wood. There are helpful sound cues that indicate your special ability is charged or that a troll has wandered on-screen, so muting the game to listen to something else comes with a bit of a cost. There's an options menu that allows you to adjust the sound/music volumes and pointer sensitivity. While everything in Gnomes Garden is a bit small, the graphics are detailed enough that it's never difficult to tell what you're looking at. Presentation-wise, the game leaves a bit to be desired in the music/sound department but does okay when it comes to the graphics and menus.

Gnomes Garden isn't bad for what it is, which is a very linear resource management and building game. It's definitely something that wouldn't feel out of place on your cellphone, so if you'd like something you can pick up and play in short bursts you might like this one. There's something relaxing about the game and I enjoyed playing through it, but it's not something I'd ever come back to. There's also a little bit of challenge and replay incentive with the 3-star rating, plus the game sells for the meager price of $4.99.

Final Verdict: Gnomes Garden is a short and simple game where you gather resources, construct buildings and restore trees. While a bit basic, the game is fun for what it is.

Related Links:
Buy Gnomes Garden - Microsoft Store
Gnomes Garden - GameFAQs
Gnomes Garden - True Achievements
Gnomes Garden Achievement Guide - Xbox Achievements

Albedo: Eyes from Outer Space (Xbox One, 2016)

Albedo: Eyes from Outer Space
Developed by ZG40
Published by Merge Games
Released for Xbox One (1/20/2016)
Also on Mac/PC/PS4

Albedo: Eyes from Outer Space not only has an odd title, but is a strange game as well. The opening of the game proudly declares that the game was created by a single person, a dude named Fabrizio Zagaglia (ZG40). Albedo was originally released for PC & Macintosh in October 2014 and received a port to the PlayStation 4 & Xbox One in January 2016. Albedo: Eyes from Outer Space is an adventure game that looks to invoke a B-movie sci-fi vibe.

The game kicks off with a brief cutscene, showing you sitting at a desk as a watchman for some sort of facility. After watching a co-worker leave for the night, a sudden explosion occurs and you fall through the ground as it busts open. When the game starts proper, you find yourself down in the basement looking up a giant hole in the floor. Albedo's gameplay is a mix of puzzle and adventure. The game progresses by rooms and each room will have puzzles to solve, which will involve interacting with various objects you'll find scattered about. There will be some traveling back and forth between previous rooms, but for the most part the game is linear in progression.

Albedo takes place from a first-person perspective. Featuring detailed 3D-rendered environments, it's not a bad-looking game. Though it's certainly not a good-looking game either, as many of the environments have so much packed into small areas it can be a bit too busy, making it difficult to tell what you're looking at sometimes. While acceptable on a graphical level, the control department is where Albedo really starts to blunder. Items have to be accessed via a menu, then once you've selected an item you need to scroll through another menu to determine what you'd like to do with that item. The game doesn't pause to let you do this, causing for some frustrating combat where you'll have an enemy attacking you while you clumsily try to select an item then select the menu to attack with. It's quite clunky and I never really got a feel for it even towards the end of the game. The controls definitely could've been mapped out better.

Aledo is a rather short game, though unless you use a guide there will no doubt be several areas where you're unsure what to do. Without a guide, the game could last anywhere from 10-20 hours, though once you inevitably end up using a guide the game can be cleared within a few hours. The areas and rooms you'll explore aren't that memorable for the most part, but there were a few interesting sections. The outdoor section toward the end was a standout sequence, but much of what led up to that was easily forgettable.

Albedo allows you to adjust the difficulty of the puzzles and combat individually. When puzzles are set to easy, the objects you can interact with glow green, but even set on easy I still found myself struggling with the puzzles at points (more on this later). Adjusting the combat slider will make enemies tougher and deal more damage. As I've already addressed how bad the combat is in Albedo, you'll want to do yourself a favor and set this to easy.

Albedo started off at least somewhat promising, giving the impression it might be a solid puzzle/adventure game with a lot of weirdness. While the game definitely delivered in spades on the weirdness scale, whatever fun I had with the game completely vanished at the fourth room, which is a boiler room. After a bit of frustration trying to figure out what I was supposed to do, I had to resort to a guide. Even reducing the difficulty to make the puzzles easier didn't help, which speaks volumes to the non-sensical design of the puzzles. It's like the developer knew the puzzles were bad, giving you the ability to skip certain puzzles and having no repercussion on getting the achievements.

This was one of those games I couldn't wait to end; it was painful to play at times. The best part was getting that last achievement and uninstalling this from my hard drive. I consider myself a fan of both puzzle and adventure games, but this was easily among the worst of either genre I can recall playing. The puzzles are convoluted beyond belief and the game is buggy enough that sometimes required objects clip through walls and disappear, making certain parts un-completable.  Couple that with terrible voice-acting and clunky controls, Albedo is a game I can safely recommend you avoid. While the game is a relatively quick completion, there are much better ways to earn some easy gamerscore.

Final Verdict: Albedo: Eyes from Outer Space is a strange first-person action/adventure/puzzle title that has a few interesting ideas but is held back by a clunky interface, clumsy controls and nonsensical puzzles. I wouldn't even recommend this game to my worst enemy.

Related Links:
Buy Albedo - Microsoft Store
Merge Games - Official Site
Albedo - GameFAQs
Albedo - True Achievements
Albedo Achievement Guide - Xbox Achievements
Albedo Platinum Walkthrough - PlayStation Trophies

6180 the Moon (Xbox One, 2015)

6180 the Moon
Developed/Published by Turtle Cream
Released for Xbox One (12/11/2015)
Also on 3DS/Linux/Mac/PC/Switch/Wii U

6180 the Moon is a 2D platformer from Korean developer Turtle Cream. The sun has vanished and it's up to you, the moon, to navigate through 100 levels in your search to restore the sunlight. This one's a bit different than your standard game in this genre, as the moon jumps very high, all the way through the top of the screen and up through the bottom.

6180 the Moon is likely not going to grab you from the screenshots. Everything is very minimalist and the primary focus is just the gameplay. The graphics are basically just composed of basic shapes with stars in the background; it's a simple style but it works well here. The music is smooth and relaxing, which fits the game's overall mood and tone. Sound design is basic and unobtrusive. Presentation-wise, 6180 the Moon sports a minimalist aesthetic that works in its favor.

Similar to Atari 2600 titles of old, the top and bottom of the screen are interconnected. It's a minor difference from your standard platformer, but it gives 6180 the Moon a unique feel. It's a bit refreshing to not have to worry about dying when falling over the edge. It's not as if you can't die, as there are still hazards in the form of spikes and various objects you'll have to avoid, not to mention vanishing platforms.

Each set of levels is represented by a planet, with each planet containing 10 levels. There are 5 planets which you'll have to go through twice, making for a total of 100 levels. Once you reach the end, the sun advises you that it's waiting on you (the moon) to set and you need to go back to set things straight. So you go back through the game again, this time both in reverse order and upside down. It sounds much more difficult than it is, with the entire game only lasting 2-3 hours. A few stages can be a bit challenging, but nothing is too frustrating and they get back in the action quickly when you die.

6180 the Moon is a fun game for the hour or so it lasts, but due to the brief length you may want to wait on a sale before picking it up, though the $4 asking price is quite fair. Give it a look if you're into 2D platformers; it's a nice little game. There's an interesting bit of text at the end of the credit roll that says the following: "We're Korean. But we don't make games in Korean. Because the South Korea government thinks video games are social evils, just like drugs." Just wanted to make a note of that as I found it interesting and not you don't commonly see messages from the devs in the credits.

Final Verdict: 6180 the Moon is a fun 2D platformer where you can jump really high through to the other side of the screen. While short and a bit on the easy side, it's still a good time for platformer fans.

Related Links:
Buy 6180 the Moon - Microsoft Store
Platformers - Xbox Overview
Turtle Cream - Official Site
Video Gaming in South Korea - Wikipedia
6180 the Moon - GameFAQs
6180 the Moon - True Achievements
6180 the Moon Achievement Guide - Xbox Achievements

Black (Xbox, 2006)

Black
Developed by Criterion Games
Published by EA Games
Released for Xbox (2/28/2006)
Also on PS2
Backwards Compatible on Xbox 360/Xbox One

Black was developed by Criterion Games, most known at the time for the Burnout series, and was released in February 2005, a few months after the new Microsoft system the Xbox 360 was released. It seemed like an odd choice for EA Games to put this out for the older system. Regardless, Black serves as a graphical showcase for what the aging Xbox and PlayStation 2 hardware were capable of. Black featured several aspects of the world that were destructible, awesome sound design and impressive particle effects.

Black consists only of a single-player campaign mode which contains 8 missions. There's a decent variety between the stages, featuring a town, asylum, dockyard and bridge to name a few. The levels themselves are detailed for the time and feature an admirable amount of destructible objects in them. Levels are linear but leave a little room for exploration, though the path forward is never really difficult to find. Black's stages have a decent flow to them, but they typically just consist of go to a checkpoint, kill waves of enemies that spawn and then move to next checkpoint to do it again. To be fair, this is the case in most first-person shooters and Black is no exception. While the overall stage design is a tad generic, there are a few standout levels like the bridge and the finale at the gulag as quite memorable.

There's some kind of story to follow along with in Black, but it's a bit convoluted and tough to keep up with. You play as a black ops operative in Chechnya, Russia. The story is revealed in cutscenes before each level, featuring full-motion video showing clips of the interrogation. Our character is a veteran who is being threatened with imprisonment unless he cooperates with the interrogator. There's some stuff about an arms smuggling/terrorist group called the Seventh Wave, which are the guys you'll be killing by the hundreds. While the story is a bit confusing, the cutscenes are well-produced and they don't get in the way of the action.

The weapon selection in Black is quite standard, but Criterion Games did a good job making each weapon feel different and fun to use. For handguns you have the G17 and the DC3 Elite, the only fictional gun in Black that is comparable to a Desert Eagle. For assault rifles, there's the AK47, G36C and M16. The M249 SAW sits as the only light machine gun in the game. Then for sub-machine guns you have the MP5, Uzi and P90. Rounding out the weapons cast are the two specialty guns, the sniper rifle (Walther 2000) and the RPG. You can only carry up to 2 guns at a time so there's a bit of strategy in deciding which weapons work best in certain scenarios, but unfortunately the game chooses which guns you start each level with, so the available arsenal is limited to what the enemies on that particular stage are carrying.

For the most part, the weapons feel good to fire. There's some nice, beefy gunfire sounds and the particle effects and damage when bullets hit surfaces is quite impressive. The recoil is a bit crazy on some of the automatic weapons, but once you get used to burst-firing it's not so bad. I wound up using the MP5 for the majority of the game, because ammo was plentiful due to most soldiers dropping it and the recoil is minimal compared to the other guns in the game. There are definitely situations suited for the shotguns and sniper rifles, providing a bit of variety to the weapons effectiveness. There's an effect where the camera focuses on your gun when you reload and the background blurs out while you insert a new clip. While I'm sure this was impressive at the time, it quickly became a bit annoying and was definitely not necessary. At the very least, an option to toggle the blur off would have been welcome.

Enemy design is not one of Black's strong points, but it gets the job done. You'll face off against countless grunts, most wielding SMGs but some will be equipped with an M249, sniper rifle or rocket launcher. There's the heavily-armored shotgun soldier, who will rush in to get close and will get back up again before dying. There's also riot-shield soldiers who can be a real pain, but can be taken out quick with a frag grenade. Enemies are often content with just ducking in and out of cover, but the shotgun and riot shield guys will close in on your position, adding some intensity to the firefights.

There's a bit of replay value in Black, with multiple difficulties and some unlockable modes. Playing on normal or up will reveal additional objectives for each level that aren't present on easy, similar to how games like Goldeneye 007 and Perfect Dark did. There's added objectives for the toughest difficulty for a nice boost in challenge. If you clear the game on normal or hard with all objectives completed you will unlock silver weapons, granting you unlimited ammo. Completing the game on hard will also unlock black ops mode for players who want an extra challenge.

Back in its day, Black was a rock-solid FPS game and a technical marvel for the aging consoles it released for. There were many times while playing this I could have easily mistaken the game for an early Xbox 360 title; it really looks that good. The gameplay hasn't aged as well as the graphics, unfortunately, and Black feels a bit more sluggish than your standard FPS. The already slow aiming and movement isn't helped by the fact that there's no sprint button, so movement in general just feels a bit slower when compared against other FPS titles. The cutscenes that play before each level are un-skippable the first time through, a minor annoyance but I thought it was worth mentioning. While the guns feel good to use, there is a  bit of a lack of variety when it comes to the enemy and stage design. Black is far from a perfect shooter and hasn't aged the most gracefully, but there's still some fun to be had running around blasting bad guys with the various weaponry.

Black would receive backwards-compatible support on both the Xbox 360 and the Xbox One. On the Xbox 360, it's one of the titles known to run more or less error-free, which is a bit rare for Xbox backwards-compatible games on that system. The game looks great running on an Xbox One X and I didn't experience any issues while playing through the game on that console. I did notice tears in destructible objects likely due to the resolution enhancement, but it was by no means a game-breaker.

A sequel to Black was planned and would have come out for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, but was cancelled due to differences between the developers and publisher EA Games. Bodycount, which was released for the Xbox 360 in 2011, is considered to be the spritiual successor to Black. Bodycount was developed by Guildford Studio, which  was made up of several of the developers that worked on Black. I don't have Bodycount yet, but I'd be interested in taking a look at that one on the site sometime.

Final Verdict: Black is a solid, action-packed single-player first-person shooter. While it hasn't necessarily aged the best and feels a bit slow at first, once you warm up to it Black is still a fun time.

Purchase Links:
Buy Black (Digital) - Microsoft Store
Buy Black (Disc) - eBay

Related Links:
Criterion Games - Xbox Overview
FPS Games - Xbox Overview
Criterion Games - Official Site
Electronic Arts - Official Site
Black - GameFAQs

Alternate EU/JP Cover

Minit (Xbox One, 2018)

Minit
Developed by Jan Nijman, Kitty Calis, Jukio Kallio and Dominik Johann
Published by Devolver Digital
Released for Xbox One (4/3/2018)
Also on Linux/Mac/PC/Mobile/PS4/Switch

Developed by a small indie team and released in 2018 for the Xbox One, the concept of Minit is that you only have 60 seconds to live. There's a timer up in the top-left and when it runs out, your character drops dead on the spot due to some kind of funky curse placed on you. If you enjoy speed-running games, then you're likely going to love Minit. If you like to explore and take your time in your action-adventure games, then perhaps the mechanic sounds more irritating than interesting. Personally, I'm usually more of the latter but I came into Minit with an open-mind and I wound up enjoying the game quite a bit.

Minit's presentation is very basic. The game sports some basic pixel art with only black and white as the colors, with characters that remind me a bit of  those old Tomagatchi creatures, especially this one. It's a simplistic look that serves the simple gameplay well. Sound effects are well done and all characters have their own person speaking their gibberish. While basic, the graphics serve their purpose well and you can tell what everything is supposed to be at a glance which is not always the case with pixel art.

Gameplay-wise, Minit borrows a lot from the old Legend of Zelda titles. The action is viewed from an overhead perspective and the screens change when you hit the borders, rather than scroll. As you explore you'll find NPCs to talk to which will usually yield a fetch quest to complete. You'll find several useful items that will grant you the necessary abilities to progress further into the game. Items in Minit are things like the sword (lets you fight), coffee (lets you push boxes), gardening gloves (break trees with your sword) and a few others.

You'll also encounter enemies that you'll have to fight with your sword. Combat is basic (1-button to hit) and easy to use. As you travel along you'll find new homes, which will serve as a checkpoint of sorts. Once you enter into one of the "home" buildings, you set that to be your next spawn point upon your next inevitable death. It's a cool system and makes it possible to explore further out into the map as you fight against the strict time limit. The game will likely take anywhere from 2-6 hours to complete, shorter if you're using a guide of course.

Upon completing the game for the first time, you'll unlock 2 new game modes: second run and Mary's mode. Second run adds some difficulty to many of the screens in addition to giving you only 40 seconds each life as opposed to the 60 you got the first time. Mary's mode is interesting, where you play as the ghost Mary (who is an NPC you can meet in the first playthrough) and are no longer constricted by any kind of time limit. I enjoyed Mary's mode as it allows you to explore at your own pace and play the game like your more traditional adventure title, rather than rushing through everything in the main game. Both of these game modes are nice additions and add some extra replay value to what would otherwise be a super short game.

Minit is definitely an interesting take on the action/adventure genre with a speedrunning element incorporated. While the constant time limit could have easily been a frustrating mechanic, Minit features some solid map design and the solution is never too difficult to find. There's not much out there like it, other than Half-Minute Hero off the top of my head, so if you like this one you may want to check that one out too. Those into speed-running and/or old-school Legend of Zelda-style adventure games will surely find something to like in Minit.

Final Verdict: If you're a fan of speed-running and/or classic action-adventure games, Minit combines them both to deliver a unique experience.

Related Links:
Buy Minit - Microsoft Store
Jan Willem Nijman - Twitter
Devolver Digital - Official Site
Minit - Official Site
Minit - Hardcore Gaming 101
Minit - GameFAQs
Minit Achievement Guide - Xbox Achievements
Minit - True Achievements

Old Man's Journey (Xbox One, 2019)

Old Man's Journey
Developed/Published by Broken Rules
Released for Xbox One (3/4/2019)
Also on Mac/Mobile/PC/PS4/Switch

Old Man's Journey was developed by Vienna-based indie studio Broken Rules and has been ported to numerous platforms since its initial inception. Originally released in May 2017, Old Man's Journey made its debut on PC, Macintosh and mobile devices (Android/iOS). In 2018 the game would see ports for both the Switch and the PlayStation 4 before finally ending up on Xbox One in March 2019.

In the game you take control of an old man, going for a journey and reminiscing about the good old days as you stop to savor life along the way. One interesting aspect about the game is that despite the fact there is no spoken or written dialogue of any sort, the devs did a good job conveying a story you'll piece together from the just the visuals. Being an old man, the game has a laid-back pace to it and the puzzles aren't too taxing on the brain, allowing you to play through the game at your own pace with minimal frustrations. Old Man's Journey features a painted-art style to the graphics and the amount of animation put into this game is quite impressive, especially on the main character.

As you guide the old man along his journey, you'll traverse from one screen to the next, solving puzzles and reminiscing upon times of days past. The puzzles involve grabbing and manipulating the hills in the background (by moving them up and down) in order to create a path for your character to move onward. There's some nice variety throughout, but the puzzles all involve grabbing and manipulating chunks of land. One stand out sequence has the old man riding along in a train, requiring you to slide various track and bridge pieces into place to create a path for the train. At the end of each chapter, the old man will witness something that sparks some nostalgia and you'll get to view him daydreaming about his earlier years. The game features 15 chapters and will likely only take 1-3 hours to complete.

While Old Man's Journey is a brief experience, I enjoyed my time with it and would easily recommend it to anybody who likes a laid-back adventure/puzzle game. The story packs a lot of charm and the graphical style is simply beautiful. The short game length makes it an ideal title to load up on and play-through on a lazy weekend. These kind of titles are great to play while on Game Pass (which was on the service at the time of this writing) or else wait for a sale to get the most for your buck.

Looking at the user reviews for Old Man's Journey reveals a large number of negative reviews, all based on the fact that the game flashes up the "Permissions Needed" screen when you first load it up. Several of these reviewers clearly state that they never actually played the game after disagreeing to the permissions screen, which hopefully the people reading those reviews take into account. I'm not 100% sure why this particular title requests permissions, but I can assure you that agreeing to this statement is not going to submit any kind of revealing information about you to the developers. At most they can see your stats, friends list, achievements and that kind of general Xbox Live stuff. Read more about the permissions request here.

Final Verdict: Old Man's Journey is an adventure/puzzle game that doesn't last too long, but has a beautiful art-style and a story with some charm that makes it worth a look for those seeking a laid-back adventure.

Related Links:
Buy Old Man's Journey - Microsoft Store
Apps/Games Requesting Permissions - Xbox Overview
Broken Rules - Official Site
Old Man's Journey - GameFAQs
Old Man's Journey - True Achievements
Old Man's Journey Achievement Guide - Xbox Achievements

Apps/Games Requiring Permission on Xbox One

Apps/Games Requiring Permission on Xbox One

If you're a frequent Xbox One user, chances are you've loaded up a game or an app at some point and been greeted with a screen stating that permission is needed to continue. This can be a bit alarming at first, but it's actually harmless.


Here's the exact message that pops up:

"Permission Needed
Game/App needs your permission to:

Access your Xbox Live profile information and associated date, and sign you in to its services: App/Game will be able to access basic properties about your Xbox Live profile including your gamertag, friends list, activity, stats and rankings, settings and content you share. Learn more at aka.ms/datasharing.

Accepting these permissions means that you allow this app to use your data as specified in their terms of service and privacy statement. The publisher has not provided links to their terms for you to review. You can change these permissions at https://microsoft.com/consent.
Only accept if you trust the publisher."


A couple of key phrases to note are that the publisher won't let you see whatever terms you're blindly agreeing to and the part where it says to only accept if you trust the publisher. I thought this was Microsoft's job to make sure everybody releasing content on their marketplace is reputable, not the consumers. With so many releases coming out so quick, my guess is that it's just too much to keep up with at this point. So there are some instances where I might be a little hesitant to accept these, particularly with games from the Creators Collection or apps. Games from the Microsoft Store should be fine and I haven't encountered or heard of anything bad happening to anyone, but I can understand why one would be hesitant.

Really though it doesn't really seem like that big of a deal unless you're the type that likes to keep your Xbox date private. If any of your info is going to be shared, it'll be harmless stuff like your achievements and activities, nothing confidential like your pay or account login information. I've noticed reviews on some of the games that feature this disclaimer, with several reviewers stating that they didn't even play the game due to the paranoia of accepting these permissions. I'm willing to be these same people use Facebook and/or a mobile device, which no doubt tracks more information about you than your Xbox ever will. At the very least, pick the right things to be paranoid about!

One final reason these screens often pop-up is if the game is a "Play Anywhere" title, which are games that play across both PC and Xbox One. Check and see if the title giving you the disclaimer is a "Play Anywhere" game and if it is then you've likely found the reason. These are simply asking you if the data can be shared between PC and the Xbox One, though due to the wording I can understand how some people freak out.
Related Links:
Third Party Data Sharing - Xbox
Change Permissions - Microsoft