Chris Tapsell
Pok'mon Sword and Shield add some brilliant new creatures, but like their gargantuan Dynamax forms, the games feel like a hollow projection.
Competent strategy pastes flat-footed, surface-level sci-fi over a genre that lives and dies by its nuance.
Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled is a gold-standard remaster, capturing the loveably janky, off-brand spirit of classic CTR - and then some.
Ambitious and sometimes overwhelming, Three Kingdoms does a great job of capturing the complexity of China's vivid past.
The former Civ 5 director's long-running passion project is filled with nice ideas, but they never threaten to pull together.
Pok'mon's Switch debut deftly toes the line between returning fans and all-new ones, with a few small wobbles along the way.
Quality of life tweaks and vast depth can't overcome Football Manager 2019's uncharacteristically clumsy, all-consuming training rework.
Messy, boisterous, chaotic - Civilization 6: Rise and Fall is the antidote to the Enlightenment.
Pok'mon returns for a 3DS victory lap in this generous, definitive retelling of the Alolan story.
Dawn of War finally returns with a fascinating, if imperfect, twist on the modern RTS.