Deceptively technical and tricky to master, Monster Energy Supercross 3 is a modest but solid two-wheeled racer.
Need for Speed Heat is a mosaic of existing ideas but it is easily the most impressive Need for Speed game in years.
Grid is way too lean on tracks but delivers its hyperbolic brand of Hollywood-style racing with style and confidence.
F1 2019 is a very, very good game – the best F1 game to date – but it definitely doesn't always seem like a new game.
Forza Horizon 4: LEGO Speed Champions is the freshest twist on LEGO games in ages, but it's not as wild as Hot Wheels.
Ape Out is an intoxicating fusion of percussion and destruction that oozes style from every angle.
Dirt Rally 2.0 is as tricky to tame as its predecessor but doing so is as satisfying as ever.
Forza Horizon 4: Fortune Island is a great expansion with some of the best stretches of road in the series to date.
Forza Horizon 4: Fortune Island is a great expansion with some of the best stretches of road in the series to date.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is a game of rare quality; a meticulously polished open world ode to the outlaw era.
I'll always have a massive soft spot for the down under delights of Forza Horizon 3, but open-world racing has never looked as good as it does in Forza Horizon 4. It combines a beautiful world that's really four hugely distinct maps in one with a constantly rewarding and self-renewing racing experience and I really can't tear myself away from it. Playground Games hasn't just upped the ante once again; it's blown the bloody doors off.
The improvements to F1 2018 since the already-impressive F1 2017 are largely incremental and often very subtle – and there are still a few areas where it's openly coasting on previous efforts – but F1 2018 features the finest handling and force feedback for a dedicated F1 game to date, some welcome visual improvements, and a career mode that does a better job than ever at capturing the nuances of the world's most-popular motorsport.
The Crew 2 is big, confident, and stuffed with arcade racing action but it's an uneven and unfinished package.
Gravel is a game displaced. It's a competent and occasionally pretty pick-up-and-play arcade racing game at its core, but it has the whiff of a game released in the wrong era – a scent it just can't shake. A 2018 rendition of '90s ambition. Gravel certainly channels the spirit and straightforward simplicity of Milestone's own 1997 arcade off-roader Screamer Rally but it has no unique hook for today's audience; no over-the-top arcade pizazz that folks will still be discussing 10 or 15 years down the track. It's functional and fun enough in small bursts, but arcade racers have come a long way over the past two decades and Gravel doesn't bring any new ideas to the paddock.
WRC 7 doesn't unseat Codemasters' Dirt 4 as this year's premier rally game, but it definitely continues Kylotonn's upward trajectory in the genre.
Need for Speed Payback is a big, competent, and confident arcade racer but it's really let down by its linear cop chases, its overwrought and insidious upgrade system, its dreadful dialogue, and its superficial action sequences. It feels fine and it looks flashy, but Payback really went all-in on its direct-to-DVD revenge tale and it was a bust for me.
In many ways, GT Sport is the most polished Gran Turismo game in over a decade. It looks great, feels great, and what's here has been carefully and well executed. However, while I can forgive the sprinkling of eccentric nonsense, the lack of car and track content really hurts, and the online-only nature of the vast majority of it is worrying. Overall it just isn't as complete as its key competitors.
Microsoft pitched Forza Motorsport 7 as the ultimate automotive playset, and it's hard to argue otherwise. With enough cars to fill a dozen museums and the most generous selection of tracks to date in the series, the amount of driving, experimenting, and racing here is absolutely mammoth. Accessible as always for beginners but crammed with content targeted at lifelong car junkies, Forza Motorsport 7 is Turn 10's finest love letter to speed and style this generation, no matter what language you speak.
Project CARS 2 plays like a pumped-up version of the classic TOCA Race Driver 3 from 2006, redressing many of the complaints levelled at the original. The handling has been tuned to a T, the content is excellently curated, and the amount of variety and racing available in it is delightfully daunting.
F1 2017 isn't light years ahead of the already very good F1 2016 but the new cars, retro content, and the juiced-up career mode make a very strong case for the upgrade, and I really appreciated the enhanced force feedback on a wheel. Rich with details and faithful to just about everything that makes contemporary F1 tick, F1 2017 is about as good a simulation of a single, modern motorsport as you can get.