While there's plenty of light-hearted arcade fun to be had with this title, and despite the sizable helping of modes and content, somehow, the gameplay experience itself just seems a little bland and hollow. There's some real challenge in the latter parts of the single-player offerings, yet far before one reaches that point, there's a real chance players will be day-dreaming of more colourful variations of the theme, such as SSX Tricky or, more recently, Steep. Snow Moto Racing Freedom is a fairly decent package, but it's also not particularly polished or distinct. Future entries should address the dodgy central physics issues and general lack of personality.
Milestone is capable of and has produced drastically better and more authentic racers in the past. As previously indicated, those gems also tend to be the games that received the most breathing space.
The knock-on effect the game's various problems is a somewhat hollow driving experience overall. WRC 6 is valiant in terms of its content and its knowledge of rallying, and fans of the sport and of the genre will find an enjoyable package here. However, the simple reality is that this year fans are spoilt for rallying games and there are many better experiences to be had. It targets neither DiRT Rally, on the sim-side of the spectrum, nor the more all-encompassing, centre of the road experiences such as Sebastien Loeb Rally Evo. The result is a somewhat diluted rallying title with plenty of substance, but less than ideal execution. This is yet another driving series that needs to go back to its roots.
Football Manager 2019 Touch is a fantastic package, that makes just enough incremental improvements to the UI, and the general flow and functionality of the experience, that fans who enjoyed and got plenty of mileage out of last year's edition, will be tempted to update. For newcomers to the series, there couldn't be a better time to jump in. The Touch series knows how to mediate the overwhelming nature of the experience, with a friendlier interface and some hand-holding that helps level out the initial complexity. With that said, the most avid of fans, who play the PC releases religiously, may find the spirit of this experience to be too watered-down. It really depends on whether they can tolerate the compromises, which have been made for the sake of functionality and accessibility, particularly with newcomers in mind. Overall, Football Manager 2019 Touch provides hundreds of hours of football strategy fun.
Overall, Overcooked! 2 - Surf 'n' Turf is a fantastic dessert for players already full on the core experience. Its island theme is a refreshing aesthetic contrast to the main game, with brighter and more vibrant visuals and a soothing island resort soundtrack. Not only this, it conjures some interesting new mechanics. The managing of barbeques with bellows creates even more time management chaos. Also, the addition of the water pistol, used to extinguish fires and spray the dishes clean from afar, adds a new layer of freedom, teamwork, and versatility. At a meagre price, Surf 'n' Turf brings a lot more to the table than might be expected. It may only be a handful of stages, but they are well-crafted and provide a challenge that fans will salivate over. This sets very high standards for the future inbound DLC of Overcooked 2. Get your island gear on!
Overall, V-Rally 4 is quite a decent experience that is no blemish on the legacy of the old series. It's pleasing on the eye, features a good amount of discipline contrast, and the split-screen multiplayer is great fun. Fans of the series will feel at home with the handling model, which recaptures the feel and behaviour of the original in a new modern context with surprising success. It's not a sim-heavy experience, but it is an appropriate challenge that asks more of the player than the average arcade rally affair does. The car list is lacking in terms of modern options, but existing fans will have a soft spot for the classics on offer. It's just a shame that the career mode fails to distinguish itself, and the online multiplayer is sparsely populated. Any future iterations will need to be more inventive, but V-Rally 4 is a surprisingly fun throwback.
Pro Evolution Soccer 2019 is solid enough in its footballing fundamentals, but it seems to have regressed in terms of its polish and immersion. Picking up nine more minor league licences is a consolation, but now that football games have reached a point of extreme high fidelity, with lifelike player models and animations, the fickle issues of its lack of aesthetic consistency is more jarring than ever. With the loss of the Champions League licence, it might have been expected that Konami would nurture the neglected elements of the series, such as the Master League, and the sloppy presentation and online connectivity issues. That doesn't seem to have happened, though. Consequently, it's difficult to sing the praises of the core gameplay as much as last year. That's especially the case as the AI isn't as sensible as it was previously, with too many reckless challenges and questionable keeper decisions. PES 2019 underperforms, despite its quality.
F1 2018, unsurprisingly, is better than last year's outing. There are no drastic overhauls to speak of, but thanks to another array of tweaks and minor additions, it's the best F1 title to date. Its biggest strength is in the single-player domain. The career mode features a lot of unique elements, like the R&D skill-tree, which can't be found elsewhere, and it successfully approximates what it's like being a championship-pursuing Formula 1 driver. However, in terms of its fundamentals, despite the improvements to AI behaviour, the force feedback, and advanced elements such as tyre-degradation, this remains too much of a work-in-progress. F1 2018 will likely test the patience of the sim-racing side of its audience, who have increasingly high standards. Ultimately, whilst being drip-fed improvements in incremental fashion, it seems unlikely that Codemaster's F1 franchise will make any grand leaps towards meeting the lofty standards set by dedicated racing simulators.
Antigraviator gets a lot of things right.
Forgotton Anne is a unique and strikingly cinematic experience, which makes a valiant attempt to unify the finesse of anime films with interactive gameplay.
In conclusion, the Fun Pack for Project Cars 2, the first of four content packages making up the season pass, is a solid offering. There's no doubt that Rally and Rallycross fans will be over the moon with the additions here.
While serious sim-racers tend to have quite specific interests, and will probably make the purchase with one itch in mind to scratch, there's a good amount of joy to be found here across the board for Project CARS 2 fans.
The sum of these additions helps Everspace to feel more complete, but ultimately only offers more padding. That's okay, though, since this is such an affordable piece of DLC.
It's difficult to reflect on FIFA 18 for Nintendo Switch. On the one hand, this is definitely the most fully-fledged portable version of FIFA ever. When docked, it performs extremely well, delivering crisp 1080p, 60 frames per second visuals, with enough extra polish to keep it in touching distance of the more powerful consoles. However, it's disappointing that old code couldn't be given the same touch-ups that FIFA 18 received within modes on other consoles, particularly when it comes to Ultimate Team.
This is a game made by fans for fans, and while it's not perfect, it's unique, and a hell of a lot of fun.
The real issue with The Evil Within 2 is that it has tried to marry too many foreign gameplay elements to the genre, whilst not addressing a lot of technical annoyances that, if remedied, would have provided enough refreshment to the third-person horror experience alone. Whereas Resident Evil 7 shifted the perspective into first-person, and re-discovered its core emphasis - much to its advantage - The Evil Within 2 has expanded mechanically without really acting on the criticism of the first game. The controls are sluggish, the camera doesn't react fast enough, and it has the habit of limiting player perspective in an obnoxious way. Even though this experience is quite different to the original, and far more compelling and successful, it's disappointing that the abstract mind games it pulls couldn't be left to speak for themselves. All the same, this is a solid survival horror title, although in the end it borrows just a bit too much from Resident Evil 4.
Overall, ARMS is delightfully quirky, surprisingly deep and, most importantly, strikingly self-confident. Whilst its vibrant and over-the-top aesthetic might have some expecting a shallow and simplistic experience, persevering with and embracing the game's sharp initial learning curve reveals a strong-willed and very detailed gameplay core. Nintendo made the right choice in highlighting the motion controls, which is by far the best way to play. Thankfully, it also showed a more practical side in allowing room for the other traditional control methods, too - an additional set of Joy-Con is expensive, after all. As with the original Splatoon, it is slightly disappointing that single-player content seems like an after-thought to the multiplayer. However, considering how that game was supported and expanded during its life-span, something Nintendo is likewise committed to here, there's no doubt there's plenty more to come from this instalment, and (presumably) from this refreshing new series.
Steep is a solid, fun and fluid experience, well worth checking out whether you're a fan of winter sports or not, but there is a sense that the sequel (if there is to be one) will learn valuable lessons from the jumping-off point chosen here. Better yet, perhaps upcoming content will amend some of these drawbacks. With all that said, it's still an enjoyable and refreshing game quite unlike anything else available at this time. Next year will bring rivals, but for now, this is King of the Mountain.
When it comes down to it, Riptide GP: Renegade is not a significant step up from its predecessors, despite the developer's PR rumblings. It is, however, a flashier, more content heavy upgrade with a lot to get stuck into, whether you favour single-player or multiplayer. While there are some obvious flaws holding it back, such as the lack of interesting varied tracks, if taken at face value, Renegade packs a big punch for its price point. This is not a Wave Race-like classic, but it has potential.
While Headlander's brand of humour isn't quite as pronounced as Adult Swim might have wanted it, there are so many absorbing elements at play here.