Josh Brown
Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers is the strongest start to an expansion since Heavensward.
Running meaningful industries in your city is like playing a game within a game. Suddenly feeling like an entire county builder, it's safe to say that the unstoppable force of Cities: Skylines just got a whole lot bigger.
I'll admit, it's taken me this long to feel the need to expand Cities: Skylines above it base offerings. Now I understand why. Each expansion brings heaps of free content to owners of even just the base game, so you might only pick up the full bag if it focuses on what you need. For me, Mass Transit feels unnecessary; whereas for others that may have been all they ever wanted. Green Cities is like sugar in this case. I don't need it, but I want it.
What is lacks in scale is made up for in its sense of style - and improving upon both next time around could result in something utterly remarkable.
A marvel when it comes to its ability to shake you to your core, its clearly a love letter to both those who adored the claustrophobic nightmares of the original games and those introduced to horror with more recent Hollywood attempts like The Conjuring and Insidious. It’s hard to imagine the formula working in their favor in the long run, but if it’s a reason to trust that the series could still be in the right hands with Capcom after all, we’re interested to see how they’ll carry on torch into the future.
In an age where punishing difficulty is finally yearned for again, Cuphead is a worthy title to the list of the best ways to test your gaming mettle.
Against the Storm is a prime example of what can happen when a small team has clear inspiration, passion, and a willingness to collaborate with its players. It's a brilliant mix of roguelike, strategy, and small-scale city building that will hook you from the jump.
Post-game updates will ultimately decide whether this is a sure-fire classic or simply a solid stepping stone to something greater, but even at launch, Monster Hunter has never felt better.
Call of Duty: Warzone is the definitive battle royale experience right now.
Capcom perfected the combat formula over countless releases, but it wasn't until Monster Hunter: World that they stripped away what ultimately was never much fun to begin with. You spend less time spent preparing, and more time actually fighting. And sales figures suggest, as we all expected, that Capcom really had something special sitting under all that bloat.
Whether you've played past titles in the franchise or not, World of Final Fantasy is a seriously strong JRPG that any fan of the genre should get a kick out of. Emotional, hilarious and deep, it proves yet again that a good RPG is about more than just thwarting a world-ending menace - it's about the journey and everyone who makes it worthwhile.