Though Washington D.C. lacks the memorable atmosphere of snow-bound New York, and you probably won't care about the plot or characters, The Division 2 is a significantly more robust game at launch. It offers another incredibly detailed open world and a myriad of small tweaks and additions, with a promising future ahead.
Trials Rising offers up a great set of tracks with a good difficulty curve and the most fleshed out multiplayer options the series has ever had, though forced grinding to unlock later tracks in the campaign and intermittent performance problems create the kind of barriers you didn't want to see.
Tannenberg is more accessible and has a greater fun factor than you might expect from a realism-driven World War 1 shooter, thanks to a great central game mode and consistently exciting and satisfying gameplay. Though you'll need to be on board with bolt-action rifles and accept that you are going to die a lot.
Metro Exodus is a more than worthy successor to Last Light, successfully introducing open levels to break up the more linear sequences, while also retaining the unique look, feel and incredible atmosphere that made the previous games so memorable.
The actual interactive component of The Grand Tour Game is really quite poor, with awful handling and dated presentation making the races and challenges vastly inferior to the segments they attempt to replace, in between clips from the show you've already seen.
Insurgency: Sandstorm sees New World Interactive successfully transfer their particular brand of hardcore tactical shooter to a modern game engine with just a few technical hitches, though you'll need to be content with a familiar Middle Eastern setting and somewhat limited set of maps and game modes.
Severe performance problems and a misguided implementation of Souls mechanics in Darksiders 3 tarnish an otherwise perfunctory, but at least occasionally enjoyable return to one of last generation's better action series.
Fallout 76 retains the same captivating immersion, atmosphere and organic exploration that made Fallout 4 so enjoyable thanks to an excellent open world, though you'll have to contend with a poorly implemented online component and the typical Bethesda technical hiccups and rough edges.
Though GRIP offers up some exciting racing and vehicular combat on a really wild and creative set of tracks, a frustrating singleplayer campaign and serious technical issues with the online multiplayer make it difficult to recommend in its current state.
Though its glacial pace certainly won't be for everyone, Space Hulk: Tactics offers up a substantial helping of enjoyable turn-based tactical gameplay with two distinct and well designed factions in the hostile but compelling Warhammer 40k setting.
Though Frozen Synapse 2 struggles to effectively convey its new ideas, especially in the ambitious but ultimately disappointing offline campaign, the multiplayer remains a unique and engaging challenge for aspiring tacticians.
The addition of proper online multiplayer and the PGA Tour career mode make The Golf Club 2019 a meaningful improvement over its already impressive predecessor, even if the initial learning curve is on steeper side and the visual presentation remains stuck in the past.
Though the idea of a Warhammer 40K themed ARPG certainly seems appealing, Martyr largely fails to capitalize on this potential due to unfocused design, clumsy gameplay and an abundance of technical and performance issues, despite boasting strong audio-visual presentation.
State of Decay 2 refines and builds upon the formula of managing the survival of a group during a zombie apocalypse, with mostly well balanced difficulty and smooth co-op integration making up for plain visuals and some rough edges.
Thrones of Britannia is a thoroughly competent entry into the Total War series, though underwhelming battles and a lack of fresh ideas mean it will satisfy your craving for historical conflict, but without much excitement or many surprises.
The twist at the core of Minit, that you play it sixty seconds at a time, is initially intriguing and engaging, but ends up clashing with the puzzle and exploration-heavy gameplay in a way that left me feeling agitated rather than charmed by this nostalgia-driven indie title.
Sea of Thieves has provided some of my favorite gaming moments this year, but the repetitive voyages and reliance on currently infrequent player encounters to keep things interesting mean the seas are a bit shallower than you might expect in a full-price game.
Warhammer: Vermintide 2 manages to improve on its predecessor in just about every way, resulting in a structurally familiar but highly entertaining co-op experience with a surprising amount of depth and variety in its character and difficulty progression.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance deserves a lot of credit for succeeding in its highly ambitious and original realism-driven approach to role-playing game design, though the amount of broken quests and general lack of polish in combination with an ill-conceived save system bring down the experience significantly.
Bridge Constructor Portal successfully melds bridge-building with classic Portal gameplay elements, though it fails to emulate the excellent humor of that series. Good value and creative levels with more than one solution make it a slick package for anyone looking to relax while using their brains a bit.