Simply put, F1 2019 is fantastic. There’s enough here to take you well into next season (and beyond), while the Career Mode has finally shaken off the cobwebs to emerge as a genuinely thrilling highlight that players will pump hours and days into.
Crackdown 3 has had years of build-up and, well, it’s just Crackdown with a tiny bit of new-gen polish. That’s not a bad thing, not by any stretch, but in a February dotted with potentially fantastic releases, it’s going to be an ultimate forgettable one.
The game is filled with moments you’re going to want to talk to family, friends, and random people on the internet about for months and years to come. It’s a truly shared experience.
But, then, that’s Battlefield all over – a game that aspires to be both a legitimate portrayal of war and an entertaining video game, but opts to take the easy route and do rid with any semblance of mature, balanced storytelling and instead replaces it with a rushed, disjointed campaign and a multiplayer component that’s getting seriously long in the tooth.
Football Manager 2019 is a game that'll get its studs into you early and you won't be able to shake it free for some time. A must-buy for football fans.
The highs and lows of football are all here, and EA has pulled out (most of) the stops to provide a unique, utterly gleeful soccer game that leaves room for improvement but also serves as a new career best for the FIFA series.
Light on features it may be, but PES 2019 shows the proof in the pudding is, and always will be, out on the (virtual) pitch.
This is an average game wrapped up in an abysmal marketing choice. Avoid for now, just be sure to give it a second look if it hits an amount you're willing to pay.
A stunning return to form for the annual football franchise – and one of the finest all-round Madden packages in years.
Moonlighter is going to be a game you'll pick up, play, and instantly want to tell your friends all about. It encourages discussion – how much a certain item costs, how to navigate the metagame of the increasingly tricky Resident Evil 4-style inventory system with its cursed items requiring a shuffle of your bag – and feels like, honestly, the endgame of all roguelikes. After that, there isn't much more the genre can hope to accomplish. It's all here in one gloriously gratifying package that will have you coming back for more, more, and more again. An incredible dungeon crawler with a cutesy consumerist twist that'll provide you with some of 2018's best moments – and capital fun it is, too.
Still, though, there are plenty of opportunities where you'll enjoy this game. With friends it's a blast, probably even better while drunk. That sounds like I'm damning it with faint praise. I'm not. It's the perfect little party game for you to crack open when you've got 15 minutes to kill pre-gaming or just fancy an LSD-inspired palette-cleanser. What it isn't is a game that you'll sink hours and hours into, or one that will build up a hugely popular competitive scene that breaks the bank all around the world. This isn't that game, which is fine. Not every game can be a Rocket League-style success. This is Disco Dodgeball Remix, a slice of silly fun – even if there isn't much of it to go around.
Mileage may vary: Burnout nuts will be desperate for a return to Paradise City and will enjoy every minute of it. Those new to the series (and lapsed vets) may want to turn their attention elsewhere.
A few technical hiccups and minor quibbles aside, Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 tops off a great year for comic book properties with a fun, varied adventure.
While still liable to take over your every waking hour, Football Manager 2018 takes the delicate balance of previous years and weighs it down with too many superfluous, or downright irritating, changes.
Despite minor complaints, PES 2018 is undoubtedly top-of-the-table where it counts: the pitch. This is PES back on form.
Madden 18 shines brightest with its new Longshot mode, but the lack of improvements elsewhere makes this year's Madden offering an incremental – but still highly-playable – update.