Call of Duty: Warzone's beta remains thoroughly enjoyable even in spite of the serious concessions to depth made in the name of instant gratification.
A strong story and brilliant RPG systems make Warlords of New York a real shot in the arm for The Division 2, but a lot of initial excitement is soaked up by bullet-sponge enemies in the endgame.
While the symptoms of its early access state may be keenly felt where breadth of content is concerned there is no shortage of depth in GTFO. It's clever, creepy, and already surprisingly polished, and I can't wait to see where it goes from here.
Borderlands 3 sticks to its guns and outdoes itself with an amazing arsenal of weapons, humor, and missions.
Risk of Rain 2's early access hooked me with its fluid 3D action and distinct classes, and held my attention long after I'd seen everything it had to offer with its berserk roguelike progression, and the ability to squad up with friends.
The Division 2's campaign is full of great gunplay, loot, and missions. Only toward the end of my 60 hours of play did it start to suffer from a lack of interesting incentives, but the journey was enough fun that it made up for the destination.
Anthem has energetic combat but it saves too much of what precious little content it has for the endgame, making playing through its mismatched story a tediously repetitive grind.
Insurgency: Sandstorm isn't the prettiest shooter of 2018, but the places where it excels are the places that matter most. Its gunplay is superb, its arsenal is exemplary, and the maps and modes are serviceable enough to facilitate its memorably frantic and immersive FPS combat.
Battlefield V is a grand and addictive shooter with some smart ideas for improving gunplay and team dynamics, but at launch it has too many technical issues and holes in its content to excel.
Parts of Earthfall present a certain charm, and the co-op shooting experience could certainly be fun with the right group of friends. But it's hard to get away from the fact that Earthfall is a lesser incarnation of a decade-old game, with fewer modes and missions, at a higher price.