Somehow in this most well-travelled of multiplayer FPS paths, Insurgency: Sandstorm feels fresh and innovative at every turn.
Thanks to this quite unusual combination of tonal sensitivity, hardcore shooting mechanics and maps full of interesting wrinkles and choke points, I’ve enjoyed Insurgency Sandstorm as much as any multiplayer game released this year.
The pros and cons shout over one another constantly, and I think that’s why I find it such a frustrating game to play
Maintaining an almost impossible level of polish across its many modes, FIFA 19 might not eclipse PES 19 on the pitch, but it demonstrates its worth via The Journey.
NBA 2K19 is a masterclass in simulating the mechanics and culture of basketball, but it loves to needle you for money
Social commentary delivered with baseball bat subtlety, Not Tonight owes a huge debt to Papers, Please, but finds its own voice in the bit-parts of post-Brexit Britain.
Following a series high last year, F1 2018's welcome additions don't add up to a meaningfully fresh experience.
In this road-trip fantasy, you can drag-race in Vegas, meander through Manhattan and divebomb off Mount Rushmore. So why isn't it more fun?
The scope is ultimately limited, but what a roaring spectacle of broken car bits Wreckfest manages.
Broad in shoulder, wide in scope, rough around the edges. Nevertheless, an enjoyably meaty survival game.
It's an extraordinary game. One that you'll feel faintly lost in at first, while its many systems permeate your grey matter. But all the while its story unfolds and reveals new wrinkles, the sense of place growing deeper.
With the advent of its final release, H1Z1 demonstrates a level of thoughtfulness in its design that reflects how closely its developers have listened to players. Whether it's enough to draw those crowds back to Daybreak and the progenitor of battle royale games is a different story, but H1Z1 deserves a lot of credit for the strides it's taken towards polishing an inherently rough and ready genre.
An earnest and impactful adventure, written within the margins of an homage to 80s cinema.
A delightful co-op action RPG that's sadly stymied by its insistence on making it hard to play together.
An ambitious and mysterious puzzler that's ultimately as frustrating as it is fascinating.
Enjoyable arcade handling packaged within a game that gets monotonous long before it rewards your time investment.
Innovations in the right places keep an old veteran match fit.
As a messy muck around, MudRunner has enough to offer to warrant a few hours of experimentation. Beyond that, for me, the limitations of its controls, camera, and missing mirrors put a cap on the off-road giggles.
If it's possible to preserve a sense of tension and genuine horror in an open-world setting, The Evil Within 2 hasn't discovered how. In an attempt to introduce a more contemporary gameplay style than that of Shinji Mikami's classics, this game ends up diluting its best qualities by filling your time with tedious milling about and resource-gathering.
Ubisoft tightens up the systems but can't quite replicate the sparkle for this fun but flawed RPG sequel.