Call Of Duty: Vanguard is less enticing than its recent forebears and that's a real problem when it's facing its own competition with free-to-play battle royale CoD: Warzone riding high (not to mention rival Battlefield 2042 out later this month). But with a solid multiplayer mode on offer, there's enough here to keep fans occupied over Christmas at least.
House Of Ashes is the grandest yet of the Dark Pictures Anthology. It's technically audacious, with big storytelling and compelling character design. And while it's a relatively short game, there's plenty of fun to be had by trying to engineer different outcomes.
Back 4 Blood is exciting, terrifying and often seriously stressful. Like its esteemed predecessors, there's plenty here to encourage repeat play. Here's hoping they reinstate Versus mode to complete the package.
While Left 4 Dead is a clear influence, Fireteam Elite really hasn't grasped the notion that players need some room to breathe and collect their thoughts. Nowhere is safe, and the constant onslaught quickly becomes tiring. While missions only last about 20 minutes, they're unwaveringly stressful, and there's so much to take in that the motion tracker – annoyingly located on the far right of the screen – is practically redundant. If it's just you and the Working Joes on a squad then Aliens: Fireteam Elite can feel like hard work; it's very much at its best when played with friends, basking in the nostalgia of this resilient series.
There's no real need to play the previous two games beforehand as most levels are stand-alone adventures and the overarching storyline isn't that interesting, although if you do already own them then it's possible to integrate them into Hitman 3 from the same game system. It's a tremendously replayable series, with challenges, 'mission stories' and leaderboards all teasing brand new ways to approach each level. IO Interactive recently announced their next project: a brand new James Bond game, a licence (to kill) for which they're clearly a brilliant match. For now, their legacy is a trilogy of perfect stealth action-adventures. It seems inevitable that one day Hitman will return.
Cold War is a brilliant – if short – campaign, and it boldly ushers Call of Duty into the new age of consoles with typically gorgeous presentation and a fun, twisty tale that joyfully exploits the entrenched paranoia of its novel setting.
Watch Dogs: Legion is a technically ambitious game which manages to capture the essence of its real-world location, including some of its real-life socio-political battles. Its 'play as anyone' feature isn't quite the game-changer it might appear, but if you've always yearned to recruit a gang of senior citizens to usurp a corrupt political administration from within then Legion can make your dreams come true.
As its unwieldy title suggests, unlike 2016's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered there are no multiplayer modes included which does make this an incomplete experience, although when its predecessor was resurrected its multiplayer lobbies were frustratingly sparse. Despite its testing difficulty spikes, Modern Warfare 2 is still an exciting, globe-trotting adventure which looks great on modern hardware.
The graphics, particularly lighting and shadow effects, have come a long way and really show up last year's Black Ops 4. Crucially, every weapon is exhilarating to fire, bolstered by fantastic animation and sound design, and during frenetic firefights that audio has to be heard to be believed. It's a shame that the multiplayer remains underwhelming but the campaign is outstanding.
RDR2 presents players with a huge, realistic and varied environment to explore, brought to life with the kind of weather, lighting, shadow and particle effects that its forebear could only dream about. And with Read Dead Online (a true MMO experience) due to launch soon, RDR2 should keep gamers busy until the next time Rockstar heads out west.
Titanfall breathed fresh air into online shooters before repetition quickly wore off the sheen. And unless Evolve is properly supported after release, it will likely suffer the same fate. But, as it stands, this is a brave new take on the genre. Its varied mechanics are quick to learn and hard to master, and it's worthy of attention from anyone tired of the endless cycle of military shooters.
Since its first reveal, the game’s graphical prowess has been toned down and, despite the delays, it’s still a buggy release. However, Watch Dogs is an ambitious open world shooter. It may lack GTA V’s detail and polish, but its hacking mechanic is likely to inspire many more games to come.
Although notable as the first game to use Unreal Engine 4, the graphics are perfunctory and drab. If only more effort had gone into crafting an interesting environment rather than relying on the game to conjure its own random shocks.
With so many games sticking to the template, it’s refreshing to see innovation in the shooter market. While it lacks a compelling narrative and the content feels rather slight, Titanfall is a supremely confident, energetic and thrilling game which has the potential to shake up this stagnant genre.