Has F1 2018 done enough to render last year’s (excellent) title redundant? Probably not. But if it has been a few years since your last F1, absolutely give this one a go. The racing market is a crowded one, but F1 is pure racing, and the sport doesn’t get much more exciting, or strategic, than this one.

It's quite impressive that SEGA has been able to take something so revered as Valkyria Chronicles, and do it justice with the fourth title in the series. It's even more impressive that it was willing to admit that Revolution's experimental structure wasn't what fans wanted, and to go back to that original formula. It's hard to do justice to something so beloved, but given that the only flaw that Valkyria Chronicles 4 has is that it's not quite Valkyria Chronicles, that's exactly what has been achieved here.

Call it "casual" if you want, but this is the ideal fighting game for me... and who knows. It might well be the start of the new king of fanservicey fighters, what with Dead or Alive 6's stated intention to ease back on that side of things. And Athena really does look stunning in her bikini. I've been waiting many King of Fighters games for that.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 is very much a love letter to the RPGs of yesteryear, and it's a proof of how enjoyable those games can still be.

Spider-Man has all kinds of tricks to silence and distract his opponents, and while the AI is far too static and rote to make for genre-defying stealth missions, playing around with the extensive Spidey toolbox in these scenes never got old. In fact, because the stealth and combat sequences are all explicitly built around allowing Spider-Man the creativity to use his full range of abilities, it’s no coincidence that these moments where the game genuinely feels like the proper Spider-Man experience that everything should have been.

Hyakki Castle puts up a welcome challenge and offers players something rooted in a very authentic Japanese (Shinto) spirituality. It's an artifact of the country and comes from the same place that the likes of Okami, Nioh and God Wars does. It's truly amazing that the Nintendo Switch has had three of those four released on it in the span of just a couple of weeks.

It may not quite have the finesse of its inspirations, but it delivers a world that's no less fascinating to explore and bleak (though also hopeful, somehow) story that deserves to be uncovered.

Realpolitiks is not the kind of game I would have ever expected on Nintendo Switch. It's not the perfect grand strategy experience; Europa Universalis IV may have slightly less complex and interlocking systems, but it offers deeper AI and greater complexity in strategy, and that's far more important to a grand strategy's longevity. That being said, Realpolitiks is a really delightful game to have for on-the-go play, on a console that I would never have guessed would end up with something like this on it.

Very much an insider's parody of a type of anime that only the most dedicated (and therefore, likely aware) fans of anime in the first place. For that niche Punch Line is pitch-perfect.

There’s still plenty of fanservice in Nekopara; the girls have good taste in underwear, that’s for sure, and there’s plenty of flirtatious dialogue and risqué implications, but it all comes across as playful, and reinforces the rest of the game’s silly tone. And for that, it's absolutely delightful.

As a first effort out it's genuinely impressive, offering a clean and enjoyable combat system that can also be used to introduce new players to the joy of modern 2D fighters. I firmly believe there's a role for fighters like that in the market, and Blade Strangers is a very fine first effort indeed.

Dragon Quest XI is, from end to end, an iconic example of everything that Dragon Quest has stood for since way back in the 80's. It's charming and has a colourful energy that makes it very hard to put down. It's also a proof of just what can be achieved with a highly traditional JRPG when paired with the production values that only a developer/ publisher of the size of Square Enix could achieve.

God Wars is too Japanese in tone, aesthetic and design to ever have much of a hope of reaching a mainstream audience, but as a culturally relevant artifact, anyone who is interested in seeing how a game can explore ancient folk tales and spirituality in an interesting and engaging manner should not pass up this opportunity.

Martyr succeeds in giving players an action RPG experience that manages to combine the action of a 'Diablo clone' with the Warhammer 40K license. It has a great skills system that's tied to the equipment you use, rather than just the experience level, and that makes playing around with the copious amounts of loot that you'll be earning very enjoyable. If only the execution of the game were as consistent and reliable as the design, and if only the developers had have put more effort into the optimisation for console.

My Farm is so painfully bland and poorly structured that it doesn't work on any level, for any purpose.

Even if puzzle games aren't your thing, it's worth fighting through its obstacles and frustrations—or using a guide to carry you through, which I ended up resorting to—in order to experience Flood of Light's beautiful, melancholic yet hopeful vision of a post-climate change world.

It's a bloody brilliant game.

By drawing inspirations from Mexican culture respectfully, the development team have created a tight platformer that includes some very clever writing and satirical looks at other games in the genre, and it is quite possibly one of the best platformers of 2018.

It's a rare example of where the randomisation of the roguelike structure doesn't feel like a lazy excuse to ignore level design. Rather, it provides a canvas to allow some of the cleanest and engaging tactical action that we've seen in quite some time play out.

If nothing else, the simple reality that Shenmue is again a living franchise is, all by itself, something truly amazing.

If only the rest of the game could live up to those visuals. Crossing Souls works just fine as a vessel for rose-tinted '80s nostalgia, but shallow storytelling and gameplay that shifts from uninteresting to outright frustrating ensures that it never gets to be anything more than that.

There’s not much wrong with We Happy Few that can’t be fixed with some patches, and regardless of what happens there, the game has a narrative that is brave, intelligently crafted, and so incredibly poignant.

Phantom Doctrine did come out of nowhere to become a truly enjoyable and memorable experience. If you had have told me six months ago that it would be possible to take the pulp sci-fi, raw entertainment of XCOM and apply it to a Cold War espionage narrative, I wouldn’t have believed you. That’s exactly what has been delivered here, though, and I hope it has the chance to surprise plenty of other people.

When everything's working smoothly, Titan Quest is a very enjoyable game. It doesn't push any boundaries (it's more than a decade old now, after all), but it runs the classic Diablo formula well, with plenty of depth for character builds and a stunning world to explore.

That mental barrier aside, however, The Amazing Shinsengumi really is an lovely little bit of storytelling.

Ōkami is truly one of the most incredible games ever crafted, and you're doing yourself a disservice if you look at it as a "Zelda clone". Look past that and look closely at the story it's telling, the symbology, and where the game got its ideas from. Ōkami is to video games what something like Spirited Away is to film; it's not only beautiful and powerful, but it speaks to the very core of the Japanese soul, and because of that it's hugely educational to anyone that has an interest in the country and its culture.

I came away from this year's version of the game convinced that the development team put its focus on the right area. That is to say, the gameplay. The results are obvious, and for those who decry the annual release cycle as nothing but a roster update, they are not giving enough credit to the locomotion improvements and continuing Longshot story.

For such a cheap little game I had plenty of fun with it, and blew through it well before I got bored with it.