Crackdown 3 feels too similar to the game that came before it; it’s like Sumo has made Crackdown 2 again, ignoring everything it could have learned from the last decade of open world titles.

Despite changes to the formula, New Dawn is still very much Far Cry at its core.

Metro Exodus feels like a solid simulacrum of someone else trying to make a Fallout game, for all the benefits and drawbacks that entails. Its maps are fun to explore, and effort has been put into making the side areas rewarding in both narrative expansion and bonus upgrades to your gear. That said, Exodus doesn’t have the same handle on ambient storytelling and visual interest to drive you to investigate every corner of the map.

The traditions of survival horror have been modernised, resulting in something that’s all-too-familiar yet always manages to keep you on your toes. The Raccoon City that you’ve always envisaged by filling in the blanks and making up for the failings of 32-bit graphics is now real.

Due to its niche nature, Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown won’t be for everyone. You’d really need to love this style of game to get the full benefit of it.

Start playing The Grand Tour Game after work tonight and you will be done with the single-player campaign before your Uber Eats order arrives.

Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes ultimately fails in its implementation of a quirky idea, and that’s a real shame because combat sequences — specifically bosses — are a real delight. If you can stomach (all) the filler, it’s a decent title to go and have a hit in. That said, I’d much prefer a proper No More Heroes 3, Grasshopper.

As it did on Wii U in 2012, New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe offers a genuine challenge and is the closest game in the New Super Mario series to the golden 16-bit era of Super Mario World with its open map and pitch-perfect difficulty curve. It’s arguably the best in what has been a great, but very safe, series and it doesn’t do anything to change that notion. The co-op is still frustrating, but its roots lie well within the single-player experience.

With deeper single-player content, an improved online offering and a massive roster of characters and stages, comprising all of those from the previous games and then some, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the complete package. I’m not sure how Nintendo could surpass this, and it probably doesn’t need to, as alongside Mario Kart 8, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is unrivalled on the local multiplayer stage.

There’s some quick fun to be had here, but if you want meaningful cricket on consoles, stick with Ashes Cricket.

Just Cause 4 is an entertaining game to play if you want to just sit back and blow a bunch of things up. The new customisation options are great, and there are some interesting ideas with extreme weather, but ultimately a lot of the missions aren’t particularly exciting or ask for you to vary up how you approach them.

Civilization VI on Switch is my favourite way to play. It makes a great handheld game, while the options to jump between physical and touch controls, or to swap to a TV screen, improve the already great mobile experience.

Darksiders 3 is four years too late and four years behind current game design. As you (sufferingly) progress, things improve… but you really, really need to be dedicated to get to that point. I’d recommend Darksiders 3 to die-hard fans of the franchise — and I truly mean die-hard — and no one else. It’s too painful to play for a majority of the time. Still, better than Fallout 76, I guess.

Bethesda has chosen to release a half-finished, buggy mess of a title in its current state. This isn’t early access, nor is it a beta — this is apparently a finished product that I have to assess. I have: it’s garbage. This poor release provides Bethesda the opportunity to take notice of two key takeaways: the Creation Engine needs to go, and single-player developers shouldn’t bite off more than they can chew when making a multiplayer game. And this comes from a guy who looked past Fallout 4‘s last-gen engine and subsequent failings to give it a 10/10. Free pass no more, Bethesda.

Like last year’s offering, Just Dance 2019 is an inoffensive, exercise conducive title fun alone or in pairs. If you want to boogie, consider it.

While telling its tale, 11-11 does a tremendous job of showing players what the world was like in 1916; news travels extremely slowly without the likes of smartphones, and even Harry’s photography is impacted – it’s too expensive to be able to take and process more than 16 photos per day.

Pokémon Let’s Go mightn’t be for hardcore, competitive fans, but it will certainly win over everyone else. A vast majority of the changes are certainly for the better.

Pokémon Let’s Go mightn’t be for hardcore, competitive fans, but it will certainly win over everyone else. A vast majority of the changes are certainly for the better.

Despite its slow rollout, Battlefield 5 is a fantastic multiplayer experience, especially across the fan favourite Conquest and large-scale Grand Operations.

For most players, nostalgia won’t be enough to save it; the games are good enough, but not great. These three titles would have been better suited as straight up re-releases on the upcoming PlayStation Classic rather than as a set of remastered games.

Despite IO’s assertion that Hitman 2 has improved AI, I don’t see it – this simply feels like new content for Hitman — and as I said, I’m very okay with that.

Both Breach and Arcade improve the overall package, the new fighters will be appreciated by the dedicated community and it’s great to see a visual improvement 18 months post-launch. However, this is a strange situation where the Marching Fire content is great, but I can’t recommend buying the $45 expansion.

Rockstar Games continues to prove that when it comes to creating games, it’s the master at pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved.

The concept of your character levelling down rather than up is a clever and original idea and it changes how a player needs to think about their progression (or should I say degression). Ideas like this that sit just a little outside of the box solidify the importance of independent developers in the industry — so do yourself a favour and pick it up if you’re open to a challenge.

As conflicted as I am about Starlink Battle for Atlas, one thing is clear: if you’re buying it, you should definitely get the Nintendo Switch version. Not because you get the extra Star Fox content, but rather two in-game starships — that advantage means your chances for survival instantly double without breaking the bank.

PUBG keeps it simple but is riddled with performance issues and is too slow; Fortnite works well, but is too busy for me and takes too long to get to the real action; Blackout is just right, and the best battle royale game on the market.

So that’s why we went back to 1-2-Switch. Super Mario Party has far more mini-games – and ones of higher quality, too – but it’s too time-consuming and tedious to get into them.

Mega Man 11 certainly isn’t for everyone. It constantly teeters on the edge of being too hard to be fun which poses the risk of new players giving up on it too quickly.