What we have is a game that is based on one core experience — an exceptionally good one — which comes at the cost of a solid gaming experience and ultimately feels like a title of missed opportunities.

Ghost Recon Breakpoint is the reigning poster child for the late-generation live service game. There is more on offer here than most people could ever dream of playing unless you retired from all other games — and maybe your family and your job too. But players should measure their content in quality, not quantity. There’s still a lot of fun to be had in Breakpoint, but you’ll need friends or good co-op partners to see a lot of it. For solo players, the gameplay loop wears out fast and even the awesome Jon Bernthal can’t save the project’s clashing design principles. Breakpoint measures its successes in stats like user engagement, but I still measure mine in memorable moments, and that’s one area this gargantuan game is not servicing.

Whilst there are moments when the arcade racing feels like fun, there is an omnipresent sense of Déjà Vu, that you've played this all before. NFS Payback doesn't bring anything original to the genre and if you've already finished with those other racing titles, you're unlikely to find anything new here. It feels like the game is following other racing games and has somehow lost its own identity in the process. It's not a bad title, but it also fails to distinguish itself. It feels like an option and an alternative; it no longer feels like a must-have title not even for arcade racers. However, the main issue is the progression system that relies more on luck than skill, and judgement that almost seems to debilitate the player's advancement. Despite the previous reboot and this latest title, Payback already feels aged and needs a dramatic rethink if it is to reclaim its crown from the likes of Forza Horizon.

When the Xbox version of SYMMETRY is updated to add a lower difficulty level it has the potential to be a great introduction to the management genre and satisfying for casual and experienced players alike. However, at time of writing, the steep learning curve, high difficulty level, and occasional game-breaking bugs make it more fitting for hardcore fans of the genre and people whose love of challenges is matched by their patience.

The online is mostly where they lie. There's problems with games being abandoned, players not playing and the game not actually letting you play. On top of that, games can simply just go on for too long and they eventually just become tedious rather than fun. If you are just looking to play Uno then this offering will fulfill your desire, but with a game that is simply called Uno, what else would you expect?

With a darker storyline and a wonderfully re-imagined London that is the star of the show, the third entry into the franchise feels as if it’s slightly matured from Watch Dogs 2. The new ‘play as anyone’ mechanic is innovative but sadly soon becomes redundant. Numerous bugs and glitches also mar the overall experience. Having the game crash several times and losing about 20 minutes worth of progress each time is not something that should be happening with a big-budget title such as Legion. Even after downloading the latest hotfix, crashing issues still persisted. This will likely be fixed with more patches later on down the line, but it will still be disappointing for those who purchase the game on day one. However, if you can keep a stiff upper lip about some of the bugs, you’ll have a lot of fun with Legion. Even if someone does end up calling you a twatwaffle.

It's fitting that just days after Microsoft announced the name change of their internal production branch from Microsoft Studios to Xbox Game Studios, Crackdown 3's launch screen displays the old moniker. After a year of exciting studio acquisitions for the company in 2018 and a stronger push for first-party moving forward, Crackdown 3 is the last remnant of the bygone era of Smartglass, live-action/video game hybrids, and forced Kinect purchases. It survived the purge where Fable Legends and Scalebound did not, but even in its best moments, Crackdown 3's campaign feels like it was born too late.

Aqua Kitty is a fun shoot-em-up that presents a fair challenge with a decent soundtrack, but it won't hold your attention in the long run.

Cars 3: Driven to Win is a competent kart racer that is accessible to players of all skill levels. There’s plenty of content on offer and the pleasant art style, cast of characters and location will keep fans of the films entertained for quite a few hours. It doesn’t do anything new to reinvent the genre and is lacking in a number of areas, but what is there is decent and that’s more than can be said for a lot of movie tie-ins. As a full priced title Cars 3: Driven to Win is hard to recommend to anyone except the biggest fans of the franchise, but for anyone else looking for a new kart racer to sink their teeth into, it might be worthy of your time once it hits a more realistic price point.

Overall, Wondershot is a fun game for brief spurts of time, especially if one has friends with which to play. When alone, however, the game quickly becomes tedious and frustrating, and this can become a real problem since online play is not an option -- a serious oversight by the developer since the game is geared to be a party game.

This title offers a typical Sherlock Holmes storyline and an easy completion, but its issues turn this into a mediocre affair rather than the elementary experience that you would expect from Holmes himself.

"New World Order" is a slower episode that promises a lot of worthwhile story moments soon, but fails to provide many of its own. Character interactions are the best that they've been so far, but everything else is missing the drama that it needs to deliver a worthwhile standalone episode.

Ninjin: Clash of Carrots starts out as a silly, colorful beat 'em up, then takes a dark turn down a surprisingly frustrating and challenging path. There is a huge arsenal of weapons and perks with which to engage enemies in both local and online co-op. New gear is constantly unlocked along the way, which keeps things interesting (until you rage quit, that is). A little challenge is fine, but in Ninjin, many mechanics feel unfair, and the later bosses' difficulty level is a sharp contrast to the rest of the game. A bit of balancing of the end-game missions would do wonders, but unless that happens, Ninjin remains hard to recommend to everyone.

After a great run of titles, Lost Grimoires: Stolen Kingdom doesn't quite match up to the standard of those that have gone before it.

Tricky Towers is game that strikes you as simple from the outside, but once you start playing you realise it's actually quite hard to master. The game is enjoyable and addictive both online and offline, with a good choice of modes to play either against others or on your own. Unfortunately building towers isn't always easy to do as the trajectory beam doesn't always seem to be accurate enough and you have no idea what your spells do until you actually try and use them. Overall, the game is fun for a short time, but it's never anything on which you are going to spend a huge amount of time.

If you can wipe away all the preconceptions surrounding Konami, Hideo Kojima, and the Metal Gear franchise, you’ll find a competent game in Metal Gear Survive. The story is mediocre and the game has obviously cut corners to make the budget despite being full of microtransactions. However, it’s also fun as both a survival game and a horde defense game at times.

The Town of Light has a story to tell, one that isn't afraid to shy away from its uncomfortable subject matter and creates a sense of unease that follows players throughout the game. The story is well-paced and encourages players to keep going, even if it leads to more horrifying discoveries. The developer has succeeded in accurately portraying both their subject matter and location, but this accuracy comes at the price of uninteresting exploration and technical difficulties that mar the game's walking simulator experience. You'll remember the story long after the game has finished, but you'll likely forget how you got there.

It feels like Big Bad Wolf was in need of some shortcuts to get things to where they need to be for the finale, and there's enough reason to get through this episode and see the series through to its finale, but that still doesn't make Burning Bridges anything better than the low point of an otherwise strong and commendable adventure game.

In the future, we may view Friday The 13th as one of the year's great games. Its mix of laugh out loud moments and tense chase sequences is unique, refreshing, and a draw even if you're not usually a multiplayer fan. As it stands currently, however, the game is weighed down by far too many issues that hurt the overall experience. A lot of the game requires wits and patience, but it'll be hard to retain those qualities when the game is regularly throwing technical flaws at you. The bright side of this is its issues rarely relate to design. Bugs can be patched, like some already have been. If Illfonic can rein in the many issues seen in Friday The 13th it will go down as a classic multiplayer game. Until then, it's simply wishful thinking.

The aerial combat genre is a very under-represented and niche genre on the console. FT:SOC is a budget-priced game and it does feel like this; it might not be the title to bring in new fans but it gives existing fans a new title to while away a few hours. There's a fair bit of content, and the combat can be intense and challenging. However, the lasting appeal of the title will depend on the multiplayer arena, and given that the virtual skies were already relatively deserted and there is unreliable network behavior, this doesn't look too promising. This is a shame, because when it worked, it was good fun. Casual players might enjoy picking up the relatively quick achievements that are available, but this is mainly a title for those fans of the aerial combat genre.

All things considered, it's a decent point-and-click title although the asking price seems way off the mark for a game that's only five hours long, which doesn't offer enough time to flesh out the story and characters.

TerraTech has some good elements, with huge scope for building a whole score of different vehicles. Sadly, aside from this and a hefty environment to explore, it doesn't do much else right.

It’s an ambitious passion project that I wish I could love, but Steep's reach ultimately exceeds its grasp.

Black Mirror will leave you feeling a bit torn. It's a good story told in a good location, accompanied by an ideal soundtrack. The fact that it is carrying on with the same family from the original games is the icing on the cake. Sadly, it is let down by too many problems, including annoying movement and camera tracking, poor facial character designs and other issues that mount up to make the game more of a struggle than it should be. It's hard to recommend the game at its current price point, but a discount might warrant a purchase for those who like a good supernatural tale told via point and click gameplay.

The AI poses no challenge when compared to human players and there is only one difficulty for bots, so multiplayer is the place to go to get the most enjoyment. Unfortunately, with only two game modes and six similar maps, even with the ability to play online there just isn't a lot here to keep players captivated any longer than short-term.

Unfortunately the game just gets annoying and repetitive after a while, ultimately falling short in keeping you engaged for any significant time.

Despite the addition of more bikes and tracks, not much has changed since the first RIDE, so those who come back for seconds will probably feel a bit of déjà vu when playing. Repetition can creep in, as well, but at least the game won't feel quite as monotonous because of the better load times. If bikes are for you, or you're a novice who wants to jump in, then RIDE 2 will give you some enjoyment.

All in all, WWE 2K19 feels like a game in which annual players will find enough to enjoy, but anyone looking to make their way back into the ring is best to wait it out in the locker room for another year.