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Find all of them right here. True to the trend, Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition is more than just a much-needed visual overhaul of a classic strategy game with a remastered soundtrack. It’s stuffed with content so there’s plenty of bang for buck (plus it’s in the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate library), and after you get through scores of hours of the campaigns, there’s still skirmishes for co-op fun with friends or online battles if you’re feeling competitive. At first glance, Partisans 1941 looks like a rip-off of Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines, the godfather of these type of games. But not long after getting through a tutorial that doesn’t overstay its welcome, you’ll see there’s enough new gameplay mechanics to help make Partisans 1941 capable of impressing of its own accord. For instance, you’re freer to use weapons, even if stealth is still as viable as it is enjoyable. Plus, there’s a partisan base metagame that helps tie missions together and it also helps that it’s a tonne of fun. That’s not to say that Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 is an impossible game. It’s more that while the boosted eye candy helps modernise the game and makes stacks all the more impactful, it also highlights how that high trick score you used to brag about isn’t that great today. Avoid the YouTube high score compilations to preserve your self-esteem and dive back into the return of arguably the two best skating games of the series, which can be enjoyed as arcade outings or high-score chasers with a banging soundtrack. In terms of gameplay, this is effectively 60-player Takeshi’s Castle, which means there is absolutely skill involved, but also a smattering of luck (you’ll understand this on the Door Dash level). The different challenges are a breeze to pick up but take time to master, but the real fun comes from playing this cooperatively with friends… until that final level pits you against each other for the mad scramble to snatch the crown. For those familiar with any of those games, Desperados III is a must-buy. For anyone else, Desperados III is a game that rewards tactical planning and well-timed execution. The Wild West setting is the backdrop to a strategy games whose depth rewards methodical approaches, and the difficulty appropriately spikes the deeper you get into it. Try the demo if you’re uncertain, but there’s a good chance you’ll want to take the full experience for a ride afterwards. You really do want three other players at your back because ammo is scarce, enemies are plentiful, and the difficulty is right up there. GTFO is still in Early Access but, outside of the damage feedback on the shooting that could use some oomph, you wouldn’t know it from the overall polish. The regularly updated expeditions add a reason to keep checking back in as you creep your way through tense levels that always inevitably end in a lot of gunfire, a lot of yelling, and a whole lot of fun. At its core, Siege is a high-lethality shooter where everyone is a headshot away from sitting out the round. But because of the tactical nature of Siege, even a fragged teammate can be useful for watching cameras and providing intel to those still alive. This truly is the thinking player’s shooter, which is underlined by a potent combo of fantastic sound design, epic levels of tactical destructibility, and an asymmetrical roster of attacking and defending Operators, which are all packing unique gadgets or abilities. It’s a lot easier for newcomers to test the competitive Siege waters these days, and if you’re on the fence about playing it, wait for one of the regularly occurring free weekends to take it for a spin. Hell, even if you missed the originals (as I did), there’s still a lot of fun to be found in this loving update to the original Command & Conquer and Red Alert. If you’re after the better gameplay, stick with Red Alert. But there’s a lot of entertainment value to be found in both, from the still-amazing (and modernised) soundtrack, to the tongue-in-cheek storytelling, and the main-thrust fun of flattening a base with dozens of your most powerful units. Best of all, the price is right at $29.95. Can we please have a remaster of Command & Conquer: Generals next, please, EA? You play as a Ghost Rider-like recently deceased gunslinger (voiced by Ron Perlman) who has no memory of how he’s ended up in this hellish purgatory, but finds out more about why he’s there and who’s responsible for it as you get deeper into the game. Death means restarting your run, but there’s a chapter system that tracks progress in a more meaningful way than Dead Cells. Expect to die a bunch, too, as is the nature of these games, but it’s also the best way to be forced to try new weapons, gear, and abilities. In so doing, you’ll find new favourites for perfecting your next challenging battle against the many tricky fights ahead. Deep Rock Galactic is part Left 4 Dead and part Red Faction, with fully destructible levels that are procedurally generated to help keep things fresh. This is the kind of co-op game you keep installed just in the off chance your mates want to play it. Grab a mate or three and dig into the deep fun of this co-op gem. Sure, you’re still building a killer deck and fighting increasingly trickier opponents. But Monster Train uses a three-tier vertical playing fields for fighting foes as you battle to keep them away from your pyre. As if that’s not enough of a mix-up, the roguelike elements mean every failed run acts as not just a lesson, but as a way of building a better deck. While the Super Shotgun is somehow even more overpowered than before care of a “get over here!” – or, rather, “get me over there!” – grappling hook (aptly named the “meat hook”), your best bet of surviving the waves of fiendish hellish hordes is in finding the rhythm of grenading, flaming, executing and flicking between arsenal items, all to a soundtrack that’s every bit as killer as the 2016 explosive excursion to hell. Gears Tactics acts as a prequel to the cover shooter series, but while the story isn’t particularly engaging, the attention to detail in the character models is incredible. Gameplay-wise, you can play defensively with an incredibly potent ‘Overwatch’ feature that shoots any Locust loon foolhardy enough to step in your sights. But the real gem is in how Gears Tactics incentivises you to push forward with gameplay mechanics that make for action-packed missions that can, mercifully, be knocked over in 20 to 30 minutes. Best of all, it’s free, while cross-platform play between PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 players means it’s easy to find a game at any time of day (even if consolers have a frustrating snap-to-chest auto-aim edge in head-to-head fights). Plus, Warzone’s hefty Season 4 Reloaded update is out in the wild now, and it’s a marked improvement over the start of the season. Some token weapon balancing might actually help shift the meta a smidge, but it’s a new explosive-round semi-auto sniper rifle and 200-player mode that are the big reasons to check in again. Where other VR games feel more like experiences, Valve has cleverly woven VR staples into an incredibly rich game world, which results in a compelling marriage of gameplay and tech. It’s not a perfect game, but it’s a must-play for Half-Life devotees and a must-buy for VR headset owners. The simplistic-but-iconic art design plays second fiddle to a rousing strings-filled soundtrack that’s one of the best to be included in a game. Despite incredibly simple controls and no dialogue, there’s still a visually driven story that guides you from start to finish. If you’re fortunate, you’ll run into other players along the way. If not, there’s still the simple joy of basking in a beautiful game world for a perfect two-hour getaway. The earlier levels of the 2D side-scrolling shooter lull you in with the basics of the shooting mechanics, but things soon take a sharp turn towards Tricky Town when it comes to blasting multiple enemies. You can treat this like a run-and-gun shooter. But the real joy is found in playing with your prey and killing them in increasingly creative (and clip-worthy) ways. Seen as a successor to the wildly popular medieval blood-brawler Chivalry, Mordhau increases combat depth without allowing for the kind of exploits that eventually tarnished Chivalry’s appeal. You can learn the ropes of Mordhau amid the bloody and severed limbs of the online foray, but you’re better off sharpening your blades in solo or co-op modes first. The next logical step is to hone your one-on-one duelling confidence in Duel servers. There’s even a medieval-themed battle royale mode for those who like to dull skill with a dice-roll chance of finding better loot than a better-playing opponent. Really, though, the shining star is the sheer bloody mayhem of the large-scale battles where infantry and cavalry collide in the kind of gory battles that’d make Mel Gibson blush. And you can upgrade ‘stunning’ to ‘exquisite’ if you have invested in an Nvidia 20-series graphics card. While Sony and Microsoft tease ‘ray tracing’ as a next-gen tech, that future is already here with a 20-series video card. And that tech is at its absolute best in Control. This is more than mere eye candy, too. During our play-through, the newfangled lighting and real-time reflective surfaces didn’t just cause ocular diabetes from all of the sweet, sweet eye candy, it actually helped in gameplay. Enemies can be seen around corners, and finding people or items of interest in this mysterious ever-shifting house is even easier when you can scan a room via reflective surfaces. If you somehow missed Control at launch, there are now even more reasons to play it. For starters, Nvidia 20-series graphics card owners can get any more eye-candy/frames-per-second gains care of the DLSS 2.0 update . More importantly, The Foundation DLC is the main reason to return, and its wackiness finds weirder depths when you learn more about the shady history of the Bureau. As a result, battles resemble historical skirmishes, with swords clashing and archers causing havoc from afar, but hero characters play a larger-than-life role befitting of the 14th century fantasy epic. All the grand army-level strategy you’d expect is there, it’s just overshadowed somewhat by the epic duels your heroes get caught up in during the middle of a battle. David Milner As you expand your empire, you’ll now need to consider the environmental impact of your resource-pillaging and smog-spewing industries if you want to avoid catastrophic climate change. Fortunately, it’s less bleak than reality: the new future era opens up fictional carbon-capture technology to help right the balance. Not only is Gathering Storm an excellent strategy game, being one of the first major Triple-A titles to gamify climate change, it’s an important one. David Milner Unlike the original, which was infamously hampered by its use of “MegaTextures” – a rendering technique designed to break everything – Rage 2 is a fully functioning open-world. The landscape is a little on the bleak side and the populace a little on the shooty side, but otherwise it’s a pleasant enough post-apocalypse to blast your way through. Wisely, id Software passed development duties on to Avalanche Studios (of Just Cause fame), a team that knows how to cram an open-world with fast vehicles and explosions. It’s not the smartest shooter on the market, but it feels fantastic. David Milner But instead of the infinite void of death, the explosion creates a time loop, sending you back to where you begun. On the next run through you’ll have the knowledge acquired on your last run, allowing you to progress a little further, a little faster. Think a cross between the movie Groundhog Day and Super Mario Galaxy and you’ll be in the ballpark… but still way off. David Milner Set in the Titanfall universe (just without the Titans falling – go figure?), Apex Legends adds a hero-shooter element to the battle royale formula. This means you’re not entirely reliant on scrounging decent weapons and can, in a pinch, survive with clever use of your hero’s signature abilities. Best of all, it’s completely free. Most noticeably, the bullet-sponge enemies of the original have been given a huge health nerf. No longer will a garbage man in a t-shirt and jeans be able to walk away from a full clip to the face, a merciful concession to players that like a semblance of reality with their firefights. The loot management has been drastically improved, and the endgame Dark Zone now normalises weapon damage so you won’t end up in unwinnable shootouts with overpowered players. If you’ve got a small but dedicated crew looking for some co-op shooting, you can’t go wrong. David Milner Most noticeably, the bullet-sponge enemies of the original have been given a huge health nerf. No longer will a garbage man in a t-shirt and jeans be able to walk away from a full clip to the face, a merciful concession to players that like a semblance of reality with their firefights. The loot management has been drastically improved, and the endgame Dark Zone now normalises weapon damage so you won’t end up in unwinnable shootouts with overpowered players. If you’ve got a small but dedicated crew looking for some co-op shooting, you can’t go wrong. David Milner As Wolf, a one-armed Shinobi on a vengeance quest through Sengoku-era Japan, you’re far more nimble and acrobatic than the nameless heroes of the genre’s past. Your grappling hook is used to zip around rooftops, and can even be thrown mid-jump, lending proceedings a tinge of Spider-Man-y goodness. Sword-fighting, meanwhile, is heavily rhythm based; you’ll start reading foes’ attack patterns like a Guitar Hero runway, waiting for the perfect moment to deliver the killing blow. Sekiro doesn’t quite reach the heights of PS4-exclusive Bloodborne, but it’s still a masterwork from one of the industry’s finest developers. If you’re looking for 2019’s best offline solo PC game, look no further. David Milner Somewhat ironically, the locomotive means the game loses a dash of the signature on-rails diorama vibe: instead of narrow corridors containing vignettes you just so happen upon at the right time, each stop on the journey is set-up as a mini-open world hub, with side quests and more freedom to explore than ever. Shooting is still the weakest element, with questionable hit detection and deliberately underpowered-feeling weapons to match the “world gone to scrap” theme, but it’s worth tolerating for the compelling tale and gorgeous visuals. Controversially, it won’t hit Steam until next year, making it 2019’s best Epic Games Store exclusive so far. David Milner The roster is nostalgia-heavy, with returning favourites like Noob Saibot, Baraka, Jade, and Kano making their first playable appearances of this era. To top it off, the story mode is unashamed B-movie pulpy goodness. It’s all time travel, undead wraiths, and a seriously pissed off thunder god. With absurdly impressive production values, it has no real competition in the genre. David Milner Outside of a disk-space-destroying 100GB+ download requirement, Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath is a worthy purchase for those still playing Mortal Kombat 11, those who haven’t played in a while, or the newcomers looking to make the most of the most amount of content. Whatever your reason, come for Aftermath’s story and stay for three new fighters, which includes the impossibly cool RoboCop. Your move, creep. Capcom’s ode to its own glorious past is one of the finest examples of a remaster in recent times. Controls have been updated to suit modern sensibilities (see ya, tank controls!), the map has been given just enough of a tweak so that returning players can puzzle it all out again, and the visuals have been redone in the RE Engine built for 2017’s Resident Evil 7. This is how it should be done. David Milner
