If you were looking for games that gave you glorious gung-ho action and plenty of weapons with which to deal out some old-fashioned justice, then 2018 was a great year for the shooter genre. From experiences that saw players take on well armed cults of personality to the far reaches of space, here’s a look at the best that the year had to offer for any action junkie who was looking for quality, fun and mayhem.

For a franchise that was knocking on death’s door a mere decade ago, fighting games have certainly come a long way in the last couple of years. 2018 may go down in history as one of the finest year’s for the genre, as the pickings may have been slim but the games on offer were benchmarks in two-fisted action. Here’s a look at the best that the genre had to offer, as well as 2018’s overall king of the ring.

For Far Cry: New Dawn, Ubisoft wants to change that formula up and give players deadlier opponents to deal with. Thanks to enhanced enemy AI, the post apocalypse might just more ruthless as creative director Jean-Sebastien Decant detailed how the game world and its inhabitants would react to your incursions into enemy territory.

Nuclear winters look like no fun at all. According to Ubisoft’s research, while working on the concept for Far Cry New Dawn, areas affected by the aftermath of a nuclear explosion can spend six years hidden from the sun. Temperatures plummet, almost all signs of life vanish. If you’re not inside a bunker with food, clean water and board-games, you are f… doomed.

We saw the glory of a war god reborn, we felt the joy of navigating through New York City while spinning webs and we faced stories of a personal nature on a scale that may have been more indie in design but was truly epic in scope. How do you even begin to sum up 2018? How do you condense a year’s worth of gaming into any single rewards category? Well the Game Awards 2018 certainly did just that, with results that probably weren’t surprising.

It’s exciting stuff and we’ll be up bright and early to cover everything. Or at least those of us under 35 will. Here’s everything you need to know: When to watch it, where to watch it, and the games that are up for award.

At a time when games set in Dystopian wastelands are being heralded by titles that are being subjected to internet rage (ahem), one needs to take a step back. Calm down, pull up a chair, smell the flowers. There are pretty flowers in this game. You might just have to trample them to duck (literally) and cover. Mutant Year Zero: …

On the edge of a Norwegian fjord, in the present day, The Doctor, Ryan, Graham and Yaz discover a boarded-up cottage and a girl named Hanne in need of their help. What has happened here?What monster lurks in the woods around the cottage – and beyond?