Need for Speed Heat may fall short in some areas, but by the racing gods I’ll defend this game’s ability to put a smile on my face with its high-speed cornering until the day I die.

We’re a month away from a new decade rolling into town, and when you look back at the last ten years of gaming its staggering to see just how far the medium has come. From an age of ambition to an era of quality without compromise, video games and the devices that we play them on have evolved over the years into the best entertainment that money can buy.

Look at us! Who would have thought that after eleven months of lows, middles and incredible highs we’d up here? Not me! The year, she is almost over like Grover. After a few months that included the likes of Pokémon, Star Wars and Death Stranding, December is usually the cigarette you light up as you bask in the afterglow of a hot and steamy session with big budget games.

Narcos: Rise of the Cartels was shaping up to be a fascinating advert for Netflix’s hit series, but the overall quid pro quo bend of strategy ultimately makes it the shallowest of tie-ins. This is one Search Bloc party that you can count me out for.

Even if you plug a hundred hours into Pokémon Sword and Shield, you may never see a Shiny Pokémon outside of that one bloke who imported all of his rare critters into the game from back in the day when he exploited the QR code functionality of Pokémon X and Y. That guy totally isn’t me. There are ways to get a Shiny Pokémon though, primarily through breeding and wild encounters.

Sniper: Ghost Warrior has always seemed like the bastard step-child to the super Sniper Elite franchise. Polish developer CI Games’ last game, Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 did little to change that perception. While the tactical shooter offered an open world, it offered little interesting or new and suffered from a raft of technical issues. With that in mind, I didn’t really expect to enjoy Sniper: Ghost Warrior Contracts at all.

Pokémon Sword and Shield is everything that you love about pocket monsters and then some. With an emphasis on sharpening what works and ditching more bloated elements aside to create the best region yet for the franchise, Pokemon Sword and Shield is pocket monster catch ‘em all mania at its very best.

Here’s where you can find every TM in Pokemon Sword and Shield.