Without competition, the world would be a whole lot less ambitious, leading to life being kind of…well boring. Sports games were in fine form in 2018, with action taking place on a variety of tracks, fields and pitches. Here’s a look at some of the very best competition that made for some heated gaming moments this year.

Battlefield V has more release dates than a game should have. It was first available to those who subscribed to EA’s Origin Access Premier. Today, it becomes available to those who pre-ordered the shooter’s deluxe edition. Next week, it’ll become available to the general public, the unwashed, plebeian masses unwilling to pay extra for their games. Expect more games to do this.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 was a bit of a gamble for Activision – though it seems the company knew what it was doing. By stripping the traditional single-player campaign, Black Ops 4 goes all in on multiplayer modes, but fleshed out each of its three modes sufficiently to make players feel that they’ve gotten the value they expect …

I do hope there’s more to come from FIFA in the years ahead, but for now it’s more of a fun-to-have rather than a must-have for Nintendo Switch owners.

The Belgian authorities have concluded that loot boxes in games are akin to gambling, and have made their inclusion in games illegal. EA has refused to remove FIFA's lootboxes, and could be under criminal investigation in the country as a result.

Nintendo is launching their online service later this month with cloud save support, but is excluding all multiplayer games for a trivial reason.

The Battlefield V delay, along with reports that the game isn’t pre-ordering well have already hit EA’s bottom line. Thanks to reports that Battlefield V pre-orders are tracking 85% below Call of Duty: Black Ops 4’s and lower than previous Battlefield games, EA’s stocks are down 9%. EA would like to remind you that their little financial blip hardly matters. Why? Because they have FIFA to prop them up as always. FIFA 19 is out at the end of this month, and it will sell like proverbial hotcakes, because it’s FIFA.

From first-party titles such as Marvel’s Spider-Man to Bungie aiming for redemption with Destiny 2: Forsaken, here’s a look at the month ahead. Hold onto your butts folks, this is one heck of a big month!