For a long time, I’ve been down on Far Cry 5. “It’s just more of the same,” I’d mutter to myself under my breath whenever anybody on our team showed any interest in the game. I’ve played and loved all of the previous ones (yes, even Far Cry Primal) and loved them all, but I’ve just been burned out on the formula, and open world games in general. Joseph Seed made a believer out of me.

It’s the strangest feeling to begin Far Cry 5 with the ultimate evil, the ‘last boss’, in custody, your hand resting on his bare shoulder. The intimacy is eerie. You expect that this can only go badly wrong, and it does.

Freedom in video games is something that we take for granted, albeit what good is that freedom if it isn’t interesting. You can only admire salt plains for so long, you can only take notice of lush trees so many times. People make a land interesting, people make a nation what it is. That’s an idea that Far Cry 5 is building on for its release next year, as Ubisoft’s premier shooting and survival experience expands massively in a new narrative direction.

Quantum has kept the truth about Woody’s biological father a secret, and now that Woody has found out about his brother’s betrayal, their once-promising superhero career has ground to a standstill. So now it’s time for one last shot at teaming up as our heroes head “down under” – ahem, to Australia – in search of Woody’s one true DNA match. Like father, like son? Let’s hope not.

At its core, DC’s upcoming crossover between its primary heroes and those of the Watchmen universe, is a clash that involves the ideas of hope colliding with that of pessimism. It’s an ideal match-up, one which shines a spotlight on DC’s recent efforts to restore their heroes towards a brighter status quo in the wake of last year’s Rebirth event, against the more dystopian themes created by writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons in Watchmen.

What if the apocalypse wasn’t result of technology running amok, but an army of monsters that were thought to be the sole domain of the fantasy genre? That’s the scenario presented in Image’s next big series, The Realm. It’s ten years after civilisation has fallen, armies of Orcs, dragons and other mythical beasts roam the streets and a small resistance is combing the new wasteland for answers to just what went wrong for our species as they tangle with a sorcerer named Johnny Eldritch.

No doubt about it, South Park: The Fractured But Whole makes South Park: The Stick of Truth look like a training ground for Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s latest videogame foray. With a personalised protagonist in the lead role as Cartman takes the role of superhero ringleader and tutor, this feels like a fully-fledged RPG with a sharp satirical edge.

Total Warhammer 2 builds on the success of the first game with more races, more lore, and more in-depth strategic action.