Anybody really blown away with any of the 2018 releases?

The only one that really knocked my socks off was Battletech

Far Cry 5

Thrones of Brittania

Formula 1 2018

I’ve enjoyed all three games immensely.

For me on the PS4 it has to be Red Dead Redemption 2. I received the new God of War for PS4 for Christmas too but have not started it yet and it got very good reviews. I don't have too many current games. I'm still accumulating several year old games that I've been wanting like Prey, Dishonored 2, Deus Ex Mankind Divided and so on.

I just purchased the new, Shadow of the Tomb Raider game and I'm installing it now. I really enjoyed the first two so I imagine I'll like this one. I also got Quantum Break by Remedy which I'm looking forward to as well.

I'll go with the first two on Panzer's list, but then, I'm pretty sure they are the only two new games I've bought this year--Thrones when it came out and FarCry 5
during one of the Steam sales.

Cheers

Red Dead Redemption 2. A masterpiece.

God of War was also good, but it lacked the cool weapons of the previous three games, and I’, not sure I liked it as much as those.

I don't play console games but "God of War" has music done by Bear McCreary of Battlestar Galactica fame. Heck, I would probably just buy the soundtrack for the game if available.

+1

I would have tried RDR2, had rockstar released a PC version. But they didn't (yet).

My favourite game of 2018 (released in 2018) was Kingdom Come Deliverance.

The other main title I played repeatedly was the short 2017 release - Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. I bought it at the very end of 2017, so it doesn't really count, but I did play it about 9 or 10 times, mostly in 2018.

I don't buy new games, except for Dark Souls or related games by From Software so...

My favorites of 2018 were Dragon's Dogma, Prey and Mount and Blade. Mad Max was neat, too, but didn't rise to the same level as the first three. Dragon's Dogma is a classic--a rare game that others should be measured by, but none can fill its shoes. Mount and Blade is like Prince of Persia meets Defender of the Crown with some Spirit of Excalibur, too. It's a special game that even has a dynamic game engine resembling Falcon's dynamic campaign, with a story. Prey was awesome, and should be experienced, if you loved Ultima Underworld or System Shock.

As far as PC games, I kept getting the Season Pass for Rainbow Six and continued to play that in 2018

Kingdom Come Deliverance by far

RDR2 for PS4, best video game I've ever played. I tried to lke GoW but just found it really dull. Sadly, thinking the same about Assassins Creed Odyssey on PC.

I have been playing Forza Horizon 4 non stop for weeks. Have RDRS on the XBOX, and it looks fantabulous, but i have not spent any time on it.
There is no way to lose in FH4. You just have to finish a race, not place or win. And you get points. Drive around, get points, And there are other things.
Like me snatching a $10M dollar Ferrari out from under another bidder at the last second, getting it for a measly $1.3M Woot!
You get points for painting, tuning, driving. Even taking pictures. Stupid Fun.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider for me. Masterful game design.

Kingdom Come Deliverance.

I suppose Red Dead Redemption 2 should get a nod as well since it actually got me to go purchase a new console game.

I enjoyed Prey, but it shouldn't have been called Prey.

The jump scares were great, loved the sound and really felt I was in space a lot. The Winter Sale made it money well spent.

I grabbbed Shadow of the Tomb Raider on the year end sale and am pleasantly surprised by it:

While at the start it felt like playing a CGI movie rather than a game, this ended fairly quickly, and helps play out the story later. I'll forgive them because it's clear they actually gave a #%&*$# about it.
No blind jumps! I don't think they fixed the goofy camera programming, but they finally designed levels that don't expose it or penalize the player for it.
No quick time events! Well, there are, but they're done much better. None of this press the right arrow key at the exact second stuff.
Improved level design with less hand holding, while at the same time not crazily illogical. Some of the previous games seemed like one was trying to come up with a solution for slicing a pie using a cucumber and a flute while hanging from a ceiling fan.
Animations are smoother, and some of the actions are either automatic or animated. I like that one automatically crouches when moving forward through a low tunnel, and the automated squeeze through cracks in walls is a nice compromise. Some of them are actually pretty awesome, like when she walks through deep mud.

Lara is de-sexified, wearing reasonable clothing. While I do miss shiny snow suits, it's more realistic (though she needs a haircut). They also do a really good job of showing that Lara is a self absorbed Tomb RAIDER, not a researcher or archeologist. Indiana Jones: "'This belongs in a museum!" Lara Croft: "This would look great on a corner shelf in the upstairs hallway."

It's not perfect:

Difficulty is wildly fluctuating. It can go from easy as pie to frustrating and back again in three minutes. The game constantly saves, though, so I think they knew this.

There is some real silliness in the quest line. At one point one dons a disguise as the enemy that is from an isolated village speaking their native language (and not Spanish). Amazingly, this British woman who barely speaks their language fools everyone! Everyone but this one merchant, who calls out to Lara using her nickname ("Outsider") in a loud voice.

This made me roll my eyes at the former, and take a break from play due to laughter at the latter.

The combat is clunky, to say the least. The bow at distance and the machine gun are your friends - everything else (including the shotgun) just won't cut it. The camera also goes into an epileptic fit in close combat, which makes it look like one is fighting in a closet with coats on the rack.

Agreed. This game had absolutely nothing to do with the story from the previous Native American-themed "Prey" game.

I flirted with a bunch of games on pc but nothing grabbed me and sucked me in. RDR2 single player easily won out, online fizxles a bit after the initial madness and early grind but the single player story shines. Immersive, fun and hits you right in the feels. From the amount of love God of War has gotten, it's next on the list for a session.