Three months into 2019: What's your favourite new release this year?

Apex Legends blows me away for no other reason than its the first online competitive FPS I've enjoyed playing, or even elected to play, since the original Modern Warfare. That to me is just wild, I thought I was completely done with that kind of game. It doesn't hurt that Apex is also my first taste of Battle Royale.

That said, I haven't touched it at all the past week and change thanks to Sekiro's first weekend and MLB The Show 19 both releasing and being the best Show in a few years, solving tons of weird issues with both gameplay and progression from the past two years. All three of those games are crazy good, and it says something that I'm enjoying every second of MLB The Show but feeling guilty for slipping away from Sekiro as a result and not grinding Battle Pass XP for Apex. As a massive fan of the original Resident Evil 2, I also feel bad that I watched Abby play through the whole thing and now have misgivings about buying it for myself until there's a discount even though I enjoyed my time with the demo.

Really an awesome, surprising three months of gaming so far, especially since the two non-MLB games that have defined it so far are games that are pretty outside of my wheelhouse of story driven character action games, sports and indie narrative titles.

Interestingly, my first thought was Resident Evil 2. I didn't love it, but it's really stuck with me. Abby's playthrough was a great way to revisit the game without having to play through it myself a third time.

When I think about it though, Apex Legends is definitely my favorite so far. It feels so fresh and exciting to play, and I can't say I felt the same about PUBG, Fortnite, or Blackout. I've slowed down on it a bit but I can't deny how much of a surprise it's been. I love stealth launches!

Sekiro all the way.

I haven’t played...any of those.

Off the top of my head, maybe Toejam and Earl?

Resident Evil 2 for me.

I love the recent return to the "classic" style of gameplay in both RE7 and the RE2 Remake. I feel like I'm in grade school playing them all over again.

DMC V. It absolutely exceeded my expectations.

It's funny though. At the start of the year I fully expected Sekiro to be my goty, uncontested. Don't get me wrong, it's a great game, but after doing 3 endings it has no real replay value, wasn't that long (4 hours last time through), and once you get the parry mechanic down is actually quite easy due to it's one note gameplay...

I haven't touched Apex Legends myself, but it's by far the game that caught my interest the most so far this year.

Very sad that Risk of Rain 2 isn't an option. By far the most fun I have had in 2019, and the game is still in early access.

Resident Evil 2 is excellently paced and wonderfully balanced and has excellent atmosphere. It's easily up there with RE4 as far as great Resident Evil games go.

I like Sekiro way more from a distance. Sorry, I've just been completely unable to play that game for more than thirty minutes at a time. I get frustrated with it in a way that I never got frustrated with Souls games, plus I never liked parrying in Souls games and Sekiro is all about parrying. Miyazaki must REALLY think that parrying is cool, since Bloodborne and Sekiro both rely so much on it.

DMC5, RE2 and Sekiro are way too good for me to ever choose between right now. Maybe when GOTY comes by I'll have made up my mind. But, with Bloody Palace coming out and me not having done my DMD playthrough, I'll probably lean DMC5.

Definitely Resident Evil 2. While it isn't a game I would say does anything one thing "the best" out of the games I've played, it's sort of the second or third best at everything that it does do. It like the video game Batman.

If we're counting "new" as "games that have been out a long time but not on a given platform," then Path of Exile just came out on PS4 last week. My PC is 8 years old and almost entirely used for work at this point, so I've never been able to really run it, but the game is preeeety good.

As for Sekiro . . . I kind of wonder if that's a game that is going to get re-evalutated somewhat by the end of the year. Despite all the praise it's been getting, I've found it to be extremely one note. Hard for the sake of being hard, except that it kind of isn't once you get the parry mechanic down. And past that initial difficult spike, there isn't really anything else to keep you playing - the environments are all really same-y, the enemy variety is lacking, there isn't any armor to try on, and the story is utterly forgettable. Personally, I felt like I'd kind of "seen it" by about halfway through the game and I certainly don't see myself giving it multiple playthroughs.

Yeah, I didn't mention games that are still in development.

I'd say as much as I'm loving Sekiro and as much as I loved RE2, I waited until it was officially released to pick up Slay the Spire and it lives up to the hype! My favorite so far this year.

@therealturk: I think there are two great playthroughs worth of Sekiro since the NG+ feature they add is basically meant to take you saying that you understand the parry mechanic and rake you over the coals for it.

But the folks who like play multiple cycles of Dark Souls are probably gonna cool on it quickly.

Apex Legends by a country mile. Will probably be my GOTY. I'm so surprised how many things they got right first time out on this.

APEX, very closely followed by Baba is You.

For me Metro Exodus. I've always loved these games and the Stalker series. I think it's a good move they went outside, while still being able to maintain that bleak atmosphere. Still doesn't have the mystique of Shadow of Chernobyl but a great game nonetheless. I've been playing Sekiro and while I have been enjoying it, I can't play for huge chunks of time, mainly cause i'm stressing out my dog...poor dogger gets anxious when I become even the tiniest bit frustrated haha. Sunless Skies was very cool but I gotta admit I was glad when I finished the main objective (writing the book in my case).

The Division 2. I think Massive has set the standard for the genre. It's going to be the game future shlooters are measured against.

Metro Exodus. It's a fantastic evolution of the previous games.

Ace Combat 7, for all its numerous faults ("BEEP BEEP BEEP MISSILE BEEP BEEP BEEP MISSILE"), was truly something special to me. Varied mission design full of fun surprises, great music, and a surprisingly good story all come together to make a solid game.

Apex Legends is my second choice. I still have yet to even play it, but it's got people talking about and/or playing Titanfall 2 again and for that, I am grateful.

Pretty close run thing between Resi 2, Apex and Sekiro.

But Sekiro has invaded my mind like the other two haven't, so I'm giving it to that. I think about it all the time, any time I have 10 spare minutes I boot it up and go, watch videos of it on public transport. Honestly the last time a game hooked into my brain like this was... Dark Souls. Weird.

I enjoyed the Division 2 as well but the story and world are so bland. Saying that I haven't got to max level yet, so I've not scratched the surface really. Hoping both that and Apex will be something I play well into the Summer. Apex is something I have fun with every single time I play, and Resi 2 was just such as fantastic video game up and down. Like a real pinnacle of the form, you put put it in a museum or an art gallery, and then hide it behind a load of obtuse item puzzles and statues.

Shout out to Anthem for being the most fascinating nonsense also, despite not actually being worth playing at all.

Yoshi's Crafted World. Playing it with my fiance co-op has been a blast. I've been busier replaying old favorites than I have been trying new releases, so that's my favorite so far.

Ace Combat 7 was great, i'll play it again at some point but for now there's not much reason to keep playing past finishing the story, so i suppose my favourite game this year so far is Dead or Alive 6.
Backlog update!
I look forward to playing Mafia 3.

Eastshade takes it by default as it is the only 2019 release I played. Just a fun little game despite its unfortunate technical shortcomings.

Definitely Resident Evil 2, couldn't get enough of it.

Only played FC New Dawn so far...

It's between Resident Evil 2 & DMC 5 for me. Capcom has been killing it recently. Really looking forward to Iceborne.

Apex is the only one I've played so I chose that. It would almost certainly by Sekiro if I had time to play it, though.

Shouts out Hypnospace Outlaw.

Dang the Anthem snub, alas.

KHIII is a close second mostly on the strength of the last couple of hours, but it falls short under the weight of the preceding two dozen hours and also treat your women better Nomura.

I haven't played much else, but I'm still enamored by Sekiro, 40+ hours in. Marquee releases are becoming more homogenous, and there's less of them, so it's not common for me to play something that feels genuinely new. Sekiro may be the best game I've played in a while.

It's been a while since a video game spoke as directly to my sensibilities as the Resident Evil 2 remake. Between that and DMC V, Capcom is already off to a great start in the "make video games that I like" department.

I'm more positive on Sekiro than you are, but the game is definitely in its honeymoon phase right now. I could see the Souls devoted falling off a little bit, given that there isn't much to latch onto in terms of build variety, repeat playthroughs, etc. I'm not quite sure where I land, after finishing it, other than thinking I really liked it up until I had to ram my head against the final boss for half a dozen hours.

I haven't finished it yet, but it might turn out to be Sekiro. To be honest, Metro: Exodus, Resident Evil 2, The Division 2, Ace Combat 7 and Kingdom Hearts 3 are the games I've played and enjoyed, but there's something either disappointing about most of them or just not significant enough for me to say it's my favorite.

@justin258: That's what I was thinking, but to be fair, well in my opinion anyway, the Souls games didn't have as easy of parries to pull off as Sekiro does. Considering it's one of the main things you need to do to win fights, it becomes just as, or nearly as easy as what needs to be done in the Souls games. I had almost taken a day off from playing Sekiro because I just didn't know if I wanted to get frustrated or stressed out about it, but after some time it clicks. One of my first impressions, once the challenge ramped up, was actually about the parrying, and how I thought Miyazaki just wanted to keep making harder and harder games because the one thing in the Souls games that I personally don't ever do is parry. Fortunately, it's easier here to me, but again, I never felt like doing it in the Souls games. If you haven't already, jump back in a give it some time. It feels just as good as the Souls games when you progress. Getting rid of mini-bosses is such a relief.

Sekiro as the #1 for 2019 doesn't surprise me. I personally love Apex Legends and can't say enough about how GOOD it feels to play. Unfortunately, Apex just isn't holding my attention. It seems like there is no real reason to continue playing. My wins don't matter. No ranked mode is killing this game IMO.

I went with 'other' as Stellaris console edition isn't on the list.

Sekiro is probably going to be the first game I sell back to gamestop, ever.

Pretty upset that Dead Cells: Rise of the Giant DLC isn't included on this list. It feels very intentional that last year's GotY wouldn't get a mentioned with its awesome dlc.

Devil May Cry 5 and Sekiro, pretty even between the two.

Resident Evil 2 and The Walking Dead : Final season.

Probably Metro Exodus. The gameplay is flawed, but I'm a sucker for well crafted atmosphere. Ace Combat 7 was also great.

Ace Combat 7 for me. That's the only 2019 release I've played so far though, but the only others I'm at all interested in right now are Generation Zero and Metro Exodus, and it sounded like Austin and Rob had a much better time with Generation Zero than the GB staff did, and I think these days my tastes align better with waypoint's.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Ape Out. Admittedly, I haven't played any other new releases, so it wins by default, but that game is fantastic in just about every way, and one of the most unique games I've played in a very long time. It feels like playing jazz, which is weird since the game is about being a monkey killing everyone in sight.

Of these I have only played Tetris 99, Wargroove, and Baba is You. Tetris 99 fantastic, although, you know, it's just Tetris. Baba is You is really neat, but apparently does not fit my brain very well. I'll keep coming back to that one. I'll have to go with Wargroove, which is a great experience, although its gameplay is pretty much entirely derivative of Advance Wars.

Current plan for the rest of the year is Planescape: Torment.

Sekirooooo!

So far it's Baba is You for me. I'm a big fan of the developer's previous work, Environmental Station Alpha, but I wasn't sure if Baba is You would grab me. I ended up getting hooked instantly and even after I had put dozens of hours into it and completed every puzzle I still wanted more. It's also a great game to watch other people play because everyone ends up speaking what sounds like nonsense while trying to figure out solutions. I'm not sure if it'll remain my favorite by the end of the year since we still have plenty of time, but it'll definitely remain up there at the very least and I'm eagerly awaiting the official release of the level editor.

Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, mostly because I don't think I've played anything else released this year, and it's pretty fantastic.

That said, Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation was brought to backwards-compatibility and it's one of my all-time favorite games, so I'd pick that if I could.

I do wanna grab Trials Rising, though.

Only played a few of these but Sekiro wins hands down for my money.

Resident Evil 2 is one of my favorite games of the generation now. It manages to condense everything great about the series into one game, and I'll probably play it a zillion more times as the years go by like I have with RE4. Sekiro comes pretty close but it still isn't as good as some of From's previous games to me. I just didn't get that same sense of attachment to the world that I got from Bloodborne and Dark Souls in my first playthrough, though the gameplay is still stellar.

Devil May Cry 5 aaaaall the waaaaay. I've been living and breathing it since it was announced, and it STILL exceeded my expectations. I can't wait to get home from work and do more Bloody Palace!

I enjoyed quite a few of those games but then Risk of Rain 2 released. My GOTY so far.

Sekiro and then DMC5, some of the most straight fun ive had with the character action genre in a long time. (and Sekiro is the samurai game ive always wanted)