The King’s Bird
Where Can I Play it?: PC
COGconnected Review: 82/100
The King’s Bird is one of those out of left field games that completely flew under the radar. But while the majority of gamers might never have heard about it until now, The King’s Bird is a visually stunning and challenging platformer. It has unique controls linked to its flying mechanic and a beautiful but haunting soundtrack. It’s a wonderfully engrossing experience and while the later levels can allow some frustration to sink in, it doesn’t hinder what is otherwise one of the freshest surprises of the year.
Deltarune
Where Can I Play it?: PC
On Halloween, Undertale fans jumped with joy to find that creator Toby Fox put out a spin-off called Deltarune (yep, it’s an anagram for Undertale) without any warning. For anyone that’s played the original, Deltarune is a huge nostalgia trip that’ll please anyone that remembers playing old school 16-bit JRPG’s. In a time when surprise game announcements and releases are rare in today’s information age, Deltarune is easily one of our favourite video game surprises of 2018. There’s still more to come too. Chapter 2 should be rolling out any day now.
Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII
Where Can I Play it?: PC, PS4, Xbox One
COGconnected Review: 87/100
With Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII, developer Treyarch scrapped a traditional single-player campaign and doubled down on what makes CoD the biggest video game series ever: multiplayer. While solo players may feel cheated that there’s no Michael Bay-esque experience for the same $60 price tag, multiplayer fans were treated to three feature-filled online modes that totally delivered. While Fortnite might still have the higher player count, there’s no denying that Black Ops 4’s Battle Royale mode, Blackout, is far superior. Add in a more tactical multiplayer mode and the best Zombies experience yet, and you have a surprisingly meaty CoD game. If you didn’t believe CoD could still be CoD without a solo campaign, Black Ops 4 will completely change your mind.