10 Best Video Games Of 2018 You Didn't Play

9. Valkyria Chronicles 4

The Valkyria Chronicles games have been going since 2008, but I tend to think that one time XCOM tried to be Gears of War with The Bureau: XCOM Declassified put people off so much, they never gave the hybridised genre a chance across the board.

Because Valkyria Chronicles is just brilliant. One part planning as you scan a full-screen map, judging where to move units and how to plan infiltrations or flanks, the other standard third-person action, letting you make headshots, runs for cover etc. in real time.

The trade-off is a selection of dice-rolls when it comes to bullets available versus amount needed to kill, but overall, this walks the line between meaty action and strategy perfectly.

In VC4 we've got more of the same anime cartoon vibes applied to the backdrop of an ongoing European war for cutscenes and stylisation, as characters you're invested in are front and centre, both in-game and during pivotal story sequences.

A small knock might be throwback graphics that occasionally make you feel like you're playing something from the mid-2000s, but when everything plays this well, no one's complaining.