Never mind the staggeringly meta cynicism on display: has gaming ever delivered something so damningly precise?

With just a little bit of platforming, puzzles, and baseline cognitive engagement, Titanfall 2 feels so much more satisfying than the status quo. Respawn realized the pretty hallways aren't fun anymore, and I hope the rest of the industry catches up soon.

That's the word for Civ VI: labyrinthine. By the time you've seen enough of it to determine whether or not you even enjoy it, the question is moot. You've digested its interlocking systems so thoroughly that, like it or not, they're part of you now. Such is its insidious nature: for all its soaring symphonic overtures and passionate rhetoric about the steady advance of humanity in the face of unimaginable adversity, Civ depicts all of human endeavor – from literature to sailing to knitting – as intractable conflict, a never-ending struggle to dominate your enemies that reduces every field imaginable to a rat race across a doomed planet.

The mystery, the wonder, and the challenge that have made Souls a durable gaming institution all feel a bit abbreviated in Ashes.

The resulting mix is, on every level, a peculiar kind of balancing act – as frustrating as it is charming – and often both at once.

In the end, the world of Watch Dogs 2 isn't nightmarish at all. Rather than trying to present players with a twisted or overly satirized reflection of our world, Watch Dogs 2 shows us a world that is wild, bright, unpredictable, delighted with itself, and most importantly, alive.

Every detail is almost perfect, and no detail is wasted in this triumph of worldbuilding and storytelling.

Such is the grand irony of the ludicrously-named Infinite Warfare – the only decisions that breathe fresh life into it are the same that have scared long-time fans of it away. To those devotees, rumors of CoD's radical reinvention have been greatly exaggerated. Not since the likes of 2002's Jason X has taking a well-known franchise into space produced so little tangible change; if anything, it's a testament to how it needs to be altered even further.

It's a game full of glimmers of the new, things that gesture toward what Final Fantasy XV might have become – had it not spent ten years battling its own history – only to let them drown, half-finished in a muddy stew of missteps and throwbacks, inexcusable omissions and baffling inclusions. Far from being for everyone, there are hours where you wonder if the game knows what it's become, let alone who it's for.

By many standards, Guardian isn’t an exceptional game. It bears the scars of its nearly decade-long development with an almost perverse sense of pride. The game's performance often struggles, overwhelmed by its own transcendent beauty. Its environment puzzles are mostly fun, but can be rage-inducingly opaque. It's not a journey meant for everyone – but those who heed its call will find themselves sadder, wiser, and maybe just a little better when they’ve seen it through to the end.

Setting decapitation against the backdrop of jaunty, big band renditions of holiday classics is at least a new twist on the same idea, but it’s a temporary fix at best. Dead Rising 4's saving grace is its Christmas setting – the strange mix of mayhem and holiday cheer gets more mileage than you'd expect. But it also signals that this series might be on its last legs.

Far from being a chore, there's something genuinely satisfying about the way Super Mario Run rewards skillful play and practice. If you're predisposed to this kind of immensely satisfying, repetition-based play, this is a game that is going to consume a huge chunk of your time and a significant amount of your phone's battery life.