Doom’s single-player campaign offers elements that are often rare in modern shooter design, ideas that maybe should never have been left behind as the FPS genre evolved. The multiplayer shooter design elements that have been left in the past, on the other hand, might best be left in the past.

Battleborn is a game that could really benefit from offering a free demo that doesn’t expire like an open beta test. Battleborn is dense enough to be easier to sherpa someone through rather than try to explain how the game works, and giving away a free taste might be all it takes to convince a friend to hop on board.

It’s the kind of closure that will make you reminisce about the first time you fired up the debut Uncharted game, but you won’t feel nudged to fire up Drake’s Fortune immediately after completing A Thief’s End.

Beyond my issues with the controls, the final boss, and leaning too heavily on fandom rather than redefining these characters for a fresh audience, what bums me out about Star Fox Zero is that for me it lacks the special something that defines a Nintendo game.

Koi may be a beautiful game, but its gameplay is about as deep as a puddle.

This feels like a case where a video game movie can afford to pay proper deference to the source material. If the Ratchet & Clank movie’s creative team chose to do so, we might have a rare entry into the very short list of video game movies that don’t suck.

The pervasive visual theme of death is as heavy in this game as it was in Bloodborne and the boss designs are as creative as anything found in the original Dark Souls. It’s remarkable that Dark Souls III manages to showcase these influences while still being able to stand out with an identity of its own.

I enjoyed Quantum Break in the same way I enjoy Marvel superhero movies. They’re fun to watch while I kick back and eat some popcorn. But when I go to see The Avengers I don’t have a control pad in my hands, and there’s where Quantum Break gets confusing for me. Sussing out the relative importance of the two halves of Quantum Break messed with my head as much as trying to sort through all the story’s causality loops.

Where many open-world games present large stretches of the map that are unremarkable filler, The Division is dense with tiny details that make every corner of the city interesting.

Every so often a game jam produces something special that is both interesting and commercially viable. A game like Superhot.

It may sound trite, but there actually was something primal about Far Cry Primal in terms of how it handled genre identity. It dispenses with any notions of gritty realism, noir storytelling, or military heroism, and boils things down to brutal violence and plain-old silliness. I found this refreshing.

It’s not quite the equivalent of getting three Fire Emblem Awakenings in a single release, but it’s nonetheless an impressive follow-up. Fates fine tunes Awakening’s best combat and relationship aspects while carving its own identity with the My Castle home base, creating a rare Fire Emblem that delivers immense value outside the arenas of war.

Street Fighter V delivers where it counts as a fighting game, the gameplay, and makes leaps and bounds of improvement everywhere else. That makes it a must-buy if you're any type of fan of the series—especially since there are no Super, Ultra or Turbo versions coming out in the future.

The team wanted to make it more than just a cute face and pretty graphics. Even if puzzles can seem obtuse, seldom do they ever feel impossible. The few faults in Unravel can be excused, because it’s so well executed. With the emotions it stirs and the warmth it makes you feel, it’s obvious that a lot of heart was poured into this game.

It turned out that the plot was one giant misdirect whose resolution felt disappointing. Firewatch's ending also failed to lend any emotional weight to Henry and Delilah’s relationship. That made me question whether Henry had forged a relationship with her at all—which made me wonder why it was worth talking to her for six hours.

Firaxis has done a wonderful job of taking the life-and-death, intense pressure of the tactical infantry game, and mapping it onto the strategic game.

I'm not upset about how inaccessible so much of The Witness felt for me. I feel sad, because I think The Witness is an experience a lot of people are going to enjoy figuring out, whereas I'm going to need more hints to get through it.

It’s not the deepest RPG out there, but sometimes it’s nice having a lighter experience. One that calls back to a simpler time, where intuition is far more important that meditated planning. Aside from some button mashing and less-than-stellar mini-games, Paper Jam is worth a try for some good ol’ fashioned fun.

Oxenfree sometimes feels like a walking, talking concept pitch, a vehicle for a compelling plot that needs a larger venue.

If there’s any message in That Dragon, Cancer that ought to be universal to anyone who plays the game, it’s that time is precious.

Amplitude is a let down. I really wasn’t sure what to expect when jumping in, but it did not live up to its PS2 predecessor. I’m genuinely a fan of rhythm games, and I have yet to play a rhythm game that I did not like. Amplitude sadly missed the mark. It feels bare, awkward, and incomplete. There isn’t a ton of content and the song selection won’t keep players hooked.

The game’s multiplayer foundation is undoubtedly solid, but it lacks supporting elements that would compel esports enthusiasts, let alone Rainbow Six fans, from investing time in Siege many months from now. Whatever time you do manage to spend, there are rewards to be found through tactical planning and execution that you can’t find in any other shooter.

X shines when it comes to combat, exploration, and vehicle systems, making this sequel more engrossing than its predecessor. It’s richness makes it easier to overlook the shortcomings from both the technical limitations of the Wii U and the inconsistent soundtrack.

It’s designed for people who want to whoop and holler because, “We’re playing a Star Wars game!” Which is fine, of course. But dedicated shooter fans need to understand that the average Battlefront match has all the sophistication of two blunt rocks bashing into one another for a 10-minute stretch.

Telltale’s Game of Thrones should be the end of any debate as to whether or not Telltale can apply its adventure game formula to any adaptation you throw at it. I saw things in Telltale’s rendition of the Game of Thrones universe that rivaled the awfulness I’ve seen on the show. I jumped from playing the post-apocalyptic Fallout 4 to playing Game of Thrones and didn’t feel like I was killing any fewer people.

I have spent more than 60 hours in the Xbox One version of the game and don’t feel anywhere close to having tackled most of the content. Fallout 4 could be the only game you buy for the next six months, and you might never get bored. It’s everything that Fallout fans were hoping for. When it comes to game releases in 2015, the best was truly saved for last.

Where the previous game is an over-the-top whirlwind, Rise of the Tomb Raider is better as a savored experience.

Black Ops III is a return to form for the Call of Duty franchise, and two of the three main components are as good as they’ve ever been. The story mode remains a disappointment, but there’s so much content and endless customization packed into the competitive and zombie modes that you’ll have no shortage of things to do for many months to come.