Hector: Badge of Carnage is a proof that Telltale Games knows a bit or two about mischief, and that Northern Ireland is home to talented foul-mouthed jokesmiths. Unfortunately, the combination of these two forces does not necessarily result in a brilliant adventure game.

Warlock is just a failed attempt to reproduce Master of Magic.

7554 deserves brownie points for trying to break the mold. Instead of the overused US invasion of 1965, the developers chose 1954 – the final year of the First Indochina War. Too bad this is the only original idea in the entire game. 7554 is just a carbon copy of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare sans multiplayer.

FIFA Manager 13 is worth buying only if you suddenly feel the urge to throw away some money. You'll get a slightly retouched FM 12 with one interesting, but non-working idea and Lucien Favre on the box cover.

Warhammer 40.000 is a glorious celebration of military minimalism. In this universe, they cut off your hands, burn your legs, drown your head in plasma and then ask questions. But the official slogan, "There Is Only War", is not an excuse to make a game without a good story, memorable characters and varied gameplay situations.

Five years ago, The Saboteur would have been lauded for its fresh ideas. Today, the only praiseworthy thing is its out-of-time soundtrack.

Dark Meadow is the least milk-and-water clone of Infinity Blade that popped up in 2011.

It took TimeGate two years to make a sequel to Section 8, but they never bothered to fully develop their concept of the orbital assault force. Only the moderate price tag and a lack of decent sci-fi multiplayer shooters keep it from burning out on entry.

The worst thing about Pride of Nations is that it has a much steeper learning curve than Victoria 2.

Get ready to fly on brooms, mix reagents in a pot and swing the magic wand… Until you yawn.

The title Sleeping Dogs is a reference to "let sleeping dogs lie". Well, the developers should have heeded this ancient wisdom and let True Crime: Hong Kong die.

Tower Wars looks colorful and steampunk-y, but doesn't offer much. Three maps, one race… And this is in a multiplayer-oriented game?

At first, Serious Sam HD is a nostalgic experience, complete with familiar locations, low-poly monsters and terrible cinematics. The illusion is short-lived, though, because this 3rd generation Serious Engine remake lost all its original charm – as if it’s not a remake at all, but a poor clone.

The biggest drawback of Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier is not so much its boring, monotonous design as the overall lack of ideas. High Impact Games made a game “with cute little animals” instead of an epic adventure. It’s certainly playable, but it won’t make your heart skip a beat.

According to Obsidian, Storm of Zehir is their way to show us what else can be squeezed from Electron Toolset. Well, as a technical demo this expansion is very impressive. As a game – not so much.

Geo-Mod 2.0, were it to fall into talented hands, could have given birth to a puzzle game not unlike Portal. For the sight of a high-rise building collapsing under its weight is the only thing that doesn’t get stale in Guerrilla. It’s entertaining even when feeble story and miles of boring rocky landscapes are firmly stuck in your throat and the sand from “sandbox” crunches under your teeth.

I don’t recommend buying Broken Steel, because it’s a matter of principle – let's not encourage trade in endings. You won’t miss anything important anyway – this DLC is only slightly better than its mediocre predecessors.

«Meanwhile, you'd better spend your money on something better» - we usually reserve verdicts like this for amateur-made games. It's hard to believe that this empty shell of a game was made by a team of industry veterans.

Exhilarating in its opening sequence, The Darkness 2 quickly loses steam and turns into a 5-hour run through a long corridor.

Get ready to fly on brooms, mix reagents in a pot and swing the magic wand… Until you yawn.

Despite a lucratively low price, Blacklight has no future. Modern Warfare 2 and Bad Company 2 are much better replacements if you want to just shoot at somebody, and if you're itching for some classic multiplayer gameplay, Counter-Strike Source is an excellent remedy for nostalgia.

The entire Spanish campaign, despite the great music, colorful scenery and a handful of new features, is just a rehash.

If Blind Mind Studios continues to release new patches and more content, Star Ruler will one day become a great game in the 4X genre. But today it's just a $25 preform.

I don’t recommend buying Broken Steel, because it’s a matter of principle – let's not encourage trade in endings. You won’t miss anything important anyway – this DLC is only slightly better than its mediocre predecessors.

Tyler Bates' excellent music, great voice-overs and amusing banter of Jason's companions are the only things that elevate Rise of the Argonauts above value-priced drivel.

The biggest problem of F.E.A.R. 2 is the triteness of its gameplay rather than dumbed down enemies. Four years ago, F.E.A.R. stood out in a crowd with its then-novel slo-mo effects and bold AI. Nowadays you can find all this even in value-priced shooters from Poland.

THQ should have made a deal with MGM to turn Homefront into a tie-in for the upcoming Red Dawn remake. That game would have been way better than what we have now.

THQ should have made a deal with MGM to turn Homefront into a tie-in for the upcoming Red Dawn remake. That game would have been way better than what we have now.

The Ultimate Sith Edition additions are nice, but nothing special. In fact, the same can be said about Star Wars: The Force Unleashed as a whole.

If you love Monopoly, but couldn't care less about online play, get a 2008 version. It makes no sense to pay extra for pretty much the only new feature.

So EA, what's next on your mind? Need for Speed Drag Racing with only one button – "Continue"?

Uprising is Red Alert 3 sans its already weak merits. Cinematics with nice-looking aides and a few great tunes by Frank Klepacki and James Hannigan are not worth $20. It’s silly to expect much from a cheap DLC, but Uprising makes Kane’s Wrath look like a fine expansion, while Firestorm and Yuri’s Revenge are blockbusters compared to it.

Crow is just like its titular character – dark, gothic, and unfriendly. It's an uninvited guest that you can't stand in your house, but something compels you to get to know this person better.

"Just another Sonic game" is the best description of Episode 2. A colorful, but flavorless platformer.

Sniper: Ghost Warrior is unlikely to get a storm of applause anytime soon, but at least this CITY Interactive shooter can be played not only by game reviewers.

Tried-and-true gameplay formula, adherent to genre traditions, unchallengeable classic – it’s easy to come up with compliments. But there is a better word - stagnation. Even colourful visuals won't mask an old-fashioned, painfully boring game.

Amazing Alex is not as brilliant as Armadillo Run, or charming like Crayon Physics Deluxe.

Instead of trying to cram everything but a kitchen sink into a low-budget game, the developers should have polished its core concept. Faery could have become a very beautiful, touching fairy tale, but turned into a weird made dish.

Ten thousand square kilometers of crushing solitude. You drive on a track poorly lit by a full moon, and you desperately long for something interesting to happen. But no, there are no surprises at all.

Battlefield 1943 is the best multiplayer shooter for XBLA and PSN, but only by virtue of having no formidable competitors, except for the crippled CellFactor: Psychokinetic Wars.

Is it worth it to release a Quake 3 clone in 2012? I don't know. In fact, Nexuiz is doomed not because it lacks fresh ideas, but because it lacks people who want to play it.

Here is hoping that modifications and patches will turn East India Company into a good, captivating game, because right now it is shallow, vapid and monotonous if you’re not a venturesome sailor.

Only the most patient players will get to the meaty parts of the game. Fort Zombie is a textbook example of a squandered potential.

To take Black Ops 2 seriously is to admit that this collection of absurd ideas, worn-out gameplay clichés, and soapy plot twists bears any significance to the first-person shooter genre.

Dragon Rising has enough silly conventions and simplifications to drive mad any die-hard fan of ArmA and the original Operation Flashpoint. On the other hand, its boring missions and poor multiplayer are a turn-off for those who just wants to shoot things. Releasing this game between ArmA 2 and Modern Warfare 2 is like spitting upwind.

Even with all its collection of flaws, Darkspore is not a bad game. The only real mistake that EA made was releasing it on PC with a $50 price tag. This game belongs on XBLA or PSN. But if you're into some mindless time-killing before going to bed, by all means, pick it up.

Singularity feels almost like 2009's Wolfenstein: the same dull corridors, anemic shootouts with simple-minded AI, and feeble attempts at creating dramatic tension.

The developers of iBomber Defense still can't find the thin line between simplicity and triteness.

Battlefield 1943 is the best multiplayer shooter for XBLA and PSN, but only by virtue of having no formidable competitors, except for the crippled CellFactor: Psychokinetic Wars.

The Steam version of Jagged Alliance 2 Gold is two times cheaper and at least two better than JA: Back in Action.

Alternativa is devoid of soul, emotions and, let's be honest, meaning. It doesn't take much time to beat this game, but why bother?

There are no gods in Risen – a powerful sorcerer banished them from the world forever, - but the hero still can’t escape his fate. German demiurges strapped him to the pillar of the story so tight that you can’t help but wonder if anyone at Piranha Bytes remembers what “role-playing” means. A game where all problems are solved by kicking butts and giving money is not an RPG. When the difference between working for bandits or the Inquisition in Harbor Town is to whom you report the completed tasks – it is not an RPG. It is laziness, harbinger of boredom.

If you are really, really longing for a 2D adventure with lovely hand-drawn graphics, then you'll enjoy The Whispered World for a couple of days. But chances are you'll quickly stop playing and immerse in a much more exciting activity – rummaging through the game's data folder in search of beautiful backgrounds for your desktop.

Medal of Honor doesn't become the current image of Electronic Arts – probably the most "humane" of all videogame corporations. Danger Close Games' debut reminds of a time when EA was a gloomy assembly line churning out soulless yearly sequels and movie tie-ins.

Medal of Honor doesn't become the current image of Electronic Arts – probably the most "humane" of all videogame corporations. Danger Close Games' debut reminds of a time when EA was a gloomy assembly line churning out soulless yearly sequels and movie tie-ins.

Who would have thought that this highly ambitious concept would turn out to be such a bland game?

Medal of Honor doesn't become the current image of Electronic Arts – probably the most "humane" of all videogame corporations. Danger Close Games' debut reminds of a time when EA was a gloomy assembly line churning out soulless yearly sequels and movie tie-ins.

What’s the difference between Relic Entertainment and a large dairy farm in the neighborhood of Vancouver? Relic is better at milking its cows. Tales of Valor feels like a crisis management by-product, as if its design document was written by a marketing executive, edited by the chief financial officer, and polished by PR staff.

Get ready to fly on brooms, mix reagents in a pot and swing the magic wand… Until you yawn.

This is probably the shortest single-player campaign I've ever seen in a racing game.

The story of Harley Quinn's vengeance adds nothing to everything that's been said in done in Arkham City. If you're having a greed attack over the $10 price tag of this DLC, well… just ignore it.

By blindly copying the first game, Radical killed most of its original ideas and made a lot of mistakes. Prototype 2 is a derivative tale of a stupid superhuman who walks in a city made of shoeboxes.

Dated look and tired “twists” of the barely noticeable story fail to impress. Wolfenstein is a true mediocrity in all regards – it has neither shameful slip-ups nor flashes of inspiration.

LEGO Star Wars was an inspired experiment of a talented team. LEGO Harry Potter is a mediocre product of seasoned craftsmen, complete with old mistakes but not a single spark.

X-Blades has nothing exciting to offer, although it is hardly a shoddy game. The interface is comfortable; the music is full of pep. Sometimes it’s fun to run into a crowd of stupid lizards and hack them all to pieces. Alas, thirty minutes of boring click-fest and humdrum bloodbath on each level will war down anyone.

The game keeps with the spirit of the original Assassin’s Creed, but fails to comply with the letter. Its technical flaws outweigh the artistic merits.

Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson once wrote in his blog that he honestly doesn't remember anything about a car that was sent to him for reviewing – it was that unremarkable. I had a similar moment with DiRT Showdown – I forgot to review it upon release.

Armageddon's visuals are borderline awful, but the primitive gameplay is what looks the worst.

If you never missed a Twilight premiere, if you know the lineage of the Stackhouse family and follow the adventures of the Salvatore brothers, then this expansion pack is for you. For the rest of the world, it's just a content pack that adds nothing new to the game's mechanics.

New Mombasa's burning skyscrapers, neon signs and omnipresent, almost palpable curls of smoke add a sense of style and depth to the visuals. Somber piano and unexpected saxophone solos feel like this is not science fiction, but a film noir. Unfortunately, as soon as we jump into a flashback, the magic is gone. The levels withered by the African sun are a parade of the old flaws. As this short, 6-7 hours tops, draws to its end, Bungie resorts to its old tricks – unhealthy gigantism and “copy/paste” - more often.

“Never get out of the car”, the heroes of Interstate ’76 used to say. If the developers of Wheelman decided to follow this credo, they could have focused their efforts on turning lifeless Barcelona into a real city, instead of churning out boring TPS sequences. Or they could have made a menu for editing keyboard shortcuts. Or re-do boring side missions and build them into the story.

This is basically an extended version of the free Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online with a weak single-player mode and a $30 price tag.

The second installment of Still Life turned this stylish, inventive thriller into an affected teen horror movie.

Once again, the excellent idea was killed by ambitions. If Stardock's risky bet had paid out, Elemental would have been a masterpiece, but to make one is not as easy as cramming a bunch of "new" features together. You actually need to glue them with a rock-solid concept. And, in violation of the second clause of its own The Gamer's Bill of Rights, Stardock had released a game as buggy and unfinished as Disciples 3.

A role-playing action about the modern world felt like a jolt of fresh air in the ocean of high fantasy, ancient myths, and space operas. But, as it usually happens, a good idea was killed by poor execution. It doesn’t matter if it was because of too many cooks in the game-design kitchen, or Sega’s meddling. The spy already got his burn notice.

The whole time I couldn't shake off the feeling that I was playing this game on the *wrong* platform.

It took CITY Interactive just a year to churn out a sequel to Art of Murder (and produce AoM’s clone, Scorpio Ritual, at the same time). Without belittling the many flaws of Hunt for the Puppeteer, I have to admit the studio’s progress. Sleepless nights and the publisher’s whip have pulled up the series to the level of a second-rate blockbuster.

Just another object-oriented puzzle of the 21st century. You look for hidden objects, thumb through the story and try to convince yourself that you can’t beat this game without using your brain.

Lush visuals are the only saving grace of this Sherlock Holmes. It pains me to see so much style and no substance.

This game is just an awkward attempt to mimic Eufloria.

This game is worth your while only if you take it as an interactive movie of sorts – somewhat shallow and anachronistic, but with adventures and a couple of silly puzzles to boot.

Refined visuals, almost bug-free code, and pleasant music are pretty much the only things that make Two Worlds 2 better than the original game.

I hope that future patches and expansions will fix the game, since right now Sanctum brings only headaches instead of joy.

Compared to the original, this Death Rally is twice as better, but that is hardly a compliment. We've played many great racing games since then, both with and without shooting, but this one still tries to party like it's 1996.

In 2007, Ubisoft sent to Africa a whole team of Far Cry 2 developers so they could record sounds, take pictures and soak in the spirit of "Heart of Darkness". Judging by the promotional videos, the guys had the time of their lives. It's a pity that the game fails to convey even the tiniest fracture of their emotions.

Advanced ballistics system, Sniper Elite's saving grace, does not hide the game's flaws, but rather puts them out for all to see.

Only the most hardcore fans of Tower Defense will enjoy Sol Survivor.

Rig'n'Roll tried to set the bar too high and failed. It's an interesting game, but way too off-balanced.

If all you have ever wanted is to create a superstar of your own and to socialize with your friends without leaving the Sims universe, then, by all means, have at it. But there is nothing else.

Unlike Operation: Anchorage, brief, dullish adventures in Pittsburgh are actually worth $10. It seems Bethesda has finally found the right formula for Fallout 3 expansions, although it’s far from being perfect.

Unlike Operation: Anchorage, brief, dullish adventures in Pittsburgh are actually worth $10. It seems Bethesda has finally found the right formula for Fallout 3 expansions, although it’s far from being perfect.

Gloomy cinematics promise trying ordeals, preparing us for something big and shocking. But then the end titles suddenly roll, and we are left with nothing. Oh yes, there are sacrifices, machinations, and mysteries, but they are so predictable that you can't help but sigh in disappointment.

The final cinematic of the game ends with a character crying. There is a good reason for that – I Am Alive is such a waste of a great concept.

Flat and boring. Terminator: Salvation fails to earn other, more favorable adjectives. The only bright spot is the soundtrack incorporating Brad Fiedel’s signature theme.

Flat and boring. Terminator: Salvation fails to earn other, more favorable adjectives. The only bright spot is the soundtrack incorporating Brad Fiedel’s signature theme.

Flat and boring. Terminator: Salvation fails to earn other, more favorable adjectives. The only bright spot is the soundtrack incorporating Brad Fiedel’s signature theme.

By stitching together successful ideas of the last decade, Vigil Games created a bulky, unfriendly Frankenstein monster, and failed to breathe life into it.

Puritas Cordas is a big fat zero that some people will, unfortunately, use an example for imitation.