Borderlands is as empty as eye sockets of bodies “adorning” bandit camps. Gearbox chose the silliest approach to game design: made a bunch of same-looking levels, where colored explosive barrels are the only interactive objects, placed quest-giving NPCs made out of cardboard, and churned out lots of “fetch/kill” missions. Borderlands has only one active ability per class and no character stats, while skills increase automatically as you use different weapons. Imagine Diablo 2 where Barbarian is limited to just “Bash” or “Leap.”

The makers of Tropico 3 managed to update the original game while preserving its spirit.

Chinatown Wars is not an evolution, but a step back. The same city, the same gameplay, the almost forgotten top-down camera angle, cardboard clichés starring as main characters. This is the first GTA game that I didn’t want to explore.

Duels of the Planeswalkers (which bears the same title as the 11-year old expansion to MicroProse’s adaptation of M:TG) is a neat, albeit simplified, adaptation of the classic game.

It's fun to freely explore the gloomy city now that Amanita Design got rid of their bite-sized locations. This is a full-fledged, mature adventure game. Hang around just for a minute, and you'll take a liking to this odd-looking world.

If only Brutal Legend's gameplay was as imaginative as its cool look! Try not to fall into a rut of side-missions spread over 64 square kilometers, and you’ll enjoy the short single-player campaign. And yet, Shafer & Co. can do much better than this. Just ask Ben, Manny, or Raz.

If only Brutal Legend's gameplay was as imaginative as its cool look! Try not to fall into a rut of side-missions spread over 64 square kilometers, and you’ll enjoy the short single-player campaign. And yet, Shafer & Co. can do much better than this. Just ask Ben, Manny, or Raz.

Uncharted 2 is a blockbuster made with passion. The best ten hours you'll spend sitting in front of the TV in 2009.

Half-Minute Hero is brilliant parody of genre clichés, sped up 10000 times. It will take you just a couple of tram stops to save the world twice, break the analog nub, and learn to value time.

Try as they might, none can’t clear the bar that was set by Painkiller. Left to its own devices, without People Can Fly’s support, Mindware Studios created but a pale imitation. Some people can’t fly, indeed.

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.

It’s easier to escape death in a hyperdrive and chop twenty tons of scrap metal with a lightsaber than overcome boredom and finish Republic Heroes.

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.

It takes a couple of hours to unlock all three available maps, but you’ll have to spend way more time to reach the highest rank. If you won’t fall asleep, that is.

MotorStorm: Arctic Edge is not without its flaws: the tracks will bore you sooner or later, some vehicles behave too similarly, the upgrades are purely cosmetic, objectives and modes are few and far between. But BigBig succeeded in conveying the excitement of an extreme snow race, while maintaining nice visuals and the freedom of MotorStorm.

Order of War doesn’t require superhuman reflexes, leaving you enough time to plan your strategy, type a message in the text chat window, play about with the “cinematic camera” and so on. It looks like nobody at Wargaming believed in the multiplayer mode, but in the end it is more compelling than the single-player campaigns. All in all, Order of War is an outlet for experienced players and an object of derision for juvenile “hardcore gamers”.

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.

By copying the original game, 1C: Ino-Co preserved its charm, but exposed its flaws. In 2000, they were excusable; in 2009, they are depressing.

A compelling cooperative mode instead of a brainless mayhem is what Madballs needs. But even in the current form, it is way ahead of its rivals.

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.

Rocksteady and Paul Dini created a game which is open for both fans and those who never heard of Batman. Arkham Asylum is the middle between animated series and Chris Nolan's movies. But don't let the "Teen" rating push you away: the gloomy hospital/prison where criminals are literally monsters and doctors are crazier than their patients, is more atmospheric than some "horror" flicks.

Shift plays to the gallery perhaps even more often than GRID. But when 16 glossy black Lamborghini Reventions, not yet spread along the track, are trying to squeeze into a narrow S-curve, high speed blurring the view, mixing dust with sun rays, and the driver is looking at the road from the incredibly detailed inside of a car… At this moment, you forget that crashes are unrealistic and that race will be over in just a few minutes. And let the theorists decide whether it is NFS or not.

Those who wait for the WWII version of Total War, are out of luck again.

Developers of family games often do hackwork and resort to oversimplification. IO Interactive didn’t succumb to temptation and made a game that stands head and shoulders above its rivals.

If it weren't for sci-fi elements, Darkest of Days would be indistinguishable from History Channel's Civil War shooters, although this game covers a wider period. Scenery changes, extras don different uniforms, but the lack of imagination is everywhere.

Some people mockingly compare Raven Squad with Company of Heroes and Call of Duty. I prefer to compare it with Stormrise. These games belong to different genres but share the same approach: invent an original gameplay concept and… bungle it completely.

If TimeGate Studios had a desire (time, money, talent), here’s what it could have done to turn Section 8 into a proper game: expand its story, make a single-player campaign a la Tribes: Vengeance instead of a humdrum tutorial, improve visuals, introduce additional gameplay modes, add vehicles and destructible objects. Unfortunately, the final game is just an empty shell.

Nation Red is not as simplistic as Legion of Man, DiezelPower’s previous creation, but it’s still dull and unimpressive.