I really doubted the single player campaign in CoH2 could surprise me in any way, but the introduction of the strategic map made Ardennes Assault worthy of even being sold as a separate game. I’m impressed. [01/2015, p.56]

My quarrel with Warlords of Draenor is that it does not define the direction for the whole game – it just refreshes it and sets it in order, which is what patches do. There’s not enough novelties and the changes (e.g. randomized loot) are hit and miss. [01/2015, p.52]

3-in-1: a poor stealth game, a primitive adventure game and a boring action game. [01/2015, p.50]

The biggest disappointment for me was that although you play as a Templar, it has almost no influence on gameplay. The historical backdrop is not exciting at all and it’s pretty obvious that the whole game was designed so that the assets from Assassin’s Creed III and IV could be reused. The whole naval module borrowed from Black Flag is still fantastic, but after having played 7 games of the series I need something better than just more of the same. [01/2015, p.46]

As usual I had fun with LBP – it’s hard not to love sackboys and sackgirls – but I expected something fresher and more polished from the series’ debut on PS4. [01/2015, p.44]

The game is dripping with pathos, but I couldn’t invest myself emotionally in it, because it all just feels fake. [01/2015, p.42]

Rockstar did not have to try hard – GTA V would sell on new consoles even it was the same game as before. It’s hard to underestimate both their ambition and effort to make their latest offering something more than a simple reissue. The new first person view really changes the gameplay and alone is worth your money. [01/2015, p.36]

A game that would be even cooler if it didn’t try so hard to be cool. To love it you need to switch off the part of the brain responsible for good taste, but in return Sunset Overdrive relentlessly strokes the part responsible for pleasure. [13/2014, p.76]

Improvements in this edition might not be essential, but it’s still a brilliant game. Simply brilliant. Once again I spend every spare moment either playing it or thinking about it. [13/2014, p.75]

A solid game that can’t hold a candle to NBA 2K15. [13/2014, p.74]

The latest rendition of the series does not introduce many changes to the gameplay, but offers so much content, that it’s almost impossible to play it all. [13/2014, p.72]

Sins of the Fathers is possibly the best showcase of the golden era of point’n’click games. [13/2014, p.71]

F1 2014 is not a bad game, it was built on solid foundations of its predecessors, but it doesn’t offer anything new and is clearly just an appetizer before the next-gen F1 2015. [13/2014, p.71]

Quality of individual games differ but as a whole The Master Chief Collection is amazing. [13/2014, p.70]

If you’re a fan of Nintendo, you will be delighted with Super Smash Bros. [13/2014, p.69]

Fans of Sony’s mobile platforms have been envious of Nintendo’s Ace Attorney series for years and longed for an equally good whodunit. Now 3DS users will be envious of Danganronpa 2. [13/2014, p.69]

I was not unhappy playing Ancient Space, but I don’t feel like playing it again, because at some point during the 15-hours-long campaign, the gameplay got boring. [13/2014, p.68]

It gets boring quickly, because it’s so easy that you feel like you’re playing with cheat codes activated. [13/2014, p.67]

After a couple of hours this pigeon dating sim (yes, you date pigeons) turns into a psychedelic post-apocalyptic horror with gore elements. Is any other encouragement necessary? [13/2014, p.67]

A game that came out of nowhere and made me play it ‘just 5 more minutes’ for long hours. [13/2014, p.66]

A strategy game stripped from everything that’s not essential, boiled down to the essence of what’s really important in the genre. [13/2014, p.65]

You can just watch the cut-scenes and attack animations on YouTube and save yourself time and boredom, because the combat system is poor compared to other Gundam style games. [13/2014, p.65]

SG2 has everything that makes space sims great, but despite its complexity is accessible enough to make it a wonderful first step into the genre. [13/2014, p.64]

Canadians responsible for this edition restrained their own creativity almost completely, delivering a polished product true to the original game. [13/2014, p.63]

It treats players like drooling idiots that expect games to play themselves. [13/2014, p.62]

RPG of the year and a must-have for everyone who values good story delivered in a cinematic fashion and supported by outstanding sound and graphics. [13/2014, p.58]

It seems the developers were not entirely sure what they wanted to achieve and got caught between traditional and innovative approach, properly employing neither. [13/2014, p.56]

Still not as complex and technologically advanced as FIFA, but this is the best PES in years, the game fans were waiting for. Konami managed to resurrect the spirit of Pro Evo 6, but with modern visuals that are breathtaking at times. [13/2014, p.54]

Achieving success in Farming Simulator 15 comes down to repeating a couple of actions mindlessly and pertinaciously. [13/2014, p.53]

A new, better Costume Quest. If it wasn’t for the short and easy campaign I would recommend it to everyone, not just fans of the first game. [13/2014, p.53]

This game is a lot of fun. There’s some Crysis in it, some Titanfall, some elements borrowed from Unreal Tournament and Battlefield. Underneath it’s still Call of Duty though, finally modernized in terms of visuals. [13/2014, p.50]

Cancel all your plans and fill up the fridge, because once you launch Beyond Earth you will not want to leave your home. [13/2014, p.46]

You will find a lot of fun in this dungeon. Instead of focusing on pretentious story, convoluted mechanics and technical bells and whistles Amplitude Studios delivered fantastic gameplay. [13/2014, p.45]

A complex, polished and really pretty game that has nothing to be shamed of even when compared to Sid Meier’s Civilization. [13/2014, p.44]

It’s a game for kids, therefore it doesn’t surprise you with complexity, but the figures are awesome. [13/2014, p.43]

It’s the best console version of one of the most important games of the decade. Some limitations imposed by the platform might annoy hardcore Minecraft fans, but they are not the target group here. [13/2014, p.42]

Everything Far Cry 3 did great Far Cry 4 does even better. [13/2014, p.38]

As the first next-gen addition to the series Unity is a stepping stone on the way to something outstanding, but not an outstanding game in its own right. [13/2014, p.32]

When I read that Crusader is slowly becoming the game the developers wanted it to be, I can’t hold back laughter. What are they going to do in Crusader III? Strip the visuals of distinctiveness even more? Simplify the economy further? Remove some more units? [Dec 2014, p.81]

Flockers is not an original game (it uses the concept introduced in Lemmings over two decades ago), but it’s a polished one. It’s a cute puzzle game that is also so brutal that it earned a PEGI 16 rating. [Dec 2014, p.80]

With its 100% old school gameplay (rocket jumps, strafe running, medkits, three lives, killer speed) Wrack is a worthy heir to id Software’s tradition. [Dec 2014, p.79]

A solid game that lacks distinctiveness. I’m not sure I’m going to remember it in a couple months’ time. [Dec 2014, p.78]

Don’t let your judgment be clouded by other people’s opinions influenced by terrible server problems they encountered when ArcheAge was launched. It’s a really good, beautiful game. [Dec 2014, p.76]

It’s a shame Gauntlet’s visuals are not as wonderful as its gameplay. [Dec 2014, p.75]

I appreciate the effort put into this game, but OpenTTD is free and still unbeaten. [Dec 2014, p.73]

New engine’s impact on game’s quality is noticeable, but still rather small. [Dec 2014, p.73]

It’s a good game, but you have to remember that it’s a port of a 10-year-old PSP title. [Dec 2014, p.72]

This game makes you crawl like a goddamn worm, in constant fear of being squashed. I was scared to leave the closet I was hiding in, because the monster was somewhere out there. [Dec 2014, p.68]

The sense of speed offered by Driveclub reminded me of the brilliant first GRID and I was having a lot of fun until I realized that cars are indestructible. Whether you stroke a wooden fence or smash into another vehicle at 300 km/h your car drives exactly the same afterwards. [Dec 2014, p.66]

I had a lot of questions in my head when I launched Bayonetta 2 for the first time. Is it possible to design a combat system as awesome as before, make it familiar, but not hackneyed? Is it possible to outshine the closing moments of the first game? The sequel needed just a couple of minutes to dispel all my concerns. [Dec 2014, p.62]

I could not shake the feeling that gameplay changes were introduced only to justify publishing a new FIFA. I launched brilliant FIFA 14 for comparison and could not believe how much the designers lost their way. Why try too hard to reinvent something almost perfect instead of just polishing it? [Dec 2014, p.58]

Derivative, but also colorful, absurd and fun. If you played one Borderlands game, you played them all. [Dec 2014, p.56]

This game convinced me to buy Xbox One and for me FH2 is the only racing game that should be taken into account this year. [Dec 2014, p.54]

Batman’s Creed: Shadow of Mordor – Monolith’s inspirations are so obvious that you could call their game a rip-off. Its greatest sin though is the fact that it fails to vary gameplay the way Assassin’s Creed or Batman do and offers almost nothing apart from killing stuff and playing with the Nemesis system (which, I admit, has its moments). I got so tired with its repetitiveness that I wouldn’t have finished the game if I didn’t have to. [Dec 2014, p.48]

Some minor disappointments did not prevent me from soaking in the atmosphere worthy of Lovecraft’s horror stories. [Dec 2014, p.46]

I was flabbergasted by what two largely unknown studios managed to achieve. Lords of the Fallen is not just a creative take on the formula introduced by From Software, but also a game that can rival the greatest recent RPGs and looks like Monica Bellucci and Sophie Marceau from their best years. [Dec 2014, p.40]

PC gamers had to wait whole year to get their hands on Dead Rising 3. It’s hard to tell what Capcom Vancouver was doing all that time because the quality of Apocalypse Edition leaves much to be desired. It has all the problems of the Xbox One version, the frame rate is locked at 30 fps and the loading times are disgraceful. [Nov 2014, p.74]

I wish the developers spiced up basic 30 challenges instead of putting their efforts into the additional game mode. [Nov 2014, p.74]

How to design an indie game to have it published on Sony’s platforms? It’s easy. The game just has to look nice and there may be some crumbs of gameplay in there somewhere. But not necessarily. If there’s no gameplay, you just call it ‘an experience’, not a game, and everything’s fine. [Nov 2014, p.73]

Brume Tower is less claustrophobic than Shulva and the second DLC did a much better job convincing me to revisit Drangleic and its surroundings than the first one. [Nov 2014, p.73]

I haven’t seen such an interesting combat system in any other jRPG game. Who would’ve thought that I would await the next game of the Tales series more eagerly than the next Final Fantasy? [Nov 2014, p.72]

After the first 5 hours I was delighted with Lichdom, shocked by its awesomeness even. Then repetitiveness reared its ugly head and my enthusiasm started fading, especially when around the 12 hour mark (when the game should have ended for its own sake) I realized that the story is far from over. Anyhow, Lichdom has a spark that makes you want to come back to it and the spell crafting system is truly amazing. It’s just better to enjoy it in small doses. [Nov 2014, p.68]

Fallout 2 still holds the throne of post-apocalyptic RPGs, but despite some flaws Wasteland 2 is a very good game that can provide loads of fun. [Nov 2014, p.64]

The game plays on emotions with ease and I think only a heart of stone could prevent you from feeling moved by some scenes. [Nov 2014, p.62]

6 new stages and 5 new characters – sounds great until you realize that ‘new’ means ‘borrowed from Street Fighter X Tekken’ (with the exception of Decapre, which is a Cammy clone with an interesting move set). [Nov 2014, p.61]

Besides delightful visuals and some Botanicula vibe Morphopolis doesn’t offer anything that would set it apart from other hidden object games. [Nov 2014, p.61]

I don’t like stealth games, because I find most of them boring. I launched CounterSpy just because its visuals caught my eye, but I put the controller away only after I saved the world. [Nov 2014, p.60]

One of the best games for new consoles. Maybe even the best one. [Nov 2014, p.58]

The game marries Dynasty Warriors with Zelda and provides the same kind of fun that classic arcade beat ‘em ups did. You just move in 3D and simultaneously fight hundreds of enemies instead of three. [Nov 2014, p.57]

It’s more of a DLC than a real stand-alone product. Fetch is likeable and the game evokes some pleasant memories of Second Son, but I had no desire to stay in virtual Seattle any longer than I needed to finish the 3,5 hour long story. [Nov 2014, p.56]

The story of Firefall’s development (9 years!) is much more interesting than the game itself. [Nov 2014, p.54]

The Sims 4 is just a foundation of a game. How would you react if you bought a new Elder Scrolls game and realized that half of the cities are unavailable (because TES6: World Adventures is around the corner), there are only 4 weapons (TES6: Accessories), you can’t ride horses (TES6: Pets), there are only 12 quests (TES6: Careers), 2 guilds (TES6: Friends) and 3 spells (TES6: Supernatural)? [Nov 2014, p.50]

Destiny is a good game. I know that ‘good’ is not exactly what we expected from Bungie (especially after so much hype) but that’s the word that comes to mind. [Nov 2014, p.44]

I can’t find proper words to describe how awful this game is. [Sept 2014, p.71]

The developers juggled a couple of ideas with ease but failed to use them to their whole extent. I’m looking forward to an expanded sequel. [Sept 2014, p.71]

Not as innovative as previous games from the series, but 24 maps, 8 types of towers, 6 special abilities and 10 variants of enemies are enough to provide a couple of days of fun. [Sept 2014, p.70]

Three new maps and no gameplay additions. Expedition is just not worth buying. [Sept 2014, p.69]

I wish the developers did more with the idea of the magic marker, but Curse of the Brotherhood makes up for its shortcomings with wonderful visuals, vivid world and a likeable protagonist. [Sept 2014, p.69]

If you spent your childhood playing DuckTales, Super Marios Bros. or Contra on your NES, no one can convince you that a pixel art indie game can bring that feeling back. Except for Shovel Knight. Shovel Knight can. [Sept 2014, p.68]

An interesting tower defense in space, but also a one-trick pony. [Sept 2014, p.67]

I hate it when developers use pompous artsy nonsense to hide the fact that their game has nothing to offer in terms of gameplay. Entwined is a primitive arcade game with an obnoxiously pretentious ‘love story’. [Sept 2014, p.67]

The biggest strength and simultaneously the most notable weakness of Dark Side is the fact, that it’s the first King’s Bounty all over again. It’s still fun, but how much longer? [Sept 2014, p.66]

I miss some features from the first Company of Heroes, but I also feel that the game is now more realistic and mature. [Sept 2014, p.65]

A worthy tribute to UFO: Enemy Unknown/X-COM: UFO Defense, but far from perfect. If you feel that your inner hard core gamer is not dead yet, give it a try and have fun. [Sept 2014, p.64]

I can’t imagine why anyone would play this terrible game and I can’t understand why Gaiman wanted to be associated with it. [Sept 2014, p.63]

The last episode is a bit disappointing, but that doesn’t change the fact that The Wolf Among Us is a very solid adventure game, head and shoulders above most of other representatives of the genre published in recent years. [Sept 2014, p.62]

The game did absolutely nothing to turn me into a fan. It gave me a taste of this sport (exotic from the European standpoint) and not much more. [Sept 2014, p.61]

MotoGP 14 is without a doubt both the best game in the series and the best product in Milestone’s portfolio. Still I recommend checking out the demo first. [Sept 2014, p.60]

Visual improvements and three included DLCs don’t justify buying this game again, but if you haven’t played it on PS3 yet, you’re in for long hours of valuable entertainment. [Sept 2014, p.59]

If you’re not familiar with the previous PC version, the Super Turbo Championship Edition is worth a look. [Sept 2014, p.59]

What killed Rise of the Dark Spark is its repetitiveness. Variety of combat is illusory, because it actually doesn’t matter what weapons you use or how you move around the map. Every enemy is going down anyway and your only task is to proceed from one checkpoint to another. This game is simply boring. [Sept 2014, p.58]

It would have been nice if the developers could decide what game they want to make. On one hand, we have a failed attempt to tell an engaging story. On the other hand, series of puzzles would benefit from a higher difficulty level. Valiant Hearts is disappointing, but still not bad. [Sept 2014, p.56]

Relatively small Larian Studios finally managed to deliver a really significant game. Original Sin is brimming with ideas on how to bring back old school RPG vibe and make it fit modern times. [Sept 2014, p.50]

A hybrid of The Room and Amnesia that looks great thanks to Unreal Engine and offers a surprisingly realistic physics model. [10/2014, p.69]

Mobile version of WoT remains a wildly satisfying F2P game that requires skill rather than deep pockets. [10/2014, p.68]

My new favorite proof that you can create a cinematic experience without millions of dollars and photorealistic visuals. [10/2014, p.67]

I don’t need great visuals to enjoy the game, but come on... OlliOlli looks like shareware releases from the 90. [10/2014, p.67]

It looks like Crown of the Sunken Kings was developed by interns, as it misses many elements that made Dark Souls II an exceptional game. [10/2014, p.66]