"Situation Comedy" is very much in the same style as "Culture Shock", though it's a bit easier and even shorter, clocking in at a couple of hours. [Mar 2007, p.67]

You'll get your dozen hours of fun out of Bookworm Adventures, but you'll want to go back to "Bookworm" for more serious wordplay. [Mar 2007, p.70]

With Rise of the Witch-King, EA has officially left precious few licensing stones unturned. [Mar 2007, p.64]

Save yourself the tedium and just read the novel. [Mar 2007, p.72]

Heroes fails to deliver on some promises, and games take too long, but for a certain audience, it's worth a serious look. [Mar 2007, p.62]

It's best suited for those who are already familiar with "Warhammer", as there is a lot here to make a diehard grin from ear to ear. [Feb. 2007, p.60]

It's obvious that Gothic 3 needed another six months of work. You're forced to overlook a lot of flaws, and it's extremely hard not to be beaten down by the game as you reach its conclusion. [Mar 2007, p.56]

As is typical of city builders, combat is mainly a hands-off resource sink. An RTS this ain't. [Feb. 2007, p.62]

It's a decent enough game, but the comic deserves better. [Feb. 2007, p.74]

Neverwinter Nights 2 has enough pluses and a solid enough core design to make it compulsively playable. [Jan. 2007, p.46]

However, the puzzles are downright asinine, suffering from illogical design and poor execution. [Mar 2007, p.72]

It's so schizophrenic that it almost feels as if two developers of wildly different skill levels worked on the game at the same time, and everything was sort of thrown together at the last second. [Feb. 2007, p.72]

All of the changes make Railroads! less of a strategy game than a toy with extra challenges. [Jan. 2007, p.50]

Pets makes it easier to keep the fun and social scores up, but they can be very demanding of your all-too precious time. [Dec. 2006, p.71]

You control territories: It's like a much more fleshed-out version of the gang warfare in "San Andreas". [Jan. 2007, p.72]

Just Cause adds some crazy skydiving, car surfing, and a grappling hook that lets you parasail, but its storyline missions are kind of dull and predictable. [Jan. 2007, p.72]

It won’t hold your attention very long, but Ford Street Racing is competent enough to get you through a couple of rainy days. [Dec. 2006, p.80]

Released within days of THQ’s “Company of Heroes”, a game with much higher production values and infinitely sharper focus, Faces will most likely go down in history as 2006’s other WWII RTS, even if it does have a leg up in some areas. [Dec. 2006, p.77]

It doesn’t help that this has been a great year for real-time strategy. Three years ago, Joint Task Force would have stood out. [Dec. 2006, p.74]

The game certainly looks interesting in pictures, and the soundtrack is psychedelically soothing. All it's missing is entertaining play. [Dec. 2006, p.74]

There aren't many gameplay variations, but it's a nice, colorful diversion. [Feb. 2007, p.74]

Because the game features no narration, it holds you at arm's length, preventing you from ever becoming immersed in the environment. [Mar 2007, p.72]

Still, it's hard to escape the mild letdown of discovering, yet again, that this year's Madden is a lot like last year's Madden. [Nov. 2006, p.79]

This is more a sop to the converted than an effort to appeal to those who have given up. [Dec. 2006, p.78]

The whole package is worth the money of any hack-and-slash fan who hasn't played "Dungeon Siege II", but it's a shame that Gas Powered Games didn't close out this installment in better style. [Nov. 2006, p.75]

Since we are talking about a game that's more about crashing than flash, it could use more grit and dirt. And better physics. [Nov. 2006, p.80]

No wonder the actual Romans threw up walls. [Nov. 2006, p.74]

The military aspect of the game is almost non-existent, while the economy is overly simplified. [Oct. 2006, p.78]

Given the decidely mixed gameplay, you have to have a certain love of kitsch to get far in Hard Truck Apocalypse. [Oct. 2006, p.68]

Even if Titan Quest doesn't deliver on its promise to hang out with Homer, this is a cut above the average "Diablo" clone. [Sept. 2006, p.69]

Moscow to Berlin is almost slavish in the way it sticks to the formula and gives no sign of wanting to be anything more. [Oct. 2006, p.76]

Advanced Naval Warfare is not for rookies reared on rollover tooltips, but even seasoned salts will require a bit of time to get reacquainted. It's still an impressive and compelling game; it's just badly in need of modernization. [Oct. 2006, p.71]

It's goofy, satisfying, and unapologetically drenched in hilarious M-rated cussing, blood and ragdollery. [Sept. 2006, p.81]

It's goofy, satisfying, and unapologetically drenched in hilarious M-rated cussing, blood and ragdollery. [Sept. 2006, p.81]

Rise & Fall means well. Considering the competition out there and the ever-rising stakes, good intentions and mere competence are no longer enough. [Sept. 2006, p.67]

Rush for Berlin also puts a time limit on your missions, so you can't just wait around while your soldiers heal or your tanks are repaired. [Oct. 2006, p.76]

Aloof and distant, Secrets of Da Vinci isn't a bad game, just an unfriendly one. [Oct. 2006, p.72]

It feels like exactly what it is: a small and perhaps insignificant part of something much larger and(hopefully)more interesting. [Sept. 2006, p.57]

Were it not for performance issues, Hitman: Blood Money would be a worthwhile play for annyone into the franchise's nihilistic humor. {sept. 2006, p.75]

Everything about Rogue Trooper screams "competent," which doesn't amount to memorable or particularly inspired. [Sept. 2006, p.76]

While Heroes V might be a hard game to hate, it's also a hard game to love. [Sept. 2006, p.61]

Nintendo sweetened the pot with what feel like dozens of mini-games, and you're liable to find two or three that can hold your attention. [Sept. 2006, p.81]

Even with the negatives described here, SiN Episodes 1:Emergence is a hard game to critique because it isn't complete. [Sept. 2006, p.59]

Like its predecessor, Spellforce 2 is a bad game. It gets so many things wrong. As a real-time strategy game, it's superficial. [Sept. 2006, p.62]

If you can stomach the difficulty and the middle-of-the-road graphics, Dark Corners of the Earth offers a lot of suspense-filled gameplay in the 10 or so hours it takes to complete the adventure. [Sept. 2006, p.70]

Despite a name that sounds like a new blend at Starbucks, there's a lot to like about Shadowgrounds. [Oct. 2006, p.70]

Something that delivers the goods this fast and with such a high smile-to-trigger-pull ratio will be hard for anyone to put aside for long. [July 2006, p.83]

It's not quite in the same league as "Out of the Park Baseball" and "PureSim Baseball", but Baseball Mogul is no longer an after-thought. [July 2006, p.67]

All that appeal is present in Legend, but it's attached to only half of a brilliant game. And in the end, half of a new Lara Croft game adventure turns out to be better than none at all. [July 2006, p.55]

It's still over too quickly, and there's little explanation why you're running around these ruined buildings beating up drug addicts. [Sept. 2006, p.76]

Odama may not be much of a pinball game, but it's certainly a choice metaphor. [July 2006, p.86]

This Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Columbo meets Medium concept shows potential, but, in the end, Daemonica only creates disappointment. [Sept. 2006, p.75]

Top Spin 2 is the most complete tennis experience on any platform to date. [July 2006, p.93]

Any way you cut it, Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers is one rigid, uncompromising design with a high frustration factor. [July 2006, p.60]

But for the time being, this is as close you're going to get to a Pocket Diablo, and that counts for a lot. [May 2006, p.93]

Unsophisticated mission design and racketeering repetition make it less ideal for non-fans. [July 2006, p.57]

The number of levsls has shrunk with the rest of the package, a bummer revelation that casts a minor cloud on this tropical beach party. [July 2006, p.89]

At a good 20 hours and packed with loads of collectible cards, Acid 2 is classy, original work for the PSP. [July 2006, p.89]

Once you've seen the new tricks, Tetris is still just Tetris. [Jun 2006, p.92]

Forensics is inherently intriguing, and hardcore fans of the show will most likely find the game worth a look unless graphics matter to them in any way, shape, or form. [Oct. 2006, p.74]

Parallel Lines proves that effective story-telling sometimes makes up for mediocre gameplay. [July 2006, p.87]

With this new online mode, it's much easier to admit that you like Metal Gear Solid 3. [July 2006, p.93]

Parallel Lines proves that effective story-telling sometimes makes up for mediocre gameplay. [July 2006, p.87]

Instead, it's a competent but ultimately trivial experience that's only memorable as the weird RPG with Al Capone in it. [Jun 2006, p.92]

The mythological trappings are nicely done, making it feel more like an adventure than a typical slog through the levels. [Feb. 2007, p.74]

There's enough good in D&D Online to make it worth recommending, but whether there's enough meat to inspire monthly donations beyond the 30 days that currently come with the box is questionable. [Jun 2006, p.80]

With the Stetchkov Syndicate, the bar continues to plummet in terms of how much we can expect in our expansion packs. [May 2006, p.46]

There's enough new stuff to see to last maybe three or four sim lifetimes, which is a pretty good deal for your $35. [July 2006, p.58]

Super Princess Peach...an unremarkable platformer that plays like an introduction to the genre. [Jun 2006, p.91]

No real surprises; this is a fine expansion if you have a higher level character, but, beyond the Alternate Advancement system, there's little to entice you if your entire stable of Everquest II characters tops out at level 23. [Jun 2006, p.82]

There is very little luck involved, lots of direct conflict, lots of room for both tactical brilliance and strategic planning, and a much more complex rule-set relative to popular American games. [Apr 2006, p.61]

It's missing the polish of the games from that era, and it eventually succumbs to a samey sameness. But until it reaches that point, it satisfies the need for speed and shotguns. [May 2006, p.92]

Taken purely as a game, Getting Up works. But whoa, its message is a mess. [May 2006, p.49]

The combat is frequently challenging, especially by the time you get to the second disk, and it certainly sets the game apart from the party-based monotony found in most games of the genre. [Apr 2006, p.90]

With its jazzy score and terrific art design, it's a sublime bit of style over substance. With most games seemingly afraid of not being generic, that goes a long way. [May 2006, p.93]

Normally, mining the license library to populate new hardware is a move that smacks of laziness and creative bankruptcy. In this case, Capcom seems to be on to something. [May 2006, p.91]

Over the course of seven games and three acronoyms, the Tony Hawk series has inexorably morphed into the Hot Topic of the videogame universe, a game that glitzily packages and commodifies the skater subculture it glorifies. [May 2006, p.54]

There's an odd balance of atypical race cars and super accessible gameplay in GT Legends, but it's a successful one. [Jun 2006, p.67]

Even after five years, it still hurts so good. [May 2006, p.56]

While Wild Arms 4 isn't as wonderfully radical....it still makes returning to the weary world of Filgaia for the fith time far more enervating than it has any right to be. [Apr 2006, p.93]

What you see--or more specifically, what you hear--is exactly what you get. [Apr 2006, p.91]

It doesn't take much to turn a potentially brilliant text-based sports simulation into an average one. [May 2006, p.55]

Where the actual game experience falls short, the online community experience impresses. [Apr 2006, p.89]

This is essentially a professional quality modification to “Blitzkrieg”, handled by another Russian developer with ties to original producers Nival Interactive. [Mar 2006, p.61]

It’s all in the cards. Play the campaign to earn them and then use them to build your decks. [Mar 2006, p.91]

Battles are visceral and exciting in ways that may surprise gamers who haven’t really experienced quality turn-based tactics. [Mar 2006, p.61]

It's less punishing than "1503 A.D." and not as insufferably cute as "The Settlers." It has none of the depth of "Children of the Nile" or its Impressions predecessors. And it's as mildly entertaining and ultimately forgettable as it sounds. [Feb 2005, p.71]

Despite the superficial resemblance to “Rome: Total War”, Legion Arena is just the latest 3D version of the same simple wargame the developer has been peddling for a while. [Mar 2006, p.55]

A series of fantastic moments dragged down by a lot of incredibly dull, repetitive, and contrived ones. [Feb 2006, p.68]

While most games have you fighting zombies, this one puts you squarely in the rotting feet of one Edward Stubblefield, who one day finds himself slightly undead. [Mar 2006, p.53]

A game that solidly hits its clone-ish objectives but seldom elevates itself to anything more than a fun-and-frantic, click-y time killer. [Feb 2006, p.65]

The only thing separating it from, say, another dystopian gadget-heavy sci-fi shooter like "Project: Snowblind" is the marketing budget. [Feb 2006, p.85]

It never goes beyond being just another real-time strategy game. [Feb 2006, p.63]

The combination of slow pacing and boring, nondescript environments makes for too many dull stretches. [Feb 2006, p.86]

The developers at Bizarre Creations have made a beautiful thing, but they've given you no reason to enjoy it. [Feb 2006, p.87]

It's a cute idea in the age of SARS and avian bird flu, but the real draw is the Petit-Guinol gore. [Feb 2006, p.93]

It’s this emphasis on 3D exploration, as well as older style of gameplay, that might recommend the game to PC RPG folk, assuming they can get past the heavy-duty anime aesthetic. [Mar 2006, p.86]

While Most Wanted occasionally shows signs of screwing up the balance and flying off the road, it generally rights itself before it spins out of control. [Mar 2006, p.64]