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]

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]

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]

An amusing waste of eight hours for adventure game fans, but other than its core gimmick of solving a murder before it happens, it's something we've all seen before. [May 2003, p.86]

If you feel like a little frenetic shooting and don't really care if it makes any sort of cohesive sense, then you won't feel bad about picking up this title. [July 2004, p.67]

That it comes up short isn't too much of a shock; if anything, the fact it holds up as well as it does is perhaps the bigger surprise. [Feb 2004, p.68]

The board game format gives it a bit of randomness, and despite there being almost no challenge, it's still a surprisingly amusing diversion. [May 2003, p.87]

Let's be kind and say that it looks lovely in its plumed cap of mediocrity. [Feb 2004, p.84]

The sort of game that screams, "average!" at every turn. [March 2005, p.83]

Although you get to blast Borg and kill Klingons, these moments are secondary to lackluster level design and a turgid story that gets in the way too often. [Sept 2003, p.75]

The problem with Conker: Live and Reloaded isn't so much that it's bad as that it's superfluous. [Sept 2005, p.89]

All the complexity and depth of a frying pan.

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

Little more than a shooting gallery, especially in single-player mode. [Feb 2006, p.88]

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]

Unfortunately, the game's most consistently medieval aspect remains its interface. [Jan 2004, p.74]

Seems like more work than play. [Sept 2005, p.53]

It has entertainingly plausible physics, thoroughly annoying (though realistic) sounds, and solid controls... Enjoyable in short bursts. [May 2003, p.86]

It all feels very tired; same dated graphics, some laughable environments, level editor is beyond complex.

It has amazing rendered visuals, well-animated polygonal characters, and it mixes a story-based adventure game with a fighting game... The design is not entirely without merit; it just doesn't excel and, like most hybrid games, risks failing to appeal enough to fans of either genre.

Decent graphics, an efficient interface, and a massive technology tree with a wide array of units. On the other, its slow speed, awkward unit movement, and abysmal A.I. add up to a less than stellar experience.

There isn't anything painfully awful about Highland Warriors, but there's very little to get overly excited about. [May 2003, p.82]

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

There's not enough in terms of modes, maps, or weapons to rescue the multiplayer from its slicker competition. [Feb 2006, p.58]

An extremely mixed bag. The game mechanics are full of holes, the interface is clunky and unintuitive, the puzzles can be mind-numbingly obscure, and the technology driving the whole thing is unimpressive. Still, the game's focus on character progression and dungeon crawls adds depth and interest.

The problems with Sam have nothing to do with the bad guys; there's a lot of them, and they're all weird. [Jan 2006, p.42]

While no one is going to sling a gold medal around its box, it's much better than its predecessor in almost every way, which boosts the quality from abysmal to merely okay.

Just another military shooter swimming in a sea of camoflauge. [Dec 2004, p.83]

In the end, the thing you remember most isn't the graphics engine, the nifty spell and item construction, or even the awful voice acting; it's the frustration of slogging through a poorly balanced game that substitutes saving and reloading for gameplay.

This is one game that might become a classic, but it isn't one now, despite a New York Times story on the front page of the business section. A game that requires a credit card and Internet access before the player can get even a glimpse of what's going on had better be incredibly engrossing or at least immediately accessible. Ultima Online is neither. The "undoubted future of interactive entertainment"? God forbid. At best, it might eventually grow into a solid, mature game that delivers the goods, but for now, caveat emptor.

It's too bad Midway is so caught up in the me-too game when it's just children like the Rush series who get hurt. [Dec p.93]

The only addition is Online Everywhere, which lets you check out the live ESPN ticker while still in the game, and it's hardly essential. [Apr 2006, p.93]

But, for various reasons, Paraworld doesn’t hold up next to the latest RTS games. It’s a bit like one of its own dinosaurs. [Dec. 2006, p.76]

There's probably an entertaining game to be made from the disaster that is dating; this isn't it. [Oct 2004, p.87]

But in the end, it doesn't serve gamers, not even the extremely forgiving cadre of adventure game fans. [Sept. 2006, p.63]

It shamelessly copies two Blizzard classics, "WarCraft II" and "Diablo." The problem is that it doesn't copy from either classic particularly well, and the result is a flat, lifeless experience that quickly becomes more of a chore than a pleasure.

Commandos: Strike force tries to shoehorn these series hallmarks into a first-person shooter but fails on nearly every level. [July 2006, p.57]

Black may not be terrible, but it's repetitive and mundane. [May 2006, p.89]

There's simply no way to get your fingers around it all. [Feb 2006, p.93]

Making a short game is less of a sin than padding one with endless combats of attrition. [Nov 2003, p.98]

Rival Interactive had their chance to fix its onerous product, and for all the tweaks, it's still just not enough. [Feb 2003, p.81]

Not even Hitler's plan to fight the war on two fronts was this painfully ill-advised. [July 2006, p.63]

The execution falls flat, and in the end Coliseum plays like a shell of a game. The biggest problem is that there isn't enough to do. [May 2004, p.69]

Suffers from crippling lack of polish, content, and forethought. [Nov 2003, p.93]

Takeda 2 is the sequel to a mostly obscure 2001 game that had the misfortune to be released in the wake of "Shogun: Total War." [May 2006, p.55]

All these great features are thrown out the window due to a suspect simulation engine that simply doesn't make a lot of sense. [June 2003, p.85]

No part of the game is distinctive enough to be particularly terrible either, and there's a blessed lack of extremely shiny surfaces. [Sept 2002, p.75]

The rules are poorly applied, the interface is clumsy, and the pacing is very, very slow.

While it has personality, it's often homely, and despite the welcome addition of a bit of sleaze, it focuses on the more mundane parts of running a casino. [Sept 2003, p.87]

A potentially good tactical strategy game marred by a lack of inspiration.

An excellent game. For your PC. [Oct 2005, p.90]

When getting yourself wet, your vehicle seems intent on steering itself, making what you are really trying to do more difficult than it should be. [Mar 2004, p.82]

A feeling of been there, done that, with some poor game design choices that limit the fun.

Seems like one of the better bland, forgettable shooters out there, if there is such a beast. [Aug 2005, p.72]

Outside of its swanky opening credit sequence and the appearance of the classic Bond theme throughout, it lacks any sense of style or sophistication. [Feb 2003, p.66]

All told, it's no big loss if you decided to give Tony Hawk a rest for a year. [Jan 2006, p.91]

Unfortunately, unless Crypto's race is looking to harvest tedium and repetition from our earthly minds, he's better off just harassing than destroying them. [Sept 2005, p.90]

Most of the guns are uninspired and even boring - even the shotgun seems dull. [Feb 2004, p.60]

Its interface is basic but does the job but the AI is non-existent, the puzzles are needlessly complex, and the awkward free-floating camera bogs down the 3D isometric perspective. [Jan 2004, p.85]

Despite non-existent AI and a lack of polish, the simple mechanics and decent missions provide some minor entertainment. [Oct 2004, p.87]

The result is four cool-looking monsters running through poorly rendered cities that blow up blandly, and arcade thrills nowhere near the level achieved by equally mindless arcade coin-ops 20 years ago. [May 2003, p.85]

With artificial intelligence as unintelligent as it is, the pure thrill of Diplomacy is untranslatable to the computer. [Jan 2006, p.46]

In Daxter, you get great graphics and not much else. [Jun 2006, p.91]

While it functions properly, Motor City Online simply doesn't have anything that makes it worthwhile as an online game... All of the things that make it "online" add up to fluff.

Thanks to your dumb teammates, you'll be on the new island forever. [Oct 2002, p.74]

It contains many individual elements that are quite good, but those elements don't pull together into a cohesive—or enjoyable—whole.

An ambitious mess, a noble mess, certainly a well-intentioned mess, but ultimately a mess nontheless. [Mar 2003, p.78]

On the easier levels, it's a silly exercise in mashing buttons to spew ammo throughout a world of bad physics, cheap animation, and tinny sound. [June 2005, p.90]

But an obtuse and under-documented strategic layer with a bad interface can only get you so far when it comes to recycling the same Dynasty Warrior game yet again. [July 2006, p.93]

There's almost no connection between your keypresses and Lara's movements on-screen. It feels like she's moving through molasses. [Sept 2003, p.74]

Quite possibly the most unpalatable role-playing game concocted in recent memory...A gooey mess of reflex-driven combat, muddled interface, cliched dungeon designs, and useless player decisions. [Nov 2003, p.95]

Curiously absent from your dollhouse accoutrements are law books. [Jan 2003, p.85]

The combat is too simple, the resource system is too complex, and the small flashes of brilliance get lost in the mediocrity of the rest of the design. [July 2005, p.67]

EA Sports apparently loved last year's game so much they they've repackaged it. [Jan 2006, p.59]

Unfortunately, getting there is a dull journey full of leaden exposition, mouse hovering and clicking, and inventory manipulation. [July 2006, p.67]

On the whole, Evil Dead isn't horrifically bad—just surprisingly limp-wristed.

Might be entertaining enough to play except its interface sucks too much enjoyment out of the game. [Mar 2004, p.76]

The lack of support for AI in dogfights, a bad padlock, and a half-assed view system make this a second-rate multiplayer flight sim. [Jan 2003, p.66]

You buy the potions and upgrade your skills and weapons in order to keep winning the chip wars, the Sisyphean point of which is to afford superior preparations for the next war, and so on. [Jun 2006, p.83]

A fair game that is almost completely undone by an interface as archaic as the warfare it presents. [Nov 2005, p.79]

The graphics, aside from being ever so shiny, are entirely unremarkable - they're decent, but nothing more, with rather coarse character design. [Dec 2003, p.95]

Boasts a good selection of showroom-shiny cars and famous tracks, but it lacks options, features controls that border on the unresponsive, and is missing a personality. [May 2003, p.81]

Better yet, find the cigarette burn-covered machine buried in the corner of your local arcade.

Even worse is the enemy AI, which either miraculously sees you or remains unaware of your presence even if you're standing right in front of an enemy soldier. [Nov 2003, p.100]

The entire experience is crippled by an obtuse interface and abysmal documentation. All in all, this is one of the most unstable and frustratingly erratic games to anchor in software stores in quite some time.

Whether you want--or need--to play all of these in the same game remains a question that Pacific Storm is unable to answer. [Jan. 2007, p.65]

All told, it's no big loss if you decided to give Tony Hawk a rest for a year. [Jan 2006, p.91]

Really just a glorified scenario collector. [Mar 2003, p.85]

Despite some appealing graphics, a few compelling moments, and a budget price tag, the reasons to buy Obscure remain...well, you know. [July 2005, p.55]

The developers have hand-placed absolutely everything, robbing the whole game of any sense of exploration or freedom. [June 2003, p.85]

You have to be jonesing for a decidedly old school arcade experience to appreciate Air Raid, and even then, it's fun for maybe 20-30 minutes at a time, if not in total. [Nov 2003, p.101]

It’s an overly straightforward and dull simulation with enough downtime for you to ponder the greater fun you’ll be having playing “Railroads!” in a couple of months. [Dec. 2006, p.78]

If you sometimes had the feeling that less is more while playing "San Andreas," you'll be convinced by this game at nearly every turn. [Feb 2006, p.92]

Anyone shelling out for Land of the Dead is in grave danger of buyer's remorse. [Feb 2006, p.64]

More control of your units is necessary for a strategy title, and more impressive graphics and more complex tasks are important for a city builder. As it stands, this game gets neither right and has little to offer aside from a great concept.

Woody Woodpecker Racing brings little to the genre; even if you don't expect more than a few cheap thrills from a game like this, you're still better off playing... well, you're better off buying a console and playing one of the innumerable superior kart-racing games on your platform of choice.

No other game before or since has so gracefully integrated maintaining apple orchards with setting hundreds of screaming knights on fire. [Aug 2005, p.68]

For a game with such amazing art direction, innovative game ideas, and a dedicated developer, it's a shame that it pimps you down unfairly and destroys your entertainment with double-digit deaths. [Feb 2005, p.69]