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]

Ironically, the real sorrow of Seven Sorrows is how laughably, arrogantly short it is: two players can easily finish the entire campaign on the hardest setting in a night. [Mar 2006, p.91]

Ironically, the real sorrow of Seven Sorrows is how laughably, arrogantly short it is: two players can easily finish the entire campaign on the hardest setting in a night. [Mar 2006, p.91]

The PSP version is similarly structured as a set of constrictive quests through three areas that are tied together by a contrived collecting game in which you gather coins, here called “secrets”. [Mar 2006, p.88]

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

Hall of Fame was released for the major console systems in 2004, but this PSP port comes with extra tables, all presented as virtuoso 3D recreations, fully playable from your choice of six camera views that can easily be switched on the fly. [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]

Wild World is more of an expansion than a sequel. The DS version adds online play and a camera that follows you instead of one that shifts from screen to screen. [Mar 2006, p.89]

Quotation forthcoming. [Mar 2006]

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]

What Special Forces lacks in innovation, it more than makes up for in new maps. [Mar 2006, p.50]

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]

Unlike its PC counterpart America's Army also serves up some excellent single-player missions. [Feb 2006, p.88]

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]

A pretty bad role-playing game published here in the states by folks who should know better. [Feb 2006, p.92]

Quotation forthcoming. [Mar 2006]

Amped 3 aims to keep you distracted by constantly nickel-and-diming you with a hundred mini-challenges, each with its own pointless reward, spread across a dozen mountainsides. [Feb 2006, p.87]

In lieu of interesting situations, tactics, thrills, or simple variety, Starship Troopers coughs up a big greasy hairball of run-right-at-you enemies that never stop coming. [Mar 2006, p.55]

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]

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]

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]

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]

There's not much here that's more challenging than slicking your hair into a Pierce Brosnan pompadour. [Feb 2006, p.93]

For any fan of racing and/or handheld games, this is a perfectly laidback combination of user friendly racing and noncommittal handheld gaming. [Mar 2006, p.93]

The most maddeningly convoluted gaming experience this side of Derek Smart. [Feb 2006, p.67]

When you need a quality action scene, you call on the chicken; Is this a future star? [Jan 2006, p.55]

Quotation forthcoming. [Mar 2006]

Just what the PSP needs more of: the perfect match of a game and its system. [Feb 2006, p.90]

Gun isn't an entirely unpleasant game, just a mediocre one. [Feb 2006, p.56]

The actual story is as sad as it is malevolent. [Jan 2006, p.88]

It's a short, vacuous game that's over quickly and even more quickly forgotten. [Feb 2006, p.93]

Mirrors its PC version so closely that you could own just one version without missing much. [Feb 2006, p.88]

The lack of polish is most obvious in the awful pacing and terrible controls. [Feb 2006, p.62]

A useless co-op mode feels tacked-on. [Feb 2006, p.86]

Guitar Hero is accessible to anyone that has a classic rock station programmed into his or her car stereo. [Mar 2006, p.93]

Too random to be called a strategy game, too non-scary to be classified as adventure; think of it as the Cliff’s Notes version of Star Control. [Mar 2006, p.64]

There's not much here that's more challenging than slicking your hair into a Pierce Brosnan pompadour. [Feb 2006, p.93]

Quotation forthcoming. [Jan 2005]

There's not much here that's more challenging than slicking your hair into a Pierce Brosnan pompadour. [Feb 2006, p.93]

It doesn't reinvent the original, but it's a very solid and worthwhile addition to an already successful game, especially at the two-for-one monthly subscription fee. [Feb 2006, p.77]

Though only the second installment, this feels more like the "Return of the Jedi" of the Battlefront franchise than "The Empire Strikes Back." [Feb 2006, p.52]

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

For casual adventure fans, it's a decent alternative to some of the more graphic murder-mystery games, such as last year's superior "Still Life". [Sept. 2006, p.76]

It's a half-hearted effort that meets with only limited success. [Feb 2006, p.66]

Combined with the recent God of War, a pattern seems to be developing: the gifts Ares bestows come at the cost of a clad torso. [Dec p.88]

The economic model guilding the action is ridiculously off-kilter. [Feb 2006, p.66]

Take Heroes seriously and it fizzles. But as a loosey-goosey melodrama, it's not half bad. [Apr 2006, p.64]

Combined with the recent God of War, a pattern seems to be developing: the gifts Ares bestows come at the cost of a clad torso. [Dec p.88]

The last great fighting game of this generation. [Jan 2006, p.92]

Infinity Ward lays claim to the creation of the ultimate WWII shooter with Call of Duty 2. [Jan 2006, p.63]

Quotation forthcoming. [Jan 2005]

This is easily the best version of Civilization ever made. [Jan 2006, p.52]

Combined with the recent God of War, a pattern seems to be developing: the gifts Ares bestows come at the cost of a clad torso. [Dec p.88]

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

An amazing technological showcase for the PSP, but makes the biggest series in gaming feel small. [Jan 2006, p.86]

Left unattended, they are pale shadows of their more vibrant PC counterparts. They seem more vacant and literally dispossessed. [Feb 2006, p.91]

The best case for Sims in you pocket is on the DS where the conceit is that you’re running a hotel. [Mar 2006, p.89]

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

In the GBA version you have a set of skills that level up, each useful in different types of interaction. [Mar 2006, p.88]

Dark Corners weaves a spellbindingly scary vibe. [Feb 2006, p.89]

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

Left unattended, they are pale shadows of their more vibrant PC counterparts. They seem more vacant and literally dispossessed. [Feb 2006, p.91]

Left unattended, they are pale shadows of their more vibrant PC counterparts. They seem more vacant and literally dispossessed. [Feb 2006, p.91]

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

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]

Worth a family session or two. [Feb 2006, p.66]

Quotation forthcoming. [Mar 2006]

The kind of design innovation that could make this game great, yet ends up demonstrating the game's schizophrenia. [Jan 2006, p.56]

it just goes to show that not every game has to be an 80-hour sandbox of something for everyone. [Dec p.87]

The result is a fast, flashy exercise in steering, shooting, and squinting. [Dec p.93]

All told, it's big loss if you decided to give Tony Hawk a rest for a year. [Jan 2006, p.91]

Quotation forthcoming. [Mar 2006]

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

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

There's the requisite little Goth girl with long black hair to 'creep you out.' Thanks to its overuse, it's become the lens flare of horror. [Jan 2006, p.48]

Everything awful about the modern football player is showcased in Blitz: the League. [Dec p.87]

It's not bad, but some straightforward tweaks and adjustments could have resulted in a much better game. [Feb 2006, p.60]

There are some minor additions here and there, but the real selling point here is the scenario design. [May 2006, p.56]

Everything awful about the modern football player is showcased in Blitz: the League. [Dec p.87]

Luckily, it has that challenging, supremely polished, turn-based gameplay to fall back on. [Jan 2006, p.91]

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]

It's like any flat stretch of road in the country, nice and smooth with some decent scenery that gets you where you have to go. [Jan 2006, p.89]

Dear Tricky, we miss you. [Jan 2006, p.91]

For both better and worse, Quake IV parties like it's still 1999. [Jan 2006, p.40]

Most certainly a pleasant console role-playing game of a faded breed. [Jan 2006, p.89]

Quotation forthcoming. [Jan 2005]