The game is mostly an exercise in frustration, although a good tutorial and easy early missions might draw in some players who are new to the genre. Overall gameplay is very disappointing. [Feb 2004, p.74]

Unfortunately, like a TV show, when the game's over, it's over. [Nov 2003, p.101]

Unwrapping the horror that is... Baltimore. [Dec p.60]

It doesn't help that the rubberbanding AI makes every race a formality until the last quarter of the last lap. [June 2005, p.92]

It's about as thrilling as watching The English Patient on Valium.

Everything about BloodRayne 2 - save some of the snazzy 3D effects - screams "1998." [Nov 2005, p.72]

The team that developed Soul Reaver 2 took an intriguing saga and weighed it down with so much dialogue and so many confusing plot points that even David Lynch would be hard-pressed to wade through it.

A military planning simulation, not a game. The fact that it's being marketed as one says a lot about what our society is doing with its leisure time. [Mar 2003, p.89]

Taking the speed of a play down a couple of notches may give the game more authenticity, but everything else feels unfinished. [Feb 2004, p.62]

The worst abuse of all are the 'bot macros, that allow high-level character "bots" to farm areas for loot and experience, automatically attacking anyone who trespasses into "their" zone. [Aug 2004, p.68]

A game of moderately tactical chaos. [June 2005, p.55]

Has all the trappings of a good game: its setting is unique (there are far too few games set in the old west), and it copies a highly successful formula all the while adding enough flavor to separate itself as a distinct product. But limited game options coupled with bonehead AI make a recipe for disaster in the crowded market of the real time strategy game.

A retread suitable only for hardcore Tom Clancy completists.

Quotation forthcoming. [Nov 2005]

The difficulty is mostly artificial—each mission has an arbitrary time limit—but despite this, the missions are oddly... entertaining.

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

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

Invading Russia in the winter was never this hard. [Sept 2005, p.54]

The dullness of the story, the combat, and the character development ultimately overshadow the game's main draw. [Sept 2005, p.88]

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

The game plays as if it's on a cocaine buzz... It's packed with non stop dunks, supersonic fast breaks, and point guards that block three-pointers with relative ease. [Feb 2003, p.84]

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]

Editing terrain can be an absolute beast, particularly since configuring certain animal enclosures requires painstaking detail. [Feb 2006, p.66]

There's a lot of physics to encourage you to turn over tables and throw things, but your time is almost always better spent just shooting. [July 2005, p.90]

What really sinks the game is an overly arcane interface that sacrifices accessibility for tactical depth. [June 2003, p.84]

The connection to other players is too abstract to make the game anything more than a vaguely interesting and simple business simulation. [Oct 2003, p.92]

A schizophrenic title, caught somewhere between its teenaged visual aesthetic and some moments of truly solid game design. [July 2003, p.84]

A moderately entertaining, if staid, entry that, at least in its PC incarnation, will probably be left out in the cold. [Aug 2005, p.76]

Quotation forthcoming. [Nov 2005]

Ultimately fails as a game because of one poorly implemented feature: the "save game," or as it's called around here, the thing that keeps you from re-playing sadistically difficult levels 20 or more times. [Jan 2005, p.68]

When EA Sports decides to fix what's broken, specifically the dropped passes and deep passing game, it'll have another A-list football game on its hands. [Oct 2005, p.89]

One of those games that never realize their full potential because of design miscues. [Jan 2006, p.47]

For the most part, this is RTS 101... all over again. [March 2005, p.77]

Design philosophy aside, Battle of Britain is still too rough, unwieldy, and unbalanced. These problems ultimately make it more tedious than enjoyable.

More of a focus on customers and personalities, using grotesque caricatures and stereotypes, as apposed to a detailed simulation of the realities of running a hotel would have done wonders. [Nov 2002, p.83]

Because the game adheres so much to real-world city-building, it's harder and harder to build the city of your dreams. [Apr 2003, p.76]

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

When EA Sports decides to fix what's broken, specifically the dropped passes and deep passing game, it'll have another A-list football game on its hands. [Oct 2005, p.89]

Aura is not about exciting story, interesting character development, or trippy music: it's a crack fix for puzzle addicts. [Oct 2004, p.85]

it's ultimately just another tactical shooter to throw on the growing pile of games that make you truly appreciate your mouse and keyboard. [Dec p.92]

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]

What isn't quite so entertaining is the reliance on essentially one weapon. [Sept 2002, p.86]

Only moderately entertaining, and lacks much of the original's personality due to the graphics that are too small and indistinct, but mostly due to it being so derivative. [Feb 2003, p.87]

CrossCut Games needs to find a good exterminator, because Runesword II is infested with bugs. Swarms of them.

It features a rag-tag special forces group of misfits in Vietnam, rather than the rag-tag fantasy misfits the game was built for, and as a result, Green Berets doesn't stand well on its own.

It's move to 3D makes for an attractive, enjoyable, and relatively easy game, at least until everything comes to a screeching halt during the awful boss battles. [Feb 2003, p.79]

This game mostly adds more of the same… unless you count the bugs, broken features, and unpolished gameplay. Those are all new to the series.

With the addition of any type of multiplayer Yu-Gi-Oh! would have been a solid competitor to other CCG videogames on the market. As it stands, it's merely a satisfying and addictive upgrade to Solitaire. [June 2004, p.81]

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

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

Boredom becomes a factor partly because of a limited number of combinations with which to experiment. [Apr 2003, p.78]

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]

THQ salvaged the wreckage, polished the package, and let the game out of hte garage, where it debuts with middling success. [Oct 2005, p.68]

it's ultimately just another tactical shooter to throw on the growing pile of games that make you truly appreciate your mouse and keyboard. [Dec p.92]

Geared toward hardcore baseball fans, but it fails to relay some of the information that many serious fans want.

A first-rate baseball title, assuming you can ignore the shocking number of bugs that ruin the single-player. [June 2005, p.91]

The additions are more serviceable than inspiring. [June 2003, p.87]

Despite being too hard for its own good, it's still oddly appealing in short bursts. [Apr 2004, p.75]

It doesn't help that the rubberbanding AI makes every race a formality until the last quarter of the last lap. [June 2005, p.92]

Given the epic scope and the gorgeous visuals, it's a shame that so much extra micromanagement was thrown in and so much of the balance and Trek-ness was crowded out.

The soulless interface just grinds you down. [July 2004, p.68]

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

Even a decent team play mode can't overcome the pervsive sense of blandness that accompanies the tired 1996-era mechanics and style-free visuals. [Jan 2003, p.79]

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]

There's little new in terms of original content... [Feb 2003, p.83]

Quotation forthcoming. [Nov 2005]

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 ease with which you can jump into Typhoon makes it intriguing at first, but the simplicity of combat and repetitiveness of the campaign makes the excitement short-lived.

This game might be the foundation of a large scale, ultimately satisfying Star Wars universe. But it's not that universe yet. [Oct 2003, p.82]

The game suffers from severe graphical issues. [June 2004, p.11]

The learning curve is extremely steep, so if you decide to take the pilot's seat, be prepared for a bit of a bumpy ride. It's exactly the sort of title you would expect from a small, grassroots developer—made with obvious enthusiasm but lacking a lot of the polish of its market-dominating competitor.

If you want to run a franchise and delve into all of the other options that the game offers, the horrid interface combined with the franchise mode shortcomings make it impossible to recommend. [June 2003, p.86]

Has some lovely visuals but in the end is so passionless and denuded, it makes you feel dumb for having looked forward to it. [Feb 2004, p.54]

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

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

Sadly, as egg-cellent as that premise sounds, thanks to some monotonous gameplay and a lazy job of porting it from the PlayStation, Chicken Run ends up being merely medi-yolk-re.

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

It has all the tools: a slick presentation, ample features, multiplayer support, lots of stats, and loads of personality. But it stumbles where most first-generation text games falter - the AI and statistical engine isn't up to par. [May 2004, p.65]

If you really want to play the game (and it's worth playing), you're better off buying a used Dreamcast and playing the original version of the game on that.

The first and most troublesome problem that you encounter in the game is the miniscule size of the player community. [Dec 2003, p.85]

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

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

A mediocre game. Madden NFL 06 is the least necessary installment in this classic football series in some time. [Nov 2005, p.70]

Iron Storm has its own versin of the "what if" game: what if WWI had never ended? Unfortunately, it may leave you wondering, "What if I was playing a game that was more fun?" [Feb 2003, p.80]

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

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]

Playable enough, but it's also devoid of personality.

Another example of a game that sports graphics that make you want to stand up and cheer and gameplay that induces hair loss due to nerve-bending frustration.

The truly shocking thing about Nemesis is that it is, for all intents and purposes, identical to "Celtic Kings," with the only noticeable improvement being the name. [July 2004, p.64]

MVP Baseball 2003 is a superlative pitching interface in search of a better showcase. [July 2003, p.75]

The insanely high upkeep costs involved in maintaining new cities, coupled with the dubious payoff of repetitive alien attacks, will probably drive more than a few entrepreneurs back to the friendlier phantasmagoria of "Shadowlands." [Jan 2005, p.67]

Even a game with outstanding eventual depth needs to give players some evidence early on that rewards will eventually apprear. [Mar 2004, p.69]

The weapons are uninspired, as are the levels, and the enemies are just barely smart enough to move toward you and attack. [Sept 2005, p.49]

A perfect example of trying too much an doing nothing in a particularly standout way. [Sept 2004, p.63]

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

Has very strong and very weak points, and much of the time the urge to see what's around the next corner only barely surpasses the urge to throw your hands up and walk away. [Feb 2004, p.76]

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

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