Offers a quick toot of dopey euphoria, followed by twitching hours of comedown and regret. [July 2005, p.90]

What a mess. Even when it's not baffling, Big Biz Tycoon gets completely bogged down in thoroughly not-fun minutia. [Sept 2002, p.83]

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.

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

The 3D engine is incredibly sluggish, delivering mediocre graphics that manage to tax even fast computers and high-end videocards. [Jan 2005, p.69]

In Reservoir Dogs, the game, you might as well be seeing " The Max Fisher Players Present Reservoir Dogs," but minus the charm, and with a bad shooter/driving game as the price of admission. [Jan. 2007, p.69]

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]

At its core, Archangel is all self-absorbed scenario development, and endless circle-strafe packed to its pimpy neck witih occult imagery and amateurish design. [Mar 2003, p.84]

It's viscerally fun, it actually looks and sounds pretty good, and in 15 minute spurts, it's as entertaining as many 3D shooters. [Oct 2002, p.81]

Poorly designed, ugly, and rife with bugs.

As tedious and redundant as "Dead Man's Chest", this cash-in distills the whole appeal of the original "Pirates of the Caribbean" into simple, repetitive, and boring button-mashing combat. [Oct. 2006, p.80]

A good idea gone wrong... A fantastic notion tht deserves much, much better execution than is displayed here. [Mar 2003, p.90]

In the end, Shadowflare simply becomes a chore, lacking any depth or flair that might justify the heat energy spent in the mouse clicking. [Mar 2003, p.88]

A seriously lame expansion. [Sept 2003, p.87]

The gameplay is bad, the "adventuring" is boring, the magnificent Dune story is condensed into something dull and lifeless, but it looks pretty enough, if only when showing the massive and frightening giant worms.

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]

Not everything in Konung is bad, but the game's virtues hardly add up to a ringing endorsement. It can occasionally be fun, but by the end it's the repetition that you'll remember.

It's about as realistic as an episode of Hogan's Heroes. Add poor path finding and sub-par combat AI, and you have a sure fire recipe for real-time strategy blandness.

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

One final warning to keep you from you buying this game: The sound effect you hear when you gulp a potion is a squeak akin to fingernails scraping a chalkboard or the running of unoiled machinery. [Jan. 2007 p.62]

If you're feeling generous, it might also be called "Halo Done Wrong." [May 2004, p.61]

Provides a fair amount of enjoyment, but it's doubtful that the enjoyment will last long enough for most gamers to see all of the beaches.

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]

Ultimately, the game wears thin—and quickly. The first dozen levels are pretty manageable but then it becomes an exercise in frustration.

Imagine a WWII tank game with lots of pyrotechnics and hearty sound, with fancy graphics of destroyable terrain and tens of friendly and enemy tanks blasting away at one another. This isn't that game. [May 2006, p.51]

Stick some embalming fluid in this one—it's done.

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.

It's quite faithful to the movie in that it also sucks. [Dec 2004, p.92]