Nice graphics and a good physics model can't hide the inflexible playability of a game that could have been a real treat to play. [Mar 2003, p.107]

A few patches from fun. [Feb 2006, p.72]

Adults might find it simplistic, repititious, and boring, but it's possible that younger kids might find it accessible, challenging, and addictive. [Nov 2002, p.124]

The brilliant game design endures, like a sweet-smelling rose atop a giant mountain of dung. [Oct 2002, p.106]

The bimbo of graphic adventure games: both pretty and stupid... When the puzzle solutions aren't illogical, they're horrifically repetitive. [Dec 2003, p.129]

Lame story, lame racing, lame A.I. - lame game. [July 2003, p.86]

It’s unfortunate, but the experience – at least for now – is awkward, plodding, and, worst of all, inconsistent. [Mar 2002, p.76]

Although Warlords IV is by no means a horrible game, it's something far more damning: strangely joyless and conspicuously missing the spark of enthusiasm that often manages to find its way into even the worst of games.

You'll frequently dodge the oafish enemies instead of fighting. [Mar 2004, p.84]

A big step backward for the Commandos franchise. While the game would like to evoke "Saving Private Ryan" and other WWII films, sadly the movie that actually comes to mind while playing is "Groundhog Day," only with Nazis and a Quick Load button.

Exhausting, repetitious gameplay. [Feb 2002, p.100]

It may have spectacular AI, but it's still just an elaborate virtual pet forced to perform a tedious sequence of often frustrating tasks. [May 2002, p.89]

A shrug-inducing "so what" game that - judging by the barren servers - seems to be keeping players away in droves. [May 2004, p.86]

A year later, the presentation isn't dazzling anymore, and the shell is even emptier. [Mar 2003, p.108]

Maybe I'm way off base here, but I expect my games to contain actual gameplay and not be a series of ong, poorly acted cut-scenes, lightly salted with puzzles that require the intelligence of a gnat to solve. [Oct 2002, p.114]

What stinks more than anything is SOE's treatment of the game's devoted fans, who find themselves spurned by the developer's hope that a dumbed-down gaming experience will appeal to a wider audience. [Feb 2006, p.76]

Twenty to 30 hours of gameplay, and not a single one of them worth a damn. [July 2003, p.84]

X3 sometimes morphs into a derivative on-rails shooter during scripted story missions. [Feb 2006, p.74]

With its lackadaisical pace, clumsy action sequences, and surreal atmosphere that's more disjointed than disturbing, Silent Hill 2 is a nightmare, but only to play. [Apr 2003, p.116]

What am I afraid of? Bad games, and Nosferatu seriously scares me. [Feb 2004, p.90]

It is incredibly boring - you're basically watching an episode of the television show while contributing sporadic mouse clicks. [Mar 2003, p.106]

The buggiest game I’ve ever played: I stopped counting types and incidents of crashes after 45 train wrecks spanning multiple, top-of-the-line computers at our lab. [Jan 2002, p.110]

This stunning mood is crushed by an interface that has all the charm and convenience of a TPS report. [Sept 2003, p.95]

A game of amazing promise delivers mostly crushing disappointment. [Jan 2003, p.122]

Anyone who's made it through puberty will likely be embarrassed by the game's lame toilet humor. [Jan 2003, p.127]

Graphics aside, the final nail in O.R.B.'s coffin is its pace. Ships crawl across the screen, and even at triple speed (as fast as it gets), it seems to take an eternity for anything to navigate the map. [Mar 2003, p.86]

If I want impossible, I'll call my mother. [Apr 2004, p.89]

The VC are dirty cheaters in this lush but restrictive and nonsensical portrayal of sniper life in the Vietnam War. [July 2003, p.78]

Your troops waste their limited ammunition like they're in a John Woo movie. [Mar 2004, p.91]

It looks like, well, a badly ported PS2 game with washed-out colors, graphical glitches, and only average textures and modeling. This, along with the appallingly bad driving sequences, horrible characters, plentiful cliches, and cringe-inducing dialogue, proves that unlike "Splinter Cell," not all console/PC marriages are made in heaven. [Sept 2004, p.77]

A tedious, tasteless mess. [Aug 2005, p.76]

A no-frills port of an aged, derivative, repetitive shooter. [Apr 2004, p.85]

Just a bunch of single-player missions that could have been made with the scenario editor. [Jan 2003, p.118]

Ultimately, this is a fifth-rate way to experience the joys of Virtua Tennis. Your $30 would be better spent going toward a used Dreamcast from eBay along with a cheap copy of the original game. [Feb 2003, p.96]

Not nearly as amusing as the host of yesteryear, this one delivers a couple of groaners between the 300 questions. [May 2004, p.83]

Add in a console-style save system that only lets you save progress at the start of a level, and you've got a guaranteed recipe for infuriation. [Jan 2005, p.96]

The developers created an interesting game with some novel features, but they then saddled it with controls that completely negate the experience. [Jan 2002, p.114]

From the moment you enter CDV Software's postacoptalyptic online world, you'll be confused, bored...and lonely. Which is shame, because as far as concepts go, Neocron has promise. [Apr 2003, p.118]

A good-looking shooter that's only fun for the first few hours.

The dearth of vital economic information, lack of a true economy, and repetitiveness make this a tedious exercise at best. [Oct 2003, p.119]

Fight boredom and micromanagement by avoiding this lame stand-alone expansion.

I used to really love adventure games, but after playing this one, I can't remember why. [Aug 2004, p.79]

If you can get past the unresponsive controls and don't mind the overall tasteless but campless tone, Bloodrayne still offers only a few hours of moderately entertaining carnage. [July 2003, p.85]

I don't think I've ever seen worse pathfinding in a game. [May 2002, p.75]

Numerous bugs and missing features indicate Strike Fighters was pushed out the door a few months before its time. Again. [Mar 2003, p.105]

A clumsy, series-ending combo of real-time and strategy...You must kind of hang out and gawk at numbers and icons. [July 2004, p.72]

Sure, it has loads of snazzy graphic features like persistent footprints on clay courts and nice shadow effects, but all they do is slow the game down to a brain-twisting crawl. [Jan 2002, p.119]

It's a lot more of the same - the same grinding disenchantment. [Feb 2003, p.80]

An example of mediocrity dragged much further downward by sheer ineptitude. It could have been another so-so tactical stealth shooter, but the saves, the idiots, the cliches, and the crashes shove it into coaster territory. [July 2003, p.72]

No, you never, ever get a weapon. All you do is creep around avoiding conflict. This is supposed to be suspenseful. It's not. It's tedious. [Jan 2003, p.102]

It has a few great moments, but it seems like an incomplete collection of half-finished ideas. [Nov 2003, p.126]

Further compounding the game into sheer mediocrity is the downward spiral of the A.I. [Sept 2003, p.102]

A long exercise in target practice, with lifeless enemies in dull levels. There's no saving during a mission, the graphics are weak, and there's no team-based action. What's worse, there's just no depth, artistry, or genuine thrills to be had. [Aug 2004, p.79]

A huge letdown that only the most hardcore Empire Earth fan might enjoy. [Jan 2003, p.125]

In the end, though, there's just not enough fruit underneath all the rind. If it's an all-in-one medieval strategy game you're after, just Alt-Tab really quickly between "Medieval: Total War" and "Castles II"--that'll come closer than Stronghold 2 does.

All tension drains away as the game turns into the equivalent of a deathmatch against sheep. [July 2003, p.74]

Slow. Frustrating. Not the best idea for an escape. [July 2002, p.81]

Fighting endless hoodlums, mercenaries, and thugs is not necessarily a bad thing -- monotonous fighting in repetitive missions is. [Dec 2003, p.136]

There isn't much variety in character appearance, which is disappointing, since other games are offering an incredible amount of customizability. [Aug 2004, p.74]

It's the exact same game you've been playing for about the past four years. Except with ninjas. [Feb 2005, p.81]

With a total of four hours of gameplay (eight if you count the times technical failings made me repeat the first half), you don't get much for your money. [Oct 2002, p.110]

A lot like "Freelancer," only boring and with a monthly fee. [May 2005, p.94]

Adult gamers will find it too basic, children may find it too frustrating, and fans of lord of the Rings will prefer a more authentic Tolkien experience. [Feb 2004, p.73]

Clusterball is one serious cluster-fu...No, I said I wouldn't do it, and I won't. [Apr 2002, p.101]

It's easily the best yet, in the sense that it's the first Dragon's Lair you generally won't hate playing. [Mar 2003, p.90]

From start to finish, it is a poorly conceived, ill-executed, and time-wasting piece of coasterware designed to suck money away from both fans of the much-lauded series and unsuspecting newcomers. [Nov 2003, p.138]

If you're a big fan of the show, not a big computer gamer, and not that bright, then this game is well worth your time and money. [Aug 2003, p.90]

The only time the game comes close to evoking WWII is in the cleverly done faux-newsreel footage that is a backdrop to the game credits. [Mar 2003, p.104]

The concept wasn't bad, but N:D's uninspiring execution and lack of depth make for a forgettable gaming experience... Rock/paper/scissors is a more challenging strategy game. [Nov 2003, p.136]

For every potentially cool element in Prince of Qin, there's a worse one waiting to kneecap it. [Jan 2003, p.124]

The worst implementation of multiplayer gaming in recent memory... An utter debacle. [Feb 2003, p.91]

If the VC don't kill you, the pesky game-crashing bugs will. [Feb 2006, p.81]

BCT fails so dismally at playability that the realism doesn't matter. [August 2002, p.81]

A pretty limited fighter, though its online features save it from beingi a complete loss. [Apr 2004, p.83]

It’s shorter than most game demos. It’s shorter than most game installations. [Jan 2002, p.119]

You will find mothing but carpal-tunnel-inducing mouse clicking, pointless chitchat, and a stat system that plays out like a shallow "Sims" rip-off. [Oct 2005, p.80]

The maps look boring, the units have few and bland animations, the sounds are awful, and someone seems to have forgotten combat effects. [July 2002, p.69]

Why pay when they can find plenty of custom scenarios to download for free? [Apr 2003, p.106]

SCI took just six months to publish a PC conversion of the generally ignored PS1 game based on the largely forgotten film. [Feb 2003, p.98]

A lobotomized first-person shooter. Invisible walls and glass ceilings abound throughout the briny deep, ensnaring players in a boring series of follow-the-leader and circle-strafing style stages. [Dec 2003, p.144]

Simply the most incompetently crafted shooter in living memory. [Mar 2003, p.98]

Anyone who wants a game of this sort will be happier with one of the modern versions of "Gauntlet." [Jan 2003, p.120]

The game plays a lot like "Sims 2" - just without the charm, animation, possibilities, freedom and, and ability to generate a desire to keep it installed. [Apr 2005, p.84]

I prefer to spend my time playing games on my computer, not getting them to run. If that also describes you, stay away from Conflict Zone. [Mar 2002, p.92]

Though it's not an entirely offensive game, in its attempt to be individualistic, Locomotion has learning nothing from other games in the genre and ends up feeling like a 10-year-old game with a 5-year-old coat of paint. [Holiday 2004, p.103]

In short, boobs will not make a man endure a bad videogame. [Holiday 2004, p.102]

A stunning example of why adventure games aren't as popular as they once were. [Aug 2004, p.82]

It will always be clear what's expected of you - in fact, you'll likely identify the killer long before your character does. [Feb 2004, p.87]

This putatively naughty game should come with fetish clothing options, dungeon equipment, and the option to call up a friend or five to join our hero and heroine in their erotic adventures, but it doesn't. It's sterilie, soulless, and ultimately a tease that doesn't come close to delivering. What a gyp. [Sept 2004, p.73]

The 2D graphics are slow, jerky, and eye-strainingly tiny. It’s almost impossible to distinguish different unit types from each other. [Feb 2002, p.88]

Like David Hasselhoff's singing career, Settlers is popular in Germany and just sort of barely tolerated elsewhere. [June 2005, p.96]

A chunky mix of features from other titles in a fully 3D bladder that has some merit, but will probably leave most gamers why on earth they should take a bite. [May 2003, p.91]

Besides a game-killing lack of a chat function, Diplomacy's negotiation interface makes it impossible to propose long-term deals, except for the all-encompassing "permanent alliance."

Poor graphics, unbalanced weapons, and tired level design can't begin to help this game. [Sept 2002, p.90]

The degeneration continues. [Aug 2003, p.90]

Even if you tolerate Ripper's lack of interactivity because of its swiftly paced, absorbing story, the game's anticlimactic, unsatisfying finale will leave you feeling as frustrated as those original London police were back in 1888. [May 2004, p.89]

Since only LAN play is supported, it's doubtful you'll ever experience multiplayer. [June 2004, p.86]

The whole thing feels more like feature creep in a box than an expansion pack. [Mar 2006, p.84]