For all its inconsistencies, complexities, inadequacies and oddities, The Last Story offers an entrancing and seamless flow of interesting experiences. And surely that, in the final reckoning, is what counts.

Deceptively simple. [June 2015, p.123]

But for parents and adults, Undercover is a less inviting prospect, even with its satirical undertone. It’s a plastic facsimile of GTA – a game that was hardly humourless to begin with, and one that has already spawned a genre’s worth of more sophisticated rivals and clones.

It’s surprisingly tactical.

Amalur is a very easy world to drop in and out of – if only Skyrim were so willing to share us with our real lives – but it is never a place where we can truly put down roots. And all this is a shame, since Salvatore's encyclopaedic creation is something worth investing in.

If Indika won't be everyone's tempo, it proves you can work small miracles when you dare to shed familiar habits. [Issue#398, p.122]

As it is, his 3DS debut is too uneven to be essential, but too charming for fans to miss.

Fans of the series are in the position of seeing a game that is an enhancement, rather than an exploitation, of its source material – and fans of the FPS have another good example of the genre to add to their busy schedules. [Aug 2007, p.86]

As an open-world game, Second Son feels emaciated. There’s little to do in the way of side missions, and what is here becomes repetitive, unlikely to sustain interest beyond a single playthrough. Approach it as an action game that just happens to be set in a nonlinear environment and it makes more sense, but its not-inconsiderable achievements take effort to uncover.

FreeStyle's greatest achievement is that it's made the rhythm-action genre feel fresh again. [Christmas 2015, p.102]

With a defined beginning, four distinct seasonal environments and an affecting, surprising conclusion, there's no question that Proteus is a game. But if there's one concern, it's whether this is an island that's worth revisiting once you've seen all it has to offer. In a way, its lack of progression – the absence of skill trees, difficulty levels and save points – works in its favour; you won't dive back in to mop up the last few achievements, or to climb leaderboards, but simply because you want to play Proteus.

More broadly, Consume Me succeeds because it makes fun of Jenny without judging her; the narrative and its interactive delivery mechanisms are direct and unpatronising, criticising diet culture while demonstrating why someone could be ensnared by it. We aren't made to feel that we're being lectured or tricked into a cheap emotional response. Rather, Consume Me transcends the expected commentary on dieting and becomes a critique of self-improvement culture in general, without losing the sense of humour that makes its message digestible. [Issue#416, p.123]

The picaresque form allows the levels to function as discreet puzzles rather than as parts of a story arc: the objective remains pure and always the same. The obstacles and methods open to you are what change, and it's in these areas that Contracts has both expanded and improved. [June 2004, p.103]

There's always something new to prod at, to see exactly how the game's rules have been twisted this time. [Issue#337, p.110]

After eight years in development - initially under PlatinumGames - this long journey has had a happy ending. [Issue#395, p.118]

For all its wondrous mimicry, Lies of P can't quite match the master's ambition. A remarkable feat of craftsmanship and engineering it may be, but never quite a real boy. [Issue#390, p.124]

It would be wrong to say there’s never a dull moment in Replicant then, even if at least some of that dullness is deliberate – a way to emphasize our heroes’ struggles. But at its best, you’ll come to understand why it deserves a second chance. [Issue#358, p.104]

Scarlet Nexus' overstuffed story might be fixated on the human brain - and when you skittle a line of Others with a train, you'll be glad of that - but in these moments it recalls where its heart is, too. [Issue#361, p.114]

Suddenly the nonsense global scoreboards of Xbox Live and PSN, designed no doubt to validate those services with the suggestion of mass involvement, are exposed as being badly hampered by their own ambition. United’s tight-knit communities are a welcoming, sensible and above all enjoyable blueprint for the way things should be. [Apr 2007, p.82]

That's the essential nature, and essential problem, of The Division's underlying structure. It's asking you to hunt gear with no tangible reward in terms of what you can do, how you do it, or what you look like doing it. [May 2016, p.108]

From its overpowered weapons and gormless AI to its pedestrian objecctives, the singleplayer game is as dumb as it is misguided – an embarrassment to the rather splendid mulitplayer game that, fortunately, represents all that's really important. [Dec 2005, p.101]

At its worst, however, Galaxies has some big problems. The biggest is that it is remarkably fond of spawning enemies behind your ship too quickly for you to move away... It can be incredibly annoying – enough, in fact, to slightly taint the whole experience. [Feb 2008, p.92]

A rare bit of vindication for Nintendo's oft-misused service. [Sept 2009, p.101]

There’s a terrific immediacy to the events, too. The days are short enough to guarantee a constant hustle and bustle, and the results of the previous day’s adventuring are cunningly given after the save screen, drawing you in to the next day before you realise it. [Aug 2008, p.98]

Amped 2 is Amped with the right trigger gently pressed: it's tweaked. Balance meters take away some of the series' grace, but make it more of a game, like Tony Hawk's tilted downwards. [Christmas 2003, p.122]

Our bond with our mechanical companion might have been even stronger when faced with a bit more hardship - by the time things really kick off, the story is nearly over. Nevertheless, Far: Lone Sails' ambiguous, strangely tranquil post-apocalypse is beautifully atmospheric, with a touching message: as long as you have hope, you are never truly alone. [July 2018, p.122]

This is a game with ambitions that now outstrip the confines of an atrophying engine, but beneath the exterior lies a world rich in atmosphere - the credible and pervading horror of a landscape drawn with unusual finesse. [Mar 2010, p.95]

Like many of its predecessors, The Origami King marches to an eccentric rhythm at times, but in a challenging year, you'll struggle to find a game that strives to consistently to put a smile on your face. [Issue#349, p.88]

There's a lot of replay value and unlockables to go with a lot of shooting; it's a welcome blast from the 16bit days. [July 2008, p.98]

An uneven season finishes on a high. [Nov 2014, p.110]

A gritty, satisfying coda. [Apr 2015, p.118]

If nothing else, the wide-eyed manner in which Everything explores the interconnectedness of, well, everything feels faintly radical in these divided times - even when that means you somehow find yourself relating to a spiral of sentient poop. [June 2017, p.106]

Derivative and at times off-puttingly insistent and flimsy unlocks, it's nonetheless some of Infinity Ward's most considered design in years, and a sign it's ready to get back in the fight. [Issue#346, p.102]

If nothing else, Lost Judgment proves it would be a great shame if he didn't get another opportunity to find his niche. [Issue#365, p.112]

At its best it's a game of tactics for even the most casual player. [Issue#314, p.112]

There's a whiff of trial and error at times, but no puzzle's Eureka moment comes by accident. [Sept 2014, p.114]

A great and progressive return to gaming's adventuring roots.

While refinement might be the best way to make a good game better, it certainly isn't the best way to justify the cost of a second sequel in as many years. [June 2010, p.101]

Ultimate Carnage is a generous package that can be highly entertaining. But it’s a pity that it fails to apply a comprehensive design overhaul to FlatOut’s robust engine. [Aug 2007, p.91]

140 is a magnetically moreish experience: delicately balanced and well thought-out. If this is what the programmer can achieve during the downtime from his day job, Playdead’s enigmatic second project can’t come soon enough.

A game of this size may please those who equate volume with value, but despite a handful of sensational moments, Shadow of War mostly proves that more can be so much less. [Christmas 2017, p.112]

It is still a little deflating. While some detective work is engaging, too much of it is throwaway, repetitive and, worse, overused. Tailing missions are the worst offender, simplistic, overlong, tightly scripted and seemingly everywhere. In its cutscenes, its combat and its tales of the lives of struggling, troubled, randy everyday people - in all the tings that make it a Yakua game, in other words - Judgment excels. In the things that seek to make it stand apart, it disappoints. Whether this is a one-off experiment, or simply the first of many, remains to be seen; if it's to be the latter, much remains to be done. [Issue#335, p.102]

An astonishingly polished debut from Lego's new studio, and further proof that there's much, much more still to be made from the humble brick. [Issue#342, p.118]

There’s no way to sell unused cars back to the AI or to other players, no bespoke onscreen speedometers, no test driving a car before purchase, no kid-friendly Kinect steering or Kinect support in Forzavista, no opportunity to load a circuit-specific tuning setup before a career race, no exiting from a race series without loading up the next track, no unicorn cars, no ‘reasonably priced car’, no auction house, no storefront, and no surprise, really.

Contracts redeems Absolution, but it doesn't absolve it. The game has taken a unique formula and diluted it, allowing the fashionable trappings of other stealth titles to intrude upon a series that has always confidently eschewed convention.

While it's diverting, Planet Lana II never feels essential as a sequel, mechanically or narratively. [Issue#422, p.106]

The New Order is, above all, brave. Its odd mix of ’90s-style FPS excess and Nazi atrocities could have come across as outdated and crass. But MachineGames maintains just as much respect for its difficult subject matter as it does for its players, and the result is a game that indulges the mature and juvenile parts of your personality in equal measure.

So, then: the best expansion so far and the game at its worst. Such a contradiction could only be made by Bethesda.

While the specificities of lead developer Abhi's lived experience give Venba its distinctive flavour, they serve a story with which anyone can identify. [Issue#387, p.123]

A functional, pared-down JRPG and a feisty but flawed translation of the side-scrolling beat 'em up into the third dimension. [Apr 2010, p.94]

When so much work has gone into the game’s visuals and so much effort has been poured into the most insignificant cosmetic flourish, you find your patience for the hiccups that still plague many games is reduced to almost zero. [Christmas 2005, p.92]

A valiant modern parable that might also have been an exceptional puzzler, if only it had made its players a little less godlike. [Sept 2015, p.114]

Rock Band: Unplugged’s heart is genuine and soulful, evidence perhaps that, in game-making as much as music-making, it pays to never forget one’s roots.

Other M dabbles in cinematic tricks and sensational set-pieces, but its strength is in the foundations: it builds an enveloping 3D world from straight lines and right angles, and ups the gears of its rewarding basics constantly. It offers an uncluttered slice of sci-fi action, a singular take on the thirdperson adventure, and a combat system of pared-down beauty.

To those who treat mould-breaking games as life's milestones; those who can still smell the silver coins on their fingers ... this is dangerously close to the best in the genre. [Oct 2003, p.94]

That teetering battle between pride and strategy than ensues every time you decide whether to comprehensively flatten a villain with an unnecessary monosyllabic flourish or gamble on saving it for your next target, hoping the board doesn’t get scrambled before you get a chance to show off.

Gearbox has made a game that is stable and complete, if hugely unrefined in places, with an under-exploited but sound core of tactical squad combat. [Nov 2008, p.93]

Nuts & Bolts is a clever, colourful and witty game – one which deserves better than to be hidden behind stodgy tutorials, flabby interfaces and a host of loading screens. [Christmas 2008, p.84]

Yes, QatQi is a roguelike with words, and by the time it dawns, this ferociously smart game will have you hooked.

It delivers on 5th Cell's unlikely conceit far more capably than expected, and fulfills a blueprint so bizarrely ambitious almost nobody believed it was possible. [Nov 2009, p.92]

A game that never quite finds a level of consistency to fully engage you. [June 2018, p.114]

Its rudimentary puzzles may not satisfy point-and-click fans, but those who enjoy interactive drama will be happy to tune in for Episode Two after this solid season premiere.

Temple Run 2 is a beautiful looking, natural extension of the series that never breaks stride for a second. The game's only liability is that, as beautiful as its environments may be, their unceasing repetition can eventually grow wearisome. Like a child hearing about the concept of living in heaven for eternity and asking, won't I get bored?

An exercise in turning the volume up to maximum and keeping it there. The sound it emits is powerful, but with its constant presence can become mere noise. PlatinumGames has mastered the way of the ninja as a furious mass-death machine, yet somehow Ninja Gaiden 4 isn't a true killer. [Issue#417, p.100]

Even on the least realistic setting, the game can be fearsomely complicated and the manual and tutorials are little help. [May 2007, p.91]

The extra depth is arresting – combatants plunge from one part of a stage to the next, crashing through glass and tumbling down stairs. While its 3D arenas arguably make for a more fitting showcase of 3DS's capabilities than launch title Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition, the two share a further thrill as you turn the 3D off and watch the framerate double.

Really, this is a game of strong, simple virtues: knockout action, beautiful character design, lovingly articulated models, crisp sound and overall polish. Every now and then it'll overstretch, at which point it falls. [Jan 2007, p.76]

In keeping with the original, Otogi 2 is something of an empty vessel, but it's one of the most ornate and accomplished around, possibly the most excessively and obscenely beautiful videogame yet made. Games that are this electric and uniquely rewarding don't come along very often, whereas those with more complexity are commonplace. Take your pick. [Mar 2004, p.104]

Trepang2 may not know many tunes, but it truly commits to those it does. [Issue#387, p.116]

Yes, the planet looks prettier than it did before we arrived, but this is a rare act of beautification that leaves a bitter aftertaste. [Issue#384, p.114]

There’s nothing revolutionary in Eternal Sonata, but it’s a well-executed RPG with style in abundance. [Nov 2007, p.98]

For every moment of epiphany, wide-eyed with an awareness of a resolution, there's an equal number of blunderingly hapless wins, falling or jumping accidentally to new and advantageous positions. [June 2008, p.89]

Why roam freely (when the game lets you, which is by no means always) when all that's out there to find is an empty trek between jarring episodes of production-line gaming? [Christmas 2005, p.105]

Windjammers 2 also cements Dotemu's position as the premier upholder of exquisite and sympathetic sequels to discarded classics. A triumph. [Issue#368, p.118]

No Shin'en game plays as good as it looks; this one, however, comes closer than most. [Issue#341, p.120]

Tropico is as vibrant and capricious as the setting, and never dry or formulaic in the way that other management games can tend to be. [Christmas 2009, p.106]

That speed and flow, ultimately, is a fantasy - one that's ever harder to appreciate when you're constantly being knocked off course by rockets. [Issue#376, p.104]

So while in some ways it's a pity this most malleable of heroes should be forced to return to old haunts instead of breaking new ground, this 2D homecoming is more invigorating than we could have anticipated. [Issue#383, p.121]

A few interface niggles and the eventual feeling of repetition don’t hold back a creative reimagining of a game type that, thanks to the execution, is as important as it is enjoyable. [Nov 2007, p.96]

To tackle the more inventive operations dreamt up for Wii with superior tools will be enough to convince the Trauma fans. [Nov 2008, p.102]

As we play, we realise that Pathologic 3 is rich in a large variety of relatively shallow systems. [Issue#421, p.116]

While there isn't the sense of playing something that opens up a new era for a genre long written off as dying, there is a simple freshness and a delightful accessibility which might endear it to an even wider market. [July 2004, p.106]

Word games are only as good as their dictionary is reliable, and while Quarrel has one of the best around, it's occasionally hamstrung by Microsoft's Victorian sensibilities.

There's enough skill on display to suggest that these tales might actually be worth telling. [Sept 2009, p.99]

A series that has spent too long paying bashful tribute has, at long last, emerged from the shadow of its classic debut. [Issue#332, p.112]

Yes, Wipeout 2048 conjures a less fanciful racing grid than we've seen previously, and it's also a less immaculate, less finessed racer than the home console iterations of the series we've played down the years. Instead, it's an attempt to try something new on the newest of platforms. While it may not offer something for everyone, when it flies, it soars.

A game of canny, and often quite annoying, design. [June 2018, p.120]

Zombie Gunship obviously has its influences, but it works them into something surprising: a slow-mo high-score shooter, a grainy panorama of survival horrors, and a greater sense of an undead horde than the rest of the App Store's zombie shooters put together.

Our so-called "Guardian of the Peace" concludes their journey with a body count nudging six figures. [Issue#407, p.100]

In its current form, Payday 2 is a slog, and it’s no fault of the game itself but all the bloat that surrounds it.

While it's not as cleverly structured as the pinnacle of the series, "Symphony of the Night," it resurrects that game's hallmarks of seductive exploration and satisfying topographical progress. It breathes new life back into one of viedogaming's oldest franchises. [Jan 2004, p.92]

Each gruesome death brings a sharp pang of regret and leaves you wondering if it might have been avoided. [Oct 2015, p.114]

Turns out that Tekken's big new idea for online play is rather underwhelming: you can customise your outfit and fight with it on. [Dec 2009, p.103]

A remarkably sure-footed followup. [Issue#259, p.110]

Exquisitely presented. [Sept 2010, p.100]

Hothead games may just have discovered that the best way to dispel Diablo's shadow is to make light of it. [Sept 2010, p.92]

As an accessible, powerful game-building tool, LBP 3 is remarkable, and offers more scope than we dared to expect. [Christmas 2014, p.108]

Future Soldier exemplifies a developer honouring the 'fun first' ethos of its publisher's canon, even as it stays true to the seriousness of its espionage licence. Yes, it's lost some tactical edge, but a disciplined commitment to entertainment focuses the experience. In the overmasculine world of the thirdperson shooter, this is a game that stands out for being delicately beautiful even as it delivers brutal thrills.