Embellished with delightfully grotesque aesthetics and accompanied by some wonderful tunes... [Issue #421, p.112]

There are small gripes – having to use an undo button rather than pick tiles back off the grid irks in 'standard' scenarios, for instance – but they slowly melt away in the face of such eclectic gameplay. Seating arrangements have rarely felt so intelligent, knowing, or inventive.

The biggest difference between Automata and its director's previous work is that those weird ideas finally have a robust mechanical shell to house them - one flecked with patches of rust, perhaps, but a fine piece of engineering all the same. [May 2017, p.102]

The surprise that Meteos brings is the satisfaction of its physics. There’s real weight in the way an underpowered meteor chunk sinks down to earth, and a sense of dynamic propulsion as you flick together a cluster of gravity-defying rockets. [May 2005, p.91]

Through judicious pruning and reweaving Naughty Dog has crafted one of the finest action adventures to date. It’s involving in its narrative, a triumph of pacing, and simply a pleasure to play. [Christmas 2007, p.80]

Its moments of brilliance are worth experiencing, but they shouldn't blind anyone to the shortcomings of a sequel that, underneath that beautiful surface, is as frustratingly flawed as the first. [Issue#346, p.98]

A good all-round introduction to the tactical FPS. Glitzy and attractive, but ultimately a little empty, there’s also no doubt that it lives up to its name. [Christmas 2006, p.79]

This relaxed, arcade-like approach makes for something that's not so much about simulation, but more emulation; letting you thwack the ball with all the verve of an expert, without the worry of any homework. Fun, then, and lots of it. [Nov 2003, p.107]

A coup de theatre that leaves us bowled over. One for gaming's history books? That's something upon which Pentiment's players can surely agree. [Issue#379, p.108]

Whatever the oddities and missed opportunities of its singleplayer mode, Bad Company 2 delivers a fulsome online game that continues to hone a winning formula. [Apr 2010, p.90]

Far Cry 3's main missions are nothing special in and of themselves, and include one or two exhausting slogs and limp stealth sections, but the campaign does a better job than Far Cry 2's storyline when it comes to providing an alternative to the open emergence of the player-authored escapades.

The result is one of the sprightliest blockbusters since Insomniac's own Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and a lesson in pacing from which Sony's forthcoming PS5 big guns would do well to learn. Sure, you might find it starting to slip from memory even as the credits are rolling, but in the moment? For the most part, it's rather riveting. [Issue#360, p.104]

As you might expect, such breadth comes at the cost of a little finesse. [Issue#372, p.104]

With a superior control system and a raft of incisive upgrades, this year's update is a connoisseur of the boxing arts. [Apr 2005, p.103]

PGR3 hasn’t moved from its niche, not at all – at its core, it’s still pure PGR, a savvy and standalone mixture of real form and hyper-real function – but it’s been transformed into a wondrous and rewarding beauty spot. [Christmas 2005, p.88]

Whatever the oddities and missed opportunities of its singleplayer mode, Bad Company 2 delivers a fulsome online game that continues to hone a winning formula. [Apr 2010, p.90]

When control is wrested from the narrative, the action mechanics are deep and interesting, making unique use of both of the DS screens at once. [May 2008, p.94]

It makes no spectacular breaks from the past, but it does reclaim the mood – if not the tone – of Diablo II. It's living proof that the values of 2001 still have worth over a decade later.

Ostensibly it's a game about overthrowing aliens, but really it's a war against the forces of probability. [March 2016, p.110]

Despite a handful of minor issues, then, and occasionally patchy framerates in particularly busy areas, Dishonored 2 is consistently remarkable. [Jan 2017, p.102]

Frustrations rarely linger in a game with such a bright, celebratory vibe. This is a love letter to the early history of two mediums - imperfectly written, perhaps, but deeply and sincerely felt. Charming, distinctive and impossible to forget, Cuphead is the kind of game you'll immediately want to talk about, yet be desperate not to spoil. Like we said, quite the paradox. [Christmas 2017, p.114]

The controls are exquisitely calibrated, giving you room to adjust your trajectory in mid-air. [March 2018, p.118]

It's in the great outdoors where Forbidden West comes to life - which is ironic given how often we're told it's dying. When the story's leash is off and we're free to luxuriate in its world and the wider cast's personal tales (one sidequest, involving a missing friend and an unrequited romance, is an exemplar of the form), it's not hard to understand why the first game was so popular. This is, then, more of the same in every sense, and your feelings towards the first will determine whether you see that as a recommendation. [Issue#369, p.100]

It feels revelatory, like rediscovering a lost art. The keyboard! How wonderful. [Issue#402, p.123]

Ninja Gaiden is as good as it ever was, and the visual improvements can’t be faulted. The minor redesign of some of the levels is generally irrelevant next to the meat of the game, however, and not worth the update in itself. [Aug 2007, p.90]

This sweeping triptych is as luxurious and formidable a game as you'll encounter on portable hardware. [July 2016, p.114]

This still stands as one of videogaming’s greatest achievements, one finally properly served by an excellent English translation to reveal a game that feels far fresher than its age, setting and rivals might otherwise suggest. [Nov 2007, p.97]

Make no mistake: this is a pair of games that will lead to formative moments in young lives, moments of the kind that will inspire a lifelong passion for the medium.

It feels more like a yearly update than a sequel, a new campaign with old multiplayer. The game isn't distinct from its predecessors in any important way, and fatigue sets in quicker than before. [Jan 2011, p.94]

At the beginning of the game, and every morning since, Colt wakes up with a single objective: break the loop. But we're increasingly starting to sympathize with Juliana. Why would you want to do that, when there's still so much to play around with? [Issue#364, p.98]

Beyond its undoubted visual appeal, Ori doesn't quite have enough ideas of its own to set itself apart from the genre classics of which its developer is so clearly enamoured. [May 2015, p.118]

Throughout there is a sense of a studio that, after its arduous struggles with "Below", has remembered how to have fun again. The feeling is mutual. [Issue#338, p.102]

It’s no accident that your role can often feel more captive than intrepid explorer; Fireproof skilfully demonstrates that escapism through escapology can be a potent conceit indeed.

Like the very best narratives, Thirty Flights Of Loving relies on economy more than excess, and it races you breathlessly to its conclusion rather than herding you through an awkward gauntlet of false choices and bottlenecks.

It has, through painstaking effort, upgraded the card duel into a thoroughly modern form. It has resisted the dark lures of free-to-play, and has made deep systems simple to parse without neutering them. In short, Hearthstone is borderline alchemy, turning physical systems into digital gold.

It’s all here: the hoi polloi, the ambience, the weather, the police pressure, and the emergent scenarios that can make you feel special or wretched. It feels familiar, but remains primed for fresh exploration and mischief, reapplying a formula that still feels superior to its imitators’ approaches. [Christmas 2005, p.107]

A perfect organism? Not quite, but in its finest stretches Dread has a momentum that can mesmerise for hours at a time. It's hard to look away from the screen - even when, in moments that reach towards full horror, you might want to. [Issue#365, p.98]

Aside from a very few niggling discrepancies, it’s an almost flawless experience – one which, having demanded a heavy investment of both time and thought, richly pays off. [Christmas 2006, p.83]

Hamstrung slightly by its hardware, this is a wonderful and educational creative tool; better, if less lovable, than its predecessor. A compromise, then, but a damn-near essential one. [Issue#335, p.104]

Over-dependence on legwork over the bulk of each world robs the game of its sparkle, making it feel more work-ethic sweatshop than well-paced sweetshop. [Dec 2005, p.111]

The series is so hemmed in by its own history - and the demands of fans - that it is largely unable to innovate. As such, the PSP version, while a solid iteration of an eminently playable formula, is able to grow only in width rather than concept. [Sept 2006, p.85]

The Stanley Parable is brave. It’s brave because it offers the freedom to define the parameters of your experience. It’s brave because it’s willing to explore the ways in which games manipulate players, and to extrapolate that point into a discussion of the way we are all manipulated by the structures of real life. It’s brave because it’s willing to make fun of itself.

With Capcom's technicians helping Nintendo's console punch well above its weight, Rise has made it a thrilling contest between two majestic beasts. [Issue#357, p.104]

The levels here are every bit as inventive as they were in Origins and, by the time your moveset has expanded to include a hover, wall-run and punch, every bit as punishing.

As a series, Civilization is being quietly surpassed. [Christmas 2016, p.114]

Battlefield 1 is better than its predecessors in almost every way. [Christmas 2016, p.102]

You may think you know Diablo, but you don't know it with this level of polish, from the clean brilliance of interlocking skills and classes to the sheer amount of chaos the game's comfortable with conjuring in its later dungeons. It's a testament to what money and confidence (Blizzard's own equivalent of mana and health) can do.

A game world that keeps bettering itself, until some kind of disbelief sets in. This dazzling technical feat is mirrored by some terrifyingly fast loading times, with no in-game loading and restarts from any save point in the whole world taking around two seconds. [Feb 2005, p.72]

Elements such as marching onto an island, or talking to a governor, seem flat and underdeveloped. Islands are sparse and awkward experiences, while their governors are often illogical and nonsensical in their responses. [Jan 2005, p.88]

If you've been writing the series' Vita appearance off as a compromise or a contractual obligation, you're in for something of a treat. That 5 inch OLED screen is a chance to see Media Molecule's staggering achievement afresh, and to witness one of this generation's most intriguing engines of creativity at its most energetic and effective.

For the first time in years, it's easy to meet up with other players, drawn together by enticing new stories. [December 2016, p.120]

Far from simply feeling sufficiently old-school, Pillars of Eternity II is a game of systems and setting working in wonderful harmony and with a pioneering spirit, exposing what it is that players miss about those particular 'good old days' on the first place. [July 2018, p.110]

Crimson Skies really comes to life online. Up to 16 players can duke it out in the skies and the dogfights are terrific. This is better than you'd ever have expected. [Christmas 2003, p.123]

With a smart, wry script, a warmly uplifting narrative and a likeable cast, this is a game with its heart in the right place, even if some of its other parts feel a little out of whack. [Jan 2017, p.123]

Perhaps that's Infinite Fall's ultimate triumph: with a group of 2D animals it's built a cast that's more rounded and identifiably human than any mo-capped blockbuster. [May 2017, p.116]

Racers has an appealing lack of pretension that suggests it has nothing to prove other than that Ridge Racer is a delight to play. And it is, with no call for caveat – for a handheld, for a ‘remake’, for a launch title. It's simply one of the best pure arcade racers to date. [JPN Import; Feb 2005, p.68]

What Fireproof has done, in other words, is to literally wrap the mechanics of a point and click adventure, with its abstract puzzles and occasionally opaque logic, around these fantastical contraptions, before suffusing the experience with an air of ghostly mystery.

With a superior control system and a raft of incisive upgrades, this year’s update is a connoisseur of the boxing arts. [Apr 2005, p.103]

Though you might not see it at first, Nex Machina steadily becomes a more layered, complex experience the more you play it. [Sept 2017, p.104]

This is a game that takes the foundations of one of the most intoxicating RPGs around and builds them into a fast, fluid, simply enormous action game as good as anything Team Ninja has ever made. [April 2017, p.112]

Animal Crossing: New Leaf has a revitalising new flavour, and in 3DS it’s finally found the ideal place to settle down and make its home.

Deliverance II demands unwavering fealty from its players, and the punishment for being lax in your duties can be severe. But if you're willing to go along with its more peculiar quirks, it offers a rare amount of freedom for a modern roleplaying game. Indeed, it's arguably a truer RPG than Bethesda's recent efforts, certainly a closer companion to Oblivion than Starfield is. And while its writing or characterisation aren't up there with those of The Witcher 3 or Baldur's Gate 3, its quest design is every bit as ingenious. [Issue #408, p.100]

Rather than creating a character, you're stuck as the brooding, white-haired monster slayer Geralt. Anyone who enjoyed the role last time will be happy to bear with him while the game meanders to its point. Anyone else will need an extraordinary level of patience.

Even as it wraps up within four hours, Mixtape feels like an exemplar of the form: generous, indulgent and expertly curated, a crowd-pleaser with just the right number of deep cuts. If it doesn't persuade you to make one of your own, it may well convince you to call up an old friend to reminisce about the moments you spent together. When the world simultaneously sucked and felt so full of potential. When you were bored and rudderless and didn't realise how good you had it. [Issue#424, p.114]

In feeding constant surprise, engaging wit and sharply pitched challenge during its course, Plants Vs Zombies proves again PopCap's incredible knack of taking an established game form and making it all its own. [May 2009, p.94]

Paradise loops its action into an endless rush, the possibilities, for arcade racing and battle enthusiasts alike, increasing with every hour. It’s hard not to see it as the birth of a new era, but in truth it might be the last Burnout you ever need. [Feb 2008, p.86]

It's impossible for your heart not to race as you sweat out the fright of its peerless audio design, chattering voices and muffled sobs endlessly scraping at your senses. [Oct 2004, p.98]

A scintillating racing experience, and as a revitalisation of the Race Driver series it's utterly successful. [July 2008, p.90]

A classic reborn in wonderful style. Capcom's hot streak continues apace. [Issue#331, p.106]

One of the best games on iOS, a testing blend of strategy and crisis management with a sharp tux and a winning smile.

At the core remains the solid, steady hand of Halo, but those hoping Halo 4 would roll back Reach's intricacies and deliver an alternative to the current wave of console shooters will be disappointed.

It's a pity Poinpy's audience is limited to those who haven't been put off by Netflix's recent price hikes, because this is a game that helps to justify keeping that subscription rolling. [Issue#374, p.122]

Despite being all about the numbers, FM2010 rises above them to be unexpectedly cruel, kind, and even visceral at times. [Christmas 2009, p.104]

For those already playing Final Fantasy XIV, Stormblood is a beautiful, essential expansion...It's not only a great expansion to a much-improved MMO. It's also, in story terms at least, a game that stands tall among the best Final Fantasy has to offer. [Sept 2017, p.112]

This is a brave and truly original work, and if this is what happens when Simogo explores its dark side, it should do so more often.

This is still a Neatherrealm game, with all that implies, and it isn't without its missteps. But for lone wolves, at least, this is the richest fighting game on the market. [Aug 2017, p.110]

It's entertaining, but if SOCOM II is the pinnacle of Sony's online achievement - and it is - then Microsoft has convincingly won the online battle. At least for this round. [Mar 2004, p.100]

The Witness conjures magic from the simplest of components, rustling up a sensational array of experiences without ever deviating from its core conceit. [March 2016, p.106]

Like all great puzzle games, you’re beholden to the whims of fortune, forcing you into leaps of faith that often prove frustratingly fatal. But like all great puzzle games, Stickets’ surface simplicity is merely a cover for mechanics of astonishing depth and longevity.

Like the first game, it remains a competent but ultimately restrained title. [June 2004, p.111]

A breathtaking way to polish off the definitive videogame nostalgia project, certainly - padding aside, the first 30 hours of Remake suggest that this is change for the better. By the conclusion, though, you may feel like things are going off the rails in more ways than one. [Issue#346, p.80]

Where next for Pokemon? Black and White don't suggest any answers, but they do remind us why we'd care in the first place. [Mar 2011, p.103]

Huge in scope and strong on detail, IX has ironed out the kinks that have made the series less palatable outside Japan, and with Nintendo's support, IX is sure to have the wider impact that the series has craved. [Aug 2010, p.92]

In the games’ improved communication features, too, X and Y are truer to their narrative’s ethos: the joy of sharing moments of beauty and surprise with others. It’s a delightful message to send to a new generation of players, many of whom are just starting out on their own gaming journey.

It's disappointing that basic irritants are still evident in the singleplayer game. But it's the online version - which takes the hunter/hunted metaphor to chilling extremes - which ends up being one of the most nerve-racking gaming experiences of all time. [Apr 2004, p.98]

Whatever the oddities and missed opportunities of its singleplayer mode, Bad Company 2 delivers a fulsome online game that continues to hone a winning formula. [Apr 2010, p.90]

After the peerless Bayonettas, this is the best game Platinum has yet made - and better yet, it reflects a developer growing in talent and ambition. [Issue#337, p.108]

A vast, almost encyclopaedic look at the united nations of rally, Dirt 3 doesn't feel definitive despite America – it wouldn't feel definitive without it.

So while Monster Train 2 can initially seem more like an expansion than a sequel, it favours potency over a reimagining of the basics, using trusted design as a basis for even more excessive combat creations. It's all about bigger, weirder kinds of damage. If, that is, you're prepared to think like a mad scientist. [Issue#412, p.118]

A virtuoso feat of creativity. [July 2015, p.110]

Whatever tactics game you've enjoyed most in recent years, you're likely to find some element of it refracted somewhere in here. [Issue#402, p.116]

It promotes a message of kindness and understanding that's never felt more vital. [Jan 2017, p.121]

Sins is undoubtedly a unique achievement, unifying realtime battle and empirical strategy where others have only managed to offer them as separate components. [Apr 2008, p.94]

Heavy Rain pulls off its branching narrative by donning blinkers and sprinting down the chosen routes. Countless permutations of each scene are allowed, safe in the knowledge that they will never be addressed again.

It arrives fully formed, with a challenge and aesthetic that's beautifully intertwined and finely crafted. Joyous.

Perhaps the biggest compliment we can pay to Sega is that even if you stripped away the IP and our memories of Musashi's prior missions, we would still have an exquisite action-platform game on our hands. [Issue#415, p.94]

Chaos Theory is the game that the original Splinter Cell was meant to deliver: a tight play experience within a trusty framework, one more of enjoyment than irritation, and a game that’s no longer exclusively for fans of repeated reloading. [Apr 2005, p.97]

The real surprise is that Pikmin 4 is mostly content to coast on its strengths. As sequels go, it could have used more dandori. [Issue#388, p.104]