There are plenty of games with strong visual design and atmospheric settings that don't make you jump through nearly so many hoops to get to the good stuff. [Nov 2018, p.116]

Among its many failings one stands out as cardinal and, despite the slick presentation, simply can’t be forgiven: you never really feel in control of what’s going on. [Aug 2008, p.94]

As a script, Flower, Sun And Rain is, for at least two thirds, hugely witty and effortlessly mad, eliciting enough regular laughs to cover for the game's otherwise painfully tedious forms of interaction. [JPN Import; Dec 2008, p.96]

For a title trying hard to inject personality into the genre, the experience feels irreparably mechanical. There's plenty of variety in terms of racing categories and machinery, but the overall lack of involvement is inexcusable. [Feb 2004, p.102]

MercurySteam's worldbuilding adds clutter, not depth, obstructing a concept that's left feeling embryonic. [Issue#412, p.104]

Darkspore remains a humdrum deep-space Diablo, but one doomed to be defined more by what it's missing than what it offers. [June 2011, p.98]

Instant deaths, glitchy combat, uninspiring boss encounters and twitchy controls conspire to make this a below-par experience. If it wasn't for the occasional flashes of imagination and the familiarity and richness conveyed through the license then The Emperor's Tomb would be utterly forgettable. [May 2003, p.99]

By keeping it real, the game retains many of the things that make navigating the real city more of a pain than a pleasure: countless faceless skyscrapers don't make for memorable landmarks, and facing the wrong way down a jammed one-way street when you're in a hurry to get somewhere is the sort of challenge few will relish. [Jan 2005, p.91]

MicroBot is a technically accomplished but sterile experience. As the game settles into a rut, its stylistic strengths lose more and more ground to the sluggish combat, uninspiring upgrades and repetitive stages.

You wonder if players will have wanted to spend this amount of time loafing around the Homestar Runner universe, or whether their interaction with it is best limited to ten-minute bursts via their web browser. [Oct 2008, p.101]

You get the impression the only person who cares about Kain's legacy any more is the writer. The turgid battling lets an average game down. [Jan 2004, p.107]

The reality, inevitably, is that you want Fallout 76 to play like a Fallout game, and on those terms it fails to satisfy. After all, how could you not want that from it? [Jan 2019, p.110]

The game effectively highlights the difference between a sandbox which facilitates player experimentation, and a game environment that only allows prescribed actions. [May 2009, p.95]

The Precinct may boil policing down to a numbers game, but they never add up to much. [Issue#412, p.116]

MicroBot is a technically accomplished but sterile experience. As the game settles into a rut, its stylistic strengths lose more and more ground to the sluggish combat, uninspiring upgrades and repetitive stages.

Ditching the self-aware snuff-movie set-up for an unsubtle conspiracy story, Manhunt 2 lacks the redemption of a smart commentary on violence as entertainment. [Christmas 2008, p.98]

Sluggish menus, clumsy controls, and an intrusive, atmosphere-scuppering soundtrack mar each excursion, while excessive weather effects will have you straining to see as you awkwardly bump up against objects to find out if they can be ransacked. [Aug 2017, p.122]

By turns astonishing and insufferable, there is as much here to make your eyes roll as widen. Even the moments when Hellblade II delivers nigh-unparalleled visual spectacle (see 'Giant steps') are soured by the fact that our involvement in these set-pieces so often feels incidental. For long stretches, it's akin to watching someone else play, only occasionally - and always unwillingly - handing back the controller. We can't help but return to that old chestnut about the interactive experience being a conversation between designer and player; there is an irony that in this, of all games, we're scarcely able to get a word in edgeways. [Issue#399, p.104]

Sparsely scattered save points, un-skippable animations and cutscenes, and repeated locations and boss fights are anachronisms that will frustrate and alienate all but the most ardent traditionalist.

Firefights become more surreal than menacing when the worst-case scenario is of your fellow GIs having to catch their breath for a few seconds after being riddled with bullets. [Aug 2004, p.96]

In a world where games such as Hades, Slay The Spire and Into The Breach have found ways to elevate the Roguelike to new heights, PixelJunk Raiders sadly fails to make a mark. [Issue#357, p.118]

It's yet another curiously half-hearted side project from Supermassive that, appropriately, won't linger long in the memory. [Apr 2018, p.120]

Sonic games, and platformers in general, have always been about memorising the lay of the land, but rarely have mistakes been so costly or heavily punished, and it says much that one retailer’s preorder bonus consists solely of 25 additional lives.

It’s just not accurate or tangible enough to be rewarding, handling with the same kind of wool as Sonic’s 3D platformers. [Apr 2006, p.93]

Ends up feeling like it's been built by PC game developers obsessed with quick saves. There's absolutely no creative latitude; it's a case of remembering where enemies appear and getting them before they get you. [May 2005, p.86]

It's just not accurate or tangible enough to be rewarding, handling with the same kind of wool as Sonic's 3D platformers. [Apr 2006, p.93]

By keeping it real, the game retains many of the things that make navigating the real city more of a pain than a pleasure: countless faceless skyscrapers don't make for memorable landmarks, and facing the wrong way down a jammed one-way street when you're in a hurry to get somewhere is the sort of challenge few will relish. [Jan 2005, p.91]

You wonder if players will have wanted to spend this amount of time loafing around the Homestar Runner universe, or whether their interaction with it is best limited to ten-minute bursts via their web browser. [Oct 2008, p.101]

It is especially abhorrent that this should happen in a game with almost unrivalled massmarket appeal...No doubt EA and its trio of development studios will fix this mess eventually, but the fact they deemed it fit for purpose in the first place is unavoidable, and damning in the extreme. Whatever happens next, we're afraid we don't patch review scores. [Issue#314, p.104]

Age of Resistance Tactics would merely be tolerably mundane, were it not brought low by a UI as cumbersome as the game's title. [Issue#343, p.116]

GORE might have worked had it followed the remit of the original PS2 Gungrave to deliver an intense couple of hours, before focusing on polish and score-chasing replay value. As it is, the moments when you gorge on the excesses of Grave's ordnance are spread thinly between slabs of frustration and tedium. [Issue#380, p.116]

Star Trek has more bugs crawling on it than a Fear Factor contestant. Sometimes the results are amusing, as in the turbolift example, but frequently they just make life a drag.

Astonishia ultimately proves to be little more than a charming catalogue of decade-old foibles and cliché. [Aug 2006, p.93]

A larger problem: the sense that The Suicide of Rachel Foster is messing around with borrowed ideas it never quite understands. [Issue#343, p.118]

Lacking the tools to really upset her enemies or cope with them when she does, Summer relies on a wafer-thin playbook of obvious traps and distractions. [July 2009, p.96]

In Agents of Mayhem, the limits are all around you, all of the time - from the moment you start playing to the minute you stop, it feels permanently imprisoned by its own lack of imagination. The result is a game that carries the weight of a litany of sins - a saint that has fallen far, far from grace. [Issue#311, p.116]

A soulless videogame that stands as a grave indictment of how stale a series can become if it loses its spark of creativity and imagination. [March 2005, p.93]

Infinity is extremely limited, both in terms of what little content it offers and your ability to access it. [Aug 2014, p.119]

Army Of Two is relatively straightforward thirdperson shooter, focused on large-scale skirmishes and the dynamics of a two-man team. It’s serviceable enough in some regards. [Apr 2008, p.91]

Should a game about surviving an alcoholic, abusive parent be fun? Probably not. But it gains nothing from being wearying and frustrating.

While the original aimed to capture our hearts, the sequel only seems to be after our wallets.

Disjointed and directionless, Croft's descent into darkness is, shockingly, one hell of a mess. [December 2018, p.106]

Nucleus stands as a poorly executed game in a field where there are so many excellent others that it’s impossible to recommend. [Aug 2007, p.94]

You get the impression the only person who cares about Kain's legacy any more is the writer. The turgid battling lets an average game down. [Jan 2004, p.107]

With no real way to accelerate victory on repeat encounters, the result is a metal slog. [Issue#405, p.123]

Occasionally gripping but frequently unfulfilling, Sniper Elite V2 comes in at a heavy price for a package that's all gore and little reward.

If you're still wondering whether to give it a go, we politely refer you to the title. [Issue#358, p.120]

Soldier of Fortune’s damage model is probably its major selling point and, lamentably, the only thing that makes its combat entertaining. [Feb 2008, p.96]

Feels cheeky to be criticising a scrolling beat 'em up for being too shallow, but TMNT is possibly one of the most tedious ever. Repetition is only acceptable when you're repeating something gratifying. [Jan 2004, p.109]

Each of the areas you’ll traverse in Scurge feel like they’ve simply had a box of random enemies shaken into it, all making a sudden focused beeline toward you the minute you set foot in the room. [Nov 2006, p.92]

If zSlide wants to directly compete with WarioWare’s creativity, not toying with the PSP’s optional camera or microphone has been a missed opportunity. [July 2007, p.94]

A frustrating experience, though thankfully not a long one. [Dec 2009, p.103]

Too brainless for adults, and increasingly too frustrating and needlessly obtuse for children, Lego Batman makes the simplest mistake any franchise title can: it serves the licence, and nobody else. [Dec 2008, p.89]

For such a costly flagship title to provide neither the promised statement of mainstream grown-up appeal nor even polished, lesser disposable thrills is a landmark failure. [May 2006, p.92]

This is a smart template for future fun, but the details need work. When it comes to getting this kind of game onto iOS then, Madfinger has, in more ways than one, done all the boring bits.

Ends up feeling like it’s been built by PC game developers obsessed with quick saves. There’s absolutely no creative latitude; it’s a case of remembering where enemies appear and getting them before they get you. [May 2005, p.86]

It's just too hard, the physics too capricious, and the tasks too frustrating for words. [Aug 2006, p.85]

On balance, its lack of ambition is supported only by a very basic underlying solidity in its execution: too weak to tackle bigger monsters, but strong enough to soldier on with some perseverance. [Nov 2006, p.89]

With all the weaknesses of its beloved inspiration and precious few of its strengths, Praey For The Gods- much like its protagonist - consistently struggles to retain its grip. [Issue#368, p.114]

Blacksite is a thoroughly unexceptional title for which unrealistic promises were made, and one that is further let down by a wide assortment of bugs and design issues. [Jan 2008, p.83]

For most players there's just not enough here to hold any prolonged interest. [Mar 2008, p.100]

A maddening, misguided mongrel of a game... Luck plays a huge part, and simply navigating the world can be exactly as hard as the hardest challenge: a random, enraging, minutes-long bore, especially with moving enemies straying across your line. [Dec 2005, p.115]

Ultimately, World Rally is not a bad game, just entirely unnecessary.

Soldier of Fortune’s damage model is probably its major selling point and, lamentably, the only thing that makes its combat entertaining. [Feb 2008, p.96]

It all feels like a bit of a hassle, and that, presumably, is not the message the WWF would like to convey about saving the environment. [May 2008, p.98]

The super-soldier fantasy's lost beneath generic mechanisms for grinding. [Issue#139, p.108]

A host of inchoate ideas served with a helping of self-importance, Submerged threatens to plumb the emotional depths, but there's little of value beneath its surface. [Oct 2015, p.121]

Its world feels considered. There are decent performances from its cast among the graphical artefacts, and zippy pacing that respects your time and conjures a sense of playing the Schwarzenegger role that never was. But it's been released in a technical state that makes it impossible to enjoy its ideas, with core components of its action left underdeveloped. For the player, that's frustrating. For those who made it, surely, it's heartbreaking. [Issue#413, p.112]

The result is a tiresome slog that proves the first casualty of war is not innocence, but brevity. Valkyria Devolution might have been a more honest title. [Sept 2017, p.108]

The frequent glitches and pop-up testify to a lack of preparation, and a question has to be asked about what exactly Treyarch has been doing for the past two years. [July 2007, p.89]

Natsume's anaemic offering is a bit of a Halloween zombie, in other words. It's shambling, it's barely animated, and you really ought to avoid it.

By even the lowest expectations Superman Returns is a staggering shortfall. [Jan 2007, p.86]

The original HOTD: Overkill is no holy grail of the genre, but it did spice up the ailing niche with some eccentricity and zany thrills. To see it massacred in this way is a shame both for the series and for iOS newcomers whose first taste of this most guilty of pleasures will be a sour one.

There's practically no aspect that doesn't appear half-hearted. Black Isle's drawn-out death has undoubtedly poisoned Brotherhood, but it's hard to tell if there was ever a good game here to begin with. [May 2004, p.109]

In short, Welcome Tour seems designed more to highlight USB ports and air intake vents than give us a game. The climax of our tour sees us trapped inside our new machine, running laps and poking into every corner, praying we'll find the last stamp to open the exit. At this point, one question about Switch 2 remains: Nintendo, how did it come to this? [Issue#413, p.123]

Barring a couple of all-too-short sections near the beginning, Will: Follow The Light is a bewildering and arduous journey. [Issue#424, p.116]

Technically, ... Dead Man's Hand is a mess - which is a shame because this could have been a whole barrel of fun. [May 2004, p.107]

It's hard to come away from this without a sense of persecution. It isn't just that it's a poor game, it's that it thinks it's good enough to survive on the coat-tails of its license - and that you won't have the wherewithal to discriminate. [Jan 2011, p.99]

Where Escape From Butcher Bay and Assault On Dark Athena showed how games can complement and expand a film franchise in unique and interesting ways, The Merc Files feels like a rushed, irrelevant addition to David Twohy’s B-movie universe; one that would have been best left on the cutting room floor.

Don't let the vibrant colours of this scene fool you: this is the world as seen in Combat Breaker, a brief period in which time slows down. As son as the meter runs out, it's back to the game's usual dusty dullness. [Issue#370, p.119]

We've a right to enjoy this kind of brainless, murderous throwback, but we've also a right to expect it to be made to the standards of videogames of five years ago, never mind those of today. [July 2005, p.91]

Its idea of merging solo, co-op and deathmatch combat into a single mode is as noncommittal as its story, which merges decades-old cyberpunk cliches into one appalling mess. [Mar 2011, p.92]

Six 'f*cks' in the opening cut-scene set the tone for a game that's desperate to appear edgy, uniquely British and grown up... Ironically, the script is so desperate to be adult that it ends up sounding as mature as a teenager rebelling against school uniform. [Christmas 2004, p.85]

Given the state of Knights Contract, the famously hellish result of Dr Faust's own little deal seems comparatively sweet. [Mar 2011, p.101]

How to mess up a game in which you ride a dragon is quite simple. You make the control of that dragon answerable to motion-sensing technology that can’t distinguish subtle or even very forced gestures in anything like the detail required. [Nov 2007, p.90]

A game that never feels comfortable giving you full command of its star. We're left feeling blue, but not in the way Sonic Team intended. [Issue#379, p.118]

European Assault is one of the ugliest current-gen games we've seen. Boring textures, a weak palette and a flimsy design ethic all round make it appear like slightly dressed up PSone data. The animation seems inspired by amateur puppetry and even the menus look like they were knocked up in the last day before submission. [Aug 2005, p.94]

You'll be more irritated than scared. [Issue#336, p.121]

It’s a clean game, at least, texturally crisp and evocatively lit, but the feeling of playing an interactive 3D Mark demo is discouragingly strong. [Apr 2007, p.88]

So wasteful of its source material that it should be held up as an example of how not to handle this kind of production. [July 2009, p.101]

Had The Official Game provided a consistent overall challenge, it would have been bearable, if unexciting. But it hasn't, and it isn't. [July 2006, p.88]

The root problem is that the board controller is poorly conceived. The notion of mimicking while stationary an activity entirely reliant on motion is deeply flawed. [Jan 2010, p.88]

Control is also stodgy and unreliable. [Issue#422, p.123]

Sorrows is a hollow experience, misinterpreting the original as a sheer numbers game rather than one of constant risk and reward. It’s an issue made more glaring by an unsatisfying combat system, paying lip service to counters, juggles and combo strikes even though endlessly repeating the same moves is just as effective. [Feb 2006, p.88]

Die-hard roleplaying game fans might have shrugged off its technical flaws and turgid combat if only the story had a pay-off. But instead of a tragic hero, Jason’s a dud. [Feb 2009, p.86]

Lost feels truncated to the extreme, a grand tutorial to island living violently cut off when the credits roll after four hours. [Apr 2008, p.93]

The game also fails as a high-profile PS4 launch title in terms of what it’s putting onscreen. The particle effects serve their purpose, but everything from the vapid story sequences to the hackneyed goblin foes feels blandly feeble. A chapter setting entitled The Barren Wastes? Yes, you think, no need to ram it home.

The levels are so gloomy, grey and fog-drenched (there's even fog in the mall) that it's hard to see buildings in the near distance, nevermind enemies. Dark, oppressive and torturous, Omega Strain is about as much fun as a wet weekend in a Kafka novel. [July 2004, p.107]