Advanced Warfare is still Call of Duty, but it's more playful, knowing and refreshing than COD's been in years. [Christmas 2014, p.112]

BF2142 fails to stimulate to the same levels as previous titles in the series, all of which have benefited from a more solid grounding in real-world settings and situations. [Dec 2006, p.87]

This is a game that takes its fantasy as seriously as it needs to be, which is to say both lightly and with rigour in homage to the communal games that make up videogames’ heritage. But it’s also a real original.

Relic has spent four years honing a distracting interface, revitalising a less-than-perfect control system and, above all, recreating anew the sense of majesty and scale that originally distinguished this deep-space strategy title. [Nov 2003, p.103]

For all that it celebrates tight spaces, Skin Deep is anything but claustrophobic. [Issue#411, p.112]

Few games are as initially opaque as Starseed Pilgrim, and few offer as rich a dawning sense of discovery in return.

This is the finest alternative sports game since Windjammers 2. [Issue#381, p.105]

Motorstorm has a special relationship with chaos, and if you can keep your head when all about you are throwing their controllers, you're just as likely to lose. Less battle than survival racing, it's happy to let fairness be a stain on the tarmac. [Apr 2011, p.95]

A genre piece with rare ambition, a mobile game that feels at once tailored to the format yet unusually expansive in its scope. [Issue#338, p.112]

It's delightful stuff in full flow, and while there's not much to it - just ten levels are available at launch , each lasting only a few minutes - there's significant replay value in committing level and spawn layouts to memory. [Issue#341, p.122]

On its own terms, Tales from the Borderlands is one of Telltale's best works yet. [Christmas 2015, p.116]

Gameplay purists may scowl, but Read Dead Revolver is a triumph for beautifully observed atmospherics, characterisation and slapstick set-pieces you cannot fail to enjoy. [June 2004, p.100]

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]

Game designers talk of emphasising character through dialogue or animation, but his may be the first incidence of a game emphasising it through a control method. Its immediacy means you'll share every inch of his swaggering, gleeful, unstoppable violence. [Feb 2005, p.78]

The majority of SMB is a finely executed tightrope act of death and rebirth, as funny as it is fun and as precise as it is inventive. [Christmas 2010, p.103]

It's a resourceful little game, then, mining laudable variety from an economy of ideas. It's amusing, too, littering its backgrounds with visual gags, including a sly reference to Angry Birds - even if one cake-related joke proves a meme too far. And it saves the best for last, with a final level that offers some thrillingly silly catharsis, managing to one-up its most obvious inspiration in the process.

While PixelJunk Shooter 2 may seem more like an expansion than a standalone game, there's no shortage of new ingredients to enrich what was already a lively concoction. [Apr 2011, p.97]

Tempest Rising doesn't revolutionize the genre, but nor does it depend on nostalgia. And if there's a gap waiting for the Veti to arrive, it's immensely gratifying to fill it with a gratuitous quantity of tanks. [Issue#411, p.116]

While the game remains focused on atmosphere and aesthetics, concessions have been made to a more dynamic style of play. [Sept 2008, p.86]

Who's quibbling about the originality of any given bone when there are so many of them just waiting to be broken, and in so many stylish ways? [Issue#404, p.121]

Learn its quirks, however, and Prison Architect's sandbox permits a dizzying breadth of options for establishing for-profit penal facilities. [Christmas 2015, p.120]

It isn’t any kind of reinvention, but a revitalisation, with a style so rich that it becomes an integral part of the game’s substance; Psychonauts breathes imagination and individuality as effortlessly as most games steal from one another. [July 2005, p.84]

Some may argue over what the series should have become, but what’s important is that it has made that tough decision for itself, and established a rock solid foundation for inevitable, now justified successors. [May 2006, p.86]

Gameplay purists may scowl, but Read Dead Revolver is a triumph for beautifully observed atmospherics, characterisation and slapstick set-pieces you cannot fail to enjoy. [June 2004, p.100]

One of the smartest dumb games since Super Time Force. [Christmas 2015, p.121]

What keeps you playing, though, are two aspects of Minter's games that can always be relied upon: his enthusiasm for spinning ideas in hundreds of different ways, and his essential good taste. [Issue#411, p.120]

There's still no one else making games quite like this, and whether you've got a headset or not, it's a joy to be transported once again so completely to the Minter dimension. [Issue#350, p.105]

It takes more than caffeine, luck and a nosebleed to truly become master of these streets, and this is Revenge's greatest achievement over its predecessor. The eight locations, split as usual into varied circuits, are arcade racing dreams given form. [Nov 2005, p.98]

The sidequests are among its strongest features, challenging your expectations about how RPGs are structured. [April 2017, p.116]

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]

It’s gorgeous; Resogun draws on its host hardware’s graphical capabilities to make you feel like the most powerful entity in the room.

Puzzlejuice may ultimately be too hectic and exhausting to stay on the front page of your iDevice forever, but it's the perfect game for an unhealthy binge every few days. Enjoy it as much as you can, and try not to burn yourself out for good.

Even if some of the fundamental stuff has been sacrificed to the creation of this huge world, Fuel still makes it across the finish line on a far-from-empty tank. [July 2009, p.97]

Credit, then, to Tiani Pixel and Fernanda Dias for a journey that feels deserving of your precious time. [Issue#367, p.120]

It sends traditional multiplayer mores into a dizzying spin and, bolstered by a cheery script and amicable tone, creates ever-evolving thrills across the course of the singleplayer campaign.

Its flaws stand out in the short singleplayer campaign, and its tail end relies too much on the gunplay that the game otherwise relegates to a begrudging last resort. But when it hits its stride, the environments unlock the player’s tactical ambitions in away that is truly empowering, launching you between shadow and light, discretion and aggression.

Super Time Force hands you a super weapon that feels super – one that gives you the impression you’ve hacked into the game’s code to gain the upper hand – and then dares you to try to break the game with it. That it never buckles, despite allowing you to continually rewrite history as a horde of player characters and hundreds of projectiles fill the screen, is nothing short of remarkable.

Cramming more surprises and ideas into five hours than many games manage in 50, There Is No Game is a brain-scrambling treat. [Issue#350, p.106]

This is a game that lives well within your comfort zone no matter how many bullets are flying, and how many enemies are kiting along behind you. It's a game about games, in other words – and a very good one, at that.

If you take away the window dressing, the epic sounds and the preordained surprises this is a derivative, one-note and sometimes flawed game, but see it as a spectacular amusement ride and you can play and it's a distinguished achievement. [Christmas 2003, p.110]

Sin And Punishment 2's real value lies in the (now online-enabled) hi-score tables and a brilliant risk/reward scoring system. [Christmas 2009, p.94]

Generous, polished and charmingly eccentric, Magnetic Billiards proves the benefits of deliberation - though if this is indicative of the quality the Pickfords can bring to iOS, here's hoping their next isn't quite so long in the making.

Beyond its meticulously refined controls and the delightful tactility of it all (every action is accompanied by an algorithmic electronic score, and sudden, thrilling flourishes of colour), these diegetic checkpoints are Ynglet's real stroke of design genius. [Issue#361, p.123]

It's a delightful time. [Issue#333, p.118]

Plagued by imbalance, the Round 3 career can serve up over 50 bouts before one goes the distance. The new stun punch – a thunderclap of a haymaker – helps to ensure first to third round knockouts for the vast majority of fights. [Apr 2006, p.82]

F1 2010 remains a game to be uttered in the same breath as Crammond's Formula One Grand Prix, Bizarre Creations' Formula 1 '97, and Ayrton Senna's Super Monaco GP II.

A frequently wonderful game...You might lose everything you've gathered when you die, but your love for Dead Cells will endure, and grow even stronger. [Issue#323, p.112]

This is ballsy, brash, confident gaming at its best - a lesson in how games don't have to be perfect to be brilliant. [Christmas 2003, p.102]

When so many games are trying to defend their value by cramming every mode and style into one unpalatable mix, it's refreshing to play something that's conceived with such vibrant, capricious clarity. [May 2004, p.104]

Modest and ingenious and smartly priced, Islanders is as engaging to tinker with as a palate cleanser between bigger games as to take seriously in pursuit of a high score - wonky mansions and all. [Issue#333, p.120]

Mercury exhibits a perfect hierarchy of challenge and reward... The pain becomes the pleasure because, in spite of the extraordinary degree of trial and error (practically requiring a degree in the subject), there’s never any moment that feels broken or exploitative. [June 2005, p.91]

Skate’s best trick is to make every landing seem like a tiny victory: with physics that at least pay lip service to the realities of gravity and broken bones, simply making it down a flight of steps can be cause for celebration. [Nov 2007, p.92]

Insomniac has stripped away every inch of slack, delivering a consistently entertaining title where platforming nestles tightly against puzzle solving and hugs shooting sections. [Oct 2008, p.102]

Half-Life’s narrative does nothing altogether new, and nothing to upturn the quite reasonable condescension of Roger Ebert and his peers in more mature media. But in an interactive genre bound to the traditions of the pop-up gun and invisible hero, it simply doesn’t get more sophisticated than this. [Aug 2006, p.80]

Playing Blek is pure intuition, not a puzzler so much as an act of freeform creation. That’s quite a feat within a genre which can feel so stiff and prescribed.

The mission finale is climactic; a frantic last stand awaiting your dropship, enemies pulled in droves towards the beacon, palpable relief if you and your buddies dive through the boarding hatch before your saviour jets from the landing pad. [Issue#396, p.110]

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]

Yes, it can be sticky work, but it says much for this bracingly exciting game that you'll be itching to put our headset back on just as soon as you've cooled off. [Issue#323, p.116]

MGS4 is not the game it could have been; nor is it the game it would have been had the series grown with the benefit of hindsight; nor is it the game it should have been if you believed that early trailer. But it is faithful to its fans, its premise and its heart, delivering an experience that is, in so many ways, without equal.

Bright and breezy, it offers almost bottomless value, creates a believable and consistent world, offers a real strategic challenge as well as the kind of brainless completism that’s best suited to delayed trains and rainy afternoons, and hides a staggeringly intricate set of mechanics inside an accessible and non-threatening world. [July 2007, p.84]

This is as good as you'll find on DSiWare at the moment, and it'll likely stay that way until Q-Games comes up with another mini-marvel. [Feb 2010, p.95]

This sense of restrictiveness filters through to ACIII's mission design. There are surprisingly few assassinations here, and relatively little freedom to plan an approach to them. It's mostly eavesdropping, tailing, chase sequences and battle scenes.

Its ideas cohere into a blaze of brilliant white heat while it burns itself out. [Feb 2017, p.121]

Sensibly expanded and gently refined, this is textbook sequel-making. [Issue#333, p.123]

For your money, however, this is the best new MMOG since Guild Wars 2 and arguably the most feature complete an MMOG has ever been on launch.

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]

There's loads to do here. [June 2010, p.105]

This charming, eccentric mash-up is well worth a spin. [Issue#335, p.112]

From the patchwork fields of the Dover coastline to the unforgettable sight of Berlin burning in the pouring rain, the carefully characterised locations are as integral to the experience as its encyclopedic line-up of planes. [Oct 2009, p.97]

The sequel may have sacrificed a little of Maximo's knife-edge aura, but there's so much new here that it would be rude not to call Army of Zin even better. This is a sequel that stands up, and often glitters, on its own terms. [Dec 2003, p.96]

It has a masterful user interface. [July 2008, p.93]

Accepting the inevitability of bad things happening helps prevent this from descending into suffocating bleakness. [July 2016, p.116]

FFXI may not technically be the future of MMORPGs, as there’s no ignoring its derivative nature. However, it has cleverly assimilated all the elements that make the genre so popular and married them with international brand popularity well beyond the reach of other, more ghettoised MMORPGs. [Dec 2005, p110]

The level of personality in the Patapons and their world makes up for any disappointments - and your involvement in their story becomes huge. [Mar 2008, p.99]

Despite the twitchy combat and compulsive collecting, it all comes back to those creaking mansions. Highly polished under their grime and cobwebs, the treats awaiting in their dark rooms prove Luigi’s subversive series still has the capacity to thrill.

Take it slow, keep an eye on those health bars, and you'll find a fighting game that offers a thrill that few others can - with nary a 20-hit combo in sight. [Issue#335, p.118]

The constant flow of new content makes it a game that will last as long as Sony’s console does – that is, if you’re prepared to make the financial investment required to maintain a song library. [Nov 2007, p.95]

It's a tale of swords and souls in which everyone keeps their dignity until you knock off their cuirass and make them fight in their bra. [Sept 2008, p.84]

The only occasionally clumsy element in Surge Deluxe’s otherwise efficiently streamlined processes is you – or, rather, your big fat finger. Tracing lines between blocks obscures the screen, which can make quick, precise movements difficult, especially between narrow gaps.

A sequel with a suitably Darwinian focus on simple refinement. [Nov 2008, p.100]

Inkulinati might be deeply silly, but it's equally smart - a game set in the margins that deserves to be properly illuminated. [Issue#396, p.121]

A fine win. [July 2016, p.121]

Monster Hunter still offers some of the most exciting and handsomely staged third-person combat you'll find in any game - and, if only by a small amount, Generations has raised the bar again. [Issue#296, p.112]

What at first feels more like a Benny Hill chase reveals itself to be another fine reinvention of this classic. [Nov 2016, p.112]

The bunker thus feels genuinely coherent as a place, and alongside a vividly oppressive monster, that's enough to ensure this latest bout of Amnesia is one we won't easily forget. [Issue#386, p.114]

Sakurai's prints are all over Uprising, providing a comeback that balances depth and accessibility with little compromise. [Apr 2012, p.122]

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]

All things considered, it’s about the best game called ‘DJ Hero’ we were ever likely to see. It deserves extended play.

For console owners used to having to fiddle with power sliders in order to orchestrate their shots, it brings a nigh-on edible element of tangibility to the experience... An accomplished bundle. [May 2004, p.109]

In Assassin's Creed, the bloodthirsty are typically punished. For all its breadth and splendour, there is still not quite enough room to condemn its two most murderous inhabitants. [Issue#410, p.98]

You’ll discover whether you’re a screamer or a yeller, a wide-striding groover or a bolt-upright pogo-er. This is a game that you can play sitting down, but you won’t. Not once. [Christmas 2005, p.104]

Shooter feels accomplished and robust, a rounded and consistently enjoyable achievement. [Jan 2010, p.94]

It refines the core shooting and user interface, but otherwise adds only a clutch of enjoyable yet nonessential extras, such as settlements and armour pieces. [Jan 2016, p.106]

Those accustomed to the adult world of online PC gaming may have reason to sniff at the more streamlined play, but Pandemic has given consoles a whole new genre, pretty much perfectly formed... No game has ever felt quite so much like playing with Star Wars figures. [Nov 2004, p.102]

A personal and affecting play experience. [Mar 2008, p.103]

Two Point remains a gifted student of the old school, and we're eager to see where its career takes it next. [Issue#376, p.110]

Here's to more games that dare to shoot for the stars - and to those that, like Genesis Noir, set their sights even higher. [Issue#357, p.112]

Race Driver 3 understands that a processional win from pole is less fulfilling than a hard-fought, championship-saving fifth place from the back of the grid. And though it can’t exactly engineer those situations, it does everything in its power to make them more likely and leave them unpunished. [Mar 2006, p.87]