That there's nothing conventional about this beauty is firmly to its credit. [Issue#405, p.118]

The thrill of the chase is still present, then, even if we've come to expect something a little more subversive from Adult Swim.

This is a puzzle-platform game pared down to its base essentials, with a sweet, simple tale and an artfully imagined world wrapped around that core. [July 2013, p.122]

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]

Although the decision to lengthen the already generous cut-scenes may deliver the odd treat for MGS veterans, many will find their duration exasperating. Crucially, though, some of the reworked sequences end up interfering with the game's pacing while failing to bring anything of substance to the experience. [Apr 2004, p.102]

As a reinvention it's a resounding success, and there are no pretenders to its comprehensiveness [May 2004, p.107]

Handsomely uncluttered, if more than a little austere, this is a modish, elegant puzzler.

The controls are excellent and the visuals might be a touch more rakish, but what really matters is that Radiangames has found a hectic pace that lends the blasting a kind of cumulative drama. In doing so, this until now polite series has picked up a bit of an attitude.

It's when the game is at its most GTA-like that it comes alive, conjuring up scenarios that take in whole city boroughs and throwing at you groups of adversaries and challenges you have to juggle on the fly… and then you get to a tediously engineered boss encounter and it all begins to get tiresome again. [Christmas 2005, p.109]

Though the explosions scale with progress, and the act of detonation continues to be a giddy pleasure, Mars could do with a thicker atmosphere.

It's not taxing or provocative, it will leave you neither upset nor elated; it simply wants to give you a good time. Sometimes that's enough. [June 2016, p.114]

The scenarios are often ingenious finding fresh ways to breathe new life into familiar systems. [December 2018, p.116]

The attention that’s gone into the update extends much further than a mere 3D overhaul and this update feels like a labour of love, even if its conception was merely for profit. [Sept 2008, p.96]

Those who've never understood the appeal of Kirby are unlikely to be convinced by his move into 3D. But otherwise this compact, imaginative adventure is a low-key triumph, a work of great craft and wit that, unlike its lead, doesn't bite off more than it can chew. And it only leaves you hungry for more. [Issue#370, p.110]

Earned In Blood might not seem like a radical departure from the original but the gloriously cascading AI and open maps have effectively transformed it into a very special WWII experience. The fact that there's nothing quite like it in such a crowded genre speaks volumes. [Dec 2005, p.103]

Far Cry 3 asked for the definition of insanity, and its sequel answers it. [Jan 2014, p.100]

It demands your full attention at every moment, something that was equally true of Mimimi's previous two games. [Issue#388, p.108]

Beautifully detailed with impressive lighting, accurately modelled protagonists and a terrific sense of speed. A refreshing and captivating direction for the series. [Christmas 2003, p.115]

It is a shame that Konami so overinflates the experience through early chores, especially as it has struck the balance between hardcore fans and casual explorers so well in the past. [Jan 2009, p.88]

The biggest narrative crime comes right at the close, where what feels like the approach to the conclusion turns out to be, in fact, the end - a sour taste that's hardly helped by the naked sequel set-up that follows. [May 2018, p.122]

While the streamlined and brisk approach that brushes over some of the minutiae of the previous games might cause some PC fans to baulk, Revolution has concentrated rather than diluted the Civ experience, creating an expression of the concept that's perfectly suited to its platform. [July 2008, p.94]

As a snapshot of a moment in time, there's truth captured within the frame. [Christmas 2015, p.106]

Allow the mood to feel its way into you and the sticky combat and occasional something's-missing-don't-know-what confusion become part of the experience. [June 2003, p.94]

If Pyre never quite feels like a classic sporting struggle, your ragtag band of rebels and their delightful mobile home are a heartwarming upside to life on the Downside. [Issue#310, p.108]

Rare is the game that comes along, one that believes in its hero - in you - so earnestly, and shows us the real value of being brave. [Issue#334, p.116]

There are no 'game over's, only a zen-like cycle until you are enlightened enough to progress beyond it. [Issue#340, p.11]

At its best, Infamous is an amped-up Crackdown - a game about bounding across a cityscape, discharging your enemies however you please. Even if ropey execution impedes its appeal, Infamous still has this essential spark. [June 2009, p.88]

Games have mastered action – the amplified and instant reward – but Papers, Please finds satisfaction in the tedium of bureaucracy, and twins it with genuinely human stories and an underlying, dread-filled tension. It’s rare to play a game about something, about a time, a place and a theme, and for a game to embody those ideas from meaning right down to mechanics.

It's an irresistible way to spend two minutes. [Issue#379, p.122]

BioWare hasn't cast itself as a guerrilla movement trying to subvert the MMOG with The Old Republic. Instead it's been the Empire, working to produce a slick, gigantic experience that, in the time of free-to-play, feels polished enough to demand monthly fees. How long this empire – vast and imposing, but archaic in structure – will last in the face of newer MMOGs and their rebellious payment models isn't easy to discern. This isn't the first of a new order of MMORPG, but it may well be the last of the old.

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]

If at times its volume of perfunctory unlockables remind you that this is a Ubisoft game, elsewhere Kingdom Battle boasts a generosity of ideas that feels startlingly Nintendo...It's perhaps not quite good enough to bring you to tears, but if Odyssey is to be Mario's best game this year, it has a pretty high bar to clear. Not THERE's something we never imagined writing. [Issue#311, p.100]

Combat is thrilling – each weapon packing a solid, vicious blast; movement suggesting heft and momentum. [Dec 2008, p.80]

As a reinvention it's a resounding success, and there are no pretenders to its comprehensiveness [May 2004, p.107]

Stages are smaller and battles are often less intense but Size Matters makes up for the shortfall in calibre with a visual imagination that, for the first time, makes a Ratchet & Clank games feel like an actual adventure instead of a sequence of shootout-corridors threaded along a necklace of planets. [Apr 2007, p.88]

Bad Company’s multiplayer happily checks off the expectations the series has created. [Aug 2008, p.90]

Stuffed with extra modes, supporting character upload to GC Toadstool Tour and bundled with a wireless adapter, Advance Tour is great value, but it's also rather clumsy and bland. Only in the minigames, when Mario and company show up both in person and in spirit … does it really find a life of its own. [July 2004, p.109]

Treyarch has taken just enough from COD4 to make World At War a broad success, but it remains firmly in its shadow. [Christmas 2008, p.90]

Statik's greatest trick, among many, is to make the DualShock the star of this darkly comic puzzle game. [July 2017, p.118]

Is it better than Flick Kick Football? It lacks the purity of Pik Pok's original, and isn't nearly so charming. But where Flick Kick lapses into formula after you reach a high enough score, Flick Soccer gets even more challenging – and in full flow, it can provide a magical experience.

While this elegant underwater world may be a little too twee for some players, then, there are still plenty of reasons to dip into Bit Blot's inventive genre piece. Aquaria's as personable on the iPad as it was on the PC and Mac, and now you can cross the oceans on your morning commute.

The micromanagement is on a previously unimagined macro scale and yet is accessible and coherent enough to draw you in, making hours of concentrated playtime pass like minutes. [Dec 2003, p.101]

That this is one decidedly average experience and one decidedly great one jammed together becomes clear long before you’re freed to fully enjoy yourself. [Jan 2005, p.86]

Swapping a picture-perfect landscape for New York's urban sprawl could have been disastrous, but Crytek has found variety in the setting, guiding the player through blue-grey skyscrapers, leafy green parks, rooftops at sunset and industrial harbours. [May 2011, p.90]

Though its stellar looks and innately satisfying play (especially in multiplayer) continue to serve aces, World Tour’s rallying skills leave something to be desired. [Oct 2005, p.96]

An incredibly solid universe with barely a technical glitch to be found, but it’s soulless and almost bereft of plot or character. This is a sandbox game that’s begging for a purpose. [March 2005, p.80]

Is this the most violent game of all time? Maybe. Its ragdoll physics may not match the flying limbs and broken faces of Soldier of Fortune, but its throwaway approach to life and death is genuinely shocking, leaving a bitter, metallic aftertaste. This is neither a fall nor an ascension. This is an update. [Jan 2004, p.105]

A step forward over both previous entries, combining those elements with meticulous campaign craft and a gallery of inventive ideas. [Issue#409, p.116]

It's a shame that the terrain you wander through as you do all this is so visually substandard. [Dec 2014, p.116]

The triumph of SpaceChem is that overcoming these situations is more a case of inventing a solution than discovering one - creating a technique on your own terms that, once learned, you find yourself reusing in later stages. [Apr 2011, p.101]

Rich with charm, ingenuity, artistry and genuine delight. [Jan 2007, p.77]

Playing Ball X Pit is a long ramp of rapturous discovery, a mad scientist's laboratory where the goal is to make the screen as blissfully incoherent as can be. [Issue#417, p.118]

The Atlus faithful who remember the anguish of Matador in Nocturne the first time will probably swallow their pride and press on, but newcomers who may confuse godhood with god mode are in for a rude awakening. [Issue#366, p.112]

In the end, we gain more from it than we imagined. [Issue#347, p.100]

As forgettable as the story mode is, this is a game that should be judged by the pleasure it can bring to a room full of gamers eager for furious arena combat and a splendid variety of team games. And judged by those criteria, it has few peers. [Apr 2005, p.94]

For the moment, though, SOE's MMOG is a remarkable achievement. Games like it often have to sacrifice visual fidelity for performance, but PlanetSide 2 looks stunning, even on medium settings.

This focus on creativity over flowcharts perfectly suits the most charismatic, expressive construction and management sim yet. [Jan 2017, p.116]

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

Outrageously pretty. [Feb 2015, p.108]

‘Splosion Man lives up to his name, providing a burst of exciting, arresting fresh IP that significantly changes the landscape around.

This is twitch gaming at its finest, with beautifully tuned thumbstick controls and a pulsing rave soundtrack that only seems to focus the mind more sharply.

There’s no question that DUB Edition can be pleasurable, especially in the multiplayer games, but the Career mode too often feels like graft. There are tournaments, one-off street races and ‘special’ events, but each individual race feels much the same as the last. [June 2005, p.92]

It’s still a hardcore sim at heart – forgiving lower difficulties, sexy day/night effects and emotive cars aside – and those that rush in may miss the point. But explore and savour each passionately sculpted track and car, either solo or in the 16-player online mode, and there are few games to touch it. [Nov 2005, p.111]

So while the campaign's filled with visual pleasures and colourful tricks, it's in the stark white spaces of the editor that Sound Shapes really dazzles, stepping away from the museum of hallucinations that all rhythm action games offer and threatening, at times, to become a genuine musical instrument in its own right.

There's a lot going on here, much of it captivating, some of it just for appearances and some of it annoying. [Issue#338, p.92]

A truly great detective story needs a satisfying conclusion - and here the Klavins deliver, and then some. [Issue#377, p.116]

Fight Night has tirelessly rebuilt itself when many expected retirement. Cautious improvements from Round 4 - the removal of the cut-man game and automation of recovery - have been confidently reinforced, while ring physics, ragdolls and cloth dynamics are in a different class to the chaotic Round 3. [Apr 2011, p.103]

Resident Evil 5 is a good game. The surprising, and sad, thing about Resident Evil 5 is that it feels old. [Apr 2009, p.112]

Salt & Sanctuary can be brilliant, but it's held back by undersized visual design, both in UI and open play, making playing it from distance a pain. [June 2016, p.122]

Tetris DS should celebrate the game, but instead feels hollow with its shortfall of rewards and bonuses. [May 2006, p.97]

Atlus succeeds in creating another idiosyncratic concoction of narrative and play, one that twists convention as often as it builds upon it. [Sept 2009, p.98]

This is easily the better sequel, a firm improvement on "Warrior Within." So why the long face? For the simple and saddest reason of all: ennui. [Christmas 2005, p.100]

It's a breezily entertaining flight through seven coloured environments, though it never quite generates the same feeling of mastery as its inspiration: reaching the Violet Zone for the second time isn't as significant an achievement as diving down to the undulating surface of Island 9.

It manages to be that rarest of things: a Wii game that you've just got to try online. [May 2010, p.98]

Our pilgrimage is one marked by the cuts and bruises we accumulate along the way, yet we find ourselves encouraged by a familiar mantra: how sweet the pain, indeed, when it is our own. [Issue#389, p.106]

Ultimately, Invisible War is a very fine game spread too thin. It's a game that's made the effort to name the cat in the secretary's desk photo but not to make jumping work properly, that bothers to script loving exchanges between insignificant NPCs but pits you against clumsy and stuttering AI. [Feb 2004, p.94]

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.

By no means a classic on those terms, Outland is nonetheless a well-executed game that - hopefully - lays the groundwork for future iteration upon its central ideas.

While its bulk is impressive, it lacks a distinctive personality of its own. [Christmas 2016, p.106]

Halo 5 is full of good decisions and fantastic multiplayer experiences, but in trying to catch up, it might have shown how far behind it really is. [Christmas 2015, p.98]

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]

What could have been an elephants' graveyard of forgotten ideas instead feels like a series-wide victory lap. [Issue#353, p.96]

Once fluent in Hulk's explosive vocabulary of lamppost-javelins, boulder-bowling balls and tank football, it becomes apparent how much there is to praise in this game. It's hard to think of a superhero title that has come so close in delivering the spirit of the hero's super-ness. [Sept 2005, p.95]

It’s a solid formula, of course, and like its wrestler star Drinkbox’s game is dressed up luridly and with flair – but this entertaining romp is more about the costume than what’s beneath it.

Rare are the games that can make us see the world a little differently; step outside and look around after playing Gorogoa and you'll realise it probably deserved that round of applause after all. [Issue#315, p.110]

The original title won fans for its shocks and surprises; the second takes no risks. While its ultraviolence is slick and satisfying, its shtick has calcified. [Apr 2010, p.92]

It's a surprise to find that this relentless numerical tangle of a dungeon crawler is a human story. [March 2016, p.118]

Mage Gauntlet's an action RPG that's perfectly tailored for the pick-up-and-play crowd, in other words. It's a likeable confection that's as witty as it is insubstantial.

Something as transcendent and overwhelming as the game we hoped for – the infinite, mind-boggling space odyssey suggested so early on – doesn’t sell expansion packs. It doesn’t fit on to iPhone. It doesn’t fill the vacuum left by The Sims. [Nov 2008, p.88]

Another excellent outing for Codemasters' rally team, but one that has possibly taken the series to its structural - and commercial - limits. [Nov 2003, p.104]

There's no question that DUB Edition can be pleasurable, especially in the multiplayer games, but the Career mode too often feels like graft. There are tournaments, one-off street races and 'special' events, but each individual race feels much the same as the last. [June 2005, p.92]

It may look chaotic, but this is as controlled as iOS gaming gets. Immaculately calibrated touch controls give you the tools to escape even the most ferocious barrage, while the five stages challenge twitch reflexes, muscle memory and pattern recognition equally. One of the toughest games you'll ever play, then, but also one of the fairest.

There's a great deal of satisfaction in finding the right combination of fighters and feeling the curve of a battle until you hit the tagging sweet spot. [Mar 2011, p.88]

His masterstroke is Eliza itself. [Issue#337, p.120]

Once again, Criterion still manages to stand out and offer something fresh, setting a new standard in open-world driving games with - that word again - a seamless feast of quality. [Dec 2012, p.98]

Of course, horror as reflection of the social and psychological is what we've grown to expect from Red Candle. That it couples here with such a confident step into pastures new, though, means we're keener than ever to see what's next. [Issue#400, p.114]

Previous instalments in this technically strong but creatively lacking series have been one-note, papering over a lack of originality with a hefty dose of shock and awe. Killzone 3, by contrast, attempts to wage a more varied war. It succeeds, just, by offering a tour of locations both more visually interesting and diverse than its forebears, but it all still depends heavily on the brutal impact of the shooting at its core.

It's a game that follows the steps of another while changing the rhythm - and in doing so, never settles into its own groove. [Issue#330, p.114]