This isn't a game that redefines the genre: this is one that rolls it up and locks it away.

Yes, there's still the freedom to cause havoc, and inevitably you do; the difference is that you’re no longer impelled to toy with GTA IV's world in quite the same sadistic way - you live in it. [June 2008, p.82]

Since the end of the N64 era, as Nintendo has explored new pastures and methodically tended old ones, it’s been easy to forget the times when every major release from the company felt like this. It’s a bravura piece of design that pulls off stunts no one else has even thought of. [Christmast 2007, p.76]

No one makes worlds like Rockstar, but at last it has produced one without compromise. Everything works. It has mechanics good enough to anchor games of their own, and a story that is not only what GTA has always wanted to tell but also fits the way people have always played it. It’s a remarkable achievement, a peerless marriage of world design, storytelling and mechanics that pushes these ageing consoles to the limit and makes it all look easy.

The result, for all the longevity of its series and the familiarity of the open-world genre, is a game that evokes feelings we haven’t known for 20 years. Not since Ocarina Of Time have we set foot in a world that seems so mind-bogglingly vast, that feels so unerringly magical, that proves so relentlessly intriguing. Plenty of games promise to let us go anywhere and do anything; few, if any, ever deliver on it so irresistibly. Nineteen years on, Ocarina is still held up as the high-water mark of one of gaming’s best-loved – and greatest – series. Now it may have to settle for second place. [April 2017, p.104]

It's a game of restraint, but with some brutal sucker punches; the tale of a one-man cowboy army who is nothing without the people around him. It's a game about the fear of the future that reaches astounding new technical heights, and makes Rockstar's previous games look and feel like ancient history. It's a resounding triumph to which there is only one reasonable response - and an appropriate one, too. Hats off. [Christmas 2018, p.104]

Like Breath of the Wild, Odyssey is a new entry in a long-running series that belies its age with sprightly invention, taking big risks with an established formula, and having all of them pay off handsomely. Mario might be getting on a bit, then, but a dinosaur? This astonishing adventure proves he's anything but. [Dec 2017, p.98]

Half-Life 2 is a first-person shooter. But in action, storytelling, technical achievement, atmosphere and intensity it has far outdone its peers. Valve just hit the top note no other PC game developer could reach...The excuse that 'it's just a game' won't cut it anymore. [Dec 2004, p.102]

If only the mechanics matched the atmosphere. If only Rapture was a less linear world to move through. If only BioShock was the wholly brilliant experience you know, from your moments within it, it could have been.[Oct 2007, p.88]

Ultimately, no one will disagree that Uncharted 2 is one hell of a ride, and the best PS3 action game to date.

So, is this what we were expecting from Capcom – a revolution in survival horror? No... It's an interactive B-movie, but one filled with sights, sounds and thrills that will linger in the memory long after the content of more sophisticated titles has been forgotten. [March 2005, p.76]

Baldur's Gate 3 leaves you with as many ideas it it does memories. That, surely, is the soul of roleplaying. [Issue#389, p.98]

As a whole it is almost overwhelming in its depth, irresistible in value and certainly, unreservedly, brilliant. [Dec 2007, p.82]

As a whole it is almost overwhelming in its depth, irresistible in value and certainly, unreservedly, brilliant. [Dec 2007, p.82]

With the first instalment, BioWare built a universe of words – a deeply convincing multicultural sprawl you could read about without ever quite getting to touch. Here, you’re inside it from the start – and the view is often dazzling

Not for the first time, a Miyazaki game has arrived and the landscape appears transformed. As you play, there is a sense of plates shifting beneath you, of the T&Cs of game development being hastily rewritten. We haven’t felt this way since “Breath of the Wild.” Here, as there, an open world means freedom and fresh air. [Issue#370, p.96]

These moments are why you play Skyrim, because in the instance of breathless excitement, triumph or discovery, you invest completely in its world.

But these rare lows are a fair trade for some of the most stratospheric highs we've experienced in a videogame since, well, its predecessor. In reimagining Hyrule and reshuffling the tools you'll use to explore and to save it, Nintendo may not have quite reinvented the wheel. But this kingdom provides a wondrous space in which to consider how you just might. [Issue#385, p.98]

Zelda virgins might well play The Wind Waker and deem it the best game they've ever encountered. To those of us who already have an idea of what to expect, though, it's 'merely' brilliant. [May 2003, p.88]

As with previous GTA games there's lots to criticise, but San Andreas survives, scathed but still walking tall, buoyed by the kind of ambition that sees most games crumble under the weight of it all. It's a multi-faceted, multi-achieving experience, a rough-edged but massively substantial landmark. [Christmas 2004, p.78]

It’s a multiplayer riot, a visual landmark, a feat of engineering, and one of the most charming games ever made. But even those accolades are dwarfed by its scope, its potential, and the apparent endlessness of them both. [Dec 2008, p.76]

GTAIV’s modern weapons spit bullets like angry hornets until a health circle depletes; here, lives end in uncompromising fashion. For the western aficionado, it is viciously accurate; for the fan of wanton sandbox carnage, it is comically frank.

It's fitting that we're able to steal a line from the script to sum everything up. No spoilers here, just an epitaph, from the moment Cortana turns to Master Chief and says this: "It's not a new plan. But we know it'll work." [Christmas 2004, p.74]

Naughty Dog has delivered the most riveting, emotionally resonant story-driven epic of this console generation. At times it’s easy to feel like big-budget development has too much on the line to allow stubbornly artful ideas to flourish, but then a game like The Last Of Us emerges through the crumbled blacktop like a climbing vine, green as a burnished emerald.

With the focus on elaboration rather than evolution, Twilight Princess triggers more memories than it creates, yet it's still an effortless classic that towers over the gaming landscape. Ignore it at your own cost. [Christmas 2006, p.68]

Portal 2 delivers, and it does it in style, creating one of the most meticulously designed, thrilling and delightful playgrounds we've ever seen. It's a game with a magical take on momentum, where single bounds over tall buildings are business as usual, where every surface is a potential launchpad, and the entire experience is a belly laugh.

GTAIV's modern weapons spit bullets like angry hornets until a health circle depletes; here, lives end in uncompromising fashion. For the western aficionado, it is viciously accurate; for the fan of wanton sandbox carnage, it is comically frank.

Take away the branding and there remains a core of irrepressible imagination, the fuel of so many great games, that is anything but robotic. [Issue#403, p.92]

A dazzling package. A singleplayer campaign crammed with set-pieces that pull the player through at breakneck speed sits alongside Spec Ops, 23 co-op missions and a MW greatest hits package, before that superlative multiplayer, which really needs no introduction. With such attractions on offer, this is a shooter that demands playing, and playing again. It is still Call Of Duty, but its execution is skilful, mostly thoughtful, and it boasts the highest of production values.

Sure, the prospect of spending 30 hours with gaming's grumpiest anti-hero and his bratty kid might not sound like fun, but by the time the pair have finally completed their exhilarating, exhausting journey, you'll be delighted you joined them. [June 2018, p.104]

This is a jewel of a response, one that catches the firelight in different ways depending on how you approach it, but always dazzles. [Issue#400, p.102]

Visually, kinetically and intuitively, however, Modern Warfare is relentlessly exciting and an overwhelming triumph. [Christmas 2007, p.88]

Above all, this is what few pretenders manage to imitate, and ensures that even when your stated mission is to 'kill time', you feel like you're doing much more. [Issue#417, p.104]

So if Arkham Asylum was defined by its limits, Arkham City is a careful, considered exercise in stripping those limits away. Its open city lets players be a different kind of Batman to the stealthy predator of Asylum – this is the Batman of dropped smoke pellets and theatrical getaways, the Batman with an ear to the ground for the strong picking on the weak, and the Batman who floats above the city with a gothic majesty.

But for all the excellence on show, there's no shaking the sense that this is a game that does everything that was asked of it, but nothing more. [Christmas 2006, p.72]

It’s debatable whether Oblivion is a great adventure, but it’s certainly one of the broadest around and one that’s a willing canvas for a variety of approaches from its players. [May 2006, p.84]

That Infinite can handle the collision between its philosophical concerns and its dead-end thrills without seeming hopelessly crass or overly portentous testifies to its often touching script, excellent pacing and the kind of unparalleled world building that shows you all of this coexisting cohesively in a golden city in the sky. But it also demonstrates something else: BioShock’s mechanical evolution as a firstperson shooter.

In substance it's nothing new, merely a magnificent, beautiful monster of an FPS sequel. In concept and execution, though, Halo 3 is the future. [Nov 2007, p.80]

It’s debatable whether Oblivion is a great adventure, but it’s certainly one of the broadest around and one that’s a willing canvas for a variety of approaches from its players. [May 2006, p.84]

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 combat is beefy enough to carry you through the slower stretches, but even when you're lopping heads off dragons it can feel like what you're really killing is time. [Issue#379, p.100]

Crucially, it's everything a racing videogame should be: a relentless, unwavering and phenomenal assault on the senses.

A dazzling package. A singleplayer campaign crammed with set-pieces that pull the player through at breakneck speed sits alongside Spec Ops, 23 co-op missions and a MW greatest hits package, before that superlative multiplayer, which really needs no introduction. With such attractions on offer, this is a shooter that demands playing, and playing again. It is still Call Of Duty, but its execution is skilful, mostly thoughtful, and it boasts the highest of production values.

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.

From the near-pornographic money-shot that occurs during the slo-mo moments of certain vicious attack combos, to the ludicrous events that send the player travelling down a monster's throat, God of War is made from the stuff of legend, to become the stuff of legend.

The only real criticism that can be levelled at Knights of the Old Republic is that, particularly towards the end of the game, it all feels fairly easy, but then this is a game that's designed to be experienced rather than conquered, and lightsaber wielding Jedi aren't supposed to find things difficult. [Oct 2003, p.86]

It still possesses the series’ trademark ability to deliver Tempest-like ‘in the zone’ moments of remarkable intensity unlike any of its contemporaries, but now comes with a confidently revised dynamic, marking this as Criterion Games’ finest hour. [Oct 2004, p.100]

Super Smash Bros is a series that has often been unfairly derided as button-mashing, largely thanks to its surface sheen of cutesy characters, but it has one of the most enduringly innovative and deep systems of any fighter. [Apr 2008, p.84]

It may produce an experience which is as gruelling as it is compelling, but that’s a badge of honour the game wears with pride. [Nov 2006, p.86]

You can't argue that Naughty Dog hasn't thrown everything at this, and though its tendency towards maximalism doesn't always work, the results are frequently astonishing. This is the kind of game you get when you have unlimited budget and manpower and no one to say when - even if you wish sometimes that someone had. As a big-budget action game, then, The Last of Us Part II is almost without peer. As a sequel to that story, it is deeply, daringly, fascinatingly flawed. [Issue#347, p.88]

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]

No other GTA has felt so trim and robust while making good the promise of a living, breathing action world. [May 2009, p.86]

What the game asks of you might be fairly standard shooter stuff, but the act of playing it out with your own hands lends it a fresh magic. That's Alyx in a nutshell: this is a Half-Life game almost to a fault, the old formula polished to a 2020 shine, made new again by the way you manipulate it. The Gloves aren't the new crowbar or Gravity Gun, the defining tool of Half-Life: Alyx. Your own hands are. [Issue#344, p.102]

It's an utterly huge, ambitious game - 100 hours MIGHT do it - but it never feels anything less than lovingly handcrafted, its every component part given the same special attention. Its individual elements, the combat, the writing, would be high points in any other game, but Divinity: Original Sin II has it all. [Dec 2017, p.116]

The improvements are so varied, polished and deep to make any devotee of the game consider upgrading. In fact, its range is extensive enough to make those who turned their nose up at the business-as-usual nature of UT2003 come storming back. [May 2004, p.98]

A beautiful and brilliantly demanding game that barely contains its dense population of ideas. [Sept 2008, p.89]

Its biggest problem is its length, and that its formula can’t quite endure its sequel-dose duration. Whether or not it’s overlong in terms of play hours may be a matter of preference, but it feels slightly stretched during its final third, exposing its shallowness a little in the process. [Apr 2007, p.80]

This is Mario like you’ve never seen him before, and unlike so many of his next-gen rivals, he nips along at an effortless 60fps. If the true measure of new hardware’s worth is how stark the difference is between it and what came before, then this is the most next-gen game that 2013 has yet produced.

Given its lineage, it should hardly be surprising to discover that Blizzard has once again demonstrated such a keen sense of balance: with Wings Of Liberty, it offers established players a welcome return to familiar battlegrounds, while providing intrigued bystanders with their best chance yet of engaging with a bewildering, brilliant and punishing genre.

The central achievement of Minecraft is a willingness to let the player define the experience; to make them the most interesting element in a world that's already dynamic and fascinating. It's a decision that has made designer Markus Persson a millionaire, and it's ensured that the most important PC game of the past five years is also the most timely.

Persona 4 Golden is full of surprises. Perhaps the biggest is that a console JRPG is so well suited to portable play, and that a four-year-old PS2 game is, by some distance, Vita’s best game to date.

The focus on the rebellious, non-conformist side of youth has its drawbacks, but means Persona 5 is something to which its predecessors could never lay claim. It is, simply put, cool. Everything, from the intro movie's disco house to the battle-mode cutaways and even the basic UI, is achingly, confidently stylish. Criminally, the DualShock 4's Share button functionality is blocked for the duration, but this is one of few true blemishes on a game that, while at times a bit too familiar, never comes close to breeding contempt. [May 2017, p.110]

The biggest addition is the inclusion of collectables from each course, which provides a great incentive to exploring in Freeride mode, and brings a touch of Amped's atmosphere to a game that was all about the rush. [Dec 2003, p.106]

Okami doesn’t just successfully follow Zelda’s structural template and tone – a rare feat – it makes it its own, toeing that line with grace, ingenuity and a strongly individual style. That’s not only rare, it’s unique. [Dec 2006, p.78]

It’s a game that rewards the long-haul with deep, inventive missions which eschew the usual fetch and kill structure, ensuring that the many hours spent in Fallout 3’s wasteland aren’t wasted. [Christmas 2008, p.88]

At a time when everyone wants to turn the entertainment world on its head – or at least be seen to – it proves that the entertainment itself, whichever way up it may be, is what matters most. [Christmas 2008, p.86]

No other beat 'em up developer is quite as willing to experiment with the form in a bid to stave off the moribundity that's gradually subsuming the genre. [Import - June 2003, p.88]

Its finest tactical espionage action yet. [Oct 2015, p.104]

How apt that this ultimate tale of hero-making should see Nintendo's hardware become the console it was always meant to be.

It all adds up to what is easily the best and most progressive rhythm-action game ever made, if that label even applies anymore. [Christmas 2010, p.76]

Viewtiful Joe will undoubtedly test your patience. But the moments that stay with you after you switch off the GameCube are characterised by inventiveness, wit, verve, charm style, vigour and, above all, fun. And that's not something that can be said of that many other games these days. [Sept 2003]

We may be in hell, but as far as the Roguelike genre goes, this is a glimpse of heaven. [Issue#350, p.92]

But perhaps the greatest compliment we can pay to Capcom is that the players who don't have the original permanently branded on their memories and their thumbs will merely have to settle for a supremely varied and expertly paced action game - one that doesn't quite supplant, but makes a fascinating companion piece to, one of the greats. [Issue#383, p.96]

Apart from minor graphical tweaks and two fresh characters, VF4E remains much the same game. [May 2003, p.102]

This is still a game with a formula, then, but it has never been better, and there are few areas where it could be improved. [July 2016, p.104]

It's harder than ever to resist embracing the chaos, because with so many ingredients its bound to surprise you more often than not. As its title suggests, this is a sequel that pulls out all the stops, as you sense that Sakurai is going all-out to indulge his inner nerd for maybe the final time. It's a rapturous celebration, not just of Nintendo, but videogames as a whole. Now for pity's sake, let the poor man have a rest. [Jan 2019, p.102]

Punch Quest isn't just good for a free-to-play game. It's good, full stop, infused with humour, depth and the most charming violence imaginable. Unless you're a skeleton knight, in which case the violence is offensive, troubling and needlessly graphic.

It's a third and final chapter, then, with all that implies. It's off-putting to new players, too busy tying up loose ends to dangle any threads of its own, and fails to stand up as its own game in the same manner as its predecessors. But it's also a spectacular, powerfully imagined and dramatically involving final act to one of gaming's richest sci-fi sagas.

Inside may require thought, care and occasionally a sharp sense of timing to progress, but its obstacles never feel unfair. [Issue#296, p.120]

It’s a game designed to exhaust the world’s supply of adjectives. It’s a world littered with riches - tiny details sewn into a vast, varied and utterly spectacular canvas. [Sept 2005, p.90]

No other beat 'em up developer is quite as willing to experiment with the form in a bid to stave off the moribundity that's gradually subsuming the genre. [Import - June 2003, p.88]

If an RPG is measured by the temptation to explore elsewhere before heading to the next objective, this is as great as any. We stall for hours finding and investigating one magical environment after another. It's bliss. [Issue#411, p.100]

The freedom of movement requires a new level of spatial imagination. Before Prince of Persia, platform games were like playing Tetris with only the blocks and bars. [Christmas 2003, p.100]

There are whole essays that could be written about the depth of the tuning mechanics. [December 2018, p.110]

The stuff of legend, then? Indeed. Although, perhaps fittingly, one with nothing new to say. [Apr 2010, p.88]

The freedom of movement requires a new level of spatial imagination. Before Prince of Persia, platform games were like playing Tetris with only the blocks and bars. [Christmas 2003, p.100]

The present console cycle is expected to last nearly a decade, and there will inevitably be developers advocating the need for more sophisticated tools. But just like Machu Picchu, the Pyramids and every other engineering marvel of antiquity, Uncharted 3 will stand as a reminder to future generations of gamers that enough problem-solving imagination can turn any old trowel into a magic wand.

So full and comprehensive is this modernised SquareSoft RPG, in fact, that beyond finishing the story, the trilogy finale may struggle to justify itself. But that's the future's problem, of no concern as we feast on the spread in front of us. In a triple-A climate where development costs spiral and content often replaces craft, the generosity and ambition of Rebirth is a convincing argument that, once in a while, too much is exactly what you want. [Issue#396, p.102]

Minor gripes aside, Rock Band with four players in the same room is quite something to be a part of, a game not only an evolution of the genre but of the social side of gaming itself. [Jan 2008, p.80]

This is the most unforgettable side-scroller Nintendo has put out in three decades. [Issue#391, p.98]

A dazzling work of dank, abject horror that cements Miyazaki as one of the all-time greats. Sixteen months after PS4's launch, the new generation has finally begun. [May 2015, p.112]

Because there's an underlying subtlety and sophistication in the handling - and it's encouraging to see even minor damage and tyre wear affecting lap times - the compulsion to shave fractions off your records is always there. [June 2005, p.89]

This one's for the fast and the curious. Whiplash or no, brace yourself. [Issue#366, p.100]

As paradoxical as the thing itself, this single-storey mansion is a towering achievement. [Issue#410, p.106]

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]

A work of progressive genius that hauls its staid genre up by the bootstraps and takes its place alongside the WOWs and Oblivions of this world. It's altogether too good to be true. [Christmas 2006, p.74]

There's a remarkable consistency to the design even as the levels gets steadily bolder until, after hovering vacuums, teleporters, and levers that freeze time, Simogo throws in a climactic boss battle that is as nerve-wracking as it is joyous. It's a compliment to say that Beat Sneak Bandit feels like a Rhythm Tengoku minigame taken to its logical extreme; it's constructed with a precision and a sense of mischief – and, in its final surprise, a generosity of spirit - that echoes the best work of the WarioWare team.

Threes is uncommonly sweet, though it can feel a little insubstantial.