Structurally, the game is a waking nightmare. The hub world is vast and unnecessarily confusing, and it is possible to become trapped in levels if you can't figure out where to go next. [Mar 2004, p.108]

It looks great, and the boosting system means that, as a time-trial game, it's fantastic. If your progress wasn't so easily sabotaged by a thoughtless collision, it would be a fantastic racer, too. [June 2004, p.104]

Acclaim's latest manages to tick all the required futuristic race sim boxes, except the one titled 'memorable'. There's one really good thing about XGRA - it's all over very quickly. [Nov 2003, p.109]

Singleplayer is weak - despite well-worked tutorial and mission modes it always feels like target practice for combat with friends - and the lack of online support disappoints. But despite a potentially hazardous dimensional switch, it remains as appealing a way of antagonising your friends as ever. [Dec 2003, p.108]

Every one of its features you will find in better games elsewhere - with a strong emphasis on the plural, since Rune Factory 5 tries to cram in so many different genres. [Issue#371, p.116]

Residents themselves are a colourless bunch, a series of knowing archetypes – goth girls, hip DJs, Italian chefs – that lack the effortless charm of Animal Crossing’s simple ciphers. [Dec 2007, p.97]

The game could do with a more flexible camera. When the tentacle outgrows the screen in Snake you find yourself failing for collisions you can't even see. [Aug 2010, p.98]

A simple, finely tuned and comprehensive shooter that only rarely wobbles. [Sept 2009, p.100]

Eventually you come to feel less like you're changing the world so much as being given a half-finished jigsaw: there's a certain pleasure to slotting in the missing pieces, but completing the job can be a laborious process. [March 2018, p.114]

There's not doubt that chasing the 'Ippon Master' bonus is where the most fun is to be had. [Issue#348, p.98]

A remake that's peculiarly of its time: a western-style, casual gaming aping of the Japanese shoot 'em up that's less homage than banal dilution, and the game sucks the life and vibrancy from its rich lineage. [July 2008, p.99]

Despite the simplicity of the puzzles, it's an unnecessarily bewildering game for the first hour or so. There's an RPG's worth of menus, full of abilities and stats you just don't need to know about yet. [Mar 2004, p.109]

Sure, Three Fields might not have the resources its founders once did, but it feels as if the studio was in rather too much of a hurry to get this one out the door. [Issue#323, p.122]

Taken in isolation, there’s no denying Cold Fear’s panache - RenderWare has rarely been used to such strong visual effect - and there is a fair helping of survival horror entertainment to be had here, it’s just that you have to dig through several layers of frustration to get at it. [Apr 2005, p.96]

The experience certainly isn’t awful, but nor is it in any way exceptional – and up against the accomplished competition, that simply won’t be good enough. [June 2007, p.93]

As far as plot-twist clichés go, Downpour trots out all of the usual suspects.

For all Zoo Tycoon’s charms, it’s ultimately too shallow; there’s only so much cooing at identikit baby animals you can do before the inevitable fatigue sets in.

As much as Firmament highlights the skills and importance of industrial labourers, then, it also brings with it some of the tedium of the real work - which surely wasn't part of the blueprint. [Issue#386, p.118]

Attempts to bring the fun back into Henry's life make for a more engaging third act, even as they inadvertently underline that they (and we) are largely going through the motions. By the treacly finale, we're more saddened by the unfulfilled promise of the start. Lululu's insistence on Saying Something over exploring the potential of its central mechanic proves, well, unbecoming; Henry Halfhead is at its best when possession is nine-tenths of the lore. [Issue#416, p.121]

EDF was never about careful aiming or strategic cover or any of the other things that drive modern shooters, though – it’s about superior firepower earned through RPG grind, but 2025 has made the happy grind gruelling.

Playing it instils a completely neutral response, as though it were no more than a means of absorbing time. [Jan 2008, p.91]

You can call it feature creep or over-ambition, but it's the surfeit of content that almost buries the game's achievements. [June 2010, p.100]

It's the curse of "better with friends" - if any member of your own personal brigade loses interest, it could quickly end up a dusty relic. [Nov 2018, p.118]

Disarray is perhaps the best way to sum up Battleborn. [July 2016, p.108]

Brink is not revolution. It might not even be evolution of the kind the FPS needs. If anything, it's an ideas board: a fun enough game in the short-term, but more valuable in the long run to better and brighter thieves.

Though the game’s confidence falters, its storytelling never does, building a new myth with the kind of passion and resonance expected from an eastern retelling of an old one, and enriching the entire sweep of its universe. [June 2005, p.84]

As much as The Chant contains a solid action adventure, then, it could do with more suitable clothing. [Issue#379, p.116]

Most egregious of all is that Deracine too often turns into a tedious game of hunt the sparkle, as you grope awkwardly around bodies to find the twinkle that triggers conversation audio. [Jan 2019, p.118]