Tactics lacks what it needs the most, which is the seemingly limitless potential achieved by its predecessor. [Feb 2008, p.94]

Dangerous Driving simply isn't suited to a mode that won't let you crash. Patched out, or left optional, these wouldn't be enough to stop most from happily reliving Burnout's heyday; currently, however, it would be reckless to recommend. [Issue#332, p.118]

What began as a celebration ends with nostalgia’s bubble being cruelly pricked.

Crisis Core gets arguably the most important thing right: its story is often expertly engineered and delivered, and despite the odd misstep (Genesis becomes especially tiresome as the game wears on) is some achievement in itself. [June 2008, p.86]

For all Team Ninja's talk of keeping it more real, DOA5 is mostly business as usual. There are tweaks to the formula and aesthetic, but nothing too sacrilegious or enticing. It's disappointing, then, that this has little to offer over its forebear.

Argonaut's latest platformer is certainly a curious brew. You get the impression that loads of ideas have been thrown into the pot but, unfortunately, none of the weaker ones have been rejected. [Feb 2004, p.101]

Look at it one way, and it's a choking journey with unprecedented attention to unease and psychological horror, a game framed with unparalleled sophistication. From another angle, it's just a clunky PSone throwback, with all the design wit of a dodo. [Aug 2004, p.92]

It's an enjoyably twisted and often satisfying piece of fantasy, then, even though the reality of its more generic aspects poses a serious threat to its achievements. [JPN Import; Oct 2006, p.92]

The concept at the core of Yosumin Live is robust, but it fails to hold up under extended play. Either Square Enix has happened upon a brilliant mechanic that has yet to fully bloom or one that it has been unable to sustain. The scant progression Yosumin has made in its transition from webgame to XBLA release indicates that perhaps it is the latter.

Sadly, the early learning curve is far too shallow, while creative freedom is often illusory, with a single solution to many stages. Rovio does eventually loosen the reins, but the combination of rickety vehicles and unforgiving level design only heightens the frustration.

The game's great strength is the well-judged escalation of pace and scale. From your humble dungarees-and-pistol beginnings, the expansion of your squad means missions intensify from hit-and-run raids to large-scale onslaughts. And it is this, ultimately, which induces a sensation of swaggering brawn that allows the game's hiccups to be forgiven. [Oct 2003, p.99]

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]

Naturally, it isn’t as attractive as its console cousin, though zoom down to eye level during its majestic sunsets and the shanties belted out by your crew make for a reasonable facsimile of the console game.

More broadly, it's let down by how it treats its brutal subject matter, all the way through to a dramatic but glib conclusion. [Issue#401, p.110]

Yet this game lingers somehow when you're not playing. [Issue#332, p.123]

Were it not for its creative direction's admirable job of filling in its patchy mechanics' gaps it would be entirely skippable. With those gaps filled it's a charming, if flawed, achievement. [June 2006, p.96]

The game's second half descends into a fiasco...One thing's for certain: if there's a great action game in Infamous 2, no one's actually built it yet.

Dungeons of Hinterberg is more like those all-inclusive package tours that blend together in a mind-collage of cocktails by the pool and the dine of the breakfast buffet: pleasant enough to pass the time but too safe to leave a lasting mark. [Issue#401, p.112]

Aged environments and models are wheeled out and the interface is surprisingly clunky and obtrusive. There is a solid game here to prop it up, but it's indicative of the no-frills production that even the robotic announcer seems to be phoning in its performance. [May 2004, p.103]

That becomes a bigger problem late in the game, where it resorts to the cheapest method of raising the difficulty by simply throwing high-level enemies at you in increasing numbers. In one battle, you're tasked with holding a position for a given amount of time, before being told that isn't enough; you must now finish off all the remaining enemies. At which point it has become clear that no matter how effective the synergy of our augs, mods and weapons may be, our survival hinges upon us grinding side-quests to raise our level. What a shame The Ascent should make the final steps of its climb so arduous - even if there is evidence here that its maker could yet go all the way to the top. [Issue#362, p.110]

The overriding sensation is that, 18 years of waiting later, this is not the game we had dreamed of... And despite the areas in which it clearly struggles, Shenmue III does ultimately leave us wanting to see how those plot developments are resolved, and to take our virtual tourism to a new frontier. Whether we, and Hazuki, will get that opportunity... we'll see. [Issue#341, p.98]

Resistance Retribution might be shallow, but its good looks and refined controls lend a certain mesmerising pleasure to it nonetheless. [Apr 2009, p.124]

Despite its reheated fantasy trappings and formulaic design principles, it also remains surprisingly easy to get hooked on the steady dopamine hit of each fresh loot acquisition and the rhythm of the game's combat pulse.

It feels best when you're making snap decisions, the action moving along with a satisfying pop, pop, pop rhythm that echoes the films. [Issue#133, p.104]

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]

Something it achieves more successfully is the frustration of sensory impairment. [Oct 2015, p.120]

The illusion of epic-scale warfare remains a powerful and entertaining one, broken most significantly by the player’s need to avoid overexposing themselves to its fundamentally tedious nature. [Feb 2007, p.85]

Area 51 is entirely without inspiration, an exercise in slick, crowd-pleasing cookie-cutter cliché from the Jerry Bruckheimer school of entertainment manufacture. It is absolutely not bad, almost never broken, and usually a good deal of fun. [July 2005, p.92]