As chaotic and unrefined as it is, however, it motors on with a definite sense of purpose and provides a solid sense of fulfilment, if not necessarily one of accomplishment. [Christmas 2005, p.110]

Aptly, Outbreak is an experiment gone wrong; it indicates the possibilities of an online horror title, but also that Resident Evil's traditional structure can't achieve them. [June 2004, p.102]

A more novel addition is a crafting system lets you convert items you find into items and potions, but it functions more like a secondary currency than an alchemical minigame. There’s nothing egregiously wrong with Mini Ninjas, but nor is there a reason to give up on genre highlights like Punch Quest and Jetpack Joyride.

With only the blocky aesthetic and familiar monsters to show for its heritage, whether you're here for the Minecraft or the Dungeons, you'll feel that much more could have been excavated from both. [Issue#347, p.96]

After the interesting and confident debut of The Suffering last year, Ties That Bind remains a straightforward action game, and one with a coherent story that feels well paced, if too full of schlocky cliché for some. But that is, ultimately, all it does: remains. [Dec 2005, p.106]

Why roam freely (when the game lets you, which is by no means always) when all that’s out there to find is an empty trek between jarring episodes of production-line gaming? [Christmas 2005, p.105]

Not sensing the damage you're imparting and receiving makes skirmishes seem arbitrary (you'll rely on the HUD reporting your XP wins to know you've taken out enemies at long range), while explosions - in a game based on destruction - pack no punch. [Mar 2011, p.97]

To put it in gastronomic terms surely familiar to Air Riders' star, we're left with the feeling of having visited an all-you-can-eat buffet. There's an array of options available, but tucking in to any one of them is unlikely to satisfy, because at the game's core is a soggy souffle that collapses almost before we can get the fork in. After two decades in the kitchen, was it too much to hope that this otherwise talented chef might have come up with something a little less...lightweight? [Issue#419, p.110]

Nimble Quest is cute and compelling, but it’s also a cynical complication of a classic design.

As a piece of world-building as assured as this feels like it deserves something more dynamic - something like a BioShock or a Deathloop, with you cast as an agent of chaos in an alien ecosystem. [Issue#378, p.110]

Between a legacy it can't quite shake and a jumble of borrowed mechanics that fit neither the format nor the fantasy, Gotham Knights simply isn't it. [Issue#379, p.114]

Minus the combat, Benedict Fox is Metroidvania reduced to its most basic form, where all that matters are the platforms you can reach and the doors you can open. [Issue#385, p.116]

So why, despite jokes about this not being the golden age of comics any more, does Dispatch feel like a retrograde step? [Issue#419, p.118]

Imagine building one of the most visually arresting games in recent memory, infusing the track design with genuine ingenuity, then having your work cruelly undermined by a learning curve shallower than a hill in Holland. RE is simply not challenging enough. [March 2003, p94]

The Vault is best left to its long and drifting exile. [Issue#388, p.114]

Plenty to sink your teeth into, then, but for a game where you play as a shark, we expected more bite. [Issue#347, p.107]

The game simply folds in extra complications. [Issue#379, p.121]

It's perhaps because the title benefits from such a high production spend … that the average design and execution becomes more pronounced. [Mar 2004, p.101]

This closing chapter of the Dynasty Warriors series is admittedly a neat full stop, an exhausting book-end for the enthusiasts, but it offers exactly the same baby step forwards as every other sequel-cum-update. [Feb 2004, p.108]

In the end, though there is little average about either its elegant successes or its needless failings, between them they leave Lost Magic hanging in the balance. [June 2006, p.97]

Players are in danger of slipping in to a meditative trance from sustained focus on the undulating, serpentine ribbon of dirt that their vehicle consumes. Hypnotic, perhaps, but not especially compelling. [Dec 2008, p.93]

A strangely admirable bore: smart enough to take direct movement out of your hands, but not quite smart enough to find anything suitably enjoyable to replace it with. Never less than earnest, Doom Resurrection ignores the central lesson of much horror fiction: there are certain things you probably shouldn't do, even if you can.

Encounters feel needlessly protracted - born of a stubborn refusal to admit the game’s fundamental lack of content. The layout of scenery predetermines your every gambit before enemies blithely meander into your squad’s unlimited gunfire. [Apr 2005, p.101]

Little Deviants' real problem is simple: it's not moreish, and its challenges fail to reveal the kinds of nuance on the second and third tries that will have you refining strategies and aiming to better scores. Without that incentive to return, you're unlikely to.

Despite the air of brutality Space Marine tries to cultivate, it's ultimately defined by convenience; by linear levels where you follow the green lights of unlocked doors from one corridor to the next, while the gentle trickle of upgrades and new weapons does just enough to keep you playing. The result is sometimes casually enjoyable, but never vivid, or memorable, or truly involving.

When directing death from above, Strike Team offers a glimpse at what might have been, but when it’s time to go loud, the whole thing collapses as limply as the enemies you’ve dropped.

This is a whisper of what the IP has to offer videogames rather than a realisation, and there's no disguise in the universe that can hide that. [Aug 2010, p.94]

FFXIII takes brave risks with the series’ foundations, but they ultimately create trembling fractures throughout the entire edifice, that robust battle system unable to support the weight of an entire world. Final Fantasy games are always an investment. This time, the returns are questionable.