For a while, Arca's Path promises to be a new kind of VR game, but in the end its problems are all too familiar. [Jan 2019, p.121]

Away from the restrictions enforced by the licence the game improves. Free Roam gives you unlimited access to the excellently designed LA streets and rooftops, while Stunt Mode also takes greater advantage of the exquisite physics engine. But why are there no added incentives such as stunt scoring or accumulators? A missed opportunity. [Oct 2003, p.101]

It's not lazy and unworkable, then, merely pleasant, compromised, and irrelevant. [Mar 2010, p.98]

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]

Infuriatingly, Dissidia NT's focus on 3V3, its limited modes and lack of beginner-friendly packaging means that, as the online well of competition runs dry, we're repeatedly matched with a single opponent with the remaining four slots filled by incompetent AI. [Apr 2018, p.116]

Rarely does dying feel like the player's fault and, in typical "Sonic Adventure" fashion, the best bits are when you find that the majority of control has been taken away from you, and you're flung around the world at escape velocity. [Mar 2004, p.105]

For all its foibles, Raven's brand of brazen, aimless carnage is a gruesome thrill with just enough dynamism in each battle to keep its anachronistic heart beating. [Oct 2009, p.88]

Little Nightmares III is partially redeemed by its final third, as it picks up considerably both in terms of imagination and construction. [Issue#417, p.108]

On a console where tried and tested ideas continue to dominate, it would be wrong to entirely dismiss an experiment like this, even if the result is only fleetingly worthwhile.

Your main objective is the bane of the modern FPS: follow a little blue arrow while shooting things, with the odd escort or protect responsibility thrown in to make you turn around occasionally. It's average justice dished out to the licence, but nothing more. [Christmas 2003, p.121]

There's a certain amount of wit and flair evident throughout Hoodlum Havoc's cut-scenes, and there are certainly some very slick production values. The problem is that, in terms of raw enjoyment, the game is somehow underwhelming. [May 2003, p.104]

Crytek's landed on the App Store, then, but it's only half of the company: the wrong half.

The Full Metal Furies experience is as patchy in the hands as its attempts at humour. [Apr 2018, p.118]

Nobody, nobody at all, walks into a game shop and thinks: "Hey, goblins are pretty cool. Today I want to be a goblin." When the goblins in question have been rendered with almost no character or charm, this merely compounds the lack of emotional connection. [Mar 2004, p.106]

On retreading the levels enemy attacks become predictable puppet shows, with mad-eyed soldiers lining up to get killed exactly where they did many times before. It's the kind of repetition more commonly associated with lightgun games these days. [Christmas 2003, p.109]

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]

In miring the action in a crayon-written plot and applying the brakes to anything going too fast, the screaming thrills it does provide are the exception, not the norm. [Oct 2010, p.97]

Miyazaki, Sakamoto and Igarashi, you suspect, would be resolutely unimpressed. [Apr 2018, p.122]

Gesture recognition is loose and forgiving, and it makes no attempt to suggest Kinect's genuinely interpreting every movement. Instead, each manoeuvre feels like the empty-handed equivalent of pushing a button – albeit a button that tends to idle a little before it triggers anything.

TV Show King’s key problem is that each round is identical: answering five questions for points. [Aug 2008, p.101]

Despite [North's] efforts, a couple of big laughs (the world's slowest lift; Drax's sincere literalism) and at least one genuine surprise, you're left with a gnawing sensation that Telltale's formula is becoming as creaky as its engine. And that's a feeling on which you're unlikely to get hooked. [July 2017, p.120]

A bigger problem still is the absence of a motivation to work with other players. Objectives are usually thinly disguised fetch quests or encounters where you must defend a character, usually Cass, against waves of enemies.

The Callisto Protocol's biggest misfire as a story is in failing to establish a similar rapport between player-character and world. Whatever concluding themes the plot may reach for, Lee is ultimately just a tourist here, clubbing and blasting his way through an edifice that only ever exists as an escape route. [Issue#380, p.104]

Ghosthunter is from the same studio that brought us "Primal," and it shows. With so many adventure games on the market, this is an interesting, but ultimately staid example. Like "Primal," Ghosthunter struggles to be fun. [Jan 2004, p.101]

Knack II improves on its predecessor in just about every department, which is to say it is merely flawed, rather than deeply so. Yet for all its foibles and frustrations, it's all pleasant enough. [Issue#311, p.112]

Once you let go (or are forced to), it all seems a little empty, like perhaps the only thing compelling you onward was the hypnotic effect of watching something go round and round. It doesn't take too many repeats before the theming rubs away, leaving only the exposed machine beneath. How much do we need to feel like we're on an adventure? A little more than this, it turns out. [Issue#357, p.120]

The flash and gore are toned down, and the henchmen never get any smarter, but that bond with the protagonist – and that investment in his salvation – make the whole game worthwhile. [Apr 2009, p.117]

The pace slows to exasperating levels as your nimble hunter trots around awkwardly solving a range of challenges. [Issue#353, p.114]