A bitter reminder that pedigree is no guarantee of quality.

It's just too hard, the physics too capricious, and the tasks too frustrating for words. [Aug 2006, p.85]

A fairly standard game in a genre overflowing with quality. [Christmas 2007, p.99]

The game’s sluggishness is all-pervasive, from Williams’ lethargic climb to the pauses between moving from third- to firstperson when you duck underwater... Death By Degrees progresses at such a sedate pace it’s almost relaxing. [March 2005, p.89]

With the exceptions of deplorably bad cutscenes and haphazard signposting, there are few significant flaws here that a steadier gestation couldn't have resolved. [Aug 2006, p.90]

Baffling design decisions and over-reliance on the same tricks further mar this already unpleasant journey.

The most dedicated of slash ‘em up fans may be willing to ride out the disparity between Nano Breaker’s furious highs and comatose lows, but this just doesn’t feel like an experiment made for the player’s benefit – unless it’s one borne out by the next Castlevania. [March 2005, p.91]

Extinction is mindless, soulless stuff, and a huge disappointment from a reputable studio. [June 2018, p.116]

Perhaps EA would have done better to port a previous Wing Commander game in its totality rather than staple the name to a somewhat anaemic effort of an awkwardly inauthentic shape. [Oct 2007, p.99]

Much as it saddens us, given the promise of seeing a 3D Ghost Trick, we pronounce this dead on arrival.

Where Escape From Butcher Bay and Assault On Dark Athena showed how games can complement and expand a film franchise in unique and interesting ways, The Merc Files feels like a rushed, irrelevant addition to David Twohy’s B-movie universe; one that would have been best left on the cutting room floor.

Sadly, encounters with enemy AI - particularly in combat - are by far the weakest link in an otherwise enjoyable effort. [Apr 2005, p.98]

For all its wit and swagger, Truckers is inescapably safety-conscious, rewarding the maintenance of a planned route and steady trajectory while more arresting notions - spontaneous risk, for example - fall from the back like poorly fastened cases of moonshine. [Sept 2005, p.99]

Exploration feels clumsy and laboured, and it’s all too easy to be overwhelmed by a swarm, bumped from wasp to ant and back, stun lock preventing you from firing again as your health bar steadily depletes. We didn’t expect high art, but criminally, Bugs vs. Tanks doesn’t even offer low-budget thrills.

A Witch's Tale is the teacher who says 'look, but don't touch.' [Sept 2009, p.97]

Two Worlds has a lot of content for anyone willing to slog through it, but its buggy failure to take Oblivion’s crown, its troubled development and unfinished feel are testament to ideas beyond its makers’ capabilities. [Nov 2007, p.96]

Soldier of Fortune’s damage model is probably its major selling point and, lamentably, the only thing that makes its combat entertaining. [Feb 2008, p.96]

The tactical elements are actually quite clever – grabbing enemies will bait the police into cowering submission – but it soon transpires that this is the game's one good idea. [Nov 2006, p.87]

The only area in which the game satisfyingly realises the twisted ideas is in mental ailments. [July 2008, p.96]

The calibre of game you might well produce having been shot three times and then stabbed. [Jan 2005, p.91]

Had The Official Game provided a consistent overall challenge, it would have been bearable, if unexciting. But it hasn't, and it isn't. [July 2006, p.88]

Firefights become more surreal than menacing when the worst-case scenario is of your fellow GIs having to catch their breath for a few seconds after being riddled with bullets. [Aug 2004, p.96]

Soldier of Fortune’s damage model is probably its major selling point and, lamentably, the only thing that makes its combat entertaining. [Feb 2008, p.96]

Given the state of Knights Contract, the famously hellish result of Dr Faust's own little deal seems comparatively sweet. [Mar 2011, p.101]

It's in need of plenty more flair, not so much that it strains against what its buttoned-down framework is trying to achieve, but just to inject some feeling of variety into its skirmishes and sorties. [Sept 2006, p.88]

Vane is unfinished, its few ideas undermined by its shoddy foundations. If it really were a painting, you'd get Banksy to frame it. [March 2019, p.108]

In a world where games such as Hades, Slay The Spire and Into The Breach have found ways to elevate the Roguelike to new heights, PixelJunk Raiders sadly fails to make a mark. [Issue#357, p.118]

It's a pity, since there is the kernel of an engaging hack-and-slash here, but its best ideas are squandered, and eventually bludgeoned into submission by the relentless monotony of the action. With a campaign that barely stretches beyond six hours and minimal replay value here, there's only one person being robbed here, and it's not the Sheriff. [Issue#393, p.114]