Few focused action-adventure games spin a yarn as well as CD Projekt does here, likely keeping you uncertain about your choices to the end. [Issue#390, p.120]

It is a breath of fresh air to play a game that doesn't merely use its science-fiction setting as attractive window dressing, its outstanding writing and voice acting more than compensating for its visual shortcomings. [Issue#399, p.116]

Essential. [June 2015, p.114]

Resistance 2 is every bit the product of Resistance: Fall Of Man’s mentality: it’s OK to do things by the numbers so long as those numbers are bigger than everyone else’s. [Christmas 2008, p.91]

If it is slight, then Flower compensates by being a very rare experience, both in terms of subject matter and the visual splendour with which it has been executed. [Mar 2009, p.94]

Europa Universalis IV is the game you graduate to when you’re tired of Civilization. That’s ultimately also why all those numbers are there, beneath the surface: because you never graduate away from Europa Universalis IV. It drops you in the deep end before you’re ready, but if you can swim back towards the shallows during those first five hours, you’ll unlock a game so rich, it’ll be helping you tell stories for years.

A great marriage of presentation and design, spun with ravishing verve.

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]

Familiarity is both the worst and best thing about Pikmin 3. Twelve years after the original and nine after the sequel, little has changed – but little really needed to. It may not sell systems on its own, but it’s a fine addition to a sparse software library that brings one of Nintendo’s most vibrantly characterful series into the HD era and, critically, makes convincing use of the GamePad.

This is a game about stories that has a knack of producing really good ones - when you're doing well, and especially when you're doing badly. [March 2019, p.120]

One of the most memorable JRPGs in recent years. [Issue#364, p.114]

Settling into Hi-Fi Rush's groove might require a recalibration - in your head, if not the latency settings - and the rewards are more intermittent than we'd like, but when they come, they're considerably greater than the occasional cheer from a non-existent audience. [Issue#382, p.98]

With a superior control system and a raft of incisive upgrades, this year's update is a connoisseur of the boxing arts. [Apr 2005, p.103]

It’s a game that leads by example, never keeping still while making sure you do likewise, and is every bit as essential now as it was 12 months ago.

Despite the odd misstep, Infinity Field is a great dual-stick shooter that moves into essential territory with its controls.

In the original, full-sized LBP, creating more than a few seconds of playable level was a significant and time-consuming effort. Here, with slightly reduced options and at a near microscopic scale, it's much, much harder. [Jan 2010, p.93]

Often we're reminded of one of the oldest, simplest examples of Halo's sandbox: what happens when one grenade is applied to an unexploded stack of its peers. A cascade of possibilities, all these tiny moments of pleasure bouncing off of one another in a way that could never be fully scripted in advance. [Issue#367, p.98]

Shooter feels accomplished and robust, a rounded and consistently enjoyable achievement. [Jan 2010, p.94]

Arise has embedded itself deep in our skull. [Issue#418, p.110]

When the game eventually gets going, it's almost as much fun as it's predecessor. It's just that it takes several hours to kick off. Dark Cloud 2 still has merit, but it's simply not as enjoyable as the first game. [May 2003, p.95]

It's disappointing that basic irritants are still evident in the singleplayer game. But it's the online version - which takes the hunter/hunted metaphor to chilling extremes - which ends up being one of the most nerve-racking gaming experiences of all time. [Apr 2004, p.98]

Were it not for the rich, recognisable and beloved settings that fall over themselves to get to the player, this would be a desperately bland game. But the power of those settings simply cannot be brushed aside. [June 2006, p.88]

The puzzles themselves can feel gimmicky and detached, as though inclusion was more important than integration. [Dec 2009, p.92]

It may not re-invent the wheel, but MotoGP2 is a shiny new alloy among racing games, and builds upon the series' excellent reputation. And that should be enough to stir up Xbox live all over again. [June 2003, p.100]

If you want to know what unites all players, though, it's the sheer glory of the wide-open world that is brought into being here. [Issue#408, p.114]

Games with distinct souls are rare things, but Persona 3 succeeds in displaying a mesmerising personality that touches the many well-crafted aspects of its curious and singular approach. [Nov 2007, p.94]

But that's what Arco does, playing on your sense of riding into the unknown, taking risks that might kill for the sake of curiosity. [Issue#401, p.120]

Irrespective of talent, taste, spare time or even online connectivity, it has something for anyone with even a tingle in their trigger finger. [Jan 2008, p.78]