This is a good expansion, a solid foundation for the next year of updates, and a lousy place for newcomers to start. [Issue#370, p.108]

It’s a thoroughly successful evolution of the twitch shooter, broadening its scope both upwards and outwards as well as expanding its toolset.

Super Hexagon weds zen-like design purity with the highest order of twitch-reflex athleticism. It revels in the ineffable dance of muscle memory, the act of shutting off your brain and trusting your thumbs to guide you improbably to safety.

Whether she’s huddled up against the cold or sending five men to their doom with an explosive arrow, this is still Lara Croft, one of gaming’s most distinctive heroes – and now she has a personality that extends far beyond the bounds of her bra straps. If the purpose of a reboot is to redefine a character and set them up for the future, then this is a job well done.

As always, the perception of good value lies with you, but even without a penny paid this is still one of the most fluid, elegant, and strategically rich online shooters available. It's a beautiful game to play – in the elaborate motion of its tactics as much as its bright, crisp worlds.

Too often, what's on offer feels like a succession of incomplete experiments - the shoulders of giants on which other VR games might build. [Issue#394, p.100]

Silent Hill 2 is the rare game that isn't over after we've finished playing. It's a state of mind, and it waits for us to return. [Issue#404, p.108]

It's a well plotted and paced, if straight-laced, action adventure that takes most of the strengths of the main franchise while removing a few of the weaknesses. [Christmas 2010, p.100]

Affecting and profoundly different, Her Story is a superlatively told work of crime fiction, and one that deserves to shift the conversation around interactive storytelling. [Sept 2015, p.110]

As an open-world game, it might be too light for some, but World earns the suffix in other entertaining ways. [Issue#413, p.106]

Nioh 3 is ultimately less of a leap from its predecessor than Elden Ring was from Dark Souls 3, but that's to be expected from a direct sequel versus the introductory act of a new franchise. [Issue#421, p.96]

The most comprehensive remake Nintendo has ever undertaken. [July 2009, p.94]

Although Suikoden 3 is better than the average Japenese RPG, it's clear that with the move to 3D Konami has tried to freshen the formula. But by watering down the series' bastion gameplay elements it may have alienated all but the fanatics. [Sept 2003]

For an expansion, HOTS is a dense package, adeptly fashioned and hugely enjoyable. But while its core game might be perfection, HOTS itself isn’t.

The most satisfying effort from Ubisoft Montpellier since Rayman Legends. In a rebirth of this calibre, death is a moot point. [Issue#394, p.98]

This is one of the smartest and most substantial thirdperson action games you'll play. [Issue#378, p.100]

Puzzlejuice may ultimately be too hectic and exhausting to stay on the front page of your iDevice forever, but it's the perfect game for an unhealthy binge every few days. Enjoy it as much as you can, and try not to burn yourself out for good.

As clumsy as some elements feel, it's still difficult to vilify KOTOR II. Its strength is in its ability to make you care about your character's fate, and as an RPG package it's as comprehensive as they come. [Feb 2005, p.70]

For tenacious players and those inclined towards the genre, Fallblox could prove an irresistible draw, with clearing its parade of cryptic conundrums a delicious prospect. For others, the game's difficulty, and its visual and thematic linearity, will prove tiresome, their enthusiasm for its self-evident ingenuity petering out before each of its challenges has fallen.

Yotei is another breathtaking vision of Japan, then, which treads open-world paths familiar to Tsushima but explores a more captivating story, with characters you want to spend time with. [Issue#416, p.102]

It's an 'experience' as much as a game, meaning that it will leave as many people cold as it grabs by the right half of the brain. Beyond good, then, but not quite excellent. [Christmas 2003, p.104]

Often, it can be enough for a sequel to deliver more of the same, but in Superstar Saga’s case, when what the first game delivered was such a powerful sense of freshness, more of the same – which Partners In Time certainly delivers – inevitably feels like less. [Feb 2006, p.86]

Its sheer assuredness in mechanics, spectacle and often situation are unlikely to be surpassed for some time.

You need a decent stick (or a god among pads) to facilitate the split-second Just Impacts, Ukemis and sidesteps that consistent victory demands. This, more than the abundant content is the game's defining improvement - one to snap you out of the sleepwalk by which most Namco fighters are conquered in singleplayer. [Christmas 2005, p.103]

Is this the most violent game of all time? Maybe. Its ragdoll physics may not match the flying limbs and broken faces of Soldier of Fortune, but its throwaway approach to life and death is genuinely shocking, leaving a bitter, metallic aftertaste. This is neither a fall nor an ascension. This is an update. [Jan 2004, p.105]

More than once we extract on our knees, the dregs of life draining out as we hit the button. [Issue#418, p.100]

Offering the quiet contemplation of a puzzle mode, the soothing time-wasting of a marathon session, or the frenetic rivalry of multiplayer: this has it all. [July 2007, p.95]

Despite the familiarity, the longer you spend in your scaled-down village, the more you’re soothed into a gentle, constructive daydream which is every bit as charming as in all its other incarnations. [Jan 2005, p.89]