The biggest narrative crime comes right at the close, where what feels like the approach to the conclusion turns out to be, in fact, the end - a sour taste that's hardly helped by the naked sequel set-up that follows. [May 2018, p.122]

While the streamlined and brisk approach that brushes over some of the minutiae of the previous games might cause some PC fans to baulk, Revolution has concentrated rather than diluted the Civ experience, creating an expression of the concept that's perfectly suited to its platform. [July 2008, p.94]

As a snapshot of a moment in time, there's truth captured within the frame. [Christmas 2015, p.106]

Allow the mood to feel its way into you and the sticky combat and occasional something's-missing-don't-know-what confusion become part of the experience. [June 2003, p.94]

If Pyre never quite feels like a classic sporting struggle, your ragtag band of rebels and their delightful mobile home are a heartwarming upside to life on the Downside. [Issue#310, p.108]

Rare is the game that comes along, one that believes in its hero - in you - so earnestly, and shows us the real value of being brave. [Issue#334, p.116]

There are no 'game over's, only a zen-like cycle until you are enlightened enough to progress beyond it. [Issue#340, p.11]

At its best, Infamous is an amped-up Crackdown - a game about bounding across a cityscape, discharging your enemies however you please. Even if ropey execution impedes its appeal, Infamous still has this essential spark. [June 2009, p.88]

Games have mastered action – the amplified and instant reward – but Papers, Please finds satisfaction in the tedium of bureaucracy, and twins it with genuinely human stories and an underlying, dread-filled tension. It’s rare to play a game about something, about a time, a place and a theme, and for a game to embody those ideas from meaning right down to mechanics.

It's an irresistible way to spend two minutes. [Issue#379, p.122]

BioWare hasn't cast itself as a guerrilla movement trying to subvert the MMOG with The Old Republic. Instead it's been the Empire, working to produce a slick, gigantic experience that, in the time of free-to-play, feels polished enough to demand monthly fees. How long this empire – vast and imposing, but archaic in structure – will last in the face of newer MMOGs and their rebellious payment models isn't easy to discern. This isn't the first of a new order of MMORPG, but it may well be the last of the old.

Skate’s best trick is to make every landing seem like a tiny victory: with physics that at least pay lip service to the realities of gravity and broken bones, simply making it down a flight of steps can be cause for celebration. [Nov 2007, p.92]

If at times its volume of perfunctory unlockables remind you that this is a Ubisoft game, elsewhere Kingdom Battle boasts a generosity of ideas that feels startlingly Nintendo...It's perhaps not quite good enough to bring you to tears, but if Odyssey is to be Mario's best game this year, it has a pretty high bar to clear. Not THERE's something we never imagined writing. [Issue#311, p.100]

Combat is thrilling – each weapon packing a solid, vicious blast; movement suggesting heft and momentum. [Dec 2008, p.80]

As a reinvention it's a resounding success, and there are no pretenders to its comprehensiveness [May 2004, p.107]

Stages are smaller and battles are often less intense but Size Matters makes up for the shortfall in calibre with a visual imagination that, for the first time, makes a Ratchet & Clank games feel like an actual adventure instead of a sequence of shootout-corridors threaded along a necklace of planets. [Apr 2007, p.88]

Bad Company’s multiplayer happily checks off the expectations the series has created. [Aug 2008, p.90]

Stuffed with extra modes, supporting character upload to GC Toadstool Tour and bundled with a wireless adapter, Advance Tour is great value, but it's also rather clumsy and bland. Only in the minigames, when Mario and company show up both in person and in spirit … does it really find a life of its own. [July 2004, p.109]

Treyarch has taken just enough from COD4 to make World At War a broad success, but it remains firmly in its shadow. [Christmas 2008, p.90]

Statik's greatest trick, among many, is to make the DualShock the star of this darkly comic puzzle game. [July 2017, p.118]

Is it better than Flick Kick Football? It lacks the purity of Pik Pok's original, and isn't nearly so charming. But where Flick Kick lapses into formula after you reach a high enough score, Flick Soccer gets even more challenging – and in full flow, it can provide a magical experience.

While this elegant underwater world may be a little too twee for some players, then, there are still plenty of reasons to dip into Bit Blot's inventive genre piece. Aquaria's as personable on the iPad as it was on the PC and Mac, and now you can cross the oceans on your morning commute.

The micromanagement is on a previously unimagined macro scale and yet is accessible and coherent enough to draw you in, making hours of concentrated playtime pass like minutes. [Dec 2003, p.101]

That this is one decidedly average experience and one decidedly great one jammed together becomes clear long before you’re freed to fully enjoy yourself. [Jan 2005, p.86]

Swapping a picture-perfect landscape for New York's urban sprawl could have been disastrous, but Crytek has found variety in the setting, guiding the player through blue-grey skyscrapers, leafy green parks, rooftops at sunset and industrial harbours. [May 2011, p.90]

Though its stellar looks and innately satisfying play (especially in multiplayer) continue to serve aces, World Tour’s rallying skills leave something to be desired. [Oct 2005, p.96]

An incredibly solid universe with barely a technical glitch to be found, but it’s soulless and almost bereft of plot or character. This is a sandbox game that’s begging for a purpose. [March 2005, p.80]

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]