Perhaps the biggest compliment we can pay to Sega is that even if you stripped away the IP and our memories of Musashi's prior missions, we would still have an exquisite action-platform game on our hands. [Issue#415, p.94]

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]

There are small gripes – having to use an undo button rather than pick tiles back off the grid irks in 'standard' scenarios, for instance – but they slowly melt away in the face of such eclectic gameplay. Seating arrangements have rarely felt so intelligent, knowing, or inventive.

In short, the system - mostly magically - works. [Issue#407, p.94]

"Killzone 2" has the technology and spectacle; FEAR 2 has class, direction and a most mischievous sense of humour – and technology and spectacle. [Mar 2009, p.84]

This dazzling, determinedly populist experience was not made according to the standards other games are made by, and when judged – or even just described – by those standards, it might seem slender to the point of frailty. [Christmas 2005, p.101]

Masterfully done, and certainly set to become an instant Wii and PC cult hit. [Dec 2008, p.98]

The perfect candidate for the 100th WiiWare game, LostWinds is on the verge of outgrowing the service it almost single-handedly redeems. [Dec 2009, p.101]

Our so-called "Guardian of the Peace" concludes their journey with a body count nudging six figures. [Issue#407, p.100]

Whatever you conclude about the bigger picture, this is special stuff. The claustrophobic buzz of flies, the distant muezzin drone, the desperation as you crouch uncertain in the dust whilst your men call frantically for orders will lodge in your mind long after you've walked away from the game. [July 2004, p.98]

Open about the toys you can play with in the final stages of research, strategy in Supreme Commander 2 is pure – worked out before the battle begins and maintained as a line under your tactical moves.

The game is sumptuously constructed - its spindly and grotesque sense of caricature is a delight and the lively score is maddeningly hummable. [Apr 2010, p.97]

Bold and distinctive. [March 2014, p.102]

Instantly familiar, and instantly entertaining, Nintendo could hardly have picked a better title for its wi-fi debut. [Christmas 2005, p.106]

Here is a game not only made over decades but one that feels made to be consumed over an equivalent timeframe. To play Caves of Qud is to be aware that you have just one life to give it - and that you might well come up wanting. [Issue#407, p.104]

For the more casual - OK, more sane - player, however, Destiny 2 is almost a triumph. It is a game much better at explaining itself, that wants to be enjoyed and understood, and is happy to reward players for simply being there. [Dec 2017, p.102]

It's the trip that sticks with us, however - a personal passion project, made possible with public arts funding, that reaches, and sings, for the stars. [Issue#407, p.106]

Below Zero excels when it commits to its free-flowing open-world sensibilities. [Issue#360, p.114]

It’s all here: the hoi polloi, the ambience, the weather, the police pressure, and the emergent scenarios that can make you feel special or wretched. It feels familiar, but remains primed for fresh exploration and mischief, reapplying a formula that still feels superior to its imitators’ approaches. [Christmas 2005, p.107]

Fat with content, melodrama and fun, few DS games can match its ambitions. [Apr 2010, p.98]

Prose With Bros is irresistible: the interface is clean and simple, voting is snappy, and the algorithm producing each game's jumble of words delivers perfectly innocent but eminently corruptible English every time.

The purity and quality of Absolver's vision has provided and innovative, constructive take on an often impenetrable genre. [Dec 2017, p.106]

The franchise is now only a fraction away from realising its full potential. [June 2004, p.107]

No matter how well you think you know a language, there's always something new to learn. [Issue#407, p.107]

The expanded range of strategic choice and admirably polished presentation push Grimoire Of The Rift right into the top tier. [Sept 2008, p.93]

How apt that interactivity and fiction should finally merge in a fiction about interactions. The dead are restored, and the genre with them. [Feb 2011, p.103]

Bright and breezy, it offers almost bottomless value, creates a believable and consistent world, offers a real strategic challenge as well as the kind of brainless completism that’s best suited to delayed trains and rainy afternoons, and hides a staggeringly intricate set of mechanics inside an accessible and non-threatening world. [July 2007, p.84]

From the near-pornographic money-shot that occurs during the slo-mo moments of certain vicious attack combos, to the ludicrous events that send the player travelling down a monster's throat, God of War is made from the stuff of legend, to become the stuff of legend.