Coming from the studio behind Wave Trip and Bad Hotel, Gentlemen’s sharp, stylish menus and app icon were always a given, but a conceptual curveball like this was hardly guaranteed to hit its target. That it does so emphatically is convincing proof that this Edinburgh studio is no one-trick pony.

Blood Money feels only slightly closer to the series’ ideal of a gameworld that’s both complex and cogent, and is more accessible and entertaining with it. [July 2006, p.80]

For all its minor shortcomings, if one of the main design goals of The Skywalker Saga was to make you fall in love with Star Wars again, on that particular front it is an unequivocal triumph. [Issue#371, p.110]

A frustrating step backwards for a studio that can do better. [July 2016, p.122]

Those accustomed to the adult world of online PC gaming may have reason to sniff at the more streamlined play, but Pandemic has given consoles a whole new genre, pretty much perfectly formed... No game has ever felt quite so much like playing with Star Wars figures. [Nov 2004, p.102]

This is as good as you'll find on DSiWare at the moment, and it'll likely stay that way until Q-Games comes up with another mini-marvel. [Feb 2010, p.95]

Double Fine’s adventure is confident and charming, the studio feeling its way to a comfortable mid-point between the desires of adventure-game fans and its own motivation to move the genre forward – even if only by a small increment.

For your money, however, this is the best new MMOG since Guild Wars 2 and arguably the most feature complete an MMOG has ever been on launch.

Modest and ingenious and smartly priced, Islanders is as engaging to tinker with as a palate cleanser between bigger games as to take seriously in pursuit of a high score - wonky mansions and all. [Issue#333, p.120]

The most significant addition is Quen marine Seyka, with whom Aloy forms a bond that goes beyond friendship. Yet the two fight more often than they flirt, and the need to either level or stock up between story missions means they don't spend enough time together for the would-be emotional climax to fully land. [Issue#385, p.120]

Resistance Retribution might be shallow, but its good looks and refined controls lend a certain mesmerising pleasure to it nonetheless. [Apr 2009, p.124]

This game's focus is its singleplayer campaign, and it's an involving, dynamic, astonishing-looking 12-15 hour bloodbath. A good, old-fashioned bloodbath. [Dec 2005, p.94]

Umurangi Generation is a game of jagged edged, in many more ways than one. We just with that didn't apply to how it so often feels in the hands. [Issue#361, p.119]

Chaos Theory is the game that the original Splinter Cell was meant to deliver: a tight play experience within a trusty framework, one more of enjoyment than irritation, and a game that's no longer exclusively for fans of repeated reloading. [Apr 2005, p.97]

A scary, vicious, visually progressive if rather hollow next-gen showcase that doesn’t outstay its welcome. If you want to spend a night or two in the company of the future of horror videogaming, you could do a lot worse. [Christmas 2005, p.94]

A revitalisation of the very spirit that made the franchise a success. Finally, it’s time to stop asking where next for the series, and to start savouring where Project 8 has taken it. [Christmas 2006, p.78]

The feeling of achievement and closure as the credits roll on this wonderful, soulful game is every bit as keen as the time we looked out from the summit of Celeste Mountain. [Issue#364, p.120]

Nidhogg is not about lengthy stage lists, improvable online systems, fussy control mapping or AI. Nidhogg is about the purity of two friends on a couch duking it out as Daedelus’s moody dynamic electronica frames acrobatic displays of wits and reflexes. In that sense, it has no equal.

Let all the vision-obscuring dust settle and it transpires that Battlefield 4 is a more conservative sequel than we were led to expect.

The sidequests are among its strongest features, challenging your expectations about how RPGs are structured. [April 2017, p.116]

There's less motivation to persevere in erecting a monument to your skill when there's no one around to see it. [March 2015, p.112]

Though generous with its ideas, Flexile can't quite make them stretch across 60 levels, and while the controls are as good as virtual buttons can be, some challenges are too fiddly to be fun, with a curious fussiness when it comes to triggering your blob's powers. Even so, this is a bright and attractive puzzler that is, thankfully, far smarter than its title would suggest.

If all this wasn't enough, there's also an affecting story going on. [Oct 2016, p.114]

Ultimately what was intended as a thoughtful depiction of a terrible mental illness has ended up casting it as something of an asset: a helpful superpower that can give you the strength to soldier on through the darkness, so long as you can put up with the odd breakdown here and there. That, we suspect, was not what Ninja Theory intended. It's certainly not what we had hoped for. [Issue#310, p.112]

If you're looking for a sparklingly attractive shooter with a side order of slinky physics, this delivers the goods. But it's about as average as FPS gaming gets. [June 2004, p.105]

It may be formulaic, but that formula is still one of invention, surprise and excellence. [Jan 2005, p.87; JPN Import]

GW2 offers an alternative, lighthearted take on a genre that can often feel po-faced. [May 2016, p.118]

If the progress loop is largely untouched, though, Strange Antiquities gradually reveals greater depth and detail, easing you in before piling up possible angles of research. From the start, when you examine an object you can now do so according to different senses - what does it look like, feel like, smell and sound like, and does it inexplicably send shivers down your spine? And if early customer requests only ask you to consider an object's form or constituent materials, later you'll need to pay attention to inscribed symbols, gems and more. Cross-referencing a burgeoning stack of books, notes and maps, you begin to absorb ancient words and ideas. It's fascinating. At times, Bad Viking gives itself an impossible needle to thread with so many nuanced elements in play. A few descriptions feel like misdirection, sending us to the hint system. More often, though, the game maintains its spell. The instinct to organise and label every last item is as compelling as the elegant interface and the story drawing towards a fateful conclusion. It would be strange to refuse the invitation. [Issue#416, p.122]