A limited, but well-honed, experience. There's craft evident everywhere, from the stylised environments and the vibrant characterisation to the well-rounded storyline. A beautiful, enchanting and unusual game. [March 2003, p.90]

There's also the beauty of Uncharted's exotic locales, which act as a great showcase for Vita's astonishing display. And even if Golden Abyss starred a power-armoured space marine fighting his way across the cardboard-box planet, it would still be a robust thirdperson shooter, the likes of which we've simply never seen on a handheld. The core Uncharted experience is still here, in other words. It's stripped a little bare, but it's just about enough.

Spider-Man 2 presents players with a city ripe for action and exploration, but once you swing down out of the clouds and take a closer look at the grubby streets and roads strewn with vehicles, you'll find little to pique your interest. [Sept 2004, p.100]

Twelve-year-old fights feel brand new because of the inclusion of Yakuza 0's switchable combat styles. [Issue#311, p.110]

It’s too fantastical, its violence occurring anywhere and everywhere to ever-decreasing effect. [Apr 2008, p.88]

This isn’t Far Cry 3 at its best mechanically, but it’s definitely the game at its most charismatic. Because as a bunch of well-worn VHS tapes at Ubisoft Montreal undoubtedly prove, the ’80s knew how to do personality.

Despite the big budget, SIE London Studio has approached Blood & Truth with a modest ambition: to make you feel special, and strong, and more than a little silly, in a love letter to the city it calls home. It has done so with a flourish. [Issue#334, p.118]

This is another ugly blunder. Pacific Assault demonstrates that bewildering battle scenes are no equal for clever level design and attention to detail. [Christmas 2004, p.92]

The price of this intricacy is that Gwent is anything but accessible... It feels both remarkably grown-up, and finely aged by its years of open development. [Jan 2019, p.120]

This is a cautionary tale of what happens when our human need for answers overrides common sense - and its disturbing finale drives that home with commendably blunt force. [Issue#377, p.120]

Lego TLOTR is, despite its many flaws, still broadly enjoyable. It has charm, it has its moments and the series holds an undeniable attraction for kids both actual and inner. It's a Lego game, in other words. But it's bloated, too, full of half-formed, shoddily executed ideas and frustrating glitches.

Sports Resort is controlling, and even solemn, about just how much fun you should be having with it. And that’s a development that should chill every Wii owner to the bone.

Outlast’s combination of stealth, platforming and horror is exceptional, the benefits of the diverse experience of its highly talented development team always in plain sight.

From Dust's not magnificent because of its breezy intricacy and rugged grasp of geology. It's magnificent because it's designed with a playful deity in mind. It's built for a god who knows that to succeed is human, 
but to err – and to be creatively led astray time after time – is truly divine.

This is without doubt the most comprehensive entry in Nippon Ichi's once-trailblazing series, packaging its accumulated ideas alongside a clutch of innovations of its own. And yet repetition has dulled the appeal, with the complexities acting as a tall barrier to newcomers while the innovations are simultaneously too meagre to sate any but the most eager devotee.

Guardians keeps you strapped in for the ride, and while it does dip once too often, the emotional highs outweigh the patience-testing lows. [Issue#366, p.108]

The whole thing is just so gleefully off its head that you can forgive its little missteps. [Aug 2016, p.114]

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]

It's telling that, as our getaway car peels away to safety with ten seconds remaining, our first instinct is to try again. [Issue#372, p.110]

So well integrated is the card collection/reward mechanic that the traditional RPG exploration elements slip easily between the staccato rhythm of the battles. For this reason, the game takes on an invigorating freshness that overrides most of its generic frustrations. [Jan 2005, p.93]

Through design or serendipity, maybe the best thing to do after finishing Wanderstop is make yourself a cup of tea, take a seat, and mull it over for a while. [Issue#409, p.118]

Solo players are likely to be left wondering what happened over all those years. [Issue#403, p.112]

The details of each individual victory may fade with time, but you’ll never forget the fractal patchwork rippling beneath you, or the stormy static of the clouds that clash overhead.

It's derivative, gratuitous and needlessly profane, but beneath the gruesome veneer lies a tale of – believe it or not – genuine tenderness.

It offers one of the most beautiful worlds ever created on a console, heavy with atmosphere and wonder, laden with the treasures of the Final Fantasy heritage. However, it asks too much expense and hassle and it inflicts too many setbacks, frustrations and restrictions to come close to being a fair exchange.

To focus on what's missing would be to overlook the joys that remain. [Issue#340, p.106]

Modern Warfare is precariously balanced. On a straightforward level, its multiplayer is admirable in its reform and a touch undercooked in its execution, while the inventiveness in its six hours of campaign remind players why this became such a juggernaut name in the industry. But underneath that, there's an unease about the way Modern Warfare pushes the player's buttons without demonstrating respect for or responsibility to its source material. [Issue#340, p.110]

Frontier's ambition reaches considerably beyond what's in the current build. [March 2015, p.98]