Though 2K Czech's operation doesn't run entirely smoothly, there's a definite spark of potential and the roots of an abandoned attempt to engineer something more than throwaway entertainment. [Oct 2010, p.90]

This is not, as it needed to be, the Pro Evo of mixed martial arts. [Dec 2010, p.94]

Perhaps, in this fastest of genres, it’s simply six months too late...in a race with "Forza Motorsport 2," "PGR4," "Dirt" and even the likes of "MotoGP '07," there’s the unmistakeable feel that Sega Rally’s been superseded before it leaves the grid. [Nov 2007, p.89]

It is, of course, more of the same, but the concept is as compulsive as ever. [Jan 2004, p.107]

There's a certain amount of wit and flair evident throughout Hoodlum Havoc's cut-scenes, and there are certainly some very slick production values. The problem is that, in terms of raw enjoyment, the game is somehow underwhelming. [May 2003, p.104]

Super Monkey Ball had the sad fate of being born perfect, which means that, ever since that GameCube launch title, the series has been competing with memory. Not even a spin dash will get you past that. [Issue#400, p.120]

Once guns are acquired you feel less helpless, but the combat is awkward with enemies reacting poorly to hits and a compulsory manual reload that is ponderous beyond belief. In trying to make the game realistic, Headfirst has grievously shot itself in the foot. [Dec 2005, p.112]

The bunker thus feels genuinely coherent as a place, and alongside a vividly oppressive monster, that's enough to ensure this latest bout of Amnesia is one we won't easily forget. [Issue#386, p.114]

There's a great 20-hour romp to be had in Brothership, but you may have to give it a bit of a wiggle to find it. [Issue#405, p.110]

ArmA 2 isn’t just dogmatic and unforgiving – it’s also very awkward in its construction and the weight of its ambition frequently proves too much for the sometimes-brilliant main campaign to pull off. Nonetheless, its vast, detailed world and unapologetic dynamism turn the game from sandbox to snowglobe – something you can’t resist shaking up just to see how it looks.

Mechanically, it's fantastic. Structurally, it's a mess and a missed opportunity, designed in direct contradiction to its developer's stated ambition. [April 2016, p.98]

The title is just painfully apt: never has a free-roaming structure brought so little to improve the quality of a game's world. The mooted open-ended environments of Tony Hawk's American Wasteland feel like a fallacy, a bleak repackaging for hocking the game to a jaded audience. [Dec 2005, p.107]

This isn't a deep game by any means, but it's colourful, noisy, and approaches iOS's limitations with cunning.

In the end, we're rather glad we stuck our beaks in. [Issue#351, p.102]

One of the year's finest grid-based strategy games, a steely and engrossing work of calculation. [Issue#349, p.102]

Far more polished than its ragged forebear. [Aug 2009, p.100]

The locales in Life is Strange feel much less like rigidly framed theatrical scenes and more like real places. [March 2015, p.102]

What it lacks in personality it makes up for in solid mechanics and slick execution, and should do any tactical fanatic proud. [July 2006, p.90]

This is melee done right, set in an astonishing world, brimming with imagination. [July 2009, p.101]

For such a costly flagship title to provide neither the promised statement of mainstream grown-up appeal nor even polished, lesser disposable thrills is a landmark failure. [May 2006, p.92]

QuBit is only held back by itself: as a linear drive-into-things score attack game, it's a great one. But it never quite unfolds in the way that the very greatest do – a Space Giraffe or Geometry Wars – to reveal layer after layer of variation.

Another slight VR release that serves as an excellent proof of concept but disappoints by not following through. [Feb 2017, p.120]

It's this beautiful mess of strategic genius and personality defects that elevates Wild Bastards to the pantheon of truly great hybrid roguelikes, managing to do for the FPS what Spelunky did for platforming, and Slay The Spire for deckbuilders. [Issue#403, p.116]

Humankind isn't lacking in competence. This is a decent historical strategy with some of the best city building outside of dedicated games such as Cities: Skylines. But it would benefit from greater confidence in its central ideas; rather than seeking to ape Civilization, it could be more inventive. [Issue#363, p.110]

The result is competent and complex, but not convincing enough to raise any significant emotion other than impatience. It feels like a clockwork approximation of football, lacking the grace, variety and scope of FIFA.

For all Raven's efforts with temporal gimmicks, this is a game which is stuck in the FPS past – but, perversely, in its gun-metal and gore, in its most archaic respects, Raven proves it can just about stand the test of time.

Heaven knows we've played thousands of forgettable videogame stories over the years, so perhaps the best tribute we can pay to the departed developer is this: EDGE will remember it. [Issue#332, p.116]

As a whole, it just doesn't hang together as seamlessly as we'd hoped. [Issue#139, p.112]