It remains disarmingly single-minded throughout, yet any repetition is offset by intuitive, precise controls, and satisfying audiovisual feedback.

With no real sense of connection with your monsters, or of engagement with the clumsily delivered plot, there is little here to help the game overcome its tendency towards charmless, chore-based repetition. [Jan 2004, p.106]

As a place, Los Angeles simply isn't as much fun as Liberty or Vice. Too much of this silicon LA exists simply because the designers wanted to show that it could be done rather than because it serves any gameplay purpose. [Christmas 2003, p.107]

Fantasia is a novel twist on the music name, then, but one lacking the sprinkling of Disney magic its title promises. [Christmas 2014, p.122]

Few other titles’ enemies have the power to flood you with real horror as they scramble and skitter towards you. [Christmas 2007, p.98]

The action is so fast, and the time to kill so low, that anyone outside of the hardcore COD audience is in for a rough ride. [Jan 2017, p.110]

It’s a brave game that dares to weaken players in one way as it empowers them in another. Comcept may be wrong in thinking Monster Hunter would be better if it was just about hunting monsters, but Soul Sacrifice is courageous and thematically bold enough to distinguish itself from the clones that have followed in the wake of Capcom’s phenomenon. As with Inafune’s recurring criticisms of Japan, however, it proves repetition isn’t always the best way to make a point.

Among this "grab-bag of myths and masks" are moments of genuine intrigue, but its vague storytelling lacks the specificities that would make it universal. [Issue#361, p.121]

Redacted makes no apology, yet somehow escapes from the shadow of its inspiration. [Issue#404, p.116]

Need For Speed seems like it would benefit from choosing a priority to stick to: be either a rowdy pursuit rampage or a lustrous street racer unbothered by traffic or law enforcement, as mixing both can leave it feeling much less than the sum of its generously many parts. [Christmas 2006, p.89]

Ironically, it’s people who haven’t played Champions rather than veterans who could find the most to like, given that it’s a year’s worth of tweaks and polish on that game’s largely positive foundation. [Apr 2005, p.105]

We suspect Chimera Squad might not be to the taste of genre purists, having sacrificed perhaps a little too much of the player's control over strategic outcomes in favour of reactive encounters. In some ways, it's XCOM for those who prefer action games - a hybrid that isn't afraid to ruffle some feathers, even if the resulting beast loses a little of its identity. [Issue#346, p.94]

Has enough in that expertly-pitched control system to keep you replaying the same courses over and over, relaxing into a groove before smashing through the score barrier on one perfect run. It's an iPhone game you'll come back to for the controls alone – and that's not something you can't say every day.

For players to get more out of this world, Crimson Desert requires a greater sense of purpose - a reason to remain invested in persevering through its most testing moments, to press on for hours in the faith that it will attain some kind of shape. [Issue#423, p.98]

Crisp of cut-scene, blessed with a refreshingly light touch and low-key compared to the po-faced chest-beating of its peers, Second Sight could well be a high water mark in storytelling through games (as opposed to storytelling around them). [Oct 2004, p.104]

The result is a game that may not leave you full, but it'll taste pretty sweet while it lasts.

If its unpredictability is a double-edged sword, though, we can imagine ourselves returning to this as we would a beloved horror novel or film, albeit one whose macabre myths are capable of wrongfooting us even on the umpteenth revisit. [Issue#391, p.120]

Its ideas are streamlined, its tight boundaries narrowing what could have been an overwhelming proposition, plunging players all the sooner into compelling strategic depths. [Christmas 2008, p.99]

Platforming feels more involved than in "Stray," though clipping issues and an inconsistent camera can lead to frustrating falls. [Issue#399, p.122]

Much like the humble jigsaw, it's never less than a pleasant distraction. [Issue#404, p.123]

Like poking a dream-plagued bear, not everything here is a sensible idea, but at least there's always a chance something interesting will happen. [Issue#408, p.104]

The breasts get in the way. Dragon’s Crown’s 30GG bosoms have made any discussion of the game impossible without first acknowledging that, yes, those things are preposterous. While art director George Kamitani’s assertion that he exaggerates male characters’ masculine characteristics to the same extent holds water, the saucy fairy and spread-legged female monk don’t help combat the suggestion that Dragon’s Crown is wantonly objectifying women.

Metro is at its best deep underground, away from the demands of a modern action game and engrossed in the cultures that cling to its tunnels, the atmosphere boosted by subtitled Russian and the writing and voice-acting creating fascinating windows into a struggling world. [May 2010, p.99]

It’s hard to find reasons not to point to Exit as a prime piece of PSP gaming. It’s rich colours and bold stylings bring out the best in the machine’s screen; the short, compelling levels are perfect for playing in bite-sized chunks, and wi-fi connectivity means new levels – of which Taito has already made a good few available - will sustain your enthusiasm longterm. [Fe 2006, p.90]

Had the level design have been a touch more ingenious, and the creatures exhibited more guile, this could have been memorable. [June 2004, p.106]

FFXI may not technically be the future of MMORPGs, as there’s no ignoring its derivative nature. However, it has cleverly assimilated all the elements that make the genre so popular and married them with international brand popularity well beyond the reach of other, more ghettoised MMORPGs. [Dec 2005, p110]

You won't even break a sweat before you get to the Silver Cup in the Expert class, and F-Zero stalwarts will feel patronised by the ease with which this short-lived Tournament mode can be completed. [Feb 2004, p.110]

For all its polish, Reflect Missile has managed to retain the loose energy of a quirky prototype: a 500 Nintendo Point exercise in pure mechanics that is lithe – and slight – enough to suggest that a talented designer may have knocked the whole thing up over an inspired series of lunch breaks.