Haunted Hollow’s charismatically ghoulish visuals can, at times, make for a cluttered board, and its decision to hide certain units and items behind micro-transactions grants those who pay more tactical breadth. Accept this last point in particular and there’s fun to be had with Haunted Hollow, but Firaxis’ creepy monsters can’t quite compete with its extra-terrestrial threats.

It's simple, enjoyable, and in wisely steering clear of trying anything grand or complex, is an enjoyable if self-contained success. [May 2010, p.97]

Annoyances aside, there's a sense of pluck to Titanic Scion which may well power you through its most threadbare moments and its nagging UI quirks. [Issue#416, p.118]

This is a pizza-and-a-six-pack kind of game: sit back, crack open a cold one and get ready to grin your way through the most gleefully stupid 20-odd-hours you'll spend in front of a screen all year. [Christmas 2018, p.116]

Fussy collision detection and what can only be deliberate slowdown are perhaps nods too far to the 48k era, yet the developer's ageing tools have sculpted something that feels surprisingly new. Not bad for what looks like the oldest game on Vita.

It's a loud, mindless end to a game that features many stunningly crafted elements but rarely puts them to memorable use - a letdown after RE7 rescued the series from the convolutions of Resident Evil 6. [Issue#359, p.102]

Crysis 3 has neither direction nor freedom, though it does have human weapons, alien weapons, a cloaking device, an Armour mode, and a bow. And with this many options at your disposal, Crysis 3 insists, surely you must be having fun.

There’s certainly something to be said for such a calming, stress-free adventure – a game that goes out of its way to provide a holiday as much as it does entertainment. [Mar 2006, p.95]

Ignorance of Pyro's past glories is actually an advantage with Commandos 3 since it means the tension and atmosphere that the series still has in abundance can be enjoyed without the nagging feeling that things aren't what they used to be. Inspiration and aspirations appear to be in short supply in the Commandos camp.

Watching your carefully directed army walk into each other and painfully slowly correct themselves by walking one square left, two squares up, one square right, while an army approaches is frustrating to say the least. [Oct 2007, p.97]

Siege can feel cool and inhospitable, but when the conditions are right and you're playing with friends, the game's tense gameplay and measured pacing makes for a refreshing, cerebral contrast to the run-and-gun hyperactivity of most online shooters. [Feb 2016, p.104]

It’s accomplished and inventive, but there’s not enough to quicken the pulse, and you feel relief, rather than satisfaction, when the trickier challenges are conquered. The constant metallic clanks are the sound of a game whose nuts and bolts are fully functional, but this tin man of a game is missing its heart.

Feisty and unapologetic, it’s a game that's happy to break the resolve of those who fail to accept its rules: play casual and compete at leisure. [June 2006, p.91]

The portability that saw the game through its tour of every major format during the '90s has finally failed the test of time, and it's the trawl of the cursor between one lemming and the next that does this interpretation the most damage. [Mar 2006, p.92]

Attempts to bring the fun back into Henry's life make for a more engaging third act, even as they inadvertently underline that they (and we) are largely going through the motions. By the treacly finale, we're more saddened by the unfulfilled promise of the start. Lululu's insistence on Saying Something over exploring the potential of its central mechanic proves, well, unbecoming; Henry Halfhead is at its best when possession is nine-tenths of the lore. [Issue#416, p.121]

Overall the greatest disappointments is the lack of any sense of exploration or accoplishment. And although the mansion is packed with wonders, there's no feeling of discovery since the game manoeuvres you neatly from one room to the next. It adds up to a world in which you never feel truly connected. [Christmas 2003, p.111]

Judged purely on its battle system, Grandia III is the best RPG on PS2...But battles are only part of the RPG experience, and elsewhere the game struggles. [May 2006, p.93]

Anarchy Reigns sits awkwardly, then: its balanced multiplayer mode means a fixed moveset and an unremarkable singleplayer campaign, while the high online player count means matches too often descend into scrappy pileups. Neither its on- or offline offerings are essential, but Platinum has shown that an online brawler can work. It's rough around the edges, sure, but it's a proof of concept to build on.

It's when the game is at its most GTA-like that it comes alive, conjuring up scenarios that take in whole city boroughs and throwing at you groups of adversaries and challenges you have to juggle on the fly… and then you get to a tediously engineered boss encounter and it all begins to get tiresome again. [Christmas 2005, p.109]

It's good shooting, of course, pulled off with the studio's signature style, but it's come at the cost of Syndicate's imagination and ambition.

As a short, sharp blaze of fun, it's every bit as brash and ballsy as "Mercs" ever was. [July 2008, p.99]

There's wild west fun to be had within these simplistic charms, but it's unlikely to replace your favoured multiplayer shooter. [June 2010, p.103]

Where FlatOut felt like racing in a field, FlatOut 2 feels like racing on a film set. It has been reshaped into the archetype, competent arcade racer. [Aug 2006, p.89]

People of Note is a gratifying, if ultimately ephemeral, hodgepodge of ideas - a pleasant distraction but hardly an instant classic. [Issue#423, p.116]

To enjoy EDF, you've always needed to be willing to compromise. Those days are gone. It's never felt so fluid. [Feb 2016, p.116]

Where the game partially redeems itself is in its hammy tone, and variety of inventive guns and missions. [June 2015, p.120]

The charismatic animation and evocative, sunset-hazed setting make up for a lot of the game's shortcomings, and although limited in lasting appeal, Miami Vice is solidly and imaginatively made. [Sept 2006, p.86]

We've seen so many of these puzzles before. [Dec 2015, p.121]