Ultimately, Urban Chaos doesn't have the reach to deliver what it promises, and ends up retreating into cliché. A few months more, a few dollars more and this could have made a much more defiant stand. [June 2006, p.93]

Western is an old-fashioned game about an old-fashioned time, and although it may not possess the swaggering production values or wit of "Red Dead Revolver," it’s a thoroughly guilty pleasure. [March 2005, p.90]

Likeable despite its flaws. [March 2015, p.106]

It gains points for plot and the audacity of simulating an online world, and could have scored higher, but its simplicity and inflexible save system drag it down. [Apr 2004, p.108]

Where the game really succeeds, however, beyond providing a robust and solid, if unassuming model of explorative stealth and attack, is in fulfilling that old and oft-forgotten criterion - putting the gamer inside the movie. [Aug 2005, p.95]

While these new ingredients can be magical, they’re not enough to produce a truly golden successor. Nevertheless, it’s still an RPG that contains some precious properties. [July 2006, p.90]

Even though Situation: Comedy zealously aims for the easiest of targets – cheap television – its satire can feel obvious at times and its parodies fall flat a little more frequently than they should. [Feb 2007, p.85]

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]

Juiced 2’s driving dynamic couldn’t be more easygoing without offering an autopilot option... The exception are the drift events, where the game may actually lead its genre. [Dec 2007, p.94]

But what GDS ends up proving about game development is this: making simple, fun and, yes, casual games that can keep rewarding players after that first flush of fun is so much harder than it looks.

Tekken 7 feels cynically put together, a solid but ultimately 20-year-old fighting system freshened up with mechanical twists and bulked out with gimmicks rather than gilded with the series' signature personality. [Aug 2017, p.114]

With your monster ally at your side, it offers glimpses of something more intriguing, but its most interesting idea is the one that feels frustratingly underexplored. [June 2011, p.101]

So, then: the best expansion so far and the game at its worst. Such a contradiction could only be made by Bethesda.

The relentless thrill of one half of it dragged down by the barren, boring needless sprawl of the other. [Issue#334, p.110]

It all makes it an even greater shame that you'll sometimes feel compelled to jump off and end it all. [Tested with Oculus Rift; Aug 2016, p.116]

Fatal Inertia promised so much in its early showings (which claimed to represent in-game footage), but has turned out as a decent but thoroughly predictable racer. [Oct 2007, p.95]

Vega$ pushes the stagnant tycoon genre as far as it can go, and is currently the best looking management sim available. But how far can you flog a dead Elvis? [Dec 2003, p.103]

After some hit-and-miss experimentation, SOCOM needs refreshing, and this more aggressive approach is aiming in the right direction, even if it isn't a direct hit. [June 2011, p.93]

For all Zoo Tycoon’s charms, it’s ultimately too shallow; there’s only so much cooing at identikit baby animals you can do before the inevitable fatigue sets in.

That's the essential nature, and essential problem, of The Division's underlying structure. It's asking you to hunt gear with no tangible reward in terms of what you can do, how you do it, or what you look like doing it. [May 2016, p.108]

It’s a unique offering for 360 owners – as it would have been for Xbox – certainly, but one who’s highlights can’t match those of the RPGs currently burning brightly on PS2. [Apr 2006, p.87]

While fans will revel in the HD sheen of its signature gore, long-standing cynics and newcomers alike will find a game that, just as it did 19 years ago, pales in comparison to its more fluid, graceful peers. [June 2011, p.95]

An unforgiving experience … but Nightshade still has enough chutzpah to give those weaned on games without saves a stern and nostalgic challenge. Those afraid of tough bosses need not apply. [Mar 2004, p.103]

The engagements of Red River are a nuanced and precise art, one entirely at odds with the hollow cockiness of the cast and one that underscores the real war going on between Operation Flashpoint's essence and its new macho attitude. [June 2011, p.90]

As a follow-up to Section 8, it delivers much the same experience as its predecessor, albeit repackaged in a more wallet-friendly, downloadable form. [June 2011, p.94]

In the original, full-sized LBP, creating more than a few seconds of playable level was a significant and time-consuming effort. Here, with slightly reduced options and at a near microscopic scale, it's much, much harder. [Jan 2010, p.93]

Unfortunately, the solution it has landed on is missing some essential thing that has always made Doom work, another concept you wouldn't necessarily associate with this series: elegance. [Issue#412, p.104]

Treyarch has taken just enough from COD4 to make World At War a broad success, but it remains firmly in its shadow. [Christmas 2008, p.90]