Vanguard simply fails to deliver the pomp and bluster or the window dressing so essential in disguising the shortcomings inherent in "Call of Duty's" framework. [May 2007, p.92]

What's most frustrating about Tiberium Wars is that it chooses not to accentuate the breakneck battlefield thrills of C&C's arcade stylings, opting instead to preserve the old blueprint. [May 2007, p.86]

Its troop AI is better than that of "FEAR," and environmentally more aware than that of "Far Cry." [May 2007, p.84]

This new outing for Sega’s ever-appealing sports series is a deeper, more serious and demanding beast than before, yet happily manages to retain the series’ lighthearted atmosphere and is, on occasion, utterly bonkers. [Apr 2007, p.84]

Even on the least realistic setting, the game can be fearsomely complicated and the manual and tutorials are little help. [May 2007, p.91]

To appreciate the game's dilemma, look no further than its multiplayer modes, which have so little room for manoeuvre that they needn't have existed at all. [May 2007, p.94]

Too many of its dishes are mere remixes of the same simple techniques. Too many of its taut time trials founder because of some quirk of the Remote. [June 2007, p.93]

The illusion of epic-scale warfare remains a powerful and entertaining one, broken most significantly by the player’s need to avoid overexposing themselves to its fundamentally tedious nature. [Feb 2007, p.85]

With handsomely designed environments, and a deviously three-dimensional approach to level design, Kororinpa is exactly the kind of simple, sustaining software that the Wii needs to build on. [Feb 2007, p.84]

As interesting as exploring the island can be, it's painfully hard to get anywhere without being forced to repeat chores that are just plain boring. [May 2007, p.93]

A tasteful translation of an enduring classic, but it remains too cautious to satisfy those looking for innovation. [May 2007, p.95]

Its biggest problem is its length, and that its formula can’t quite endure its sequel-dose duration. Whether or not it’s overlong in terms of play hours may be a matter of preference, but it feels slightly stretched during its final third, exposing its shallowness a little in the process. [Apr 2007, p.80]

With little to differentiate fighters beyond base levels of aggression, symmetrical faces and notions of characters they’re meant to represent, it doesn’t take too long for Balboa to flag, or indeed trudge to an unceremonious end. [Mar 2007, p.87]

It seems Buena Vista has gone from making lacklustre titles out of much-loved franchises to making a reasonable game from the coldest of franchises. [Mar 2007, p.82]

Thanks in no small part to the slavish love of motion capture over more manageable keyframe animation, the fights in Icon are sluggish, crude and practically underwater when it comes to control. [Apr 2007, p.79]

While it’s not the definitive culmination of the genre so far, Dominator remains a compelling reminder that, while slight in comparison to its older brothers, Burnout still knows how to be a mean racing game. [Apr 2007, p.83]

For dedicated Ghosts GRAW 2 is a no-brainer. For the rest of us it's just the exact game "Advanced Warfighter" should have been and would have beeen if the clock wasn't watching; Ubisoft rewriting history and charging us twice for the privilege. [May 2007, p.89]

There’s a desperate lack of innovation on display here; nondescript levels based around ice caves, pyramids and inevitable Mayan temples. The boring locations exacerbate the sneaking feeling that the levels, which can easily take an hour or longer to finish, are simply too large. [JPN Import; Mar 2007, p.81]

As far as either an authentic simulation or a fun re-imagining goes, it’s like some strange negative of the emperor’s new clothes; the pretty wrapping is there but the body is not. [Mar 2007, p.83]

It's an enjoyably twisted and often satisfying piece of fantasy, then, even though the reality of its more generic aspects poses a serious threat to its achievements. [JPN Import; Oct 2006, p.92]

Blur will take you on a fantastic holiday, then, but perhaps not the most relaxing one. [May 2007, p.88]

Even in this compromised form, Virtua Fighter 5’s depth and beauty are unrivalled, and it can finally take its rightful place as the only game in town. [Apr 2007, p.76]

There’s a fine-line between rote-learning frustration and seat-of-the-pants glee in on-rails arcade games, and Secret Rings wobbles either side of it perceptibly, but seldom stays on the wrong side for too long. [Apr 2007, p.81]

Compared to so many free-roaming games to date, it so rarely stumbles. It’s the very skeleton of the genre, those bones strengthened to the point where they alone can stand as a game, rather than serving as hangers for threadbare ideas to be dangled from. [Mar 2007, p.76]

Without the challenge and cruelty that can make a classic, the results here are likeable, confident, and nowhere near essential. [Mar 2007, p.86]

Supreme Commander is the polar opposite of lazy Sunday afternoon strategy: the anti-"Civilization." With a name as apt as the infinite slaughter of "Total Annihilation," it really is a supreme commander’s job. [Mar 2007, p.78]

While there are occasional sparks from things like laser weapons, or games of tag in the arena combat, too much time is spent racing the same courses at the same speed, with only a very gradual increase in AI awareness to differentiate each step up through the ranks. [Mar 2007, p.85]

Stages are smaller and battles are often less intense but Size Matters makes up for the shortfall in calibre with a visual imagination that, for the first time, makes a Ratchet & Clank games feel like an actual adventure instead of a sequence of shootout-corridors threaded along a necklace of planets. [Apr 2007, p.88]