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 most successful episodes find ways to hold us captive. [March 2016, p.122]

Its pacing is hindered by slow movement speed, and nuance is lost as the incidents increase in frequency and topics of conversation shift from the social to the situational. [March 2016, p.120]

It's a surprise to find that this relentless numerical tangle of a dungeon crawler is a human story. [March 2016, p.118]

Even at its best, Heroes Reborn: Gemini can't hope to be one of those games that breaks out of licensed-game purgatory. [March 2016, p.116]

The story's the star, of course. [March 2016, p.114]

Ostensibly it's a game about overthrowing aliens, but really it's a war against the forces of probability. [March 2016, p.110]

The Witness conjures magic from the simplest of components, rustling up a sensational array of experiences without ever deviating from its core conceit. [March 2016, p.106]

Astonishingly, there's no replay function for your defensive performances. [Feb 2016, p.122]

Even at maximum velocity it fails to stir the blood like the games to which it's most indebted. [Feb 2016, p.120]

Missions are wonderfully compact and briskly-paced, sweeping you though a substantial campaign with style to match. [Feb 2016, p.119]

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]

Even completing a stage in the relatively tame classic Mini Cooper S will leave you feeling bothered and fatigued. [Feb 2016, p.114]

Nuclear Throne's hook is disarmingly simple but blisteringly effective. In short, it gets a move on. [Feb 2016, p.112]

It scales to your ability and makes you feel connected to the music in a way few other games can match. [Feb 2016, p.108]

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]

Not for everyone, Dancing All Night will suit players who love rhythm action enough to overlook a lack of content, or who love Persona 4 enough to forgive the length and leaden pace of its script. [Jan 2016, p.123]

This attempt to fuse two very different Mario worlds is more than the sum of its mismatched parts. [Jan 2016, p.122]

In spite of the odd stumble, it's a wonderful journey. [Jan 2016, p.120]

Where it goes wrong is the finale. Almost every major choice is proven irrelevant, and barely any plot threads resolve. [Jan 2016, p.118]

X is a triumph of art over design, the wonder of the world enough to make periods of drudgery worthwhile. [Jan 2016, p.116]

As a package, Black Ops III is a muddle. It is packed to the gills with things, certainly, but none of it joins up. [Jan 2016, p.114]

Any semblance of subtlety is abandoned entirely when it comes to the playable Hero and Villain characters. [Jan 2016, p.110]

It refines the core shooting and user interface, but otherwise adds only a clutch of enjoyable yet nonessential extras, such as settlements and armour pieces. [Jan 2016, p.106]

This is, after all, a game that goes out of its way to empower in a way few other games dare. [Jan 2016, p.102]

Like a fledgling with two broken wings, it would surely have been more humane to put the thing out of its misery than let it limp out in this pathetic state. [Christmas 2015, p.123]

It's strange that players aren't given more time to make decisions. [Christmas 2015, p.122]

One of the smartest dumb games since Super Time Force. [Christmas 2015, p.121]