It is so often calamitous that its few charms are either squandered or obscured. [Christmas 2009, p.96]

Despite being all about the numbers, FM2010 rises above them to be unexpectedly cruel, kind, and even visceral at times. [Christmas 2009, p.104]

Turns out that Tekken's big new idea for online play is rather underwhelming: you can customise your outfit and fight with it on. [Dec 2009, p.103]

It's a shame to see what could have been. [Dec 2009, p.99]

All things considered, it’s about the best game called ‘DJ Hero’ we were ever likely to see. It deserves extended play.

Grid still offers the most on-track excitement (and better car damage), and the forthcoming GT5 already looks graphically superior, but anyone looking for the most rewarding console driving experience to date has found their ride.

The puzzles themselves can feel gimmicky and detached, as though inclusion was more important than integration. [Dec 2009, p.92]

Runic Games has created something bright and punchy, if a touch aimless, which makes up for the lack of personality (and multiplayer) with a beaming smile and lots of encouraging pats on the back. [Feb 2010, p.90]

Alluringly lurid, but ultimately disposable. [Dec 2009, p.92]

Tropico is as vibrant and capricious as the setting, and never dry or formulaic in the way that other management games can tend to be. [Christmas 2009, p.106]

Added depth and nuance are the guiding principles for this spectacular follow up. [Nov 2009, p.100]

Partial blame can be laid on the less-than-stellar CG film Astro Boy adapts, but considering High Voltage so vocally invoked Omega Factor during development, it is not unfair to hold the game to a higher standard. It doesn't come close. [Jan 2010, p.96]

It's a dazzling experience, combining carefree spectacle with careful score attack, a game that's as concerned with its looks as the precision of its underlying mathematical systems. [JPN Import; June 2009, p.94]

The perfect candidate for the 100th WiiWare game, LostWinds is on the verge of outgrowing the service it almost single-handedly redeems. [Dec 2009, p.101]

The game’s depth is matched by a generous breadth of modes and options.

But the puzzles themselves are nearly an unmitigated joy.

Brutal Legend has the looks and the attitude, and a hefty chunk of original and engaging content to go with it. Whenever it goes near a stage, though, it begins to fall apart. [Dec 2009, p.94]

Ultimately, no one will disagree that Uncharted 2 is one hell of a ride, and the best PS3 action game to date.

But what of the gamers who have paid WayForward’s bills, the Contra lovers and Shantae fan clubs? They're rewarded with extreme difficulty spikes, enacted by the amorphous lovelies of a Miyazaki film. A Boy and his Blob panders to the Wii’s unique audience all too well, dividing itself, and its impact, in the process.

Sparsely scattered save points, un-skippable animations and cutscenes, and repeated locations and boss fights are anachronisms that will frustrate and alienate all but the most ardent traditionalist.

A frustrating experience, though thankfully not a long one. [Dec 2009, p.103]

A Witch's Tale is the teacher who says 'look, but don't touch.' [Sept 2009, p.97]

It's certainly fun, but at times it's more than that: around the parody of leveling orbits a whole universe of bigger and better systems to lose yourself within. [Feb 2010, p.92]

It refreshes with its purity of purpose and ambition, even if, as a mechanising of the grieving process, it’s a game few will wish to return to once completed.

It refreshes with its purity of purpose and ambition, even if, as a mechanising of the grieving process, it’s a game few will wish to return to once completed.

But it’s hard not to be disappointed that one of gaming’s true visions – of life’s multiplicity and constantly changing nature – should end up broadening itself by slumping into a worn groove of genre pieces and business dogma.

Demon's Souls is the antithesis of the fashionable approach to gaming. It encourages mastery over mere perseverance and every reward is so hard won as to make it almost unattainable. But if gaming's ultimate appeal lies in the learning and mastering of new skills, then surely the medium's keenest thrills are to be found in its hardest lessons. For those who flourish under Demon's Souls' strict examination, there's no greater sense of virtual achievement.

To an industrious, moralising serial killer, Saw would seem an apt punishment for a life wasted on videogames. [Christmas 2009, p.99]