The slower, more deliberate pace and the hefty fine levied by missed throws and counters may initially confuse those expecting Guilty Fear in a new set of clothes, but ultimately provides a smoother learning curve and a more welcoming experience for new players. [Sept 2008, p.94]

As easy to misunderstand as it is to break, it again turns the best and worse of PC gaming into something extraordinary. [Oct 2008, p.94]

By polishing away blemishes, Rock Band 2 carefully improves on its predecessor. Those expecting the likes of music-making functionality perhaps aren’t quite on Rock Band’s wavelength, which is about performance, not creativity. [Dec 2008, p.85]

Its flaws are downplayed in the context of its range, its humour, its oddities, and its alternately psychopathic and pandering NPCs. It's as unusual as it is conventional. [Nov 2008, p.99]

If Pocket Paradise makes you want to throw it against something, though, it’s only because it succeeds in making gardening compulsive. [Oct 2008, p.96]

Something as transcendent and overwhelming as the game we hoped for – the infinite, mind-boggling space odyssey suggested so early on – doesn’t sell expansion packs. It doesn’t fit on to iPhone. It doesn’t fill the vacuum left by The Sims. [Nov 2008, p.88]

Facebreaker is vacuous, its interface without flair and its novelties without purpose beyond littering the boards at Gamefaqs. [Oct 2008, p.95]

The game’s ambition reaches further than perhaps its budget could reach, thus failing to either deliver or explore its ideas as they were no doubt envisioned. [Nov 2008, p.95]

A sequel with a suitably Darwinian focus on simple refinement. [Nov 2008, p.100]

The good news for fans of 2005’s Playground Of Destruction is that Mercenaries remains an absolute blast. [Nov 2008, p.92]

If you were that kid who was pulled away from the TMNT cabinets by an angry mum, who couldn’t wait for Golden Axe to appear on a home console, and who played Streets Of Rage 2 over and over, Castle Crashers is for you. [Nov 2008, p.103]

Its characters may initially seem to be lazy stereotypes, but they soon blossom into something deeper, thanks to intelligent writing and uncommonly naturalistic acting. [Dec 2008, p.97]

That Disgaea 3 is perhaps the finest of its self-referential and casually wicked yarns, is almost an irrelevance. We’ve got numbers to think about. [Dec 2008, p.97]

In spite of its commitment to a single brand, Ferrari Challenge is rich in content for those prepared to navigate its obtuse structure. [Aug 2008, p.97]

Insomniac has stripped away every inch of slack, delivering a consistently entertaining title where platforming nestles tightly against puzzle solving and hugs shooting sections. [Oct 2008, p.102]

Those looking for a rigorous score-attack challenge should look elsewhere. [Nov 2008, p.103]

The irony is that many of Too Human’s problems wouldn’t exist if another pair of human players were allowed to enter the fold (as was originally intended) – speeding up play considerably and making ‘just one more run’ into something a little more manageable. [Oct 2008, p.92]

A labour of love. The core of the game might be a remake, but the features and polish applied move it beyond the realm of simple cash-ins to one of the finest games to grace PSN or XBLA yet. [Sept 2008, p.92]

A wholly unoriginal creation burdened by memories attached to the good ideas it’s imitating, and made worse by the sloppy execution of basic mechanics. [Oct 2008, p.100]

While certainly being Treasure's most fragmented game, there’s a sense that the lack of narrative, character and even proper framework makes this its most raw, pure and delightful. [June 2008, p.95]

You wonder if players will have wanted to spend this amount of time loafing around the Homestar Runner universe, or whether their interaction with it is best limited to ten-minute bursts via their web browser. [Oct 2008, p.101]

You wonder if players will have wanted to spend this amount of time loafing around the Homestar Runner universe, or whether their interaction with it is best limited to ten-minute bursts via their web browser. [Oct 2008, p.101]

A beautiful and brilliantly demanding game that barely contains its dense population of ideas. [Sept 2008, p.89]

Where B-Boy crucially disappoints is in the execution of its gameplay. The turn-based nature of its stages is interminably frustrating. [Oct 2006, p.94]

Eden’s precise artistic vision, dreamlike menus and sharply contemporary Japanese ambience is a perfect fit for PSN, but for all its purity this is an Eden too mechanically flawed to match its presentation. [Oct 2008, p.98]

It may be pulled together from no more than shards of light, but few games manage to be both a science and an art. [Oct 2008, p.99]

It's a tale of swords and souls in which everyone keeps their dignity until you knock off their cuirass and make them fight in their bra. [Sept 2008, p.84]

While the game remains focused on atmosphere and aesthetics, concessions have been made to a more dynamic style of play. [Sept 2008, p.86]