In terms of the game’s central challenge, it excels at dividing the player’s attention between ambitions for continuous expansion and the manual maintenance of the empire as it stands. [Sept 2007, p.97]

It all feels like a bit of a hassle, and that, presumably, is not the message the WWF would like to convey about saving the environment. [May 2008, p.98]

Shiren The Wanderer still has its own charm and deep and lasting individual value that, for all its abstract irritations, surpasses many more modern gaming experiences. [May 2008, p.96]

While the likes of Call Of Duty 4 and Halo have made console joypads feel snappy and responsive enough to challenge the PC mouse and keyboard, Turning Point has sloppily regressed the cause by a few years. [May 2008, p.93]

Lost feels truncated to the extreme, a grand tutorial to island living violently cut off when the credits roll after four hours. [Apr 2008, p.93]

The level of personality in the Patapons and their world makes up for any disappointments - and your involvement in their story becomes huge. [Mar 2008, p.99]

The levels can sometimes feel artificial and depopulated, the game neither recreating sprawling, unrelenting conflict, nor managing to suggest a greater world through the controlled cinema of more linear shooters. [Mar 2008, p.94]

Mission design feels particularly lazy this time round, Locomotive seemingly jotting down amusing cutscene scenarios before finding tenuous ways of tying ‘destroy this’ or ‘abduct that’ tasks to the constant stream of ooh-er references to ‘big willies’ and ‘meat’ in the dialogue. [May 2008, p.97]

Underneath the mundane masculinity and grimy gun-toting clichés lies a heavily structured and well-considered score-attack game – one that’s worth excavating for all the short-lived interest it holds. [Feb 2008, p.88]

Underneath the mundane masculinity and grimy gun-toting clichés lies a heavily structured and well-considered score-attack game – one that’s worth excavating for all the short-lived interest it holds. [Feb 2008, p.88]

Underneath the mundane masculinity and grimy gun-toting clichés lies a heavily structured and well-considered score-attack game – one that’s worth excavating for all the short-lived interest it holds. [Feb 2008, p.88]

Yes, Justice’s new shriek adds a new trick to his repertoire, but besides this and a few new touchscreen forensic gizmos, this there is little change from the GBA ports. [Apr 2008, p.95]

This is revitalisation, a fresh surge of life for the long-serving warhorse. By any typical measure of gaming it's not grand advance, but for those whose fingers have long been drilled by the brawls of Koei's sprawling riots, it's as worthwhile and frenzied as it's ever been. [Mar 2008, p.96]

Fundamentally, combat feels feeble and insubstantial - partly out of aesthetic failure to convey power, but mostly out of a design choice to limit the effectivness of your weaponry (see 'Gun Damn'). [Mar 2008, p.95]

Sure, it’s another great instalment of Wipeout, but under the gloss it’s little more. [Dec 2007, p.90]

Though the setting is clichéd and you’ll have experienced all the tricks Frictional has pulled to construct Black Plague’s menacing atmosphere before (echoed voices, bestial groans, oppressive shadows, flickering lights), they’re highly effective. [Apr 2008, p.96]

Lost Odyssey contains some of the most tender writing ever committed to a videogame. [Apr 2008, p.86]

There are lots of puzzles, a fun environment to tootle around in, and little to dislike. Utterly charming. [Apr 2008, p.95]

The sad fact is that this combat mostly fails to ignite interest, and combined with its cruel difficulty spikes, occasional glitches and a severe differential in graphical quality between 360 and PS3 versions (the latter losing out), Turok's strong contextualisation and smattering of brave ideas get buried. [Mar 2008, p.92]

The sad fact is that this combat mostly fails to ignite interest, and combined with its cruel difficulty spikes, occasional glitches and a severe differential in graphical quality between 360 and PS3 versions (the latter losing out), Turok's strong contextualisation and smattering of brave ideas get buried. [Mar 2008, p.92]

DMC4 is not the grotesque misstep it so easily could have been. DMC4 is hardcore. [Mar 2008, p.90]

With juddering 3D that loses all of Altair's beautiful and intuitive movement, and inflicting a multitude of cheap deaths, this crude chapter neither comes close to emulating original's successes nor utilises the hardware's specific capabilities. [June 2008, p.95]

Sins is undoubtedly a unique achievement, unifying realtime battle and empirical strategy where others have only managed to offer them as separate components. [Apr 2008, p.94]

Far from perfect but enduringly hard to dislike. [Dec 2007, p.95]

Having moved up an entire notch from inaugural title "Racers," the PixelJunk brand is becoming one of PSN's most promising and confident niches. [Mar 2008, p.101]

Paradise loops its action into an endless rush, the possibilities, for arcade racing and battle enthusiasts alike, increasing with every hour. It’s hard not to see it as the birth of a new era, but in truth it might be the last Burnout you ever need. [Feb 2008, p.86]

Paradise loops its action into an endless rush, the possibilities, for arcade racing and battle enthusiasts alike, increasing with every hour. It’s hard not to see it as the birth of a new era, but in truth it might be the last Burnout you ever need. [Feb 2008, p.86]

It can be a little basic in places, and it isn’t a ‘paradigm shift’ in any sense, but it is proof that games can love their roots and use the quality of being a ‘game’ to give form to their stories – and excel at it. [Feb 2008, p.90]