The game’s unique honour system (requiring you to tag and then kill enemies in exchange for upgrades) proves largely irrelevant, and in the heat of battle, toggling your firstperson view and wrestling with the analogue nub to track fast-moving targets proves frustrating and unwieldy. [Jan 2008, p.88]

Soldier of Fortune’s damage model is probably its major selling point and, lamentably, the only thing that makes its combat entertaining. [Feb 2008, p.96]

Since the end of the N64 era, as Nintendo has explored new pastures and methodically tended old ones, it’s been easy to forget the times when every major release from the company felt like this. It’s a bravura piece of design that pulls off stunts no one else has even thought of. [Christmast 2007, p.76]

Blacksite is a thoroughly unexceptional title for which unrealistic promises were made, and one that is further let down by a wide assortment of bugs and design issues. [Jan 2008, p.83]

Blacksite is a thoroughly unexceptional title for which unrealistic promises were made, and one that is further let down by a wide assortment of bugs and design issues. [Jan 2008, p.83]

In terms of creating an atmosphere and playing with it, there’s nothing quite like it on a handheld system. [Christmas 2007, p.96]

Bladestorm works hard to appease both the keen strategist and the action-hungry player, while confidently answering critics who claim that Koei is nothing more than a one-trick warhorse. [Christmas 2007, p.95]

It’s the kind of concept you suspect was conceived more by the desire to ‘leverage brand synergy’ than to create a classic videogame. [Jan 2008, p.90]

Apart from being an excellent reminder of its host’s graphical oomph, Tactical Strike is engrossingly detailed and generous, if not wide, in scope. [Jan 2008, p.91]

Visually, kinetically and intuitively, however, Modern Warfare is relentlessly exciting and an overwhelming triumph. [Christmas 2007, p.88]

While World Of Warcraft and its peers provide variety through landscape, Hellgate fails utterly to conjure any motivation to investigate the next instanced dungeon. [Christmas 2007, p.97]

Few other titles’ enemies have the power to flood you with real horror as they scramble and skitter towards you. [Christmas 2007, p.98]

The game fumbles its potential with unanticipated incompetence. [Christmas 2007, p.94]

It may have few aspirations beyond being a dumb FPS, but it never fails to make the most of its limited talents. [Christmas 2007, p.97]

Much of the drive spurring players onwards to completion depends on the game’s cutscenes, and in this respect it’s a backwards step, relying on the crutch of a strong licence to hide fundamental shortcomings. [Christmas 2007, p.92]

Ditching the self-aware snuff-movie set-up for an unsubtle conspiracy story, Manhunt 2 lacks the redemption of a smart commentary on violence as entertainment. [Christmas 2008, p.98]

The experience certainly isn’t awful, but nor is it in any way exceptional – and up against the accomplished competition, that simply won’t be good enough. [June 2007, p.93]

BW2 is a strategy game that doesn't demand much strategy. That doesn't mean it's not sometimes enjoyable, but it's nothing more than an occasional diversion. [Jan 2008, p.84]

Guitar Hero has one of the most intuitive and subtle control systems of any game, but here it becomes increasingly subservient to making the game – yes – rock hard, and for the average player will often descend into button-mashing. [Christmas 2007, p.98]

There are nice touches – cockroaches that scatter under your flashlight, the occasional puzzle, effective cutscenes – but there is little that you won’t have found implemented in a vastly more satisfactory form elsewhere. [May 2008, p.99]

The virtual interface does little to help players and, if anything, slows the game down as you wait for it to catch up with things that are already evident to players – such as victory, failure and boredom. [Dec 2007, p.89]

The game's failure to monopolise on its squad dynamic relegates it to a shooter-by-numbers, and its appeal is then further undercut by the fact that, while Barker clearly has a sense for the grotesque, it is the only note that Jericho plays. [Dec 2007, p.91]

The game's failure to monopolise on its squad dynamic relegates it to a shooter-by-numbers, and its appeal is then further undercut by the fact that, while Barker clearly has a sense for the grotesque, it is the only note that Jericho plays. [Dec 2007, p.91]

Conan is a genuine surprise. It’s not innovative in its entirety, but it does almost as much as it can with the central conceit, and thus proves one of the better examples of the hack’n’slash genre. [Dec 2007, p.93]

A sometimes grim but always compelling experience. [Christmas 2007, p.96]

And the visuals? Well, if you want more screenshots, just pop your head out of the window and look up. [Dec 2007, p.96]

From simple lever cranks to rotational unscrewing, Zack & Wiki finally puts to use the myriad Remote possibilities touched on in WarioWare: Smooth Moves. [Christmas 2007, p.93]

Often you’ll present a piece of evidence on a hunch and find him explaining it far beyond your own understanding. The result is a distance from the story, and a reminder of the paucity of interactivity on offer. [Nov 2007, p.99]