The streamlined motives are a tremendous improvement in alleviating tedium - so why the heck is the skill advancement so painful? [Holiday 2004, p.108]

But the repetitive combat and insistence on finding random key cards will likely keep this sleeper from waking up. [Nov. 2006, p.138]

What ends up spoiling the experience for me, however, is the general slow and clunky feel of the game. If Call of Duty 2 is a blitzkrieg of shooting action, The Outfit is a leisurely zeppelin ride...underwater. It's still exciting, just severely hampered.

TimeShift definitely looks a lot prettier than it did the first go-round, but once again it finds itself behind the times. [Holiday 2007, p.80]

It all makes for an action game kinda like your typical Bond girl: fun to look at but shallow. With simple mission objectives, cinch puzzles, and autoaim (that you can tweak for more skillful shots if you like), this game practically plays itself.

A quality, enjoyable action-RPG...On the strength of DH's story alone, you have an RPG worth not only playing but owning. [Oct 2002, p.179]

While the fantastic Worms formula stays intact here, it becomes infinitely more difficult to gauge distances, wind, and all that in 3D. For that reason alone, I can't recommend this one over its 2D predecessors. [Apr 2004, p.116]

A simple, solid adventure with smart puzzles and high production values, but it leads its junior wizards through every baby step. [Aug 2004, p.101]

Until you begin to understand how each of the weapons work and learn when and where to use them, the game just seems outrageously difficult and often frustrating (on the Normal or Hard difficulties, that is). Once you figure out which weapons work best in given situations however, things begin to get much more tolerable and you start enjoying the game a lot more. [Oct 1998]

SoF is best played as a guilty pleasure…Hankerin’ for some good ol’-fashioned shootin’? [Sept 2001, p.147]

But it's all a big cockpit tease, because online play is busted. [June 2004, p.106]

Too bad it doesn't quite execute in the clutch though. [May 2006, p.98]

"Motorstorm" does off-road racing better than this. So does "Dirt" and "Sega Rally Revo". [Jan 2008, p.94]

In its silly simplicity, Cooking mama does what many can't: keep me heading back to the kitchen for one more snack. [Holiday 2007, p.86]

Frustratingly difficult. [Dec 2002, p.270]

Controls in this game feel clunky. Add a few truly lackluster modes on Xbox Live and you have a game that should, by all rights, be a budget release. [May 2004, p.97]

Slow to start and quick to finish, Trace holds your attention by the thinnest of strings: a deire to fill the blank pages of the story. [Oct 2005, p.122]

The concentration required to go six or so laps without hitting walls or A.I. cars is incredible but also really rewarding. [June 2005, p.100]

When a racing game's gimmick relies on un-seat-belted drivers forcibly ejected through windshields during crashes, you know you're in trouble. [Aug 2005, p.110]

With 2K Sports nabbing the exclusive third-party baseball-sim rights to the MLB license, it had a golden chance to nab the hardball crown from EA's NCAA-license-relegated MVP series. Instead, we get this scattershot effort. [May 2006, p.94]

The tracks get harder to follow and the AI racers become aggressive and nasty. I don’t know how many times I was set to win a race only to be spun around in the last stretch by some jerk. [Oct 2001, p.146]

Much of the disorder is unintentional. Like some half-assed high-school theater production, nothing works as it should and no one seems to be doing the right thing. [Dec 2003, p.202]

Those who have long since retired their Shrek-themed bedsheets will find the game easy and repetitive [July 2004, p.94]

You'll find a decent tennis game in here somewhere (albeit with a much steeper learning curve than you'd expect) and plenty to do, but it's not really worth digging for under such an obnoxious exterior. [Aug 2007, p.86]

A chaotic, testosterone-filled mess of car wrecks and bulet holes. I love it. [Mar 2006, p.96]

The streamlined motives are a tremendous improvement in alleviating tedium - so why the heck is the skill advancement so painful? [Holiday 2004, p.108]

If Dr. Frankenstein made a game, he'd probably patch together something like this self-proclaimed puzzle/platform/driving/actioner. [Oct 2005, p.122]

The shortest volume in all .hack-dom, and most of it is spent running errands, but the final battle (which is spoiled in the pack-in anime DVD) is a great payoff if you've been following the story all this time. [Feb 2004, p.122]