While Zero is still a sweet character, this game is just too much of the same, and virtually inaccessible to anyone who doesn't want to memorize every inch of it. [Oct 2004, p.147]

The combat and chat systems seem to be adequate, and the experience apparatus will satiate the level-hounds out there; but all told, Shadowbane is decidedly average. [June 2003, p.117]

Judge Dredd scores a minor victory in its ability to let its roots show through amid the usual indistinguishable mess of guns and guts. [May 2004, p.93]

With a compelling overarching narrative and more engaging gameplay, Minecraft: Story Mode – Season Two is an improvement over the uneven and inconsistent first season. I enjoy the Admin as both a character and a threat to the world, and seeing Jesse face off against him is entertaining. While the story takes unnecessary and uninteresting turns and gives you few choices of consequence. Minecraft: Story Mode – Season Two is a fine continuation for those who wanted more from Jesse and crew.

With a compelling overarching narrative and more engaging gameplay, Minecraft: Story Mode – Season Two is an improvement over the uneven and inconsistent first season. I enjoy the Admin as both a character and a threat to the world, and seeing Jesse face off against him is entertaining. While the story takes unnecessary and uninteresting turns and gives you few choices of consequence. Minecraft: Story Mode – Season Two is a fine continuation for those who wanted more from Jesse and crew.

With a compelling overarching narrative and more engaging gameplay, Minecraft: Story Mode – Season Two is an improvement over the uneven and inconsistent first season. I enjoy the Admin as both a character and a threat to the world, and seeing Jesse face off against him is entertaining. While the story takes unnecessary and uninteresting turns and gives you few choices of consequence. Minecraft: Story Mode – Season Two is a fine continuation for those who wanted more from Jesse and crew.

With a compelling overarching narrative and more engaging gameplay, Minecraft: Story Mode – Season Two is an improvement over the uneven and inconsistent first season. I enjoy the Admin as both a character and a threat to the world, and seeing Jesse face off against him is entertaining. While the story takes unnecessary and uninteresting turns and gives you few choices of consequence. Minecraft: Story Mode – Season Two is a fine continuation for those who wanted more from Jesse and crew.

Though The Bourne Conspiracy is weighed down by broken gunplay mechanics, its thrilling hand-to-hand combat, slick presentation, and relatively short time commitment (eight hours) make it a perfect rental for fans of the films.

Most irritating is that when you try to steal the ball, your defender will be automatically repositioned in front of the guy dribbling. [June 2002, p.81]

An excellent flight simulator, but a poor action game. [May 2003, p.83]

Fans of the series will appreciate the games faithfulness to the show, but to everyone else, Sidetracked will just feel like an uglier version of countless games you've played before. [May 2006, p.101]

You could do worse. [Dec 2002, p.152]

For most players, this game will only slightly entertain. [Feb 2002, p.87]

Something special lies at the heart of The Occupation, but the gameplay and technical issues get in the way of its most interesting qualities. The storytelling happening beneath all the clunky stealth is great.

The racing itself is pretty good, and the rest of the game feels like a total hackjob. [Oct 2004, p.123]

This is nothing more than a cobbled together batch of decade-old FPS conventions and cliches. There's just not much heart and soul in this game, and the stiff mechanics don't work well enough to make you overlook its weakness. [May 2007, p.96]

Playing Amped 2 is like eating a yellow snowball... Due to its inconsistencies and problematic gameplay, frustration abounds in Amped 2. Do me a favor, avoid the frostbite and stick with "SSX." [Nov 2003, p.164]

It's a great game for head-to-head bouts with friends. [Apr 2003, p.93]

Horizon Call of the Mountain is a good showcase piece for PlayStation VR2. It is the game to use if you want to show off your new technology to friends and family. There is even an unlockable mode perfect for this, which is a passive journey on a canoe through a robot-infested jungle. What holds the game back tremendously, though, is Call of the Mountain's overreliance on climbing. The smaller parts of the game, fighting robots, making items, and looking around, are highlights. Pulling yourself up a mountain isn’t, and that’s where you spend most of the approximately six hour experience.

The last half of the game serves only to remind you of how far the series has fallen from its original form. I felt smothered by Sonic Team's insistence on shoehorning recent Sonic games, no matter how awful, into the 20-year timeline.

The controls are responsive and the anime-styled graphics are crisp, but the campaign is short - even with multiple characters to select - and the combat is far too shallow to hold everything in Draglade together. [Feb 2008, p.102]

The last half of the game serves only to remind you of how far the series has fallen from its original form. I felt smothered by Sonic Team's insistence on shoehorning recent Sonic games, no matter how awful, into the 20-year timeline.

On the easier levels, I usually just died of boredom, on the harder difficulties I swore in anger at the title's merciless assault. [Mar 2004, p.107]

The bland formula of "talk to this person, get item, use item on piece of environment" makes it a mind-numbingly frustrating chore to advance to the next awe-inspiring work of Sokal's genius. [Apr 2004, p.109]

Lacking the foundation of gameplay to offer the kind of choices that strategy fans have grown accustomed to, LOTR: Tactics is a disappointment. [Jan 2006, p.155]

There is a reason many of the RPG game mechanics this game uses are no longer found in other RPGs – they suck. You may be better off making up your own fantasy game with RPG Maker.

This sequel adds an additional mountain and the use of a snowboard, but the series' easygoing vibe isn't dramatically altered. [May 2009, p.87]

Mafia III is a missed opportunity to put an important time in American history in the spotlight, and ends up being one of the most lifeless and one-note open-world experiences I’ve come across. You can see the potential for a great game here, but it sticks to safe and simple gameplay and storytelling conventions, and ends up being a bloody bore.