Starships is simple, slick, semi-strategic fun. It’s incredibly accessible and lacks the sometimes overbearing menus and micromanagement that can make strategy games dizzying and intimidating, making it a nice point of entry for those looking for a casual experience within the genre.

The controls are hardly the only problem facing this forlorn soldier. Anyone who has played a few WWII shooters will be all too familiar with this cookie-cutter list of tasks: take out anti-air artillery with bomb charges, counter-snipe Nazi snipers so troops can pass through an area, take out a few tanks with a Panzershreck, rinse, and repeat.

Wheelman has enough explosive thrills that you’ll be yelling and laughing the whole time.

Despite its sparse offerings, Danger Zone still proves that you can do beautiful things with a car, no matter how damaged it is.

Strafe succeeds at being a suitable homage of referential nostalgia-laden trinkets, but there’s no other real reason you should play it. If you want the feel of an old shooter, you should probably go play one of those instead of Strafe.

The game looks like a first-generation title Playstation 2 title. It even plays like one as well, with basic controls that feature perhaps one of my biggest pet peeves in video games: the combination attack/search/open/event button. [Jan 2002, p.82]

Part of GTC's woes is that the textures smell as bad as hot camel breath - even if the tracks themselves are cool. [Sept 2002, p.81]

Manages to maintain a tongue-in-cheek cheese factor that makes the journey entertaining enough...in that shameless softcore kind of way. [July 2004, p.114]

It doesn't rely on technical gimmicks. Instead, it delivers cathartic action and an absorbing story. [July 2003, p.114]

The AI is bumbling and unbalanced. [August 2002, p.82]

The graphics aren't much either, but the tracks are well designed and there's a genuine sense of fun here. [Aug 2006, p.85]

I was hoping that 2K would build on last year’s foundation. Instead, the foundation has been altered to be more appealing to the masses. That’s difficult logic to argue with, but 2K’s approach is way off the mark.

As it is, this is no more than a briefly amusing spectacle for fans of the series.

C&C 4 is not without redeeming qualities, and in the right situation it offers something truly unique to the RTS genre. I have no doubt that there will be gamers who fall head-over-heels for its tightly engineered co-op design. The binding dependence on teammates can be a pain, though, and legacy issues like bad keyboard shortcuts and unit AI persist. I can recommend the game, but only to a certain style of gamer and only with a handful of caveats.

Although Mad Riders might not feature anything in the way of innovation in either its core gameplay or race modes, I appreciate how developer Techland has honed its racing craft and made it so I never have to let up on the throttle.

Even though I’ve got the gas pedal down as far as it’ll go, the game fails to satiate either the need or speed parts of the equation.

When a mission is underway, Warframe is at its best. Getting to that point is a challenge of menu navigation, unexplained features, and a lack of crucial stat comparisons when choosing weapons. Right now, Warframe is definitely worth your time, but a UI tune-up would make it worth your money.

The missions have a shocking lack of variety, mostly just forcing you to do the same handful of things, but with stronger foes.

Basically, play it for the multiplayer, or don’t play it at all.

Like a pizza covered in chocolate, this game's touch screen swing is appealing for about half a second before you swear it off forever. [Feb 2005, p.125]

Unfortunately, the entire affair is filled with repeated waves of what amount to the exact same enemies, and it doesn’t take long for boredom to set in.

Is it great? Heck no. Does it offer little substance, but an enjoyable handful of thrills? It does, more often than not. [Aug 2005, p.97]

The trick system gets points for being integral to building speed, but its execution is uneven, meaning you don't always perform the tricks you've punched in. [Feb 2004, p.108]

Since there are a number of cool Alien and Predator units that are fun to see and play, Extinction does have some redeeming value. However,...the lack of online support or multiplayer of any kind is unforgivable. [Aug 2003, p.99]

In the final assessment, Full Frontal Assault feels like an experiment that produced mixed results. If I squint, I can just make out the vision of the perfect melding of tower defense and third-person action that the game was meant to be. However, the true image of FFA is a game that feels as though it's attempting to complete two different objectives, and failing to fully carry out either one. I admire Insomniac for continuing to take chances with the Ratchet & Clank series, but I'd rather the studio devote its resources to the new action/platformer that fans want.

It has a blemished, blood-soaked face that's going to scare off some gamers, but there's a lot of heart and fun to be found by those willing to dig beneath the ghoulish surface.

If you have the choice, I’d recommend the VR version slightly over the traditional display, but not to the point where anyone should pass up a fascinating experience because one is more immersive. [VR Tested]

Merely mediocre action. [Dec 2005, p.161]