The Division’s trump card is setting: it’s an online RPG that doesn’t have elves, dragons, robots, demons or zombies. Sure, these things are popular – but almost every game out there has them; while people who want a modern day setting with no fantasy elements have a much more limited choice. [Issue#208, p.58]

In a game called Dirt, dirt has no effect on car’s behavior, and neither does snow. Only ice forces you to make adjustments to your driving. [Issue#250, page 53]

For some reason, Turbo is being presented as if it’s a party game, which couldn’t be further from truth: most of the time you’ll be running the same track over and over again trying to shave tenths of second from your record time. So it’s best played alone and only if you enjoy difficult arcade racing games. Luckily for Ubisoft, there aren’t many of them this generation. [Issue#208, p.63]

Moderately hardcore, a tad nostalgic, devoid of AAA luster, but engaging nonetheless – Squadrons is a nice choice for those who miss Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance. [Issue#249, p.56]

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has made Roadside Picnic famous, but it harshly mangled the book: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.’s Zone was a zone of armed conflict between various factions and mutants, instead of being a place of mystery and supernatural. Pacific Drive, on the other hand, pays an unexpected tribute to the “feel” of the original book, despite nominally being “a car-driving game”. [Issue#263, p.62]

It’s not bad per se, but so totally unremarkable that no matter how many hours you spend playing it, you won’t have a memorable moment. [Issue#209, p.82]

The name of the game is “parry”. Whatever the problem is, a well-timed parry will save the day. But if you can’t handle parrying mechanic, you’ll lose, no matter what tactics you use and what your equipment is. [page 52]

Let’s treat DoK as a group therapy session for developers who still hung over something unfinished in the old Homeworld. Now that they’ve got it out of their systems, hopefully they’ll make something to rival its fame, instead of retracing familiar steps. [Issue#206, p.66]

Unfortunately, there aren’t that many maps available, but each one of them has lots of details and alternate routes, like basements and balconies. Even the airplane is much more complex than the archetypical “long tube with seats.” [Issue#205, p.48]

Once you get the upgrades rolling and start getting farther with each new attempt, boredom gradually sets it as you realize: story-centric spacesims are better. They have a clear endgoal and missions that give a sense of accomplishment. Sure, Everspace does have a (barebones) story, sometimes you even get a sidemission, but its main motivation – get to the last sector just because – does not motivate enough. [Issue#221, p.88]

After the success of THQ’s UFC Undisputed, EA tried to copy it with MMA – and pretty much failed. Then it bought the license from THQ, but EA’s first UFC wasn’t stellar either. Well, after playing UFC 2 we can say with confidence: the third time is the charm. [Issue#209, p.68]

Monsters look great, but their physical model is severely lacking, which you can’t help but notice every time you just clip right through their tails or necks. Yet, the game somehow manages to overload 3DS’ hardware to the point some older models can’t keep up and drop framerate to unacceptable levels. [Issue#224, p.56]

Combat is rather simplistic, but effective: situations and objectives vary greatly, and each fight requires its own tactics and equipment. Unfortunately, it’s also the best part of the game – although writers managed to draft an intriguing world, they failed to populate it with memorable characters and stories. [Issue#239, p.66]

It’s not as stellar as the original Mafia was, but it’s not like anyone really expected that to happen. Still, Hangar 13’s game offers an interesting take on Mafia’s story – and that is no small thing either. [Issue#248, p.30]

Bullets simply don’t cause enough damage for shooting to feel fun: you can unload an entire magazine into some random mob point-blank, and there’s no guarantee it’ll do as much as make it flinch. After a while you realize that you’re not even watching the action anymore, your gaze is fixated solely on enemy healthbar at the top of the screen. On the other hand, bows, shotguns and grenade launchers do pack satisfying bang – they’re not much better in terms of DPS, but fire slowly enough for each shot to deal respectable damage to enemy ranks. [Issue#214, p.64]

I don’t know exactly when I fell in love with BattleTech. Maybe that happened when I’ve spotted an incoming Hunchback 4-P. That modification, while not the most widespread, is dear to anyone who’s ever participated in tabletop BattleTech tournaments. For me, such attention to details means that developers tried not only to make a BattleTech for XXI-century, but to keep it within existing context. [Issue#230, p.44]

Borderlands had its share of bugs, broken abilities and boring levels, but it always made up for it with humor and charm. Not anymore: Gearbox lost its best writers, so in Wonderlands it struggles even with established characters, and new ones fall completely flat. [Issue#260, p.42]

Although the narrative is fairly linear, there are enough branching paths over the course of the game to make it feel like your actions matter. That allows Detroit to still be fun even on multiple playthroughs – and for an interactive movie, that’s a rare praise. [Issue#231, p.68]

Stellaris would be better if released a little bit later. Could someone say for what reason developers remove traditional Swedish AI aggressiveness’ tuning from the game? After all the boring mid game due to the inactivity of the computer opponents is Stellaris's main problem at the moment. [Issue#210, p.82]

It’s one of the best Omega Force games and might very well bring new fans into musou genre. But it mostly follows the usual Omega Force formula, so if you know you don’t like musou – Age of Calamity won’t change your mind. [Issue#250, page 60]

For those who didn’t fall in love with these games way back when, they’ll look too childish and, at the same time, punishingly difficult. There are no endless respawns on checkpoints, so if you run out of lives – you gotta start from scratch. For a fan, however, that collection is a real treat. [Issue#220, p.77]

They tried to tell a very epic story on a very limited budget. A contrast like this sometimes really grates on my nerves, but, paradoxically, it’s also a part of Scarlet Nexus’ charm. [Issue#254, p.40]

This game from a small independent studio managed to one-up triple-A series like CoD and Battlefield. Insurgency: Sandstorm has a very clear understanding of what kind of experience it wants to deliver, and it doesn’t waste effort on timesinks like lootboxes or unlocks. [Issue#235, p.34]

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare’s multiplayer is a vivid example of how just one element of classical shooter mechanics is able to tear off many years’ worth of “realistic shooter” deposits and reveal all the primal fury of Quake. [Dec 2014, p.56]

Characters have little idea about what’s going on; they may even end up looking for people they’ve killed themselves. The fact that narration is split into episodes that can be played in almost any order adds absurdity to the events. But eventually puzzle comes together and meaning of each scene becomes clear. [Issue#211, p.57]

Respawn Entertainment still looks up to Dark Souls, but at the same time they try to make a hardcore game with the most softcore experience. For example, there’s always plenty of shortcuts, so Cal never loses much progress after his inevitable demise. [Issue#262, p.58]

Search for clues in the downtrodden districts of the future turns out to be far more captivating than diving into someone’s memories – which is supposed to be Observer’s main course. In the previous game by same studio, Layers of Fear, developers managed to evoke anxiety before the unknown, but here, all their efforts fall flat. Playing this game is just like fiddling with a jammed mechanism: you keep thinking that if you go just a bit further, something will click and the gears will start to turn – but in Observer’s case, that never comes to be. [Issue#223, p.62]

Peter’s flashbacks deserve a special mention. Eidos Montreal went all-out on them, so instead of a cutscene, we get to explore a lovingly detailed place from Star-Lord’s past. [Issue#257, p.48]