It’s an original and fun game that will influence the scene, it just lacks the expected Garriott magic. [Chrismas 2007, p.130]

Capcom Vancouver has therefore given the Xbox One something that PS4 does not have right now: a strong triple-A exclusive. Dead Rising 3 dares you to dream about high the bar can be set for the open world game during this generation on a technical and creative level, even with its obvious flaws in mission design. Not bad for a launch title.

The core gameplay is somewhat lacking. ‘But it’s for kids,’ we hear you cry. Maybe so, but even kids - or those who are just young at heart - will no doubt want a challenge that lasts longer than it would take to watch the original trilogy. [May 2005, p.109]

A premiere stealth game, but it has lost some of that old charm that made its predecessors so appealing. [Apr 2007, p.129]

Alien Hominid is a joyful experience, an unashamedly simple game that makes you want to play until you can’t feel your hands anymore... The perfect budget game. [Jan 2005, p.104]

MotionPlus adds a welcome layer of immersion, but it never does enough to completely mend the game's flaws. Matches are often frustrating, shots will still bounce past your player and the AI will sometimes second-guess you, placing you in a poor position to return a serve. [Sept 2009, p.126]

Throw some wonderfully realised boss battles into the mix of gentle exploration and high-speed escape and you have one of the most varied yet consistently polished platform games of the generation. [Nov 2008, p.110]

If you go with the flow of how you're supposed to play Republic Commando this can be good fun. It is, after all, a Star Wars game and, for this reason alone, a small proportion of gamers will enjoy it. But pleasing a small number of gamers hardly sounds like the policy of the kind of republic we'd like to live in. [March 2005, p.96]

A tough-to-watch vignette of familial love and loss. [Issue#203, p.80]

A game with much more emotional depth to it than you might expect. [Chrismas 2007, p.116]

Not quite as well-rounded overall as last year. [Issue#140, p.106]

The handful of boss fights in Dead Space 3 are particularly forgettable, while the narrative occasionally lacks the courage of its convictions and the end-game reveal is a little too ludicrous to take seriously. However, where the new concepts work, they add to the solid core and are enhanced by Visceral’s excellent pacing and its impeccable audio and visual design work, not to mention what remains the best HUD design in all of video games.

It's a very clever concept that makes for a poker-style of RTS, a real thinking man's strategy title, where getting inside the head of your opponent and planning several steps ahead of his game is much more important than straightforward land-grabbing and tank-busting. [Issue#100, p.130]

Fans of adventure games who don't find block-pushing and switch-flipping tiresome will enjoy a long-lasting challenge, as will fans of the original. Everyone else, however, should approach with caution. [Aug 2005, p.118]

If you enjoy looking beyond the familiar and putting a bit of time in, you’ll find that Galak-Z is a well-crafted game that stands apart from its inspirations.

Such free-thinking touches recall a more experimental age when you could rightfully expect every other DS game to be crammed with esoteric concepts. [Apr 2010, p.118]

Essentially, what we have here is a further improved and expanded version of Xbox 360’s Ridge Racer 6. And that in itself makes Ridge Racer 7 notable as a great sequel. [Jan 2007, p.109]

If you go into Abzû knowing what to expect, you won’t be disappointed. Few games have such capacity to draw the player in with beautiful artistic direction and subtle environmental storytelling alone.

Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture is a brave experiment, and one that’s paid off for The Chinese Room. If you’re a console-only gamer, it’ll be unlike anything you’ve ever played before – we say that with admiration.

Upsets the balance between fun and realism maintained by its immediate predecessor. [Aug 2008, p.108]

As it stands, this is a good example of how to do a DLC package.

Approachable gameplay, obstructionist systems. [Issue#192, p.81]

Excellently constructed and just addictive enough to encourage players to make it through to the end. In multi-player especially, it’s consistently enjoyable and occasionally compelling, if a little old fashioned. [Aug 2006, p.132]

Shadow Wars could be criticised for not making any genuinely innovative steps forward in the strategy genre. But what it does do – integrating just about every conceivable feature of turn-based strategy into a single cohesive whole – is enough to make it one of the best handheld titles of its kind in years, and a surprising jewel in the 3DS launch line-up.

It manages to make the act of perseverance a relentlessly fun experience at all times. Yet for all its hardcore credentials, it also remains an instantly accessible racer as fun for non-gamers as it is for the elite. [July 2009, p.127]

When the game works, it's one of the finest party games on offer, but Nintendo's confusion in what it wants to achieve with the Wii U GamePad results in an erratic compilation short on hits

It’s a nice curio to have on the disk, we suppose, but any fans picking up Kingdom Hearts 1.5 will almost certainly be after a high-end version of the original rather than these frivolous extras. As Square Enix takes what will probably be a decade to release Kingdom Hearts III, this expensive-feeling re-release and a matching 2.5 for the sequel will be a more than adequate stopgap.

This is a true multiplayer experience, which despite its accessibility, demands commitment and communication to enjoy to its fullest. It's also a game, though, that deserves to be loved.