Tequila Work's debut's confident craftsmanship and considered design more than compensates for its shortfalls with the narrative's impact and the intermittently niggling handling. It's by no means a smooth ride, but this dank and desolate landscape is worth braving.

For all its tight gameplay and superb visuals, this is simply Treasure by numbers and if you’ve played any of its past games you’ll find nothing here that you haven't seen already. [Oct 2004, p.104]

Project Spark could collapse without a more robust curation system to highlight the creations that need playing. [Issue#154, p.118]

Gearbox should be applauded for taking the first-person genre in a bold new direction, but during the bulk of the game, players must be willing to sit back and let the developer tell the story. [Apr 2005, p.104]

If you're a fan of Nippon Ichi humour and love your games in Metal Slug and Ghouls 'N' Ghosts flavours, then feel free to add a point on to the score because, dood, this game's made for you. [June 2009, p.124]

Those who scoffed at Phoenix Wright’s endless text conversations and backwards-looking point-and-click mechanics will find nothing to love second time out, but Justice For All wasn’t made for them; it was clearly put together with fans of the previous game in mind. [Jan 2007, p.91]

There's no denying the dungeons are a minor addition, however, so anyone who owns the original 3DSWare release may not see the value in upgrading. Everyone else, you'll need to still have that childlike sense of play and a certain ability to make your own fun – or at least some children of your own – to get the most out of this.

There are very real concerns over the game’s staying power, but with six separate difficulty levels as well as a co-op mode both online and offline, how much of a problem this is will depend on the individual. [Jan 2008, p.130]

Despite its flaws, this is one of the year's true surprises, and an absolute bargain at the price.

Field Commander has chosen a good series to emulate, and it emulates it with panache. [Sept 2006, p.130]

It shines brightly for a while but is lacking that extra spark that could have turned it into the cult classic it’s so desperately trying to be. [Mar 2007, p.98]

The story is not the main draw here. [Issue#154, p.124]

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

While Underground tried to seamlessly mix its diversity, humour and gameplay, it was always obvious when you were being dragged away from the combo system at the heart of the series. Thankfully, THUG2 makes a much better fist of keeping classic Tony Hawk’s gameplay at the heart of the tasks. Even when skating as Benjamin Franklin or a shrimp vendor, the focus remains on skateboarding. [Dec 2004, p.102]

Admittedly, the classes and jobs have been wonderfully balanced to make large parties fit together perfectly but this is no excuse for making solo play so difficult for anything but the toughest classes and so distinctly unrewarding. [Oct 2004, p.114]

Highly entertaining and, above all, fun. Despite being filled with all manner of videogame cliches, Metal Arms somehow feels refreshingly new and not at all like the cobbled together title that it so undoubtedly is. [Christmas 2003, p.103]

This is exactly the sort of thing Diablo fans have been waiting for and although there’s little chance that it will change your life, there’s every possibility that it will consume it. [Chrismas 2007, p.126]

It's rare that you can state that no two characters in a beat-'em-up play alike but, in this case, it's absolutely undeniable. [Issue#111, p.120]

Each confrontation is generally exactly the same and victory is sometimes dependent on whether the irritating catch-up AI decides to beat you or not. [Oct 2004, p.120]

Approached with acceptance of its limitations and a willingness to cede true freedom, Afrika can still be a remarkable, memorable experience. [Dec 2008, p.121]

Rock Band and Guitar Hero already have the party attitude, but Rocksmith needs to try harder to master this untapped school music teacher approach.

All of the areas where the game truly excels are exactly what we expect from the series - and from Lionhead as a studio - while its great leaps forward mostly fall flat and upset the balance of the whole. [Christmas 2010, p.90]

If you like videogames at all - and we're assuming you do, because you're reading this magazine - there's every chance you're going to enjoy Wolfenstein on some level, just don't expect the pushing of any boundaries. [Oct 2009, p.120]

From a single-player point of view at least, Killzone 3 is the biggest disappointment of the year so far. It does have a few exhilarating moments, and it can probably still just about claim to have the best graphics ever, but it fundamentally plays more like a formulaic Call Of Duty clone than a successor to the current generations most intense, visceral FPS.

Capcom certainly puts forward a good case for being able to teach an old monster new tricks. [Issue#111, p.124]

As a game, Bound is clearly flawed – its structure, however, is excellent and well realised to support multiple playthroughs with noticeably different experiences – but as an experience, as a piece of interactive art, it’s frequently sensational.

It's possible to sit through the game in one (admittedly long) sitting and this comes dangerously close to ruining the game. Fortunately, with five initial characters to play as and the typical Dark Alliance secrets, you'll still find yourself going back long after the main adventure is finished. [Feb 2004, p.100]

The question of how much an open city suits Burnout is soon replaced by how well Criterion makes the game work within one. And, thanks to a number of odd decisions on how players progress, the answer is: sloppily. [Feb 2008, p.114]