It somehow feels like we've fought the good fight at the Battle of Hu Lao Gate dozens of times before. [Oct 2003, p.73]

Each of the 19 planes is drawn in astounding detail, but unfortunately, for all the modeled damage and intricate cockpits, the game physics are a little too arcadey. [Dec 2004, p.133]

Isn't a remake of the PS1 game of the same name, but rather a conceptually similar reimagining. [Jan 2004, p.68]

Despite all it's going for it, Evil Genius just isn't fun. The gameplay is dull, and there is nothing left after you get beyond the initial novelty. [Nov 2004, p.140]

Once you begin playing, though, you realize that Sword of Mana's interface is among the most ill-advised in recent memory.

Problem is, the missions are largely cookie-cutter (do tasks like "destroy four generators without being spotted" sound familiar?) and lack the thrill found in similarly themed games, like "GoldenEye 007" (N64). Worse yet, your opponents are unbelievably excellent shots who almost never miss.

GT Online's price merely makes it attractive in a low-budget, disposable way. [Jan 2004, p.90]

These brief spurts of action are entertaining, but between them lie only painfully simple puzzles and, as previously mentioned, lots of running around, avoiding your idiotic pursuers with the same tricks over and over again. [June 2003, p.71]

Although there are plenty of missions to complete and monsters to vanquish, even die-hard D&D fans might struggle to stay awake throughout this game.

It's competently done, but fairly dull.

If you're a fan of firefights, Core Combat gives you access to the complete PlanetSide experience, but if you've already got the original, the expansion isn't really necessary.

A competent and, at times, genuinely fun platformer, but it will have to rely heavily on its license for a successful run. [Feb 2005, p.99]

Imagine the leap a game like "Dead or Alive 2" made when it became "3," and you can see the potential being wasted here. [May 2003, p.63]

The glossy graphics can't shine off the mediocrity of the Westwood formula. [Apr 2003, p.67]

Everybody runs. In the case of the lackluster 3D-adventure-cum-beat-em-up Minority Report, rest assured, they're not running to the videogame store. [Feb 2003, p.71]

A feature-lite driving simulator that neither offends nor excels in any particular area of design, and one that doesn't elicit a sense of excitement, rather a feeling of déjà vu.

Does nothing extraordinarily special, nor is the DS hardware exploited beyond a map. [Feb 2005, p.110]

Once all the moves are unlocked, this is a rather decent game. But since thye're not immediately available, the monotony will have you bailing before the second level. [Nov 2003, p.78]

It's not very polished. [Aug 2004, p.93]

Takes advantage of the new lease on life by endangering the lives of its onscreen combatants in much better fashion than before. [Feb 2005, p.84]

It arrives on Xbox as both a has-been and simultaneously a never-ran. [Oct 2004, p.120]

The game doesn't handle nearly as well as games like "Mario Kart: Super Circuit." This is especially frustrating when paired with a track that blends a bit too well into the surrounding environment, and there are quite a few of those tracks. [Apr 2004, p.90]

It's a good game, but it lacks the qualities that make the greats - the Marios, Castlevanias, and Metroids - absolute must-haves. [June 2003, p.79]

47 doesn't interact smoothly with his world. His movements come right out of the Max Payne School of Character Animation, with the antihero sliding and gliding across surfaces rather than running...None of this feels right. [June 2004, p.84]

Although there are plenty of missions to complete and mosters to vanquish, even die-hard D&D fans might struggle to stay awake throughout this game. [Mar 2004, p.84]

The game's charm doesn't save it from supershort (though plentiful) levels and opponent A.I. that'll keep you playing the early levels over and over and over again. [Apr 2003, p.71]

We'd feel good about recommending this game to RPG fans if not for the stuttery framerates. [Sept 2003, p.75]

What holds Fire Warrior back is some rather uninspiring gameplay. You play the entire game as a single lowly Tau warrior and must fight your way through legions of increasingly difficult enemies. Pretty standard stuff. [Nov 2003, p.77]

The changes don't amount to much; it looks a lot like the last game and sounds worse. Ouch. [Nov 2003, p.78]

Games like B.O.S. tend to become tedious and long, compelling you to continue simply so you can level up and get stronger armor and bigger weapons. There's not really any roleplaying to speak of. [Mar 2004, p.84]

The novelty of yapping it up boosts this game from mere mediocrity into a somewhat-intriguing solid title. [Dec 2003, p.86]

The game hits the mark in terms of Samurai Jack authenticity. As he battles his archnemesis Aku, Jack acts and sounds like you'd expect Jack to act and sound. Only cel shading, rather than 3D RenderWare-ing, would have taken this over the top.

Not nearly as exciting as it sounds. [June 2003, p.70]

Parents will probably have to play this one along with their toddlers. When they do, they'll find a fun but flawed kid's program.

A feature-lite driving simulator that neither offends nor excels in any particular area of design, and one that doesn't elicit a sense of excitement, rather a feeling of déjà vu.

The game is good, to be sure, but only good enough to be mundane. [Nov 2003, p.81]

A perfectly competent single-player shooter with neat space-sim elements (and Henry Rollins!), but if you absolutely need multiplayer replayability, look elsewhere. [Aug 2003, p.77]

Basically an expanded version of the original game. It won't win over any of the game's skeptics, but fans of the original will definitely find something to like here. [Aug 2004, p.100]

Not much more than a so-so platformer with a problematic camera. [Feb 2003, p.69]

And again, boss encounters are both overwhelming and plodding. [Nov 2004, p.127]

Its levels come in short, overly difficult bursts that routinely send you hurtling back to the title screen with whatever heath you had when you hit the last checkpoint, be it a full bar or a mere sliver. This basically railroads whatever fun is to be had in the RPG-like character development system. [Nov 2004, p.134]

Playing out your career is fun for a little while, but there's just too much tedium and repetition involved to inject freshness into a tired franchise. [Sept 2003, p.67]

What it lacks in substance, it makes up for in brilliance, and while we're averse to rewarding style over substance, in this case, we can't really deny the game's addictive appeal. [Feb 2003, p.73]

Except for the emphasis on female persuasion, there is little to differentiate SRS from the plenty of other street racers either available now or coming soon.

The strategy serves as a fine complement to the otherwise problematic action, and, ultimately, Gunner hits its mark - but just barely. [Aug 2003, p.72]

The frustrating, non-compliant camera and general lack of challenge keep DMC 2 from being great. [Mar 2003, p.60]

Your opponents are unbelievably excellent shots who almost never miss...A clear case of style over substance, XIII is pretty to look at but a bitch to play. [Dec 2003, p.100]

Players will find themselves replaying missions again and again because, as in real war, life is cheap and death is all too common. [June 2003, p.75]

Questionable in taste, weak in humor, and uneven in play, Chaos dampens its drawers with mediocrity. [Apr 2003, p.72]

What it does do well is capture the back-and-forth flow of hockey, especially during odd-man rush situations, neutral-zone navigation, forechecking, and power plays around the goal. [Jan 2004, p.84]

Unless you're feeling nostalgic, you're better off stickin' with EA's "NBA Street" series for over-the-top roundball fun. [Dec 2003, p.84]

The slower pacing and repetitive gameplay wear thin after a few hours if you're all by your lonesome. [Nov 2003, p.78]

This RPG is full of lush graphics and beautiful effects but completely devoid of a decent story, character development, and anything resembling depth.

Unless you've got serious Atari nostalgia, most of these won't keep you occupied for more than five minutes. [Feb 2005, p.103]

Different and innovative doesn't always mean good. [Oct 2003, p.69]

While PSO began as a genuine phenomenon, it ends with something more like a fizzled experiment.

Average but suitable shooter with weird characters. [May 2004, p.95]

Why waste money on Superstars when you can buy any number of hallucination-inducing substances to get your friends swatting at the air for a fraction of the price? [Feb 2005, p.94]

Exaggeraged violence is all Pride has; matches often conclude in less time than the game takes to load the match. [Mar 2003, p.66]

It's this constant barrage of humor, both cliched and well written, that saves Larry from flunking out. [Dec 2004, p.122]

A good concept with fun trappings, but it doesn't quite have enough going on under teh surface. [Nov 2004, p.108]

Wearing a no-holds-barred sense of literalism on its sleeve, this mostly mediocre affair fails to bring anything new to the genre or even match its many peers. [Feb 2005, p.104]

While the action portion of Commander is a leaky dinghy, the strategy elements are the Titanic, pre-iceberg. [May 2004, p.82]

The game's frequent puzzles also range from simplistic to mildly frustrating. Fortunately, you'll be finished with the game in a weekend.

In most ways an improvement upon its predecessor, but it's still a far cry from the awesome arcade game that came out in the late '80s...A highly mediocre experience. [Nov 2004, p.121]

A highly mediocre experience.

An otherwise pedestrian city-building game, only Tropico 2's setting salvages it from being a complete shipwreck. [July 2003, p.79]

Most of the game plays out like "Pokemon" with bad wiring. [Mar 2003, p.65]

Diehard EQ addicts and RTS junkies will get some fun out of this game (especially with its monstrous 12-player LAN/Internet support); everyone else should probably just stick to "Warcraft III."

What little real challenge there is exists solely because of the horrendous camera controls. [Oct 2004, p.98]

Brings style aplenty, but it rarely stoops to substance and is easily surpassed by its videogame brethren. [Jan 2005, p.85]

The controls are just dandy, and there's plenty of shooting to be done, but no single aspect of this Invasion makes the game particularly notable - it looks plain, sounds plain, and pretty much plays plain, too. [Nov 2004, p.112]

Gamers who are interested in a horror title without needing to scrounge for ammunition and health packs should give Echo Night: Beyond a go, but players who are used to fighting for their survival will find the game dull and repetitive. [Sept 2004, p.94]

This MMORPG is so difficult, long, and slow that playing it feels more like work than a game. [Sept 2004, p.85]

The whole game becomes rather monotonous, despite attempts at adding replay value. [Nov 2004, p.124]

Kuon has considerably limited replay value, and the game is neither ambitious nor unique enough to warrant an especially enthusiastic recommendation. [Dec 2004, p.122]

Even the most uninspired games in this class (read: "Brute Force") have, at the very least, a solid technical foundation. But Omega Strain is janky, and uninspired on top of it. The series was better off left buried rather than marred with a subpar effort like this. [June 2004, p.80]

The bottom line is that if you're going to have an easy-to-play game that doesn't even attempt to push the genre in any meaningful manner, at least feature characters that 8-year-olds won't be too embarrassed to be caught playing as. [Dec 2004, p.126]

Gone are the cel-shaded cartoon graphics, replaced with rougher texture-mapped models that lack the same action-figure sheen. [July 2004, p.90]

Finding a hot zone that doesn't play like a deathmatch in a broom closet [or getting to a hot zone at all] takes more legwork than you'd expect for the payoff. [Sept 2003, p.65]

The pace is so fast, however, that you'll likely finish the entire game in less than three hours. [July 2003, p.76]

A bit of an acquired taste. If you dig its goofy sense of humor, or if you're a fan of previous Worms games, you might find something to like once you get past the 3D-induced flaws.

A game designed solely and specifically to appeal to nostalgia-addled fans, released in a country where that nostalgia doesn't exist. [Dec 2004, p.102]

The pitcher/batter interface is shallower than Bank One Ballpark's swimming pool... Overall, Inside Pitch lacks just about any sense of baseball spirit. [June 2003, p.68]

At worst, it's a standard adventure game that wastes good graphics, competent voice acting, and an engaging plot. [May 2003, p.71]

Powersliding, for a start, is a disaster. It's nearly impossible to do with any level of consistency, and no amount of fiddling with the car's setup will fix it. [May 2003, p.60]

The specialized tag-style modes are fun for a while, particularly because they involve explosions, but even these modes quickly wear thin. [June 2004, p.83]

But this game is too difficult. Hell, we got frustrated by the tutorial. Not a good sign. By far the biggest problem is that you'll be fighting the camera controls as much as the Nazis.

Stealth, ostensibly, should carry the game. It does not, simply because players are given little incentive to be stealthy. [June 2004, p.78]

The controls just don't cut it...Final Four's controls are quite sluggish, taking a split second or so before the corresponding action occurs onscreen. [Jan 2004, p.84]

The presentation is top notch, but maybe you need to be a 5-year-old to make stupid-ass Goofy complete a pass. [Feb 2003, p.71]

The best Tube Slider can come up with is a fancy-looking plate carrying a healthy portion of "been there, done that." [July 2003, p.75]

Arenas are constrained and cliched, and the gameplay is as button-mashy as ever. [Dec 2003, p.86]

Lacks elastic A.I. to keep the cars close together. [Jan 2005, p.87]

Playing it is slightly more fun than swallowing a lawn mower. [July 2003, p.72]

The graphics seal the deal. This just doesn't look like an Xbox game. The slowdown notwithstanding, the lighting is bad, the car models look wrong, and the trackside objects are sparse and ugly. [Oct 2003, p.77]

The jarring switch between graphical adventure and actual gameplay is so distinct, Everblue 2 ultimately feels like a half-baked minigame. [Mar 2003, p.67]

It never really evolves beyond the point-to-point errand running through relatively small environments. [May 2003, p.69]