With frustrating tech, unappealing appearance and a lack of quality of life streamlining, Torment: Tides of Numenera might actually be my biggest gaming-related disappointment since I bought an Atari Jaguar.

Here Anomaly 2 is trying to reinvent its own wheel with little tiny incremental upgrades instead of taking the same drastic approach that gained it such praise in the first place. The result isn’t something groundbreaking; the result is a confused and missed opportunity that has more in common with RTS games in every wrong way possible.

I desperately wanted to love Aviary Attorney. After all, it was doing so many things that seemed totally fantastic. One, it was gathering inspiration from the Ace Attorney series and two it was creating a marvelous-looking anthropomorphic animal-filled version of France. Somehow, though, it didn’t come together as expected.

It doesn't matter how good the rest of a game is, though, if the controls betray you just when you need them most. [May 2007, p.55]

Undertow is an obnoxious, aggravating mess that, while trying something clever by combining a 2D twin-stick arena shooter with team-based gameplay, fails to be any fun whatsoever. [Spring 2008, p.61]

Until Then, with its innovative gameplay, stunning pixel graphics and emotionally-charged narrative is a game that transcends the boundaries of traditional storytelling. Despite a single minor interface issue, the overall experience is immersive, offering players a chance to explore the complexities of adolescence in a visually-captivating world. Until Then promises to leave a lasting impression, making it a must-play for fans of narrative-driven indie games.

It doesn't matter how good the rest of a game is, though, if the controls betray you just when you need them most. [May 2007, p.55]

In the moment, it can be thrilling to spar words with Cersei or choose whether to execute a thief or send him to the Wall. For that to work, however, you have to be willing to put up with a lot: the slow pacing, the exaggerated visuals, the awful animation and the fact that those choices don’t make much of a difference at all. Things could improve over the long haul, but based on this first episode, committing to a season pass is not recommended to anyone but the most diehard Game of Thrones fans with a high tolerance for mediocrity.

Until the bugs are ironed out, it’s just not worth the headache.

Hatoful Boyfriend is the food fight of video games. While you can derive a great deal of entertainment from its complete insanity, this doesn’t negate the fact that the end result is a total mess.

RACE Pro has compelling racing mechanics when it is just you versus the track, but it has more than a few rough patches elsewhere.

50 Pinch Barrage!! is a textbook example of archaic design and control; even at a budget price, this isn’t worth your hard-earned cash.

Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator has ample promise and a lot of heart, but wasn’t given enough time to grow. Most of the dads are lovely to get to know and worth dating. Players want to spend more time with these guys, but only get three relatively brief dates to whet their appetite. Then there’s the fact that it doesn’t yet feel finished due to a fair share of typographical issues, mishmash of art styles and the amount of gameplay bugs still impacting the experience. Once patches go out these latter issues should be resolved, but nothing short of DLC or a sequel will bring players more time with the cast of dads who simply weren’t given enough time in the spotlight to really shine.

There are far better ways to spend even the shorter spells of time on a complete package. The Station, sadly, is light-years away from being one of them.

If you love the idea of speed runs and like the thrill of making every move count to beat the clock, then 10 Second Ninja might be for you. For everyone else, though, 10 Second Ninja is a repetitive and dull game, one whose philosophy on improvement is player-hostile for the entire ride.

As-is, it's a very, very pretty demo of what the SIXAXIS can do. [May 2007, p.69]

You need to provide a seriously great experience to make it worth the strain and The Climb simply doesn’t manage to provide compelling gameplay for even the most die-hard virtual reality fans.

Maybe there's a great game beyond level 8. Maybe it turns into peaches and honey. Maybe a magical unicorn bursts from the screen. Who knows? After playing a single level beyond any possibility of ever getting any enjoyment from it again, I turned the game off and walked away. Gameplay masochism only stays enjoyable so long before a feeling best described as "screw this!" sets in, and Fractured Soul blew past that point and never looked back.

Earth Defense Force 2017 is the action game equivalent of potato chips: no nutritional value, but tasty nonetheless. [May 2007, p.61]

There’s no gameplay hook to latch onto and the writing and pacing both leave a lot to be desired.

Even if you’re a fan of the books or HBO show, there’s not much incentive to play Telltale’s Game of Thrones.

Cognition: Episode 2 fails to live up to the standards of Episode 1, which wasn’t exactly a lofty bar to aim for in the first place.

Hatoful Boyfriend is not a genuine comedic venture, it’s just a ridiculous idea turned purposely bad game. Charging money for it is just wrong, even if it is the best pigeon dating simulator on the planet.

There are plenty of better examples in the field of boss-rush titles — games that go out of their way to make even the spectacle and world around you, as inviting as their nuanced, tension-building encounters so wonderfully carve out. This, however, is not one of them. For all its screen-popping color and promise of literal time as a vital mechanic for success, Godstrike is a shockingly flat and tedious attempt at standing out.

The Wii Fit Balance Board is of little help, and only serves to complicate things further.

Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment isn’t just a bad game. With its awful story, tedious combat, and inexcusable translation, it’s an out and out insult to anyone who might buy it – fans of the series especially.

A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead takes an interesting concept and fails to reach the mark, fizzling out into mediocrity before even getting started. The goal of remaining quiet is portrayed well with several successful mechanics (opening doors slowly, watching where you step), but becomes boring as the game fails to create engaging challenges while plummeting in quality. Fans of the franchise will get a kick out of this adaptation for the first few hours, but it's hard to imagine many players sticking around until the ending.

Among the Sleep is a surprisingly bad execution of a deceptively weak idea.