The initial few hours are exciting and thrilling, swinging through the city, stopping crimes and collecting comic book pages. But it soon feels padded out and derivative. [Oct 2012, p.58]

Despite being rough around the edges and extremely frustrating at times, Blackguards delivers an enjoyable balance of story and strategy. [Apr 2014, p.64]

It is challenging, rewarding and frustrating, though it could use a bit more personality. [Oct 2013, p.70]

The art style is neat and the gameplay solidly addictive. [Dec 2012, p.29]

That's not to say that this version isn't playable, but it's far from ideal. [June 2013, p.85]

Gauntlet needs DLC. Badly. Still, good fun in the short term. [Issue#255, p.54]

Far from Ron Gilbert or Double Fine's best, but The Cave manages to deliver just enough satisfaction to avoid disaster. [Apr 2013, p.74]

Spectacular, state of the art dowloadable gaming that struggles to deliver interesting gameplay to match its technical accomplishments. [Oct 2012, p.52]

Better than it has any right to be, but still deeply flawed. [Nov 2013, p.68]

The interesting animations and imaginative products give enough for the asking price, and nothing more. [Feb 2013, p.69]

A bare bones, barely HD and quite unbalanced game. [Nov 2012, p.79]

Inoffensive and competent, but not exceptional. [June 2012, p.67]

It may be a little buggy and unbalanced, but Rise of the Triad is a gleefully stupid and hugely entertaining retro shoot 'em up. [Oct 2013, p.62]

At least turning the ship's wheel with your finger is a pleasantly tactile experience. [March 2014, p.76]

Excellent, but uneven, and almost certain to be divisive. Come for the bloated story mode, but stay for Mercenaries. [Nov 2012, p.62]

Some excellent ideas and multiplayer fun but not enough content as yet. [Apr 2013, p.76]

It's not bad, but Pangolin also isn't very compelling. [Apr 2013, p.23]

Still creepy, still fun eight years later. Not quite enough new content to win back old fans, but first-timers will delight. [Jan 2013, p.74]

Despite tense moments and imaginative worlds, Among the Sleep doesn't quite live up to the potential of its unique concept. [Issue#251, p.74]

Three strikes and you're out. [Apr 2014, p.55]

Mario Party 10 holds few surprises, but still offers great moments if you spread them out enough.

Thanks to screwy physics, dated design practices, and a series of poor decisions, this Hawk is a real turkey. [Oct 2012, p.64]

The difficulty is unrelenting. [May 2013, p.76]

It's playable and not terribly designed, just extremely dull. [Sept 2013, p.84]

Despite failing to reach its spectacular potential due to the region issues, there's still a great giant robot sim to be enjoyed. [June 2012, p.65]

A little too obtuse to be truly great, Flockers still delivers some great puzzle solving if you can deal with a lot of trial and error. [Issue#254, p.60]

There's a lot of charm. [Feb 2013, p.31]

It's time to stop treading water and take some freaking chances already. [Oct 2013, p.72]

Ambitious and intriguing, but fails to live up to its potential. [Issue#254, p.50]

We found matches to be a little hectic, with very little teamwork going on. [May 2012, p.75]

Proof that, sometimes, style "is" substance. [Issue#250, p.74]

In the end, it's basically FIFA 12 with only European countries available. And you already own FIFA 12. [Aug 2012, p.75]

Unlike the visuals, Tag Tournament's mechanics are still as polished and finely-tuned today as they were almost twelve years ago. [May 2012, p.70]

Suda 51's unique off-the-wall style comes at a price, with gameplay, polish and coherence left by the wayside. [Nov 2013, p.77]

A remarkably ugly game. [June 2012, p.60]

It's a solid little shooter, but there are so many different ways to shoot people online now that it's hard to get excited at a game like this one. [May 2012, p.60]

The combat system is far more nuanced than you would usually expect in a platformer. [Issue#253, p.72]

Frontier doesn't stand so well on its own, but it's a neat free appetiser. [Issue#249, p.77]

There's more problems with this game than I have words. Looks great though. [June 2013, p.80]

There's an interesting idea at the core of Of Orcs and Men, but the muddled delivery and presentation make it very forgettable. [Dec 2012]

A slick entry with a few bumps in the road. [Oct 2012, p.62]

The main problem is there isn't any visual feedback of which to speak. [Aug 2012, p.79]

Polished, thoughtful, and joyful. [Feb 2013, p.79]

A more structured setup does as much to bring a new audience as alienate fans. [Nov 2012, p.80]

Enjoyable until unlocks become a micro-transaction resisting grind. [Issue#253, p.74]

The more you play, the more you realise that this is an extremely simplified take on Crazy Taxi. [Issue#253, p.80]

Ambitious and enjoyable, but falters under its own weight. [Apr 2014, p.58]

It'll do. [June 2014, p.79]

Ultimately isn't very enjoyable to play. [Issue#255, p.76]

It's more than stupid, it's so moronic it becomes something almost sublime. [Issue#249, p.66]

It's still fun, but there are big handfulls of frustration thrown in too. [May 2012, p.79]

A decent game, but it lacks the depth to be anything more than a time filler. [Aug 2013, p.70]

It's funny and weird, if not a whole lot of fun past the first 15 minutes - but for that price, that's enough. [Apr 2013, p.23]

There are explosively brief thrills to be had, but makes it really hard for most peeps to give it a chance. [June 2012, p.72]

The character is too niche for broad appeal, but if you're a fan of the comics you should have a good time. [Sept 2013, p.71]

An engaging story and some good core mechanics hampered by some ugly design and repetitive, simplistic combat. [Jan 2014, p.66]

A benign but relatively feckless take on the whole kart-racing thing. Fun, but too lightweight. [Feb 2013, p.72]

There's just no denying that Blackgate is subpar. [Jan 2014, p.70]

All the problems of the first game and no new ideas. Terry Bogan is awesome. Riptide is painfully average. [July 2013, p.72]

There are some moments during which Evoland truly lives up to the premise but far too often the developers simply name check. [June 2013, p.72]

An ambitious attempt at making a simple but compelling game, hampered by a device that's not quite up for it. [Jan 2013, p.81]

Alright, maybe it won't enslave humanity. But there's no good reason to buy and play Rivals. [Issue#249, p.60]

With its straight focus, repetitive missions and static world, Defiance shouldn't work as well as it does. There's potential here. [July 2013, p.69]

You'd think a game that started its life on the far inferior Kinect 1.0 would have competent Kinect controls. You'd think wrong. [Feb 2014, p.78]

Firefall is a very well-constructed MMO framework that lacks a heart, soul or reason to return. [Issue#253, p.76]

Too many ideas without nearly enough follow through. [Jan 2014, p.65]

Worthwhile for fans, but it's not up there with the rest of the series. [Aug 2012, p.70]

Terrible AI, poor controls and questionable design decisions. [Jan 2013, p.66]

Some great level design hampered by some poor companion AI and sometimes inadequate controls. [Jan 2013, p.70]

Contrast juxtaposes some truly inspiring ideas and a magnificently realised world with unfinished, jittery mechanics and level designs lacking depth. [Feb 2014, p.80]

Not a good game, but it tries so hard to please it's kind of adorable. [Aug 2013, p.74]

A solid premise let down by rote design. [Issue#250, p.64]

A greedy, nasty piece of work, based on a broken economy scheme. [Apr 2014, p.74]

Acquire's joyously unusual samurai series, totally unmade by some seriously questionable gameplay tweaks. [Jan 2013, p.76]

Pleasant, but not particularly memorable. [Jan 2013, p.78]

Lost Planet 3 does a decent job telling its story, but absolutely average, unimaginative gameplay lets it down. [Nov 2013, p.72]

By far the most thoughtful game in the series and also the most accessible. Is that a good thing? I obviously think so; purists may beg to differ. [May 2012, p.58]

Deeply disappointing in just about every way. [Issue#253, p.70]

This is an inoffensive little game with little to say about celebrity and which features monetisation strategy that damages the gameplay model. [Issue#253, p.80]

Weirdly memorable. [May 2012, p.82]

None of it is particularly well done. [May 2012, p.80]

Trash talk, petty grudges, suicidal vendettas. That's what wrecked is all about. [June 2012, p.62]

Ugly, stupid and riddled with cliche, Bound by Flame has car crash fascination but little else to recommend it. [Issue#249, p.62]

Crappy in places, but frequently very fun. You might hate yourself for not hating it. [June 2012, p.74]

This one's a dud. [May 2012, p.83]

The absolute lowest point in this gen's lunatic JRPG precedent thus far. [Jan 2013, p.80]

A game that relies on bothersome microtransactions and generally boring action. [Oct 2013, p.78]

Terribly ugly and just a little too dumb, Moebius feels unloved and abandoned by its developers. [Issue#249, p.73]

An idea with insane potential crippled by limiting transformations to scripted events. [Feb 2014, p.76]

You'll like it, you'll leave it behind soon after. [May 2012, p.79]

Bland, glitchy, linear to a fault and hopelessly redundant. You could go your whole life without playing this and not miss anything. [Jan 2013, p.72]

A bland entry to an already bloated array of games, Battle of Z fails to scratch that Dragon Ball itch that its predecessors managed to hit. [Apr 2014, p.68]

A functional but forgettable budget title featuring clarinet solos and wiseguys. Wait for Steam sale. [Apr 2013, p.78]

As offensive as it is bland. [June 2014, p.74]

Inversion promised a lot but is let down by faulty core gameplay mechanics and the most pedestrian of plotlines. [Sept 2012, p.78]

Better than expected - but still not that great. [Aug 2012, p.81]

As buggy, glitchy and convention-defying as Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City is, it's still a buttload of fun. [May 2012, p.68]

Sounds nice, though. [Aug 2012, p.31]