Episode II is certainly not a bad game, just a little bit uninspired. It also doesn't help that Team Sonic consistently breaks up the (fast) pacing of the game, resulting in quite some frustration. Less frustrating and even fun are the bonus levels who look like they've been hauled over from Sonic 2.[July 2012, p.92]

Poker is a lot of fun when played amongst good company, which is definitely the case in Poker Night 2. Claptrap from Borderlands and GlaDOS from Portal steal the show with their goofy remarks. But once you have collected all the goodies, you just want to seat yourself at a real poker table. [June 2013, p.90]

Creating your own track has never been easier or faster. Use your index finger on the front touch screen to draw the track. Then add some details and an impressive mountain range using the back touchpad and you are set to race. [March 2012, p.53]

Remember how you got shot in the head at the beginning of New Vegas? Well, that bullet was actually meant for the courier Ulysses. Sounds good, but it actually isn't. [Nov 2011, p.97]

Perhaps the biggest flaw is the lack of a sense of speed. You know there has to be something wrong when you're asking yourself whether the car is moving forward or the road and its surroundings are moving backwards. [September 2012, p.76]

Orgarhythm mix of strategy and rhythm-based gameplay is very reminiscent of that of Patapon. Using the touch controls you command your troops to the sound of some wicked, hypnotic beats. Too bad the game becomes a bit bland real fast.[February 2013, p.90]

The game's uninspired vibe and execution are not the only things that Techland and Deep Silver forgot to improve upon. The graphics are sub par to say the least. The game can have you staring in awe at a stranded battle cruiser, but the immersion quickly falls apart when you notice your gun sticking trough a solid brick wall. [May 2013, p.76]

Crush zombies under your wheels, customize your vehicles with knives and kill some more of the undead. This game wants to be a tribute to the pc-classic, but forgets a few things. Like humor. [Nov 2011, p.98]

Despite its lengthy intro, it isn't quite clear who the Saints are, what they can do and why there is fighting to be done. Only those who know the original stories will be able to fully grasp what is going on. Luckily you do get a decent tutorial. [April 2012, p.90]

A good looking and side scrolling beat'em up that lets you take on wave after wave of enemies as a warrior, ranger, shaman or mage. Too bad the characters feel to similar to warrant multiple playthroughs. [May 2013, p.97]

Drawing with the uDraw-tablet is not that easy and can lead to some less than stellar results, making us wish we were playing the real deal. On the other hand, watching a drawing on your television is a lot easier than having everyone gather around a small piece of paper. [February 2012, p.98]

Technical errors and slow inputs drag the game's best moments down with them. The slow controls really become a problem when you are fighting more nimble enemies in a small, confined space. Sci-fi fans will get a kick out of Lost Planet. Everybody else will pick it up from the bargain bin. [September p.60]

This is the kind of game that you play for only short periods of time. Partly because of the repetitive nature of the gameplay, but also because of the physical pain it can cause you. Play this for a few hours on end and you will definitely suffer the morning after. [December 2011, p.84]

Whether you believe God(s) or not, you have always wanted to be one. Wouldn't it be great to invent strange creatures all day and decide which ones can live and which ones can't. Too bad it takes about just as long to create something in this game as it does in real life. Unless you pay up. [November 2012, p.92]

But then it hits us, Deadpool is not a game, it is a parody of a game. Of the kind of games you would see when a new Thor movie hits the theaters. All the elements that make such a game are to be found in Deadpool. Collecting coins or orbs, shallow combat and a horde of identical enemies (Deadpool: "are they all brothers?). [September p.74]

Despite being a kids game, F1 Race Stars uses its license to the bone. Cars are properly branded and colored with the right sponsors and every driver of the 2012 season showed up, plus four imaginary drivers, including three women. [January 2013, p.74]

Twenty years after the Amiga classic our fourth favourite super frog (just behind Frog from Chrono Trigger and the Battletoads) returns with fancy new visuals. And, guess what? Besides some control issues, the game is not that bad. [September p.91]

The exercises offer a lot of variety, but sometimes they are too alike. Jumping away from a ball or catching it for example may seem different, but boils down to the same thing. The exercises are also very intense for people who aren't used to working out regularly. [December 2011, p.87]

Convince three friends to buy God Mode, because on your own it gets old real fast. Mainly because it does not offer you that much content. It all about shooting the same enemies in the face over and over again. [June 2013, p.91]

Saying Burning Skies is a bit too linear for its own good would be a little bit unfair since the FPS genre has become synonymous with heavily scripted and action packed events. But that's exactly what is missing in Burning Skies: the action. [June 2012, p.84]

This feels like an educational game because the main theme is all about saving nature. You play as two clouds that have to clean up the polluted Okabu-world. The art design is quite attractive, but the puzzles that you need to solve are too simple to be interesting. [December 2011, p.101]

After you finish the game – which you can do in about four hours – you can replay the special sections with Bobby, Haddock and all kinds of vehicles in the Challenge mode. But there is more fun to be had in the Haddock mode, which drops you in a dreamlike world. [December 2011, p.98]

Just like its predecessor Epic Mickey 2 combines platforming and puzzles in a world divided into hubs between which you can travel by jumping into movie screens. With the brush you can repair or destroy structures, which sounds kind of goofy, but offers a ton of choices.[December 2012, p.62]

Thankfully, navigating through the poorly designed menus is not the only thing Dust 514 has to offer. You can also shoot each other in a body region of choice on poorly designed multiplayer maps. Even with 31 other player joining the fray, you will have a hard time finding even a single adversary. [June 2013, p.86]

Killzone only started turning heads when part two came around, so it's no surprise that the eight year old part one is no more than an interesting history lesson coated with HD smudges of paint, rather than a must have for shooter fans. [December 2012, p.92]

The moronic AI is not the only thing which takes us back to the good old days of the PlayStation 2. Defiance looks horrible with its blurry textures, wooden animations and an all-devouring grey mist that swallows up the horizon. [May 2013, p.82]

Yet another SNK classic which has found its way to the Minis collection. A typical beat'em up straight from the eighties starring a certain Jackie who looks an awful lot like a certain other famous Jackie. A short game for a small price tag. [September 2012, p.87]

Still, Book of Memories is not a bad game. There are elements of Catherine, Persona and even the classic Gauntlet to be found. Just don't except a riveting horror experience, because that is not what Book of Memories is or tries to be. [December 2012, p.77]

The idea of having two synchronous time periods that influence each other is a good one, but there are too many shortcomings that make Edge of Time a frustrating experience. The story is told in a confusing way, the graphics are bland and so is the overall action. [Nov 2011, p.68]

When it comes to action, Team Ninja pulls out all the stops. One moment you're jumping out of a C-130, ripping apart Apache helicopters, pile driving K9 bloodhounds into the concrete. The other, you're escaping an exploding lab, being chased by a T-Rex. [April 2012, p.68]

Not every game (or player) needs a riveting story, sometimes some fun gameplay is all it (and the player) needs. Unfortunately nobody told Visceral en EA that. The Devil's Cartel is nothing more than “Duck, Shoot and Reload”, until the end of times. [May 2013, p.80]

Every time we solved a puzzle we found ourselves in a totally different locale. Behind the wheel of a car, on a barren surface of ice or right in the middle of an ongoing war. Are they memories? Fantasies? Or is the forest a dream world? And who is that guy with the shotgun?. [June 2012, p.104]

Of Orcs and Men is all about two greenskins whose mission it is to kill the human emperor to free the Orcs of slavery. An interesting set-up, considering these two greenskins are no sissies. The dynamic between them reminded us of Kane & Lynch. [December 2012, p.81]

We don't want to offend the longtime fans of the series, but we honestly can't understand why anybody would want to play an archaic RPG like Wizardry when there are fantastic games like Skyrim around. Being nostalgic is one thing, being ignorant another. [January 2012, p.85]

In its many trailers Sumioni: Demon Arts promised to make perfect use of the PlayStation Vita's unique capabilities and it actually does just that. Unfortunately the game is a bit of a one trick pony and turns into a grind pretty quickly. [May 2012, p.87]

Pretty funny and even entertaining at first. Unfortunately it also gets boring pretty fast. Army Corps of Hell lacks variation by recycling the same environments over and over again and lacks a certain tactical depth you'd come to expect from an RTS. [March 2012, p.65]

Sometimes the touch controls work magnificently, like in a game of Wac-A-Mole. At other times, though, they drive you crazy because the creators tried to cram every single feature the Vita has to offer into their collection of minigames. [March 2012, p.52]

With the Gravlink - an alien, but poorly designed technology that Russ carries around on his back - you can pick up objects and throw them or lift enemies out of cover. Unfortunately the controls are so imprecise it takes ages before you get the right object to levitate. [July 2012, p.86]

As expected, Shinobido 2 is no return to developer Acquire's former glory. A lot of gamers will be bothered by the unfinished look and feel of the game. Sometimes you even wonder if the developers remembered to program the AI. [March 2012, p.64]

Every once in a while Danger Close breaks the endless mould of duck & cover gameplay by letting you mark a building for an air strike, chase down an informant or provide sniper support. But even these sequences repeat themselves multiple times throughout the game. [December 2012, p.68]

After thirty hours you're still discovering new islands in the enormous ocean surrounding Fenith Island. You're still trying to manage your plantations more efficiently or be a better cook. There are no tutorials, which means that you'll spend a lot of time wondering what you're supposed to do. [July 2012, p.88]

After the dozens of cooking shows on television, it seems that even our PS3 won't escape the hype. Order Up serves us a Wii port and yes, it doesn't look very tasty. Just like with the Wii version you have to prepare ingredients and run your kitchen like a true Gordon Ramsey albeit with less cursing. [July 2012, p.92]

Narco Terror is a not so very special twin stick shooter that gets repetitive real fast and has a boring story to boot. The upside is that you can play the game with a friend, if you want to. But even with multiple wannabe Rambo's there is not much fun to be had. [September p.90]

In Babel Rising you have to prevent hard working labourers from building the titular tower by conjuring wind and raining fire down on them. Fun and entertaining for a while, but also very monotonous. [July 2012, p.93]

Judging by how bizarre some of the fighters are (like a Polish punk rocker who also happens to be a dentist) we're guessing that the guys over at Novarama are definitely on some kind of drug. Which would also explain why the actual fighting is so crappy. [March 2012, p.55]

With a game title this weird, you definitely need a crazy story to match it. You're Doc Clock, an inventor who turned his cat into a plant and sent his time machine to the future, instead of the past. A future filled with clumsy platforming. [June 2012, p.99]

We're pretty sure the guys over at Gaijin Entertainment mean well. They have genuinely tried to improve the mediocre X-Blades, but that game didn't exactly raise the bar for the genre. This time Ayumi (now with more clothes on) travels to - wait for it - Dragonland. [May 2012, p.85]

There's no active dodging and opponents move like they're from a 90`s PC game. An absolute low point was when we were given control over an archer who slowly fired his arrows at his targets, his animation unhindered by the brutes who were slicing him to pieces with their giant axes. [July 2012, p.80]

Jurassic Park: The Game is best described as a low-budget Heavy Rain knock-off filled to the brink with quick time events. But where the buttons you had to press in Heavy Rain made more or less sense, they are completely random in Jurassic Park: The Game. [February 2012, p.104]

Voltron is an anime series from the eighties in which a team of fighters controls tiger-shaped (we 're not making this up) vehicles that can combine with each other to form a huge robot. The sad news? We've waited 20 years for this and the result is rubbish. [January 2012, p.85]

The downside of this more deliberate pacing is that the lack of variation. Every mission goes as follows: take out a few guys or sneak past them if there are too many, get to a high vantage point, rain death from above. Not the worst design in the world, but pretty predictable. [April 2013, p.86]

Operation Raccoon City is an endless chain of bland and repetitive shootouts filled to the brink with zombies who are nothing more than lambs to the slaughter. Rooms seem to be randomly filled corpses, Lickers and commandos, all too dumb to even tie their own shoes. [April 2012, p.72]

It's like FIFA meets Buzz, fortunately without quizmaster Buzz. Anyone who thinks that a successful combination of these two genres is as unlikely as Fernando Torres scoring a goal, is sorely mistaken because Quizball is actually quite enjoyable. [April 2012, p.100]

You know what we like? Combat that isn't half bad and not having to pay for our games. So us and Spartacus Legends should have been a match made in heaven. Want to know what we do not like? Grinding. And there is plenty of it in this otherwise acceptable game. [September p.91]

In a lot of the minigames a second player can use the regular controller to hinder the main player in various ways. It's a nice way to keep everyone entertained, but actually it is a lot more fun to shove or distract your friends in real life to get them to fail. [December 2011, p.86]

In 1982 Peter Pepper baked his first burger in BurgerTime and his cooking hasn't changed much since. This is still a simple platformer in which you have to pick up ingredients to make a delicious burger. Too bad that the transition to 3D made us feel a little sick to our stomachs. [May 2012, p.86]

Neverdead is a strange, but fascinating creature. Originality is hard to find nowadays, but Neverdead has plenty of it. Many of the game's puzzles require you to deliberately grab hold of an electric conductor until your body explodes into a flaming spark. [February 2012, p.94]

After surprisingly decent superhero games like X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, it's a major disappointment that Silicon Knights can't do better than this rubbish. We're amazed that Marvel and Activision let this one through. [Nov 2011, p.37]

Dungeon Hunter: Alliance does nothing similar games didn't already do ten years ago and stubbornly refuses to make use of the unique capabilities of the PlayStation Vita. There are no voice-overs, there is no visual flair whatsoever and there is very little strategy to be found. [March 2012, p.65]

It is nearly impossible not to compare Wheels of Destruction with Twisted Metal. Visually it all looks great, but once you get playing, you're immediately confronted with frustrating controls that will make you want to drive your car into a wall. [May 2012, p.87]

We love our PS3, but we love virtual board games as well. That is if they are any good at all, which the butt ugly Dungeon Twister unfortunately is not. Tutorials which seem to have no end and a lack of any form of offline multiplayer spoil the fun for everyone. [October 2012, p.78]

No matter how hard you slam your car into a concrete wall, you will never lose control over it (no matter how fast you are going). You don't even feel any difference between cars. You just have to floor it, boost it and drift it. [March 2012, p.65]

Lets be frank, Le Tour de France - 100th Edition is meant for only the most committed cycling enthusiasts or connoisseurs. It is a game for people who get up early to not miss a single image of the beautiful French landscape. Everybody else will not care. [September p.85]

Besides the graphics, which look like they are from the early 2000's, and the horrible voice work (both Javier and his buddy Carlos sound like they were born and raised in Buckinghamshire), the compass and map marking system barely work and collision detection simply doesn't exist. [September 2012, p.82]

Barely ten minutes after we booted up the game, our AI-partner managed to get himself stuck in some godforsaken corner of a godforsaken space station. Restart. This time Spock does not want to go down a ladder, not even after encouraging him with a few Phaser beams to the face. Restart. [June 2013, p.76]

It's not just the ball that will be rolling when you're playing Chronovolt, your eyes will be clocking in overtime too. It might be free if you're subscribed to PlayStation Plus, but you won't be doing yourself any favours by downloading it. It's boring. It's got a ton of bugs. It sucks balls. [January 2013, p.94]

This PSN sequel to the violently bad 2010 Naught Bear game is just as bad as its predecessor. The only improvement made is that it costs less, meaning you won't get screwed over so badly. But still pretty bad. [November 2012, p.93]

Instead of focusing on Ridge Racer's strengths, Namco Bandai decided to try out a bizarre new business model. The game ships with just a measly five cars and three tracks. Yes, you read those numbers correctly. [March 2012, p.64]

Once in a while you get a break from the shooter action in the form of a sea battle. With a single press on the L2 button you can command the human fleet towards the alien invaders. Unfortunately the strategy is about as shallow as the obligatory weather chat at the baker's. [June 2012, p.97]

Besides the lack of tension or even jump scares, the abominable quality of the game's graphics and animations is another one of Colonial Marines' biggest flaws. The aliens stumble towards you, looking like the local town drunk who just stole an Alien mask. [March 2013, p.78]

Looking at just some still images from the game, you would have to be blind, not to call it beautiful. However once you see it in motion, you realize that producing manga or anime is not the same as making a game. The lively animations do not match with the static backgrounds. [September p.86]

At the beginning of the game there is a gut wrenching choice to be made of whether you want to be a mage, a hunter or a fighter. We have played racing games with more original RPG-elements than this utterly dull game. [June 2013, p.86]

The biggest problem is the god awful graphics. Even the Bond logo on the background of the menu looks like it was imported directly from a PlayStation 1 game. And that's just the menu screen, the actual game doesn't look much better. [December 2012, p.88]

Based on the movie. In 2020 boxing is no longer practiced by humans. Matches are fought by huge robots controlled by humans outside of the ring. You build your own robot and gradually unlock more parts. It's a shame that the fighting system sucks. [January 2012, p.84]

The only thing Painkiller gets right (sort of) are the original weapons. Everything else is a complete mess. The game looks better than the original, but that is about the only good thing you can say about the graphics. Blurry textures, horrible screen tearing and slow loading details ruin the experience even further. [September p.88]

To convert us city boys to diehard farmers you are going to need some preparation or at least some decent tutorials. After eleven lengthy and mind numbingly boring tutorials however, we knew … absolutely nothing. [October 2013 p.93]

Unfortunately for Back To The Multiverse, success is not always inherited. Whereas Family Guy consistently delivers quality (except for a few hiccups here and there), the game starts exploring the deepest regions of abysmal pretty fast. [January 2013, p.82]

If you're a fan of the television show, you might feel an irresistible urge to buy the official game. Especially since the voice acting, music and motion capturing are all wonderfully executed. Unfortunately those are the only things this buggy platformer does right. [July 2012, p.93]

Another videogame based on a popular motion picture, another bad review score. Even though it has no shortage of bullets, The Expendables 2: The Videogame fails to hit the bulls-eye. This 4 player co-op shooter is no action hero.[October 2012, p.79]

You can send out fellow survivors on scavenging missions, the downside of this is that they can fail or , even worse, die. Unfortunately the number of goods they collect is so abysmal you won't care if they make it back or not. [May 2013, p.88]

With the exception of a few scary moments Amy is anything but frightening. The puzzles are uninspired, the controls awkward, the voice acting horrible and the checkpoint system is one the worst we've ever encountered. [February 2012, p.100]

Despite a familiar control scheme, movement is very "floaty" and will get you seasick within seconds. The best tactic to counter these controls is to find a nice hiding spot, step sideways out of cover and shoot and shoot and shoot. And shoot. [January 2013, p.97]

The game is stitched together like a ragged doll, leaves it up to player to figure out what the hell he or she is supposed to do, lacks any notion of originality and looks like a first generation PSone game. Avoid this one at all costs. [April 2012, p.10]

Lets test that Uncharted-clone Unearthed, they said. It will be hilarious, they said. And it is. If you find mental torment to be “hilarious”. We simple cannot decide which part of the varied gameplay we hate the most. [July 2013, p.94]

It's one thing to re-release a classic, but please don't take us for idiots, SEGA. Altered Beast can be found in several collections, even for free on the internet. Charging 5 euro for a twenty year old game is a downright insult. [Nov 2011, p.96]

Now this is more like it. A completely free and fantastic co-op story. A delight to all senses and a challenge as well. Valve, this is why we love you guys. [Nov 2011, p.98]

Arkham City is a great game, and the addition of the new character Nightwing through this DLC gives you an excellent reason to play through it all over again. You just want to spend a few hours with Nightwing? Then check out the two new challenge maps. [December 2011, p.101]

A simple but engrossing puzzle game in which allergic little monsters trapped in soap bubbles sneeze their way to freedom. The aim of the game is to cause a chain reaction of sneezies by strategically releasing some pollen amongst the little critters. [January 2012, p.84]

We're no diehard fans of the genre, but we can certainly appreciate a good shmup from time to time. Especially if the visuals are as impressive as those of Ion Assault. The basic idea is that you suck up ions and use them as ammunition against the enemy. [January 2012, p.84]

This game is aimed at players aged 3 to 6, so the protagonists are all cute little animals like a rabbit, a panda and a turtle. There are several minigames that can be played with the Sixaxis or the Move, but only the latter is actually fun to do. [January 2012, p.88]

In Marvel Super Hero Squad: Comic Combat you control your superhero by drawing lines en symbols unto the uDraw-tablet. It's surprising to see the developer making such great use of the uDraw this early in its lifespan. [February 2012, p.99]

Psycho Soldier is a straight forward port of 1986 SNK-classic and is still an entertaining side-scroller, but only for those who have embraced their inner nostalgic self. You do have to face the fact that this the exact same game you played all those years ago, without any improvements. [December 2012, p.101]

Can't stand Nathan Drake? Well then we have some good news for you. In the latest DLC for Uncharted 3 you get to play as Zoran Lazarevi, Eddy Raja and Harry Flynn. Unfortunately the price is a bit too steep just to have the opportunity to play as a bad guy. [March 2012, p.98]

Ryder White is enjoyable company, bringing along more explosives than we're used to on Dead Island. There are still a lot of technical mistakes, just like there have always been. But hey, we're sure Techland will fix that with Dead Island 2, right? [March 2012, p.98]

We could imagine that you're probably still too busy with the main story of Reckoning to be worrying about DLC. But for those who are worried, there's already a first shipment of (pirate themed) DLC. Finishing Dead Kel will probably take you long enough for the next DLC to be released. [May 2012, p.86]

You probably saw this one coming from a mile away, but the latest DLC for Saints Row The Third is pretty over-the-top. Three missions may be a tad limited for the hefty price tag, but these are three great missions. [May 2012, p.87]

Those who don't want to look like a fool dancing on a beer drenched floor at some random bar, can now look like a fool in their own living room, singing and dancing away. Especially the singing, since the Move doesn't always read your movements. [June 2012, p.98]

Despite its over-the-top tricks, the new SSX is quite serious when compared to its predecessors. Mt. Eddie brings back that little bit of extravagance the old SSX games were known for. Fireworks, giant billboards and funky disco lights bring a whole new level of spectacle to the game. [June 2012, p.99]