When the AI fails, the world loses its credibility and that's a shame. Because this is a world so beautiful you'll want to believe in it. Thanks to the Glacier 2 engine, you'll be drooling all over your controller when you're standing in the middle of a gorgeous desert plain. [December 2012, p.48]

No matter how much you oppose Call of Duty and its publisher (or even the FPS genre), you can't deny the powerhouse that Black Ops II is. Three humongous modes, each complementing the others perfectly. That's right: three whole modes.[December 2012, p.56]

Spelunky is finally available on PlayStation platforms and there is plenty of reason to be happy about that. This hard as nails platformer will have you clutching your controller in a choke hold due to random levels and a healthy dose of trial and error. [October 2013 p.94]

The D-pad on the Vita is ideal to play this kind of game. And that's a good thing too, because we're not too fond of the touch controls. You can program certain button combinations on the rear touchpad, but it's so sensitive that you'll constantly be executing the wrong moves during a match. [April 2012, p.95]

People who fear that half of the missions will be things like 'pick this guy up', 'deliver that package', needn't worry. Ninety percent of the story consists of missions full of tension and over-the-top action. There is hardly any filler. [December 2011, p.46]

Super Stardust Delta is one of the few Vita games that allows you to customize the controls to your liking. As a matter of fact it is the very first Vita-game ever to do that. Ideally for those among us who have been cursed not with clumsy hands, clawing away at the touch screen. [March 2012, p.60]

It takes some time getting used to the LEGO-aesthetic, but the use of the original music and voices even succeeded in giving us goosebumps when the LEGO-version of Gandalf cried out to the rest of the Fellowship to "Fly, you fools!". [January 2013, p.80]

Not that we have ever experienced it ourselves, but everything you get to see in the PS3 exclusive Dyad has to be similar to how the world looks when you are under the influence of certain "enlightening" chemicals. [September 2012, p.86]

Should things get a bit stale, there are activities during the World Tours which luckily aren't just about racing. There's Pursuit, where you have to chase a tank while dodging the bombs it's dropping or Traffic Attack, where you have to dodge traffic on an increasingly busier road [December 2012, p.82]

What is there left to tell about The Walking Dead, our personal best game of 2012. Those who only own a Vita owe it to themselves to play this thrilling interactive zombie adventure. [October 2013 p.94]

When it comes to graphics, Skullgirls is more than a match for its competitors. Still it lacks that finishing touch. We couldn't find a move list and even though twenty years ago we enjoyed discovering each character's move set, now we just want to jump right into the action. [May 2012, p.90]

Tekken Tag 2 is just as much a party game as it is a competitive beat'em up, judging by the dozens of crazy customizations for each character. Everything from butterfly wings to waist doughnuts and an alien to put on top of your head. [September 2012, p.104]

The original is five years old, which you will probably notice because of the awful sound effects, but it is still one of the most in-depth fighting games of its generation. And Final Showdown is by far the best version, including the possibility to play online against other players. [July 2012, p.92]

After what seems ages, PS3 gamers can now finally get their hands on some downloadable content for Skyrim. And even if you missed Bethesda's sweet half priced deal, Dragonborn is still worth the purchase. [March 2013, p.88]

In FIFA you can just as well give up when you're two goals behind. 0-2 means nothing in PES. In the majority of the games we played, Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 offered more spectacle than FIFA 13. Which could be a big advantage for PES. [October 2012, p.70]

Grid 2 comes close to perfection, but since nothing or nobody is perfect, we would like to point out a few tiny, little flaws. We miss the cockpit view dearly and the game could have benefited greatly from a dynamic weather system and longer races. [June 2013, p.80]

We had to wait nearly seven years for this former Xbox-exclusive to return and even after all this time the strange mix between third person platforming and first person shooting still works fine. You'd have to be crazy not to download this title after such a long wait. [February 2012, p.100]

In case you still do not get it, Blood Dragon is a roller-coaster ride through a magical land filled with high-explosives and anything (and we mean literally anything) that even remotely refers to the action packed, but campy eighties. [May 2013, p.93]

Good news for the pyromaniacs: this On Fire Edition of NBA Jam is a lot better than the Wii-port that was released a while back. This remake offers great value and is a great tribute to the 16 bit-classic. [Nov 2011, p.98]

SSX may not be the same party game it used to be, but that doesn't mean it isn't fun. The first time you jump out of a helicopter, you feel butterflies in your stomach, like only SSX can give you. It feels a bit like coming home. [March 2012, p.72]

You run, sneak and drive around an island that is so beautiful that you would gladly trade in your weapons for swimming trunks and have the rest of the day off for some sunbathing. [Nov 2011, p.98]

The biggest disappointment is the absence of Peace Walker, the only handheld game from the PS3 HD Collection. "Because you can download the original PSP version from the PS Store and the Vita upscales the game pretty well, we could reduce our production costs tremendously", Konami explains. [July 2012, p.90]

Instead of playing it safe after successfully replacing Crash Bandicoot with Jak and Daxter in The Precursor Legacy (and creating another fun, colorful platformer) Naughty Dog decided to throw everything overboard with Jak II and III. Even today we're still amazed by the radical changes. [April 2012, p.88]

All this digging can be frustrating until you have mastered the right technique. Once you do, you will be hooked for a long time. Exploring a surprisingly large system of caverns underneath the surface of this colourful world, searching for that precious gold nugget. [June 2013, p.94]

The rush you feel when striking down an opponent with a perfectly timed swing from your mighty sword remains one of the best and unique experiences in the entire beat 'm up-genre. SoulCalibur still can't compete with the likes of Capcom's fighting games, but it's getting close. [February 2012, p.90]

Even though 'saving the world' is like really important and good fun, you probably won't have time to actually save it. Reckoning's plains and villages are filled to the brink with humans, gnomes who all need your help. They are just side quests, but also the most fun we have had in Reckoning. [March 2012, p.92]

There is not a lot of leveling or depth to be found in Rage, but you can have some fun with building your own weapons and toying around with several gadgets. We particularly liked the remote controlled cars that can be equipped with explosives. [Nov 2011, p.82]

F1 2012 is a beast. The feeling you get when you're racing neck to neck against twenty other great drivers, in what you could describe as a rocket on wheels, is simply amazing. Every take over, every crash sends the adrenaline flying through your veins. [October 2012, p.72]