Perfect if you can't afford a real dragon. [June 2011, p.103]

A strange concept in an evocative landscape that's in search of a better game. [March 2017, p.89]

It's flawed and frustrating at times, but worth seeing through to the end. [Jan 2017, p.90]

Convoluted levels can lead to tiring exploration. [March 2015, p.82]

A dark and textured tale of love, loss, and lore that's unfortunately over a bit too soon. [July 2018, p.80]

A proper [if short] RPG which perfectly captures the joys of Adventure Time. [October 2018, p.94]

Citizens Of Space’s endless well of enthusiasm makes pointing out these flaws feel like kicking a puppy, but they’re impossible to ignore. It’s not a massive game, but it’s still overly ambitious – the weight of its duff ideas threatens to drown its respectable share of great ones. A leaner, tighter, quieter experience would be easier to love. [Issue#181, p.91]

It's a solid attempt at bringing this sort of game genre to the 360, but it still appears that, much like sleeping with a robot behind your partner's back, controlling an RTS with a joypad will always be a clunky affair.

The complete lack of boundaries means it's a totally unique challenge, in which standard racing skills often need to be thrown out of the window. Despite this, with such exciting technology at its core, we can't help but hope that Asobo gets another roll of the dice to create something truly, and consistently astonishing. [June 2009, p.84]

The dogfights in the skies are a lot of fun, but they fly a fine line between tense standoffs and frustration. Achieving a five-star rating and a better designation of your flight rank just doesn't have the same sense of achievement as other games out there.

An imperfect but thoughtful game that demands time, and will reward you by eating it up. [Aug 2018, p.71]

What should be lighthearted fun turns into a grind in this knockabout arcade racer. [June 2017, p.82]

Amiable adventure game that gets more annoying as it drags towards its lacklustre end. [Sept 2016, p.79]

A gorgeous, often savage bullet hell that has the power to charm, thrill and fluster all at once. [March 2017, p.80]

A classic, but one best left to history. [Oct 2009, p.95]

A highly playable golf sim with a fantastic control mechanism and an impressive Career mode. [Oct 2006, p.80]

A game most of today's gaming fraternity can waltz through. Its an overhead shooter for first-timers, yin to Ikaruga's bullet-laden yang.

Challenging, but rather dull presentation. [June 2008, p.78]

We can't wholly recommend its gameplay, but as a vessel for an endangered culture, it's a worthy project. [Jan 2015, p.88]

Excellently calibrated. [Jan 2016, p.85]

Disney Universe is a sweet game, as you'd expect from the saccharin mouse. But it's not an ambitious game, and after playing for a couple of hours, the illusion of the dense level design wears off, and you might feel it's a little bit thin. With more going on, and more reasons to go back to conquered levels, this could have been brilliant.

A solid enough minigolf game; good for a laugh. [June 2007, p.95]

A promising follow-up to C&P let down by its insistence on badly designed set-pieces. [Aug 2016, p.78]

The mix of solid arcade play and deeper-deluxe sports sim should please tennis fans. [Aug 2018, p.84]

We can't tear ourselves away from the purity of the trick system, the pleasure of exercising long-dormant 'hardcore gaming' abilities and the tantalising target that is the top of the Live friends leaderboard.

When a game functions better as a tache-cleaning sim, you know you're in trouble. [Apr 2016, p.91]

It's a good solid beat 'em up, if occasionally a little unfair. [June 2007, p.95]

Stunning art direction can’t quite save Vambrace from RPG mediocrity. [Issue#183

How about pursuing a price drop, EA? [May 2009, p.95]

Mostly just crashes and burns. [Dec 2011, p.105]

Menus are slick, and everything works well. If the thought of a game dedicated to The Black Eyed Peas doesn't make you want to rearrange the contents of your skull with a screwdriver, this is worth a punt. Otherwise check out the far more palatable Dance Central 2, which features more songs and venues, and tunes that aren't catastrophically tasteless.

As good as you'd expect it to be. [Feb 2011, p.97]

Off-pissing checkpoints aside, it's slick and grueling old-school for the 'core. [Christmas 2013, p.107]

Basically, come along for the laughs. [Apr 2014, p.93]

Dull combat and a slow pace hold it back, but smart puzzle design, great characters and a charming realisation of the show's world make this a great pick for fans. [Jan 2016, p.78]

It's the sort of game that, when things are going badly, leaves you spending a lot of time not being able to do anything about it. You've made a mistake, and now you have to sit back and twiddle your thumbs.

With a good range of puzzles, an original soul, but weak platforming, play Contrast because it's something fresh, sweet and unexpected. Just don't ask for perfection. [Jan 2014, p.84]

Essential for anyone with more than a passing interest in games as a whole. [Sept 2014, p.87]

A promising start for the Bat. If only it didn't run like a dog. Telltale: sort it out for part two. [Oct 2016, p.94]

If you're a retro fetishist with a Jeff Minter costume, you might want to download this game, but we don't recommend it! [Jan 2007, p.96]

Sloppy slashwork fails to hit its target. [Apr 2009, p.84]

Brimming with charm, but it was clearly designed with PC gaming in mind. Playing it with the Xbox One controller instead of a mouse becomes something of an exercise in patience. [Nov 2014, p.87]

The best version of a still great online co-op shooter. [Sept 2015, p.104]

A disappointing drop in quality. [Sept 2015, p.111]

Flying is fun, but flimsy presentation clips its wings. [March 2015, p.78]

Delicious design. [June 2007, p.92]

A miniscule improvement over the original. [Feb 2007, p.100]

The good, the bad, and the abysmal. [June 2012, p.93]

Quantum of Solace never manages to be a Bond game: at the tiniest of nudges, it panics and starts unleashing gunfire. It's clumsy, it's messy, it's not much fun and most of the time, it's not even the right film.

Fiddly mechanics and non-intuitive gameplay make this a niche within a niche. [Christmas 2016, p.90]

A disappointing interim chapter.

Enjoyable anime nonsense robot attack. [Oct 2011, p.103]

A confused step for a game that's already suffering from a minor identity crisis. Disappointing. [March 2015, p.87]

Painfully lacking in every area, lacking any thrill factor, excitement or variety. [Jan 2007, p.90]

In comparison with even the base Destiny 2 – let alone that game expanded by all its excellent DLC – Anthem feels not so much unfinished as barely started. It contains some good ideas which it fails to develop, and some of its basic pillars, such as the insistence on fourplayer co-op, somehow convey the impression of being tacked on rather than fundamental. And even with the huge early patch, it’s still glitchy – we had to play three quarters of a 45-minute Stronghold without sound, for example, which was disconcerting.

Simple stealth with a theme you're not likely to forget, but it lacks cohesion and polish. [May 2017, p.90]

This really is just like Burnout. Less flamboyant, sure, but supremely enjoyable. [Issue#178, p.82]

It'd suit the adversarial nature of this review if I came out of DW8 feeling as stubbornly indifferent as I have the last few games. But annoyingly, this is the first time Dynasty Warriors has made me want to play on.

That seed of potential excellence is frustrating, when the execution falls so regularly short of great.

Caught in the right light and this glitters like a racing visor in the sun, but it’s very similar to last year’s game. Ultimately only worth it if you’ve spent years out - and haven’t picked up stablemate, Ride.

Don't be seduced by the trendy soundtrack or gnarly subtitle; there are already too many fantastic racing games fighting for space on the pre-owned racks.

Popcorn-crunching blockbuster in need of better scripting.

Disappointing. [Christmas 2015, p.66]

Play is built around evading attack, then countering with frenzied sword stabs or a selection of spells, so it's a shame that the all-important dodge move doesn't quite work.

Disappointingly average. [July 2007, p.92]

Fiddly but disarming, this patchy locomotive just about stays on the tracks. [October 2018, p.91]

A loose kids' game that could do with some titaning up. [Dec 2007, p.90]

A pretty delightful distraction, and at a reasonable 800MP, I'd be a joyless, churlish curmudgeon with a greasy curdled soul not to recommend it.

A tough cookie. As a twitch game, it suffers from poor feedback and imprecision, but its snappy pace keeps you hooked. [March 2016, p.86]

Played on a gamepad, Powerstar might not have the grandma-pleasing intuitive appeal of a Kinect-powered title, but it's still a sweet and inclusive family game.

Whether you're haring along some cliffside road, desperately trying to keep yourself from sailing to a painful death, or just fiddling with your sponsor challenges for maximum return, WRC 2 is an involving and rewarding racer. It's still not as great as the DiRT games, but it's not as far off as you might think.

Hugely imaginative but slightly irritating. [Nov 2013, p.95]

Lots of items, not much excitement. [Nov 2009, p.108]

The new competitive focus and enhanced graphics engine are welcome, but it still feels underwhelming. [Jan 2016, p.88]

Brilliant fun until the difficulty level reaches Valhalla and you risk losing the entire game. [Dec 2018, p.94]

There are brief hints at what might have been, but otherwise this is a walking dud. [Dec 2015, p.81]

Probably better suited to a smartphone but mildly diverting for an hour or two. [March 2016, p.87]

It's easy to accredit the success of Telltale's original Walking Dead to the strength of the fiction it's working with, but this flat opening salvo lacks the same nuances. [Apr 2016, p.77]

A tense and immersive adventure – but with one too many rough edges. [Issue#177, p.85]

We're all for dolled up remakes of arcade classics, and those are some lovely backgrounds, but this one needs to be rescued from the limitations of its own design.

It's lovely, it's sweet, it's funny, but it's only a few hours long, even if you're taking your time. [Xmas 2014, p.86]

The core experience is deep and 60fps racing is welcome, but with many staple features absent and little sense of true excitement, this isn't a great new-gen debut.

If flipping through digital pages of text doesn't float your boat though, then look elsewhere. Shallow plot aside, you're looking at four hours of getting jumped by giant animals in a dusty canyon.

It's a distinctly average game from Harry, so a fittingly average mark for him as we give him a "five".

Only ever as hard as you are daft. [Dec 2015, p.86]

For all its radial menus and console-friendly UI, Spellbound simply hasn't managed to make Gothic work in a console environment. [Issue#66, p.85]

AvP is well worth your time and, with the unique online offering as well, there's plenty to get your teeth, claws and wristblades into. [Mar 2010]

A game so scary, even it doesn't know what it is. [Dec 2012, p.101]

F1 2014 delivers on the racing, but its lack of new features suggests a stagnancy in the series. We're eager to see what 2015 delivers, and if things get booted back into gear.

I've not felt wronged by a game to this degree in a long time. Hatred just about captures the emotion. Killer is Dead has the kernel of an acceptable game, swathed in unlikable characters, a Benny Hill attitude to women, alienating self-regard and some obnoxious gameplay decisions. It's impossible to recommend.

It's still a collection of relatively shallow events competing against other sports games, such as FIFA, that have the luxury of offering vast depth within a single sport. As a result even though this is the best multi-sport game we've played in an age, it still feels more like a platter of hors d'oeuvres than a gut-filling steak dinner.

If you're looking for a multiplayer blast, they don't come much more violent, or more entertaining than this. [Sept 2007, p.109]

A title that feels like it's gripped by identity crisis, unable to let go of its F1 origins to the degree required to be a great karting game. Instead, we get a curious hybrid that's fun, but not essential for either end of the market.

A comprehensive intro to Magic, but Duels is hardly the showcase it needs to be. [Oct 2014, p.92]

A lower-tier fighting game that mech fans may nonetheless appreciate.

Too slow and dull for shooter/sci-fi fans. [Sept 2007, p.5]

Nothing we haven't seen before. [June 2012, p.101]

Apologising for broken content with more broken content feels like a bit of a slap in the face, and Dead Kings' confusing, far-from-user-friendly new mechanics make this DLC a bit of a disappointing prospect.