A nice bit of extra story that suffers a little from resetting and restarting progress. Still - more ACIV is good. [Feb 2014, p.94]

You'll love beating the beast in this satisfying, sasquatch-smashing expansion. [May 2015, p.97]

Not quite trials, but this challenging arcade racer has something for just about everyone. [May 2016, p.84]

What My Friend Pedro does really well is offer a sense of variety in the weapons, the ways you can kill and the level design. While some missions may be more fun than others, no level is quite the same as the last. This makes every new encounter feel fresh and exciting. The ability to tackle each battle in a multitude of different ways means you’ll find yourself returning time and time again to see how much better you can clear them and achieve a higher final score. [Issue#187, p.85]

Those gamers who check out Penny Arcade daily will be playing to see the reappearance of iconic characters and to laugh at the in-jokes dotted throughout the game. But even they would have a hard time swallowing the 1,600 MP price tag (around £15) for five hours of gameplay - gameplay that isn't heavy on replayability.

There's more content here than you can shake a frog at - a lot for 800 MS points - and with XBLA exclusive game modes such as a weekly resetting challenge mode and the one-life, no restarts 'Iron Frog' campaign this is a rare catch, but it fails to detract from the feeling that this game belongs more on a phone that your 360.

Dumb, derivative and gleefully enjoyable. [Sept 2010, p.87]

It's a one-trick pony, true. Yet does that even matter when the trick is this damn good? Of course it doesn't. Just buckle up, enjoy the ride and hang on for your life. [Feb 2008, p.92]

A dreamy, trippy, cryptic punishing journey. Leads by the nose, not by the hand. [Oct 2016, p.98]

And still...the undisputed heavyweight champion of MMA games. [May 2016, p.86]

A propulsively paced romp with a surfeit of ideas, SuperChargers reinvigorates a series that appeared to be on the wane. [Dec 2015, p.77]

The facts remain - there's nothing quite like this on the Xbox 360 and the series is wildly popular for a very good reason.

An endearing shooter that builds on strong roots to excellent and often hilarious effect. [Issue#184, p.70]

A surprisingly fun tie-in that'll keep kids busy.

Frustrating shooting is compensated by a sense of freedom and witty writing. [March 2017, p.88]

Gorgeous and impressively focused for its scale. Ubi's best open-world in years. [May 2017, p.83]

There are rough edges, and a hint of retro, but don't let that put you off a true masterpiece. [Nov 2016, p.77]

Retro action without much new to offer. [July 2009, p.97]

Enjoyably frenetic war zone action. [July 2011, p.100]

American Nightmare is good value, but it hints at more than it delivers - a world in which urban myths can come true never materialises in this episode. But that just makes us wonder what Remedy has got in store.

Features like these mean Shattered Dimensions would actually work as a Spidey game even though it's not an open-world swingers' party. It's just a massive shame they're housed in such a linear and grindingly predictable format.

In the end, the titular journey proves to be far more satisfying than the eventual destination, but so it is with all adventures into outer space in search of unknown powers, right? The success here is how it meshes and moulds so many familiar ideas and motifs, while remaining so alien. [Issue#187, p.87]

Slower and duller than Episode 1. [Apr 2015, p.79]

Like all things immoral, this is tremendous fun. Buy it now...No better way of spending 400MP. [Dec 2007, p.109]

A lovely, surprisingly clever reinvention of Plants vs Zombies for shooter fans of all ages and persuasions.

The premise could have been taken further. [Oct 2015, p.75]

Booty's multiplayer oozes longevity. [Nov 2008, p.101]

A busy, challenging, and intriguing take on the city-building genre. [May 2018, p.86]

Behind the dreary single-player campaigns is a game that'll provide you with a strong distraction, for as long as other people are playing it.

TT's most polished game in ages. Just give it a few films before the next one, yeah? [Sept 2016, p.74]

Tedious puzzles and repetitious level design makes Overlord become very predictable all too quickly. [July 2007, p.90]

It can't match up to its predecessors, but Andromeda is a thrilling adventure nonetheless. [May 2017, p.73]

A game that manages to wrestle some originality out of the point 'n' click genre - with only limited structural problems - while making us laugh in the process, this is an all-too-rare pleasure. [Nov 2014, p.84]

But Space Marine's key flaw isn't, oddly, that it tramples its brainy heritage to mush. It's that the game doesn't trample hard enough.

A solid bike sim, but one that lacks a bit of atmosphere and excitement.

Despite some control issues, the game could have been a full retail game rather than a Live Arcade title; it's graphically superior to any xbox or PS2 game, it's not short and it features some innovative mechanics.

We really enjoyed our time with Miss Croft, but it is more of the same and 'dependable' isn't exciting enough. When you take a look at the gaming world around her, you wonder if it isn't time for another re-invention, not of the character, but her universe.

A flawed yet ultimately winning tie-in that serves up the best dinos on Xbox. [Sept 2018, p.72]

Simple ideas knit into a beautiful platformer, if one that's too reliant on a few tricks to earn it essential status. We expect even greater things from Coldwood in the future. [Apr 2016, p.78]

Fun shooter with a strong voice, even if that voice could do with shutting up sometimes. [July 2016, p.87]

Average racer with smart tech. [Apr 2010, p.101]

We'll find out next year if WWE's stable-change to 2K really changes the world of digital man-squeezing, but for now, like Wrestlemania, WWE 2K14 is a comforting combo of familiarity and nonsense.

A cool, stylish vamp that, if you can allow for its imperfections, definitely has bite. [Issue#183, p.81]

Jaw-droppingly beautiful to look at, no worse to play than its excellent originator, but not really that much of a step forward. New balls, please!

Another intense Blazkowicz adventure - but a little over familiar. [July 2015, p.74]

A stylish, unsubtle but solid co-op shooter with lashings of old-school charm. [Nov 2018, p.75]

A stonking update for a forgotten classic, complete with all new bells and [rave] whistles. [October 2018, p.88]

There are few titles that are as charming as Overlord II, and only in this distorted fantasy world could playing the bad guy be so fun, engaging and - most importantly - guiltless.

Perfect multiplayer customisation. [May 2007, p.94]

Adventure fans point your clicker this way. [Christmas 2009, p.105]

Despite slightly tweaked controls and a few other improvements over "06," it's still the same - for ice hockey fans only. [Nov 2006, p.70]

Missteps will infuriate those obsessed with consistency, but underneath the messy bits there's something deep, fascinating and exciting. Dull bug-bashers won't abide the rough edges, but they'll be missing out on one of this year's best RPGs. Put up with the shortcomings, and the rest is superb.

Better than Episode 1, but still not great. [Christmas 2008, p.98]

Few will be utterly blown away by it, given the abiding similarities to Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and Most Wanted, but anybody who can't get through the day without buckling a few fenders should consider this an essential purchase.

Ghost Of A Tale is repetitive, but quite endearing in a rough-edged sort of way. [Issue#177, p.86]

A fast, scrappy FPS with gorgeous art that’s sadly much less than the sum of its parts. [Issue#179, p.76]

Deficits notwithstanding, this is a superb port of what may be the best survival-horror game on Xbox since Dead Space first lurched onto the scene.

For match-three nutters only. [Jan 2010, p.115]

A beautifully executed stealth game. [May 2016, p.76]

Addictive, quirky and occasionally funny. [Oct 2007, p.88]

Won't give you shivers, but will make your thumbs itch.

A fun but deeply familiar karter.

So addictive you'll be playing for weeks. [Jan 2010, p.108]

Has pacing issues, but there's a reason it's been a party favourite for the last 21 years. [Oct 2016, p.97]

The personalities are great, and brilliantly caricatured. The matches are as much fun to watch as they are to play. The attempts to add variety don't always work - four-player tag teams are fun, but the rest is fairly uninspired - so it might not last too long without DLC.

Ideal for beginners and intermediate, but probably not advanced.

As close as you'll get to getting your childhood back. Dig through the incredible production values and you'll find a serviceable shooter, but one with a potentially terminal lack of content. [Jan 2016, p.73]

A quality party game, so it's a real shame that the biggest new feature - the Quest mode - is so poor. And good though it is, it's only worth getting if you missed the previous one or you're an obsessive completist. [April 2006, p.86]

Hardly a far cry from what's come before, but still surprisingly enjoyable. [Issue#225, p.74]

Supreme Commander 2 circumvents most limitations of a console RTS and focuses more on strategy than how fast you can click. If you want a truly cerebral experience, accompanied by jaw-dropping mega units, it's the one to have.

Intense shmup-ing but overpriced. [July 2012, p.107]

Strong, frequently brilliant fun, but it's still only GRID 2.5. There's variety compared to its predecessor, but it never escapes the feeling that it's just a stopgap for whatever's coming next.

More of the same goofy, eccentric zombie-killing action Dead Rising fans love, sprinkled with Capcom callouts. [Sept 2014, p.96]

Nothing to write home about, but the maps are solid and the Zombies episode is the best yet. [Oct 2015, p.90]

Makes Elite's vast sandbox richer, deeper and more varied, but missions still need work. [Aug 2016, p.87]

Decent in single-player but thrilling in co-op, this is a fine upgrade of a good Resi outing. [Sept 2016, p.89]

Intentionally slow pacing is admirable, but it derails an otherwise enrapturing game. [March 2018, p.84]

Loads of appealing content for MotoGP fans, but it’s sluggish and all-too familiar. [Issue#180, p.89]

Hindsight be damned, these games are still fantastic.

It's just too easy to forgive Payday 2 for looking shonky though. This game isn't about appearances; it's about the tension and excitement and thrill found in the heat of a moment. It's about hard work and co-operation and a well-placed bullet coming together to pull off the perfect crime. If you've got a tight team of four bank-busting buddies ready and raring to go, and you can overlook some below-average scenery, you're in for a hell of a time. Mask up.

Not quite the epic journey into the unknown we were hoping for, mostly thanks to poor writing and a reliance on XP farming, but a treasure trove of single and multiplayer adventures nonetheless.

Pleasure and pain in a single package. [Mar 2011, p.105]

A lighter experience than perhaps the developer intended - which is a bit of a shame.

A ravishing journey across a magical landscape. It's kiddie, but quite irresistible too. [Jan 2017, p.86]

Panorama-baitingly addictive. [Mar 2011, p.103]

This year's instalment still provides enough fan-service to make the hardcore throw their money into the ring, but it doesn't offer enough mass-market appeal.

A pleasing fusion of brawler and bullet-hell, this is a co-op game brimming with personality.

Frontlines feels like an unfinished testing ground for excellent ideas that would have shone in a superb FPS game. Unfortunately, as there's not enough game modes, not enough maps and a weak single-player campaign, this is not a superb FPS game. [Mar 2008, p.88]

An entirely shallow addition to the fighting franchise, but it's slick and stylish nevertheless. [Dec 2013, p.87]

When Battlefield 3 received a set of heavy armour maps and another set of close-quarters infantry maps, that was a revolution. Black Ops 2's Revolution is a step in the right direction, but a small one.

Scratch beneath the surface and there's a deep game that gives out as much as you're willing to put in. [Christmas 2015, p.79]

If you long for the carefree carnage of Destruction Derby and you're happy to ply the bulk of your trade online this is well worth a look. Otherwise you'll probably want to write this one off.

That rare thing: a film tie-in that's not bad. [Sept 2008, p.87]

The best puzzler on Xbox Live Arcade. [Jan 2008, p.98]

Like its heroes, Revelations 2 is a mix of elements weak and strong. But what a team they make when they're mixed together.

Great parts, sloppy construction. Will take you to the moon, but maybe not back again. [Oct 2016, p.104]

United Front has created a version of Hong Kong packed with things to do and the excellent combat and driving ensure it's always fun. If you've not played it, we're a bit jealous.

If you're stuck for a Devil May Cry substitute, give this a whirl. It's a little too scanty to qualify as God's gift to action gaming, but it's definitely going to heaven when it dies.