It's this kind of smooth, easy perfection that floods the game. [Nov 2007, p.92]

Not great for beginners, but fine for flight fans. [Apr 2012, p.100]

If you know anything about good games, you'll love it as much as we do. [April 2006, p.70]

Wonderful for exploration but has some issues with resource management. [Oct 2018, p.75]

Even on Normal mode, you'll find yourself overwhelmed until the combination of dodge rolls, grabs, pounces, and combos becomes second nature. It's a testament to Shank's new-found competence that this does, eventually happen. Shank 2 has that satisfying feeling of re-mastering a forgotten motor function.

Lacking a map-editor, co-op, and charismatic central villain, Primal sacrifices its forebears' 'big event' status, but this back-to-basics approach makes for an all-natural off-the-reservation romp.

A fine tweak on an established theme. [Aug 2013, p.91]

Eets has got the glee of design that made Worms and Alien Hominid exciting and unpredictable, without the violence. [June 2007, p.96]

Performance problems spoil a slick city-builder with a lot of potential. [Sept 2017, p.82]

Quality strategy game that's not for everyone. [Sept 2010, p.103]

Your Shape provides decent replacements for both of these things, with all the arbitrary but absorbing nonsense of levelling up, medals and badges. This might be the first fitness game we'll use after reviewing it.

Where the second through fourth games were exceedingly well-padded, the fifth is SoulCalibur hacked to a sliver, with very little between you and that fiery core. Admirable as that may sound, the result is a dangerously light single player game that's hard to recommend to anybody save SoulCalibur obsessives - or newcomers in search of a populous (because it's recent) online fighter. Notoriously fleet of foot, the series needs to put a bit of weight back on.

Bound in Blood is like a Wild West theme park: corny, but at least there's constant gun smoke and plenty of bad guys being put to rights. It's not a must-buy by any stretch, but it is bearable.

Proof that big thinking PC-based RPGs can totally work on pads, and how not to implement the weighty interfaces that come alongside them - but trudge through this and there's much to love.

As clones go, The Godfather is one of the better ones. It's got a unique atmosphere all of its own, due largely to the quality period setting, and manages to stay faithful to the film while carving out some interesting takes on classic scenes. [April 2006, p.80]

Vast, occasionally beautiful, and absolutely loaded down with things to do, but rarely as magical as the numbered Scrolls games. Survive the first few hours and it's a memorable adventure.

Lego City hits the heights of the very best Lego games, with only a few of the lows. [June 2017, p.75]

Takes all comers in a stand-up fight, but somewhat flounders on the ground.

We can generally overlook a bit of going-through-the-motions in campaign add-ons, but not when the add-on in question mishandles the backstory of a trilogy that defined a genre. Though serviceable, RAAM's Shadow never does its own premise justice.

What FIFA does well is give you time in possession. Play a through ball and get yourself in the opponent's penalty area and you're allowed to control it.

A clever and satisfying experience that'll test your creativity and patience. [Nov 2017, p.82]

A slick, chaotic arcade driving/combat game too easily spoiled by lag. [Aug 2018, p.74]

Very tough but seldom unfair, Furi is an unyielding and tantalising taskmaster. [Jan 2017, p.91]

Magic Sword is merely a peculiar bonus: another side-scroller from 1990 that takes a swing at the fantasy genre. Its button-bashing core contains a few RPG fragments, as you can collect protective shields and rescue imprisoned allies who then serve as a support character, and it's a decent, if limited affair.

Glimpses of horrors can't save this horrifically frustrating experience. [July 2017, p.88]

Though the single-player provides some feasible outcomes to the what-if scenarios posed by the desperate fiscal, military and political interests of the superpowers in Kazakh oil, the multiplayer provides a more realistic answer to what might happen - endless, bloody, war.

While the first half hour of Sonic Generations is jarring, it's really worth sticking with. There's a lot of fan love here, from showdowns with your rivals - Metal, Shadow and Silver - to revisiting some familiar but excellently reworked levels. But it's a scarring shame that the Sonic 1 emulation reminds you how smooth Sonic should be. And he isn't.

For 400 points the game's a steal - it's an enjoyable blast of a bygone era that we'll never see again. [Sept 2007, p.110]