There may not be many air combat games around these days, but that's no excuse for picking up this lukewarm offering. [Dec 2009, p.58]

Mostly, it's just pants. [May 2010, p.101]

The Last Remnant takes every opportunity to avoid immersion, if only this was the last remnant of the J-RPG on the PC. [June 2009, p.98]

Oddly entertaining, but still short, stunted, and with zero replay value.

Despite the heavy emphasis on replayability, only the most die-hard fans of the original series will be happy to chase the same car over an identical track again and again for the meagre promise of TV stills and rehashed video clips.

I could have forgiven this for being a superficial Trek-based shooter if it was at least fun. It's not. [Feb 2007, p.58]

Leaves little up to the player apart from pulling the trigger. Repeatedly. [May 2006, p.96]

It just doesn't feel like footie. [Feb 2011, p.107]

Would have made 70% if not for the atrocious control system.

Includes everything you'd want from a game about the 2008 Olympics, apart from the fun gameplay and repression of Tibet bits. [Nov 2008, p.108]

Fans of hardcore strategy sims are sure to lap it up, but for everyone else it's a tedious walk in very familiar territory. [Aug 2009, p.99]

If you were hoping, like I was, for some old fashioned, arcade dogfighting action, then look elsewhere. [Sept 2007, p.63]

A spectacularly simplistic game, and bears no relation to the logistics of city building at all. [Jan 2008, p.73]

The game is incredibly awkward to play. [Oct 2004, p.99]

Could this ever have been anything but an utter disappointment? This misses the mark so much... it hurts. [Feb 2008, p.112]

Quickly gets as dull as a three-hour wait in A&E. With a saucepan on your head. [Sept 2005, p.95]

In spite of the suitably grubby atmosphere, you always feel as if you're being kept at arm's length from the slimeys. [Aug 2010, p.101]

Only the inherent fun of multiplayer dogfighting saves it. [Dec 2005, p.92]

Another dreary RTS to avoid. Ho hum. [July 2006, p.102]

Can't decide whether it's a single player game, a co-op game or a tech demo. [Christmas 2010, p.102]

Does little to enliven the usual trail of hacking, slashing and opening boxes. We're pretty sure it shows the world's worst character creation screen: you can change your hairstyle and, er, your clothing. [Christmas 2004, p.122]

Achingly mediocre and its lack of innovation is frustrating. [Christmas 2005, p.96]

The format of these games gets more and more tired with each new franchise, too. [Sept 2010, p.104]

A comprehensive lesson in how to make a mediocre "GTA" clone. [Oct 2007, p.62]

Mediocre "Close Combat" update, two years old already. [Christmas 2005, p.102]

It's a pretty decent port of the 360 version that unfortunately brings with it all the frustrating flaws of the original. [Oct 2009, p.97]

In short, just don't. [Oct 2007, p.64]

A less than appealing rehash of an uninspiring game. [Christmas 2006, p.104]

It's just a deeply undeveloped game. [Aug 2004, p.90]

Currently it's flawed, and despite glimmers of competence, the imbalanced combat, terrible connection problems, and lack of reason to play leave the score far lower than a properly finished game might have achieved. [Dec 2004, p.97]

Rough enough around the edges to replace sandpaper. [Jan 2009, p.100]

Nothing new or genre-shaking on show here, in what is basically a port that's far too short. Give this cold planet the could shoulder. [Sept 2007, p.50]

Sadly, those stand-out courses occur far too infrequently. [Apr 2009, p.98]

The dullest and most befuddling AAA Hollywood-endorsed title I've ever played. [Apr 2010, p.94]

It's the kind of game that makes "FlatOut 2" look state of the art. [Oct 2008, p.115]

In an age when intelligent, engrossing first person shooters rule the roost, Legendary feels positively ancient. [Jan 2009, p.100]

As a distraction, it's passable enough, at least at this price. [June 2008, p.112]

The necessity to move between labs to drop off every single new clue and pick up results is more than a little tiresome. [Feb 2005, p.92]

It's only long-term adventurers who are likely to get much out of it, not least because of the hideous controls, irritating voices and glacially slow pace, but there's more under the surface than first appears. [Apr 2008, p.115]

Great premise, but as fun to spend spend time with as a freshly exhumed corpse. [Mar 2006, p.102]

Someone obviously told the voice actors that the script was dreadfully witty as they proceed to deliver e-ve-ry li-ne slo-oo-w-ly just so you can get the full effect. It makes every conversation impossible to listen to without wanting to cut your ears off. [May 2007, p.67]

Shiny, shallow, and sadly unremarkable. [May 2005, p.105]

Lazy little film tie-in with some purely irritating features. [Oct 2005, p.99]

Survival horror, that's as bland as bland can be. Cold, yes. Fear, no. [June 2005, p.92]

Complacency has set in by now and calcifies this ongoing saga.

Adds nothing to a formula that was already looking like a severely ropey one. [June 2008, p.111]

All our fond memories shattered in a heartbreaking instant. [Aug 2006, p.97]

It's riddled with bizarre mini-games. [Dec 2007, p.62]

Good hack 'n' slash mechanics are let down by a lack of reasons to care about the action and keep heading back into battle. [June 2011, p.90]

The film tie-in adds interest, but it's too linear and we've seen it all before. [Nov 2006, p.102]

A great flyer for beginners, but not enough new features for the hardcore fan. [Dec 2006, p.114]

There are a million and one better shooters out there. [Dec 2006, p.118]

Like an MMO, there's an undefinable something that keeps you playing, probably far beyond what your sanity can properly stand.

A film tie-in that's above average for tie-in games, but that only means it deserves to be quietly de-razzed. [Mar 2011, p.108]

There's simply nothing here to hold the attention. [May 2008, p.112]

Like anything this complex, it is by turns brilliant, incredibly frustrating and boring. There's too much information to cope with. [Christmas 2004, p.111]

Deserves to be banned over here as well. This is wack, even for toys. [Apr 2006, p.91]

Utterly standard adventure devoid of novelty. [Christmas 2005, p.102]

Like "Pirates!" in space, but not as good as that suggests. [Oct 2005, p.92]

Darkest of Days has this whole time-travelling, setting-right-what-once-went-wrong schtick. Oh boy. [Dec 2009, p.99]

"Prince of Persia's" ugly second cousin. Does not get invited to royal functions. [Nov 2004]

Half a game. [Sept 2010, p.96]

Functional WWII strategy! Again! Gah! [Feb 2005, p.93]

There's nothing to see here whatsoever. [June 2008, p.111]

BF2 is an awesome game, the score is for the cheap and nasty add-on. [May 2006, p.90]

It's not quite challenging enough to make it a game that really does anything new, but it is delightfully presented. [Mar 2010, p.94]

Hugely repetitive action game. Hugely repetitive action game. Hugely repetitive (you get the idea).

Incredibly easy, very short. [Jan 2011, p.109]

The usual amateurish nonsense. [May 2006, p.90]

Many other games do this better. Play them. [Sept 2010, p.98]

Tolkien must be revolving speedily in his grave. [Apr 2009, p.48]

Slightly fun, but only in the most stupid definition of that word. [Sept 2008, p.115]

Plodding, bland fair. [July 2009, p.95]

A solo Nightcrawler game could rock, but this team effort is cash-in gibberish. [July 2006, p.100]

A low-tech and rather uninspiring 2D RTS. [Mar 2008, p.108]

Unfinished and unrewarding, the game's gorgeous artwork is not matched by the plot or the nonsensical puzzles. [Feb 2009, p.98]

Bluntly, the problem with EA's Create is in the title. It suggests you'll be creating things, with all the imagination and excitement that implies. Instead, Create feels like Little Big Planet, as copied by a robot that one day hopes to know what love is.

Traditional point-and-click game complete with traditionally rubbish gameplay. [Christmas 2004, p.119]

Despite aspirations to intelligence, this is comfortably one of the dumbest first-person shooters we’ve ever come across. The FPS action is stilted, the RPG elements make you want to rip your own still-beating heart out, and the main character sounds a lot like Duke Nukem’s halfwit brother.

It wants to be like the classic survival-horror games of old, and to be fair it does feel like it's at least a decade out of date and being played on a 386. [July 2010, p.101]

Let's hope that The Old Republic gets is right in the many, many places where The Force Unleashed II gets it wrong. [Feb 2011, p.104]

At times, it feels like "Dead Ringers the Game," with a load of people doing not-quite accurate impressions while looking rather unlike the real actors. [Sept 2009, p.98]

Epic, steampunk fail. [Aug 2009, p.96]

A great idea that's failed because of execution. [May 2009, p.96]

Exciting as this may sound, it's based on design and an engine that conspire to make Hunting Unlimited 2008 uniformly atrocious, with dull footprint-following, animals often running tight circles around you, and the awful voice over chap talking about how 'pumped' he is that he shot something in the head. [Apr 2008, p.112]

Miserable nonsense that would have Holmes reaching for the syringe. Real detective work is tedious, lengthy, frustrating and often pointless. In that sense at least, Silver earring is spot on. This is fun how? [Nov 2004]

Frustrating array of random pointing and clicking.

So bog-standard it's positively peaty, and more buggy than a pram warehouse. [July 2008, p.113]

Every bit as boring as it should have been awesome on toast. Button mashing, blandness, and dodgy controls. Zzzz. [Aug 2008, p.105]

Ultra-generic. [Dec 2009, p.99]

If there is an intriguing idea buried within RF Online, it's suffocating. [Apr 2006, p.94]

A victim of its own sneers, this is the world's first self-parodying game. [July 2005, p.90]

When you factor in the poor translation, the stupid difficulty and the poor controls it's as much fun as the black death. Hard to be a good game, more like. [Apr 2008, p.115]

It's managed to create a whole new genre: the untactical shooter. [Mar 2006, p.104]

Boog, the 900lb grizzly bear, would make a good rug and nothing more. [Christmas 2006, p.96]

Five or six hours of totally joyless shooterage. I played this game so you don't have to. Don't let it all have been in vain. [Feb 2008, p.110]

More spit than polish. [Sept 2005, p.98]

There’s too much replaying of banal levels over and over again until you learn enough button combinations to survive long enough to reach a checkpoint. Sure, there are a few good moments – the sheer scale of the halls of the dead, and the backdrop of hundreds of charging orcs during some of the battle scenes – but the braindead playing of them renders the whole experience futile.