Fails to excel. [Nov 2014, p.95]

Looking for a fulfilling lane defence game? Get Plants vs. Zombies. [June 2014, p.91]

Despite its clumsy handling of some issues, Journal has clever moments. [May 2014, p.91]

Too much is crude or dysfunctional, and with no stellar ambition to justify it. [Christmas 2013, p.83]

Rarely exciting, mostly disappointing. An unfinished tactical shooter let down by technical issues and terrible AI.

The whole DLC feels hastily cobbled together to the people who foolishly bought the season pass. [July 2013, p.97]

It can't live up to the hyperbolic name. [July 2013, p.97]

A by-the-numbers cover shooter punctuated by mind-numbing hacking minigames and woeful space combat. [July 2013, p.92]

An attempt to remake the pretty-looking shambler - with no effort to improve the balance of game systems or iron out bugs. [July 2013, p.80]

Even if the final chapter justifies the journey, this leg of it is sadly lifeless. [June 2013, p.97]

Comprehensive enough, but the laughable inconsistencies make FIFA Manager 13 impossible to take seriously as a sim. [Christmas 2012, p.102]

Inflexible controls. [Dec 2012, p.107]

Avoid. Run screaming. The funniest - and smartest - part of this game is the fact that the developers told you exactly what to expect when they named it. [Oct 2012, p.109]

Tremendously ambitious but agonisingly incomplete. Its battlefield is buggy and crude, and its RTS credibility is MIA. [June 2012, p.96]

This game has been spread too thinly: while initially engaging, it quickly becomes repetitive and dull. [June 2012, p.87]

The bulk of JULIA feels like an attempt to pad out the story. [May 2012, p.111]

Remarkably basic. [May 2012, p.105]

Unfinished, unpolished. [May 2012, p.87]

A serviceable compilation wrapped in a dodgy console conversion. [May 2012, p.87]

If you're going to be offensive, you need a point. This has none, either as satire, commentary, videogame or comedy. [Mar 2012, p.118]

What Chaos Unleashed adds is solid, but there's nothing essential enough to warrant fighting against the game's lazy matchmaking system. [Mar 2012, p.117]

There's enough of the terrible stuff to drown out the scant few passable bits. [Mar 2012, p.117]

If you weren't a big fan of the original's combat or writing, there's nothing to recommend about Origins. [Mar 2012, p.117]

If this was a budget release, it would merely be a rubbish game. At full price, it's unforgivable. [Mar 2012, p.113]

Even the best moments of parody are undermined by the fact that it simply isn't as good as the games it mocks. Shame. [Feb 2012, p.101]

A short burst of too easy fun at too high a price. [Feb 2012, p.93]

It's very pretty, but for a game so enamoured with the action, it never clicks. [Jan 2012, p.141]

A big, detailed database wrapped in a friendly UI, then wasted on an unresponsive and inaccurate pitch simulator. [Jan 2012, p.122]

Simply getting things done is a grating process. [Christmas 2011, p.107]

Four pretty but stale multiplayer arenas. One comedy zombie map. Eleven of your pounds wasted. [Nov 2011, p.122]

Petty, nasty and anachronistic. Duke is only relevant as a warning from the past. Avoid these mistakes, developers. [Aug 2011, p.76]

Occasionally satisfying combat can't overcome a bland world, unbalanced skills and obtuse crafting systems. What a mess.

Stay away. [July 2011, p.98]

It's sterile, it's empty, and has no sense of fun. [June 2011, p.95]

Ghostbusting isn't a challenge. [June 2011, p.87]

What's just not funny becomes sandpaper pants irritating when delivered in broken English. [May 2011, p.97]

Red River takes all the things the Flashpoint name is associated with – creative, emergent destruction and go-anywhere realism – and lets them wash away. It tries to be a bombastic shooter, but dodgy AI, a warren of bugs and an unpleasant tone mean the few gulps of fun you could draw from its waters are to be taken in multiplayer only.

It's got decent spaceship sections and charmingly bad dialogue, but don't expect quality or compelling action. [Apr 2011, p.96]

Madly repetitive, flaky and incessantly dull third-person action. Not even Olivia Wilde can save this clumsy movie tie-in.

A waste of time; dull and shoddy, Back to the Future fails to deliver on anything that made the movies so much fun.

It's a shooter for people who don't shoot and have the initiative of a house elf. [Feb 2011, p.97]

Even if it wasn't catastrophically broken, HAWX 2 would be a hard game to get particularly excited about. [Jan 2011, p.96]

Shank is a visually attractive but completely shallow excuse for a 2D brawler game. Frustrating combat doesn't help.

Perhaps the dev team just asked the pizza delivery boy to do the job to save some pennies for the sequel. [Aug 2006, p.95]

The worst thing is that you can't skip the dialogue. [July 2010, p.91]

Impossible to recommend in its present (v1.07) condition. [Sept 2010, p.94]

Disappointment. [Sept 2010, p.103]

Basically eight new maps for Majesty 2. [July 2010, p.91]

An absolutely worthless addition to the game. [Apr 2010, p.107]

Why must Star Wars get all the good games? [Jan 2010, p.102]

This is a weak port. [Feb 2010, p.85]

In short, it would take two humans deliberately missing every shot to ever be in jeopardy. [Christmas 2009, p.117]

A delightful dream devolves into a nightmare of poor controls and awkward movement. [Dec 2009, p.92]

Order of war is irrefutable proof pretty Panzers are no longer enough. [Dec 2009, p.91]

Insultingly banal. [Nov 2009, p.100]

The game beneath is distinctly below par and none of the story missions, or indeed the side quests, managed to grab my attention or imagination. [Oct 2009, p.79]

The big picture is impressive, but if the devil is in the details, this is his pitchfork jabbed right up your fundament. [Aug 2009, p.86]

Unbelievably repetitive and shallow. [July 2009, p.85]

World War One with zombies somehow ends up being no fun. [Apr 2009, p.81]

What the f..k were they thinking? [Sept 2009, p.79]

A depressing and shoddy misfire of a World War II sneak-'em-up. [July 2009, p.84]

It's a shame what lies behind the giggles is so weak. [July 2009, p.76]

Snail-paced frozen nonsense. [Apr 2009, p.66]

It is the eerie absence of fun. [July 2009, p.89]

Bizarrely creaky tech masks nice ideas. [May 2009, p.66]

The puzzles are mediocre, the controls are too sluggish, the animal behaviour too abstract and the humour either non-existent or gratifyingly dad-like. [June 2009, p.101]

Boring, buggy, profoundly meaningless, and utterly dreadful in every imaginable way. Not just bad - this is novelty bad. [June 2009, p.92]

An awful vision of strategy's future. [May 2009, p.69]

It's repetitive, mindless, claustrophobically linear, over-stylised and incoherent. [June 2009, p.93]

A free MMO whose ingenuity does little more than simply streamline what we've seen elsewhere. [July 2010, p.104]

No shock, just schlock. Almost impressively dreadful. [May 2009, p.67]

Sadly, this sequel is a lesser game in almost every way. [May 2009, p.68]

The explosions and spells look lovely, but the game itself is drudgery. [June 2009, p.89]

The result is the entire game feeling like a tutorial, with only one proper level to play at the end. [June 2009, p.93]

Dumbed down; drawn out; deeply annoying. [Jan 2009, p.84]

Stiff, confused. [Jan 2009, p.70]

Another middle-of-the-road glimpse of the future. [Feb 2009, p.71]

Dull, repetitive missions and a whiny hero. Super this ain't. [Jan 2009, p.89]

Weak riff on "Elite"'s trading with zero long-term appeal. [Mar 2009, p.75]

An 80-year-old mystery wearing the skin of a teenage boy. Ew. [Feb 2009, p.71]

A ghastly mess of bad design decisions that brings out the worst in user-made content. Not worth it. [Sept 2009, p.78]

Dull sporting minigames, not made for the PC. [Nov 2008, p.93]

Truly awful - one of the worst adventure games in years. [Aug 2008, p.87]

Civil war that's harrowing for all the wrong reasons. [Sept 2008, p.91]

Stuffy science fiction nonsense without a scrap of humour. [Sept 2008, p.91]

Badly ported and badly dated. Not a game for the PC at all. [Oct 2008, p.91]

The fact is, you must bring so much effort to the PCM equation - a simple interest in bikes won't do - that it's hard to think of it as a game. It's hard to think of it at all. [Sept 2008, p.95]

Too tough for tykes, too dull for adults. It's not a looker either. [Oct 2008, p.78]

Almost - but not entirely - worthless. [Aug 2008, p.70]

Honestly, I thought the era of 100% cash-in gaming crap was over. I was wrong. [Sept 2008, p.88]

Extreme is ugly, clunky, and lacking in any defensible reason why you should want to waste money on it. [Aug 2008, p.74]

Dark, moody, and full of hate. Your reviewer the day after the diary puzzle. [Aug 2008, p.89]

Don't shell out for ol' shellhead. The action-figure is more fun. [Aug 2008, p.79]

A startlingly awful interface. [June 2008, p.89]

Ancient oriental arts turned into a pointless pyjama party. [June 2008, p.89]

Same old niche, now with less freedom. [July 2008, p.74]

A game that offers all the TV characters but gives you impersonators for the voices is a cheap, nasty rip-off. That is Lost Via Domus. Avoid it like you would Season 4 spoilers.

Shoddy nonsense. [May 2008, p.74]