The new elements it adds feel more like a patch than a genuine expansion whilst the mods are hit and miss - and you can already get the best ones for nothing. Would I want to go back to playing Civ IV without what Beyond the Sword adds? No. But should I have to pay this much for the privilege of balancing a game that, by the very intent of this expansion, its developers clearly feel needs it? Again, no.

Takes a dangling plot thread and ties it up, but unsatisfyingly and with a lot of repetitious combat.

Played correctly, it's still fun, but never feels as important as its older brother did. [May 2011, p.79]

The artists are on form, even if the writers are coasting. [June 2008, p.89]

By far one of the funniest S&M episodes for dialogue. [June 2008, p.89]

Gloriously beautiful, infuriatingly fiddly. [Christmas 2009, p.98]

In the grim darkness of the Warhammer 40K future, there is only a solid, satisfying game let down by a lack of variation. [May 2010, p.100]

A shadow of the awesome original. [Nov 2008, p.70]

A perfectly pitched horror-themed add-on for Borderlands, but lacking the essential undead magic. [Mar 2010, p.102]

Better than previous seasons, but far weaker than episode one. [Aug 2010, p.99]

Soccer sim solidly cluttered. [Christmas 2008, p.78]

A brave attempt at a promising genre, but not hard-boiled enough to earn the traditional $25 a day plus expenses. [Jan 2012, p.120]

There is a certain charm to Anno 1404's dinky people going about their business, and a lot of pretty detail to revel in, but this familiar collection of well-worn elements only preaches to the converted, offering little to attract new believers.

Still fun, but disappointing. Here's hoping for a great finale. [June 2007, p.83]

As a continuation of the story, however, the episode works well. [Dec 2009, p.91]

Cynical and unimaginative - but fun. [Jan 2007, p.102]

Too garage for its own good. [Christmas 2006, p.80]

If you haven't completed [the main game] yet, though, there's no real reason to pay for this. [March 2013, p.111]

Wacky before funny, showing no signs of progress. [Jan 2008, p.81]

An RPG in poor action-game disguise. [Christmas 2007, p.90]

A novel use of fluids, but sometimes scuppered by cumbersome platforming and the annoyingly happenstance physics. [May 2012, p.104]

An engrossing but overly geeky sortie. [Jan 2007, p.84]

While it's limited, it's also a lot of fun. [Sept 2011, p.89]

The visual dazzle and cinematic set-pieces are let down by bad scripting, glitchy multiplayer and increasingly dull firefights.

Sam and Max's twisted world is captured near-perfectly in the art, which makes the disappointments in the dialogue and puzzles all the more acute. [Dec 2006, p.92]

A good idea that allows for some fun co-operative strategising, but too often the mechanics or technical issues get in the way. [Christmas 2011, p.100]

One for hardcore online fans only. [Christmas 2007, p.95]

Age of Empires III just hasn't aged all that well. [Feb 2007, p.91]

Better, but eight episodes in, it needs to be even better still. [Mar 2008, p.87]

Largely the same as ever. Good if that works for you, bad if not. [May 2007, p.83]

This Swedish smorgasbord doesn't have enough meat. [June 2006, p.93]

The new areas are the standout feature and shine in a way the original Titan Quest's levels never did.

The large-scale RTS combat can be fun and the game flourishes aesthetically in some of the bigger areas, but life is too short to spend our time on games lacking spirit, spunk and novelty. [June 2006, p.94]

A disappointingly uneven offering. [June 2013, p.96]

A few too many flaws in the basic design to ever by anything more than a waypoint to the next soldier sim. [July 2006, p.88]

Lovingly drawn New York backdrops go some way towards rescuing the painful puzzles. [July 2007, p.90]

If you can relax into the game, get past the learning curve and ignore being hit on by an ugly Scottish man, there's a mass of strategy here. [Dec 2006, p.110]

Wormed its way back into our hearts, but don't expect the relationship to be any different.

As much fun as a day at the beach, but Tropico 3 misses a big boat by not showing you the results of your presidential labours. [Dec 2009, p.108]

A steep learning curve and lack of starting characters will turn many away from Bloodline's fun and frenzied arena battles.

Stability issues notwithstanding, this explosive new arcade racer is just about as compulsive as they come. [July 2010, p.102]

S&M mistakes 'wackiness' for comedy, alliteration for timing, and cliche for characterisation...Telltale just need to realise that writing funny is hard work, and they're not yet doing nearly enough. [Feb 2007, p.70]

Aimless and unfunny - a terrible way to end the series. [July 2007, p.79]

This is better (and easier) than last month's "Maoi Better Blues," but nowhere near as good as "Abe Lincoln Must Die." [Apr 2008, p.83]

A technical improvement on past efforts, let down by a lack of atmosphere and irritating AI flaws. [Nov 2010, p.92]

PopCap charm permeates the experience - the dialogue and tool tops are hilarious - but the halfway mark signals a massive surge in difficulty, and you'll frequently get pinned for hours on a single stage. [Dec 2009, p.117]

Deal with all these niggles and there's an undeniably fun core of stupidly acrobatic, combo-heavy fighting. DMC4 doesn't move the series on, but when it's firing on all cylinders it's still enough to make you snigger with glee.

FIFA 07 is still entertaining, but it's about as workaday as it gets. It goes through the motions of offering team updates and a smattering of new features, but fails to address core problems or significantly innovate in its approach to football. [Nov 2006, p.96]

As an indie release, it's exactly the kind of thing we like to see - something writing its own rules, and leaving us excited to see just where its ideas go next. [Mar 2008, p.84]

Ultimately, Rise is meant for the BFME hardcore. [Christmas 2006, p.74]

While everything works, there are a few odd quirks which don't exactly break the game but do make it a little bizarre. [May 2006, p.89]

Still playable, but coasting on a years-old reputation that needs to be renewed sharpish if Pro Evo is to stay relevant. [Dec 2009, p.82]

All of which leaves this expansion pack as probably the least essential yet. It won't disappoint any fans, sure, but there's little to make lapsed devotees come in from the cold. [May 2007, p.89]

Slow but satisfying sequel. [Jan 2009, p.78]

Carbon manages to look uniformly bland. [Christmas 2006, p.82]

It's not a great leap forward, but growing bananas and rigging elections remains remarkably entertaining. [Oct 2011, p.84]

While it's a competent shell of a game, the only scrap of ingenuity is in the way each character picks any two of eight skill trees, and even that's been pipped at the post by "Guild Wars." [Aug 2006, p.84]

Builds on the classic rules while keeping their timeless charm.

If you know what it expects of you, there's a thrill to some of Generations' showier moments. If not, prepare to hit a series of brick walls at high speed. [Feb 2012, p.93]

A parody that's funny throughout. [Jan 2011, p.94]

It's Product Football. And in that order. Maybe next year, eh? [Christmas 2008, p.70]

Nice looking, moderately rewarding. [July 2006, p.78]

It has to be that AI again. It just feels too rigid, too tediously functional to capture the sheer fluid exuberance of football. [Dec 2007, p.78]

Clever puzzle concepts fail to coalesce into anything scintillating, undermined by inconsistent physics and a rather witless world. [Sept 2012, p.100]

For a weekend's light point-and-clicking, you can definitely do worse. [Jan 2011, p.97]

An artful but mild shooter. [Aug 2008, p.78]

A by-the-book roleplaying jaunt in fantasy-land. There's enough to do in Risen, but never enough to thrill. [Dec 2009, p.118]

More an interactive fairytale than a game, this Sims spinoff tells a good yarn but feels limited.

The ghosts are fun and have plenty to say, even if the humour regularly falls short. [June 2012, p.105]

A confused mess of promising but inconsistent mechanics. Hilarious, maddening, stupid and occasionally fun. [Sept 2010, p.79]

Battlestations: Midway lacks this depth. There's masses of stuff to do, there's just not enough places to actually do it in, which is something of a shame.

A fairly arcane design and an unfriendly community make for difficult entry barriers. [July 2010, p.98]

There's a brilliant tension between risk and reward. [July 2010, p.105]

Still too dour for most. [May 2012, p.110]

Slightly less interesting than the first game, and still has a few rough edges and poorly conceived challenges. [Aug 2006, p.91]

A genuinely beautiful place crawling with magnificent beasts, host to interminable hours of mindless, soulless grind. [Dec 2009, p.110]

It's so fundamentally flawed that most gamers are going to simply bounce right off it. [Mar 2008, p.72]

They've made it feel like a franchise they'll dutifully milk, rather than a game they'll love to keep making. [Dec 2008, p.76]

An attractive and powerful sim that spoils itself by trying too hard to be a straightforward infantry shooter. [Dec 2009, p.98]

No arguments, this is one of the most beautiful game worlds created. [July 2013, p.85]

Multiplayer is a fun aside, but be prepared for your PC to struggle with the choking throng of units on screen. [Aug 2006, p.92]

A beautiful alternative to the standard MMO, but unlikely to draw you away from more structured questing for long. [May 2012, p.88]

A cute, quirky anime dungeon crawl that will cheerfully kick your arse until your nose starts bleeding. [Sept 2012, p.84]

We still believe in this, and with further tweaks it could yet become a fine murder romp. [Jan 2007, p.104]

This is actually technically inferior to the console versions, and it badly hurts the experience. Just because it works on the PC doesn't make it a PC game - ask for your fiver back, Capcom. [Apr 2007, p.84]

When blowing things up, more is generally merrier. Second Encounter offers way, way more. [July 2010, p.96]

A bit too familiar, but fun while it lasts. [May 2009, p.72]

A mean pricing system and lack of strategic control hamstring an otherwise promising management sim. [Christmas 2010, p.88]

A lazy, uninspired update. [Christmas 2006, p.84]

Button-mashing combat and new powers aren't particularly inspiring, but the large-scale level puzzles are rock solid. [Aug 2010, p.96]

Stalker: Clear Sky remains a remarkable misstep by the Ukrainian developers, and one that does not reflect well on their original game, or their independence from original publishers, THQ. We can only hope that their next effort will be more controlled.

You get what you pay for, which in this case isn't anything new. [Sept 2006, p.101]

An acceptable, lighthearted RPG that's often too simple, too staid and too black and white to be much fun.

Inventive, smart and adorable, but it plays oh so slowly. [May 2009, p.71]

Huge, bold, but not particularly savage. [Apr 2008, p.68]

The appealing characters and occasionally entertaining puzzles can only take it so far. [July 2011, p.99]

Still a solid sports sim, but more features means less fun. [Nov 2007, p.78]

A solid, squishy eyeful of Germanic RPG charm. [Apr 2009, p.81]