Uninspired campaign approach. [Christmas 2010, p.103]

Only WRC fans will persevere here. [Christmas 2010, p.97]

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

Wonky visuals, but this is as close to The Da Vinci Code meets Monkey Island as we'll get. Did I mention the hot French accent?

A gem of a game on a par with the type of shiny jewels that Lara herself might travel all over the world to acquire.

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

Demands more work than its predecessors. Get it right and there's little as satisfying, but it's easier than ever to get it wrong.

Fun in the purest sense of the word, Lego Universe is a delightful MMO that involves your imagination but ends much too soon.

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

A visually impressive shooter, fine with friends, but avoid this if you're going to be on your own or reliant on randoms.

A clever music based puzzler, that is unfortunatley restricted by the small amount on offer.

A delightfully challenging platformer, and the most fun you'll have by dying repeatedly. [Feb 2011, p.98]

A triumph. Competitors beware: this is the best MMO in the world. Once you're hooked it's impossible to stop playing. [Feb 2011, p.91]

How DLC should be done. A chunk of game almost as substantial as the full release for a third of the price. [Feb 2011, p.94]

A complex and wellbalanced sim that's troubled by a severe lack of long-term objectives and dearth of character.

MoH's inventive and thoughtful sections are undermined by its desire to mimic other games it just can't beat.

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

A shallow but entertaining adventure. The world is wonderful to explore, but a lack of depth keeps this from achieving greatness.

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]

With diplomacy and more resourceful units, Hegemony could have been great rather than good. [Aug 2010, p.102]

A smooth, reactive game, FIFA is the best option for PC footballers, even with some niggles in the updated code.

Codemasters manage the near-impossible - delivering a fresh, approachable, and (largely) credible F1 game.

Rich in atmosphere and big on scares, Amnesia: The Dark Descent goes where survival-horror fears to tread.

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

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

In ten hours of criminality, 2K Czech have made the perfect elegy to the mafia movie. Could have been more of a game, though.

Better than the first game, and an amazing technical achievement, but the shooting needs work to fully realise its potential.

Strong naval combat is marred by shallow trade and town management. [Oct 2010, p.86]

An entertaining arcade racer with outstanding car chases, undone by its micro-transactions and lack of depth.

I'm wildly outnumbered. [Sept 2010, p.93]

Competent combat and visuals are slightly marred by online irritations. [Oct 2010, p.94]

Stunning graphics and excellent voice acting. [Sept 2010, p.86]

The humour, too, is a little underplayed. [Sept 2010, p.95]

Confused and weightless, APB doesn't satisfy on any front: the shooting, driving, story and objectives are all sub-par.

The most realistic wargame simulation available today, albeit burdened by poor performance. [Aug 2010, p.100]

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

A joyous and addictive action puzzler. [Sept 2010, p.102]

Great sniping, great sneaking, and several grueling missions where you can do neither. [Sept 2010, p.104]

War for Cybertron is a respectable action game with a generous coating of awesome robots who turn into cars. [Sept 2010, p.92]

The puzzles are excellent. [Sept 2010, p.105]

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

Disappointment. [Sept 2010, p.103]

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

Irritating level design and a poor story are somewhat redeemed by explosive action and a challenging co-op mode. [Sept 2010, p.82]

The combat and final mission are weak, but the story strands that bind it all together are excitingly unique to each other. [July 2010, p.87]

Showing Sims at work gives us more simple but enjoyable ways to play, though it still needs help from our imaginations. [July 2010, p.92]

Interesting locations, all well made, but five quid for four maps is a bit steep. [Sept 2010, p.105]

Serious military strategy games don't come any better, or pricier, than this. [Sept 2010, p.96]

The sweetest car combat game in years. [Aug 2010, p.94]

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

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

Exactly the kind of playfulness I expect from Tropico. [Sept 2010, p.93]

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

A mammoth update that caters for mid to high level players. [Aug 2010, p.90]

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

Excellent espionage, with superb cooperative play. But we can't recommend you buy this game with the current DRM. [May 2010, p.73]

What you're doing isn't terribly interesting. [July 2010, p.97]

Becomes obscure and irritating. [July 2010, p.54]

Devilishly tricky. [July 2010, p.95]

A slog that's worthwhile for arcade and music lovers alike. [July 2010, p.76]

An incredibly refreshing reinvention of the S&M games, much funnier, and far, far more interesting to play. [June 2010, p.96]

Easily comparable with titles twice its price. Its core gunplay and design are more airtight than a collapsed mine. [June 2010, p.94]

A decent game hampered by a completely bonkers and ill-thought-out payment scheme. A bad year for Tiger.

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

Mount & Blade's new multiplayer is a brutal blast. It's a shame the solo side didn't get more attention, though. [June 2010, p.98]

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

Delayed gratification of locked-out units dampens the enthusiasm of the new fast-paced class-based action. [May 2010, p.78]

Although it's a shorter, shallower and less sexy version of Dragon Age: Origins, this is nonetheless still long, deep and sexy. [Apr 2010, p.88]

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]

Tactile, bloody and substantial. One of gaming's most exciting open worlds - but only when you're online. [Apr 2010, p.96]

Satisfying, unintimidating war with rich visuals, held back by flavourless map design and a poor singleplayer mode. [Apr 2010, p.85]

Gorgeous and pleasingly free form. Without the bugs and oppressive DRM, it would be the best Silent Hunter 5 yet. [May 2010, p.102]

A brilliant redesign of Supreme Commander's robot armies, ironically limited by a lack of artificial intelligence. [Apr 2010, p.90]

Overflowing with charm and character, this is, however, a random experience. [Sept 2010, p.95]

Not brave or bright enough to wow Total War veterans, but the battles and improved multiplayer save the day. [Mar 2010, p.80]

Great monsters and partly interesting multiplayer, but weak campaigns and clumsy controls reduce AvP's long-term appeal. [Apr 2010, p.94]

Tense, if limited fun. [Apr 2010, p.107]

An inventive and enjoyable puzzle platformer. [Sept 2010, p.84]

The astounding realisation of this environment covers any mechanical cracks. [Mar 2010, p.90]

An undeniably fun space-combat MMO, with the bones of a rich universe but still plenty of catching up to do. [Apr 2010, p.102]

It's lots of fun as a straight team-based shooter, but the MMO side of things needs polish to make it more accessible. [Apr 2010, p.100]

Incredible value. [May 2010, p.85]

Where Mass Effect 2 completely won me over was in the amazing climactic mission, easily one of the best game endings I've played in recent years.

A decent indie puzzler that gets a lot out of its premise. Smart physics and some excellent puzzles here. [Apr 2010, p.106]

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

Cheap and cheerful, but also disappointingly shallow and shonky. [Mar 2010, p.88]

Moxxi is pretty, polished, and as characterful as Borderlands ever was, and it adds a bank to store loot you might want to keep, but it's really not something you should spend your pocket-money on.

Not the best fantasy RPG available this year, but good enough to sate those looking for more quests and characters. [Feb 2010, p.90]

A rare sim triumph, although it's forced to make a ton of compromises to appease two distinct audiences. [Mar 2010, p.86]

An astounding world, and a flagship for the imagination and capability of independent game developers. [Christmas 2009, p.94]

A gorgeous, sci-fi themed platformer, rich with tough puzzles and smart design. Simple, but amazingly detailed. [Mar 2010, p.94]

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

A puzzle game that plays like Portal and does everything else like Ed Wood. Enthusiastic, but it's not high-art. [Dec 2009, p.93]

Plainly the best plane-centric shooter on a 2D plane. Stick through the slow start and enjoy the view later on. [Jan 2010, p.94]

This expansion is aimed squarely at existing LotRO players rather than newcomers, but it definitely hits the mark.

Gorier, chainsawier, co-opier, and more infectious. A refreshed stack of content for the best zombie game ever.

An essential expansion pack, though be prepared to play hard and work even harder. [Christmas 2009, p.108]

Imperfect spaceship engineering and asynchronous online dueling combine to deliver a flawed star. [Dec 2009, p.94]