An elegant and beautifully depicted strategy game that feels logical but fresh. Even if it is a little late to bloom. [Christmas 2009, p.110]

Enough Car Goes Bang, but not enough basic bang for your buck. [Apr 2006, p.78]

Much like roast dormouse: moreish but unsatisfying. [Apr 2008, p.79]

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

For now, unless you're desperate for a new RPG today, hold fire and see if the inevitable post-release patches will fix up the leaky bits. If so, add 15% or so to the score. [Dec 2006, p.112]

New ideas save this buggy oddity from walking the plank...just. [Aug 2007, p.87]

If the AI worked as it was intended, and if there was a cover system beyond "stand behind that pillar and the splash damage 'might' not kill you," Jericho would be great. But it doesn't, there isn't, and it's not. [Dec 2007, p.82]

Sweet ideas, very poorly balanced.

This is good news for the strategy-is-serious-business crowd, but it makes for a game without much character. [June 2008, p.89]

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

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

Wherever you look, something is missing. [Oct 2007, p.74]

Broken World feels cheerless and sloppy compared to its glossier parent, and the fact that it even exists, so long after DSII and so resolutely aimed only at folk who've played that to death, is something of a mystery. [Nov 2006, p.92]

[July 2005]

What's still missing is "MS Flight Simulator" levels of realism. [Oct 2007, p.87]

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

Think of it as an unofficial add-on. [July 2008, p.80]

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

Frequent levelling and plentiful and varied loot give Silverfall a definite momentum; the blend of worlds and the inventiveness of some of the creatures give it a modicum of novelty. This is an easy game to get swept along by, but, largely because of those serried foes, it's also an easy game to walk away from. [Apr 2007, p.82]

Not as clever as Recettear, but just as cute, and a strong second outing for the translation team behind it. [Nov 2011, p.130]

Essentially, this is "Strike Fighters" in hotpants and platform heels. [Dec 2006, p.95]

A mess, but an interesting one. [July 2007, p.76]

Lumbering sports behemoth. [Feb 2008, p.72]

Beneath the endless text, Analogue is smart, focused, and refreshingly unpleasant stuff with a style all of its own. [Apr 2012, p.112]

Four player co-op always stimulates a baseline level of fun, but this is bare bones stuff. [May 2003, p.111]

A weak add-on to an improving game. [Sept 2008, p.92]

It's sweet and simple enough, but with that, remarkably shallow. [Oct 2007, p.87]

The opening battles are simply too difficult to play. [Aug 2007, p.91]

A container full of bloody FEAR jam. [Christmas 2007, p.92]

Cheap, brief, hard-to-control thrills. [Feb 2008, p.74]

Excellent house-breaking multiplayer that's great while it lasts, but may wear out early due to lack of maps.

You can rip off a 7-year-old game and still fall short of your ambition. [Oct 2007, p.87]

Superb artistic design, broken game. [Oct 2007, p.76]

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

Alchemy, brigands, gold management, and lots of trading [Christmas 2006, p.85]

A great big walloping drive of a golf game. [Nov 2007, p.78]

A less than great RPG-shooter that you may still love to pieces, but keep a pack if aspirin on hand just in case. [Nov 2011, p.140]

I slept with the mailman then insulted his performance. It had no affect on the game. I spent the first day in bra and panties, even while having lunch in someone else's home. No one noticed. I can only suggest you tune into something else instead.

The core game remains unchanged, the AI still quirky, the music ace, and the commentary surprisingly intricate and relevant. [Dec 2006, p.101]

All you expect from a film tie-in, if ever so slightly better. [June 2008, p.81]

A mad experiment that mostly pays off. [June 2008, p.86]

A high score-chasing game that scores well with us all. [July 2008, p.83]

The shallow mechanics and technical problems make this one to avoid at full price. [Mar 2011, p.97]

Quotation forthcoming. [June 2007]

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]

Harmless, mindless fun. [May 2007, p.88]

Empty-souled, dated GTA clone. [Aug 2007, p.84]

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

Not quite so original the second time around, Zeno Clash 2 hits hard with ideas, swings and misses on execution. [July 2013, p.78]

A wheezing hybrid that can only frustrate. [Aug 2007, p.70]

Vietnam's story mission is pants, but the new weapons and survival map will please devoted Magicka fans.

A bountiful adventure game with a lot of personality, but one that suffers from its own ambition. [June 2013, p.82]

Poirot is the strongest and best performed character, which makes his background role a great mistake. Competently built, OE is too often directionless, but most of all, dull. Dull, dull, dull. In conclusion: dull.

1849 finds a few glittering flecks in taking a well-worn RTS template into gold-rush California, but no prime nuggets. [July 2014, p.78]

Depressing, derivative movie cash-in. [Sept 2007, p.88]

Intellectually barren space RPG. [Oct 2008, p.80]

Flashes of brilliance and masses of bugs. Cliffs of Dover needed at least another six months in the hangar. [June 2011, p.84]

Repetitive, old-fashioned. [Jan 2008, p.86]

And now, dressed up in this sorry state, trying to excuse itself like a dad in a night club, there's not even that to defend it. [May 2006, p.97]

With no visceral thrills and little reward from exploration, this becomes something of an empty shell, or perhaps a wonky snowman - likely to vanish from memory with the first rays of sunshine. [Feb 2009, p.70]

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

Feels like a showcase of a brilliant game mechanic, but that doesn't excuse the sparseness of the game around it. [Feb 2012, p.99]

Spoiled by repetition and muddle. [Jan 2007, p.100]

Fails to match "Lego Star Wars" for charm. [Jan 2007, p.98]

Grossly predictable. [June 2007, p.84]

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

Obscure II is not gripping enough to be survival horror and not good enough at storytelling to be an adventure; it's just a series of quite relaxing puzzles interrupted when some pink things burst through the wall. [Dec 2007, p.89]

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

It lacks a sense of lasting import. [March 2013, p.111]

Night of the living dud. [July 2007, p.86]

Not quite as exciting as the title might suggest. [Sept 2006, p.103]

A pretty shell for a game that's pretty lacking. Not much fun. [Aug 2007, p.92]

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

This is not the most convincing military sim ever, but it's a good approximation of grinding boredom followed by sudden death - and a virtually unplayable game. [Aug 2007, p.86]

A distinctly average point-and-click adventure that doesn't deliver on the potential of its prison-break premise. [May 2014, p.90]

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

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

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.

In a further bizarre twist, The Wheelman has no interest in how wheels behave. [June 2009, p.89]

A different take on tower defence, but one that needed more thought before being released on an unsuspecting public. [June 2012, p.110]

Shoddy graphics and repetition means that this is more of a warm-up act than a stadium filler. [Aug 2007, p.92]

Extreme patience and a deep seated conviction that life is cruel will dig through to layered and varied experience. [Aug 2009, p.89]

This is very cheap, fleeting PvP combat. [May 2007, p.90]

Surprisingly competent and fun. [Mar 2008, p.76]

Lots of stars, not much sparkle. Stick with "GalCiv II." [June 2008, p.85]

You've played it before. [Apr 2007, p.96]

Childish, repetitive and ill-considered. [Feb 2007, p.80]

Higgledy-bonkers point-and-click nonsense. From hell. [Dec 2007, p.85]

Behind the name, there's solid hack and slash with some decent enemies. But Sacred? Not to anyone, it seems. [Oct 2014, p.94]

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

A hunk of old Russian bread: bland, hard, faintly nutritious. [June 2007, p.83]

While offering tough, sometimes entertaining miniature races, it fails to match its own past. [Aug 2006, p.94]

Competent swords-and-sorcery excursion minus vital soul. [Mar 2009, p.69]

So many good ideas, but there're the cheese in a mousetrap of punishing difficulty. Proceed, but with great caution. [June 2007, p.82]

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

The live-action stuff is atmospheric and well-shot, but The Bunker is let down by poor pacing and staid design. [Dec 2016, p.92]

Besides unlocking costumes that don't offer stat bonuses, there's almost zero replay value here. [Aug 2011, p.99]

Sadly, regular combat again proves Stronghold's downfall. Units require extreme babysitting. [Dec 2006, p.100]