A dramatic and ingenious rethink. [July 2008, p.78]

Mediocre and dismally uninspired. [July 2008, p.88]

The Indiana Jones adventure that spent too much time at IKEA. [Apr 2008, p.86]

Rome is so lean and tooltippy, you may not need to open the manual at all. [June 2008, p.82]

With or without others to play with it's a lot of fun. It's just not something to should about from the rooftops. [May 2008, p.82]

Plodding, morose, half-decent puzzles. [Aug 2008, p.86]

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

Stealth and free-running are jettisoned: all that is left is a constant barrage of swordfights. It's a disaster, a betrayal of everything the player has learnt so far. It abandons even the slim veneer of choice that the very best games offer us, turning into Double Dragon in a monk's robe.

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

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]

What's perhaps best about Warriors Orochi is that you can play two-player split screen, with the pair of you taking on the entire story mode. [June 2008, p.84]

Broader multiplayer, daft campaign. [May 2008, p.76]

Goodness and gimmickry. [June 2008, p.88]

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fun, but not progress. [Apr 2008, p.64]

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

A lot of good ideas that are, sadly, very poorly executed. [Dec 2008, p.88]

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]

A quality add-on to revive your habit. [May 2008, p.88]

It's not as life-affirming as "TF2" or as deep as "Quake Wars," but the "Battlefield" fan not into the cartoon war of the coming "Heroes" will find solace here. [May 2008, p.80]

The Club would make a great bonus mode in another game. It's a much harder sell on its own. It's an FPS with the values of a racing game - entire focused on self-improvement and efficiency. [Mar 2008, p.78]