Messy, overcomplicated and slow to start, but fun once it picks up speed.

Project Wingman delivers exciting aerial combat and an interesting campaign, though it won't impress those looking for a hardcore flight sim.

A third-person horror game that's elevated by some of the sharpest writing and acting in the genre.

Basically a Star Wars mod for "Age of Empires II." That’s pretty cool, though. [Holiday 2001, p.100]

Owners of "Earth 2150" may want to wait for "Earth III." BUt his is still a very deep RTS. [May 2001, p.83]

Even while telling myself that I should be revolted - especially since Cash is a thoroughly unsympathetic protagonist - I finished the 15-hour game in three sittings. [July 2004, p.72]

It stays close to its inspirations and risks growing repetitive, but Anodyne’s darkly surreal atmosphere is gripping.

Fract OSC’s puzzles are often too few and far between the open-world wandering, and the music integration does little to stir the soul.

Some of the best boss fights in the genre's recent history, riddled with difficulty spikes in all the wrong places.

If you can get past the steep learning curve, Savage 2 can be a lot of fun, whether you want to hack and slash or work with teammates on coordinating tactics. [May 2008, p.68]

Personality, creativity, and co-op multiplayer elevate this Hades-like beyond its rough edges.

South of Midnight's action may not have the strongest hook, but its poignant tale of hope and sorrow tailored to Deep South mythos keeps its head raised high.

SiN Episodes: Emergence is a fun, if somewhat derivative, blast from the near past. [Aug 2006, p.33]

Its innovation definitely injects a shot of adrenaline into a genre that desperately needed it. [June 2003, p.78]

Carefully balanced and well-rounded, Children of the Nile will be great fun for armchair history fans or anyone who digs smart RTS simulations. [Jan 2005, p.78]

A creative blend of sneaking and shooting that will have squads coming back for more.

Sand Land is just another forgettable tie-in to add to the existing anime game pile.

Heavy Rain is poorly written and not as smart as it thinks it is, but has a genuine sense of choice and consequence.

It's too repetitive and easy, but Crying Suns story and frantic combat are worth experiencing anyway.

Gravity Ghost hits the notes of big-budget platformers on a smaller scale; its story fumbles along the way, but it's short and sweet.

The result is a competent remaster and the best way to play this classic Total War, but it still can't compete with its modern heirs.

A limp story and weak jokes are worth putting up with for Victor Vran’s great combat system.

Despite a clunky story and technical performance, there's a lot of fun to be found in dashing and dodging through a zombie-filled city.

Genuinely fun – for the first 10 minutes or so, before it gets repetive. [Holiday 2001, p.68]

The ability to zoom out to get a better view of Spidey's surroundings would've been a huge boon to gameplay, especially during stealth missions and melee combat. [July 2002, p.72]

A frenetic, eye-pleasing simulation of theme-park building. [Apr 2001, p.80]

The fixed nature of the Trials precludes major excitement once you've burned through them. But for the money, this pack offers a fun Atlantean holiday. [July 2004, p.75]

The design could be tighter, the story a bit better paced, but it's still a fine couple of evenings' worth of puzzling, atmosphere, mystery, and magic, with animals cute and fluffy enough to see you through its more turgid bits. [Oct 2013, p.69]

At best, Bokida's story is effective at linking visuals. [Aug 2017, p.87]

Dazzling, dangerous, and dripping in style, Ruiner is a superb, if short, whirlwind of cyber-violence and sightseeing.

A messy, unfocused mishmash of genres with a few smart ideas.

A pleasant mix of gentle puzzling and body horror, PHOGS! is a very good boy.

Despite being a smart progression of Blood Money's ideas, Hitman feels unrefined and unfinished in lots of small but important ways.

Visions of Mana weaves accessible action and RPG elements together to create a gorgeously enthralling fairy tale.

The top-notch writing and superb voice acting, coupled with the visually vibrant hellscape, keeps your interest from start to finish.

With bumping tunes and Y2K inspirations, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk reminds us that, sometimes, looking back can be a way of moving forward.

An ambitious and atmospheric adventure undercut by some simplistic mechanics.

Aside from its supply tedium (and lack of multiplay), the game's horribly wonky pathfinding AI remains the ultimate knock against an otherwise great title. [Sept 2004, p.61]

Still, its charming in its disgusting way, with a thoroughly entertaining story, great gameplay, and a cast of detestable-yet-oddly-likeable characters. [Aug 2011, p.73]

Either I'm a masochist, or this game is worth the irritation. [Oct 2013, p.81]

Episode four makes Bigby's struggle more personal, then ends abruptly, transferring the pressure to deliver onto the finale.

The pace may not win over fans of first-person shooters or real-time strategy games, but it's a darn good yarn for adventure gamers who can stomach a double-helping of gore. [July 2005, p.73]

Weird restrictions aside, this is a funny, unique, and charming way to kill some time, even if only in small amounts. [Jan 2013, p.69]

A modest remaster of a fun but flawed RTS that’s stuck in the ever-lengthening shadow of its predecessor.

Despite the craft and heart, Tell Me Why feels like a game at odds with itself.

The problem with NHL 2003 is that it's fun, but it just ain't hockey...I'm 30 games into the season, and I have yet to lose one...with the difficulty at Highest. [Dec 2002, p.114]

If you like tactical shooters and you're into WWII, you must have this game. [Jan 2004, p.112]

If interacting with it weren't such a pain, it would be a tremendous achievement. [Apr 2012, p.73]

Boltgun is stupendously fun—a treat for Warhammer players and a worthy member of the growing legion of retro shooters.

Refreshing tactical changes and some of the best maps in the series make this an experiment worth checking out.

Although Madden NFL 08 isn't all that it could be, especially in light of the console omissions, it plays an intelligent game of football. [Dec 2007, p.62]

But it's wealth of diverse missions--which includes assassinations, routing drug dealers and arms dealers, and liberating villages--will give you good cause to hope that unrest continues to flourish around the world. [Dec. 2006, p.52]

Symphony is fun, pure and simple. [Dec 2012, p.75]

Iron Harvest's mech-based strategy can burn a little slow, but the payoff is undoubtedly worth it.

Dead Island 2 is hampered by dull design choices, repetitive combat, and a painfully weak story, with its only saving grace being its great performance on PC.

A must-own for Worms virgins, less important for all but the most devoted Worms fans. [June 2001, p.74]

Its aesthetics need more polish - and it needs to offer more help for newcomers. [Sept 2002, p.64]

This content-rich general-aviation sim is built for serious flight buffs. [Mar 2004, p.68]

My chief criticism of Missing is that it relies too heavily on arbitrary puzzles and too little on sleuthing. [Oct 2004, p.100]

The best in Activision's Spidey lineup, packed with comic-book excitement. [Holiday 2005, p.78]

An imaginative, atmospheric, and cleverly designed sci-fi adventure that’s over far too quickly.

While I might disagree with the notion that Carrion is a truly great Metroidvania, a genre that has buckets of both older and modern classics, it is at very least a refreshing take on it. It controls like a dream with an analog stick, and there's a fluidity to the monster’s movements that I honestly feel like I will be searching for in other games for years. It just falls short of greatness, settling quickly into its comfort zone as a series of interconnected puzzles, and then failing to surprise me much after that.

Fragpunk's bold decision to break almost every rule in the book leads to a captivating shooter.

A beautifully presented and accessible game in a sometimes obscure genre, Ara: History Untold is a pretty picture book rather than a deep tome.

Enjoyable in places and very pretty, but sadly blighted by sloppy design, terrible boss battles, and a lack of new ideas.

Even with these improvements, it's held back by n incredibly small game world that too frequently revisits its few sets, and makes being stuck in the '20's for a second episode monotonous. [July 2011, p.77]

It's not quite the Serious Sam that you've known and love, although there are plenty of great moments. [Holiday 2005, p.76]

Late Night turns The Sims 3 into a hoppin' urban party, but if you're in it for the build mode you'll find apartment life limiting. [Jan 2011, p.71]

RFA is basically one great moment--destroying buildings with a powerful weapon--repeated for a whole game. [July 2011, p.58]

A casual timewaster for people who are into the Witcher enough to get the references, but not married to the idea every Witcher game has to be a big RPG.

Attacking settlements, especially your own, is good fun, but there’s hours of chores to complete before you can really become a raider.

Beautiful combat livens up Overload's tedious levels.

Even with its limited replay appeal and some lackluster voice acting, at $24.99, Shadowgrounds delivers a noteworthy value-to-fun ratio. [Aug 2006, p.35]

One singular great idea is the foundation for a smart and occasionally thrilling action puzzler.

Until they make a game out of the movie "Eraserhead," this is as weird as it gets.

Gets an "A" for design, and a "C-" for execution. Let's hope major patches can revise this game to greatness. [Apr 2004, p.81]

The intricate level construction and enhanced AI are appreciated, but I still felt like I was playing nothing more than a glorified expansion pack. [July 2004, p.66]

The Thaumaturge might be a bit light for RPG lovers, but it’s a gorgeous, incisive look at a world long past.

Tempopo's rhythmic puzzling is undeniably great, but is let down by a lack of mechanical pacing and an absence of Witch Beam's coveted storytelling.

Satisfies as a polished-looking shooter, but needs a more energetic design. [June 2003, p.70]

Mostly delightful and sometimes punishing, Bad North is a fun alternative to more complex strategy games.

The explosions are amazing, and it’s fun in short bursts, but Just Cause 3 is ultimately an unremarkable, shallow experience.

Total War: Pharaoh’s battles may be limited by history, but Creative Assembly compensates for this with a complex, thematic, and highly dynamic campaign.

Moonlighter is a cute and casual revival of an uncommon mashup but doesn’t stick around to push the boundaries.

Its sprite-based units overlaid on a 3D field look cheesy(yet may still tax low-end systems), but stiff looks are a welcome sacrifice for historiccal accuracy and scale. [July 2006, p.67]

Kingdom is a fun, gorgeous management game, but trying to learn its mysteries eventually becomes a slog.

There may be prettier and more heavily populated first person shooters, but few reward teamwork as well as Insurgency.

Some of the puzzle solutions...are frustratingly hint-free and unintuitive. [Holiday 2003, p.109]

Colorado isn't the most visually appealing or intricate level in Hitman. But it provides some much needed variety—a change of scenery and challenge that rounds out the Hitman experience. It feels as if IO has spent most of this season demonstrating that it can still get Hitman right. It's nice to see they're now confident enough to move away from the template they've created.

Restrictive design decisions sap the energy from a series that revels in it, and technical issues deal the killing blow.

An accessible strategy game tied to a powerful, dynamic story generator.

Sega Rally Revo kicks up some of the best mud in the genre. [Jan 2008, p.74]

A creative fusion of familiar platformer elements that improves with time and investment, and proof that Evening Star is more than just the Sonic Mania crew.

Yara is super lush and wonderful to explore, but the story and main villain are predictable.

Thoughtful and packed with units, but it should be more intuitive to play. [Aug 2003, p.66]

It's not often that a free MMO shares shares space with World of Warcraft on my desktop, but Duneon Runners changed all that with a splash of Diablo-inspired gameplay that lets you roam randomly generated dungeons as one of three classes. [Sept 2007, p.64]

There are beautiful and tragic scenes, songs, and passages to find in WTWTLW's journey, but they're spread far too thin.

The subtle differences are improvements, but if you already own MLB 2K10, this edition is too similar to justify the upgrade cost. [July 2011, p.79]