Not too shabby for fans of the comics, but there are better FPS games out there. [Oct 2000, p.114]

Undoubtedly fun for the run-and-shoot fans, but a low-impact port all the same.

AI flaws and a limp campaign let down an otherwise-accomplished RTS revival.

Legends of Eisenwald is a slightly rough-hewn romp through Germanic legend that's engaging and entertaining despite its lack of depth.

The freedom, and the constant sense that I’d be surprised when I turned the next corner, somewhat smoothed over the frustrations of Death’s Gambit, but it’d be a stretch to say I enjoyed it as a whole. Figuring out the best strategy for each boss fight is satisfying, but actually beating them isn’t fun enough to justify the pain of battling the stingy stamina system. Throwing myself at the same boss 29 times in a row just wasn’t quite worth the hassle.

It's a good place for casual shooter fans who don't feel like dropping $20 to get the crap kicked out of them in CS. [Nov 2008, p.66]

A battle royale game that's fun to play in a loose, aggressive style, with melee combat that's trickier than it may first appear.

Two groups of players should consider buying Notum Wars: High-level diehard clan members, and those who have never played Anarchy Online before but would like to try it. [Mar 2003, p.109]

The single-player campaign alone is inspiring enough to warrant picking up this space shooter. [Apr 2002, p.84]

A dark, engrossing, and challenging narrative card and crafting game.

Social commentary delivered with baseball bat subtlety, Not Tonight owes a huge debt to Papers, Please, but finds its own voice in the bit-parts of post-Brexit Britain.

A superbly crafted game that serves as storyteller, teacher, and concerned friend.

An occasionally entertaining detective game blighted by poor writing, rote combat, and a dreary open world.

VR can’t elevate Edge of Nowhere’s mediocre climbing, shallow combat, and contrived story. [Tested with Oculus Rift]

A surprisingly fun genre-bending pirate game, equal parts RPG and strategy. [July 2001, p.70]

If you're dying for an RTS game set in China, here's one. So there. [June 2001, p.80]

A directionless excercise in solving incomprehensible puzzles. [May 2003, p.70]

A formidable simulation, but landlubbers are likely to run aground on its steep learning curve. [Oct 2004, p.90]

Great music, delivered in frustratingly bitty form. A clever rhythm game that doesn't mesh with its prominent story.

The final insult is the atrocious console save-system. The game saves automatically between each level and a couple of times during each level, but if you stop playing, you have to restart teh entire level. [Jan 2005, p.86]

Wild! is a must-buy for critter lovers and coaster-builders alike. [Apr 2006, p.100]

Half enjoyable adventure, half clunky mess, Beat Cop is a talented rookie in need of a long talk with HR.

Fun sniping and great mission design just barely eclipse bugs, exploitable AI, and other issues that would make a lesser game impossible to recommend.

It's still better than the first episode, but its weaknesses will leave you wishing you could go back in time to stop yourself from playing it--space time continuum be damned. [Sept 2011, p.73]

Combine the inability to skip cut scenes with a checkpoint save system, and you have the straw that broke the panda's back. [Oct 2008, p.67]

A "Jurassic Park" spin on an otherwise old-school RTS. [Holiday 2006, p.70]

A deep, surprisingly sticky, truly free-to-play mashup of what you like from a bunch of other survival MMOs.

It doesn't redefine the action RPG, but in a genre laden with derivative games, Hellgate is a refreshing concoction that's likely to have enduring appeal. [Dec 2007, p.48]

A magnificent city full of exciting assassination missions, marred by broken co-op and technical issues.

A smart, peculiar city builder that ends in a gruelling uphill battle against a rival city.

Satisfying, pen-and-paper-style zombie storytelling that's somewhat blandly presented and burdened by bugs. A worthy RPG that would've benefited from more budget.

A bloated, grindy mess, but so packed with options that a better game is hidden inside it.

A fine RTS in the classic tradition, but it takes players far too long to get to the good parts--even if you pay. [Dec 2011, p.76]

Life is Strange 2 promises a classic roadtrip, but fails to put you in the driving seat.

In expanding on its predecessor, Layers of Fear 2 sinks into a state of deep confusion.

Flat writing and a confused plot fail to deliver on some promising ideas.

A smart, funny, heartfelt narrative game that tells a killer story, but doesn't do much beyond that.

A good idea that get tripped up in boring details. [Feb 2001, p.73]

Extremely social chatters will enjoy it, but everyone else will be thumb-twiddling. [Mar 2003, p.96]

It's strong on setup but extraordinarily weak on payoff. [Jan 2003, p.101]

The game's dimly lit rooms, haunting musical score, and aggressively edited cut-scene sequences (reminiscent of the movie "The Ring") more than compensate for the lackluster models and animation. [Feb 2004, p.71]

Still, this is only a problem in the first place because Sanctum is a tricky and exciting game that left me wanting a whole lot more. [Sept 2011, p.81]

A beautiful JRPG that captures the spirit of the genre's early hits while playing things a tad too safely.

Beyond a fairly daunting control and difficulty curve, Brigador is a gorgeous top-down shooter with a remarkable level of strategy.

Maquette has enough interesting ideas to push any adventure gamer past the finish line.

It's refreshing to be able to just jump into a strategy game and play. [Feb 2006, p.49]

The killing-lots-of-zombies genre is overcrowded, but Dead Rising 3 is one of the best, with a lovable dedication to fun, and some of the most inventive, hilarious weapons on PC.

Cygni: All Guns Blazing is a rollicking bullet hell-inspired blockbuster that never lets off the gas.

If you're a more casual type who's not anal about realism, Desert Rats will satisfy your inner tank commander. [June 2004, p.66]

Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny represents the design tenants of a bygone era, more often for worse than better.

Both land and space combat lack punch, but there's a fun if predictable 4X game waiting underneath.

It's just a shame the journey from infant to megashark isn't populated with a wider variety of activities. Like Hooper said, sharks just swim and eat, and that's unfortunately not enough to fill even a short action-RPG like Maneater.

All three of me agree, there's nothing quite like it. Quantum League is worth your time.

I endured a lot of frustration in some of the more challenging levels, but for the quick-witted and cool-headed, Vertex is full of cerebral, frantic fun. [Nov 2011, p.77]

An entertaining superhero power fantasy, let down by awful Batmobile combat, a laughable villain, and serious performance issues.

An intricate, beautiful playground for some enjoyably open-ended assassinations.

A serviceable slice of Soulslike fantasy that doesn’t do enough to stand out from an overcrowded genre.

With less loot to grab, simplified platforming and easy puzzles, Darksiders 3 leans harder on its combat than previous games. And while Fury packs a punch, the wonky camera makes fights more frustrating that they should be. It doesn’t condemn Darksiders to oblivion, but it’s the lowlight of the series so far.

Excellent writing and vibrant characters help to overcome prominent technical issues and unwelcome repetition.

The interface itself is just plain bizarre: A complete lack of mouse support makes manipulating your rosters and searching through stats more of a chore than it should be. [June 2003, p.72]

Thrillville is family friendly enough for younger gamers, but has enough creative content to entertain your inner child. [Mar 2008, p.72]

Engrossing, lovely to look at and with a potentially healthy shelf-life, if the multiplayer gets a toehold and gels cross-platform.

Steep costs and microtransactions taint an otherwise dreamy life sim.

It has a fresh look going for it, but Brink's fancy footwork and terrible AI Interfere with its fast-paced gunplay. [Aug 2011, p.70]

Minecraft Dungeons is a breezy dungeon crawler that reproduces Minecraft's playful attitude.

Unless you're jonesing for an adventure game fix, your time's better spent rearranging your Netflix queue. [Aug 2008, p.72]

ProStreet delivers a deeply enjoyable ride, but it would have been considerably more rewarding without the restrained(and ultimately compromised)physics. [Feb 2008, p.74]

In all things, World War Z takes ideas that I've already seen done better elsewhere, gives them an interesting little twist—and then makes that twist not matter. It treads familiar ground, but it's not as clever or fun as what's come before it.

An inventive Souls-meets-roguelike that frustrates and delights in equal measure.

Despite being the first The Sims 3 expansion not to include a new town and not adding the biggest load of new clothing and items, The Sims 3: Generations isn't skimping. [Sept 2011, p.76]

Beautiful graphics and fantastic controls are wasted due to a lack of content and an abundance of bugs. [Dec 2011, p.72]

Admirably back to basics, eschewing fancypants gimmicks to focus entirely on the ancient, noble art of hitting balls into holes. [Holiday 2014, p.58]

A fun, if lightweight, stealth combat game. The turn-based fighting isn't perfect, but remains entertaining enough to be worth a look.

A smart top-down reimagining of the Halo experience, let down by mobile game monetization. [Nov 2013, p.66]

Filled with what made the original game great, this second trip to Union City has been worth the 26-year hiatus.

A bit clunky, but it provides a good RPG experience over the long run. [Dec 2000, p.144]

A good idea executed without a trace of wit, energy, or style. About as dull as dishwater. [Sept 1996, p.138]

Gates is a fun game. [May 2005, p.67]

As a PC gamer, I'm frustrated the PC, the most powerful gaming platform, is stuck getting sloppy seconds. [Feb 2008, p.81]

Lovers of real-world ballistics, cautious tactics and persistent stats will be eager recruits. [Nov 2009, p.80]

Some issues keep it from being a stand-alone great, but fans longing for a reboot of Dungeon Keeper could do a lot worse than this clever, enjoyable dungeon manager.

Halo Wars 2's cutscenes are pretty, but the controls remains too console-focused for PC and the strategy is a little thin.

Making History may not be the deepest historical epic out there, but it is one of the most playable and a good way to whet your appetite for something more filling. [Aug 2007, p.66]

Checkpoint woes and a short runtime couldn't keep this body horror sci-fi game from burrowing into my skull.

Great in places, but never quite lives up to its potential. A competent sequel let down by inconsistency.

An immensely satisfying mix of platforming, stealth, action, and resource management, with character.

Never-quite-stellar puzzling fare punctured by erratic physics and makework. The scenery is nice, though.

New World's engaging crafting and faction rivalries are held back by abysmal PvE and a boring world.

Super Meat Boy Forever remains as vibrantly revolting as you remember the original being, but the platforming design doesn't live up to the established pedigree. The studio deserves credit for trying something different. If only Meat Boy's simple joys weren't diminished in the transition.

A slow-burning but compelling universe in which to indulge your trading, mining and mercenary fantasies. [Sept 2012, p.74]

A prickly 2D Metroidvania with a curious twist, Dandara admirably finds something new to do with the genre, but it's tough work to get onboard.

Where it falls apart is in the game design. [Jan 2003, p.114]

A game about breaking free from monotony that gets, perhaps inevitably, a little monotonous.

If you like your tactical action with a fat slice of strategy, this sequel's a winner. [Jun 2006, p.76]

This savage brawler has its moments, but swiftly moves from brutal to boring.

Fascinating, fast, and friendly but far too forgiving. Wait for the patches and iron man/lady mods.

It takes too long to grow beyond its predecessor, but once it does Knights in Tight Spaces is an engaging and tactical roguelike deckbuilder.

Burial at Sea, Episode One is good but not essential - the only piece of BioShock story content you could say that about.