Merge the complexity of a real-time navel strategy game with the hand-on-joystick appeal of an arcade flight simulator and you get Pacific Storm, an ambitious but buggy new RTS title from Russian developer Lesta Studio. [Jan. 2007, p.74]

A beautiful but short-lived expedition that left me wanting more of its best ideas.

If I'm ever drafted for another tour of duty like this, I'm gonna shoot myself in the foot. [Holiday 2006, p.78]

Sadly, in addition to the crap voice acting, the game’s phat/phunky Euro-trash techno beats will have you either tapping your toes or (like me) turning off the music altogether. [Feb 2002, p.80]

Chinatown Detective Agency is a solid hardboiled detective adventure with a unique DIY approach to clue-solving—but it’s most impressive as a cultural artefact.

Age of Mythology still has a lot of value beyond nostalgia, then, but I’d wait for a discount before committing your cash, especially if you already bought it a decade ago. This isn’t a total remake, so don’t go in expecting one. The Extended Edition is still a really well-paced and entertaining RTS, one that revels in over-the-top imagery and remains a one-off in subject matter within the oeuvre of the sadly departed Ensemble.

Among the Sleep succeeds at being a creepy baby simulator, but the real monster turns out to be boring, buggy puzzles and a shallow world and story.

But if you aren't a "Heroes" diehard, you probably don't need Hammers of Fate. [Feb. 2007, p.64]

If you can look past its graphic belmishes and gratuitously protracted conversation pieces, however, Culpa Innanta is a solid point-and-click adventure game with significant depth and replay value. [Feb 2008, p.85]

If you're looking for nothing more than a vampiric tale of killing and consuming folks, Blood Omen 2 should be right up your dark, haunted alley. [July 2002, p.67]

With inexplicable control schemes, and unhelpful camera, irritating bugs, and mangy-looking textures, there's nothing remarkable about the sloppy job Capcom did porting the budget-priced action-adventure from the Playstation 2. [May 2007, p.70]

An average shooter tied to a compelling, confident story, but the TV show is ultimately an expensive, if entertaining, gimmick.

Pitfall has enough charm to win me over, even if linear platformers are a bit dated. [Jan 2005, p.81]

Gat Out of Hell offers all the open-world distractions of a Saints Row game, but precious little of what made the last two so remarkable.

It's not as bad as a Pauly Shore film marathon, but neither is it worth your time, energy, and money. [Holiday 2005, p.70]

Insultingly short for its price, but that might be its one saving grace considering how derivative it feels.

A good value-priced game saddled with a clumsy interface. [Mar 2002, p.72]

Unfortunately, this ambitious new step for gaming turns out to be dead on arrival. [Feb 2002, p.60]

I haven’t played the first This Is The Police, but I can’t help but feel like the sequel simply adds too much. The game feels like it needs to refocus on the day to day policing and the small storylets that accompany it, which are great. Unless the message is that running a police department is an impossible task, in which case: mission accomplished.

Tunguska's lush, atmospheric background art and slick FMV cut-scenes add measurable value to the experience, but its terrible English voice dubbing--Nina sounds like a teenage Nancy Drew--and the puerile(and occasionally sexist)dialog are often excruciating. [Feb. 2007, p.70]

More rehashed than remastered, your childhood might be better served holding onto old memories rather than making new ones.

What could have been a latter-day "Close Conbat" or a visually splashier "Combat Mission" is instead a tedious and underwrought quagmire. [Sept 2008, p.70]

A dark action-platformer which shows fleeting signs of life, but lacks the vivacity to climb above the competition.

Shabby joystick support also contributes to a number of annoying control issues. [Apr 2002, p.71]

A disappointing campaign, and a sandbox rework that shows promise, but feels like it's still some major balance patches away from leaving the game in a good place.

Biomutant's stunning world barely survives the painful narration, broken progression, and dearth of stuff to do.

This Xbox 360 port retains all the high-octane thrills of the original snowy adventure while incorporating features for the PC like mouse/key support and DirectX 10 effects(finally!). [Oct 2007, p.62]

With its simplistic and repetitive gameplay, Glory of the Roman Empire neglected my needs as a hardcore strategy gamer. [Oct. 2006, p.71]

Sunset's themes, setting, and plot are plenty interesting, but the player's interaction with them feels incongruous.

Puts out where it counts. Cold Fear is a pants-browner. [Aug 2005, p.68]

The Bureau: XCOM Declassified feels confused and half-finished, a hollow but beautiful slog through XCOM’s early years.

An impressively huge, occasionally beautiful map doesn’t make up for mediocre driving and a lack of multiplayer options.

Free-flowing strategy with a wealth of features. An element of grind, but plenty of satisfying moments too .

This throwback management sim's incredible building tools are let down by a limp campaign and a serious lack of depth.

It's just another in the crowd of well-meaning but ultimately pointless games that offer more tedium than entertainment. [Jan 2005, p.83]

Too brief and inconsequential to live up to expectations. One for Dragon Age lore obsessives and ardent completionists.

A flawed but fun action slaughterfest with a great NPC-possession hook.

The challenge isn't necessarily soliving puzzles, but making sure you've examined every single bit of every screen. [Dec 2004, p.89]

The series desperately needs a bigger leap forward, but this sequel fills the obvious Indy gap with no small style. [Mar 2010, p.82]

A smorgasbord of spectacular WW2 action scenes, none of which are excellent, and some of which are downright unfun.

Payday 3 could be one of the slickest co-op shooters around, but it's mired by a grindy progression system and its always-online nature. It needs some time to cook before it's worth digging in.

A bunch of fun new abilities and cool places but Dawnguard is far too glitchy to justify its steep price.

This phlegmatic Poirot caper will likely appeal to hardcore adventure game and Agatha Christie fans, but for the rest of us, Evil Under the Sun is all talk and no action. [Jan 2008, p.80]

There's simply too little to do. As a result, there's not much of a challenge to be had--at least any intentional challenge that is. [Holiday 2007, p.72]

Many great games have been built on the concept of expanding your space empire through diplomacy, trade and war. Armada 2526 is not one of them. [Nov 2010, p.83]

The story and decisions are bigger attractions than the limited-appeal loot and artificially toughened enemies.

An interesting setting let down by frustrating checkpoints and rough UI.

Few will see the more remote corners of Rain World’s relentlessly dire stretch, but those who do are unlikely to forget the experience.

This Is The Police looks and sounds gorgeous, but becomes dull and repetitive after the first couple of hours.

More yawn than yarr, sadly. [Feb 2011, p.80]

Such a lackluster implementation. [May 2010, p.74]

It's light on the strategy, but an intriguing dark fantasy tale and RPG elements lift King Arthur II above the average. [May 2012, p.76]

Like visiting Disneyland during the off-season: crowds are few, there's not much pampering of customers, and many attractions are closed or under renovation. [Mar 2003, p.90]

Pretty, mindless action that only superficially resembles hockey. [Holiday 2004, p.98]

It's light on features for an expansion, but Mercenaries adds some welcome volatility to the 4X sandbox.

Even if the new features had been awesome, this would have been a pointless re-release. [Jan 2012, p.810]

If you're tired of the grind, make your way to Granado Espada, where life is exciting, convenient, and most importantly, fun. [Nov 2007, p.70]

Sometimes stripped-down and stealthy, but mostly basic and boring, Liberation can't play in the big leagues.

A fun, nostalgic platformer and a cool use of VR, but repetitive design makes its short length a boon.

The sentimental, dull, superficially interactive story isn’t worth a few cute moments and some interesting surrealism.

HAWX 2 is a straight rehash of the first game, with pointless minigames that add more frustration than excitement. [Feb 2011, p.72]

The one major card it brings to the table is its size - I've never experienced levels as expansive as these. Many of them can take a couple of hours to blast through. [Nov 2003, p.130]

A lot of fun in the short term. It's just a shame Namco didn't put more work into the graphics and more creativity into the mission design to give it some legs. [July 2004, p.73]

Tactical systems and satisfying ballistics marred by irritating levels and punishing sight-detection by the enemy.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong offers an impressively flexible story, but that can't save it from its mediocre writing and scattershot game design.

Witty interactive storytelling that’s best with a group and weakens significantly after a few brief playthroughs.

Does manage to deliver a passable driving experience - but only if unrealistic driving physics, undamageable cars, and an absentee multiplayer game aren't deal-breakers for you. [May 2003, p.88]

Gotham Knights attempts to differentiate itself from the Arkham series with new characters and a new canon, but spends most of its length poorly imitating what made those games great.

Save your money, fellow muggles: it's best spent elsewhere. [Mar 2006, p.102]

Intuitive and accessible but also repetitive, SSZ is a flight combat game that trades on tradition rather than imagination.

Between muddled gameplay and conflicted writing, Mineko’s Night Market can’t decide on an identity to fully embrace.

A poor man's take on the franchise's 16-bit salad days. [March 2005, p.72]

The Stronghold series isn't like Total War, doing a hundred different things; it just needs to get the castles and combat right. On the evidence of Stronghold Crusader 2, Firefly is moving in the right direction, but it still has a way to go.

A decent if generic strategy game that lacks the big personality and siegecraft of earlier entries.

Minimal game mechanics with no depth whatsoever, but a tense, well-made survival horror game just the same.

Kids might enjoy Dragonica as a starter MMO, but once they get started they'll want something more. [Jun 2010, p.84]

B:TD is a great online shooter when it gets going, but an awful lobby system makes that way harder than it should be. [Nov 2010, p.72]

Not Tonight 2 does a decent job of adapting Papers, Please to a terminally hateful America, but the premise wears thin with every pit stop.

Remember Me is a third-person action-adventure teenager. It tries to act insouciant, and tells its story with the breathless zeal of a youngster flushed with first love. But ironically for a game that requires you to build ‘Focus’ in order to achieve great things, it feels greatly lacking in that department.

These offshoots are often rushed out in time for the opening of the film, designed to squeeze extra revenue from tired-eyed parents. They're rarely very good, and Arthur and the Invisibles fails to buck that trend. [Apr 2007, p.59]

Deadbeat Heroes' might sometimes be unintuitive, but emphasizing player experience, challenge, and aesthetics isn't a bad approach.

The crux of the problem is that it’s just plain dull. [Feb 2002, p.74]

While the concept is anything but original, the game is polished and enjoyable. [Holiday 2002, p.114]

Only for those who are starved for an arcade-style blaster on the PC. [Feb 2004, p.80]

Despite - or maybe because of - its stripped-down gameplay, RC Cars surges ahead as one of hte better recent miniature-car racing games. [Mar 2004, p.80]

Immortals of Aveum tells a dull tale in an extremely irritating way, but at least has some fun, engaging shooting. I just wish it had a few ideas of its own.

Beautifully detailed and atmospheric environments. [Holiday 2006, p.114]

Huge engagements that should run several times as long feel more like football downs, and you can easily swing a half-dozen matches in less time than it takes most NFL teams to inch forward 10 yards. [Mar 2006, p.63]

Torchlight 3 does a great job with its class design, but the world feels barren and unfinished.

Worth buying if you missed "West Front," but it's not the sequel fans were hoping for. [Dec 2005, p.85]

If you can turn off your brain, Enforcer can be fun for 20-minute sessions. [July 2001, p.73]

The downside is that Dark Motives regurgitates the static, "Myst"-style point-and-click gameplay and fuzzy backgrounds of last year's CSI game. [June 2004, p.77]

It's unfortunate, because this Groundhog Day game design significantly impairs what could have been a diverting and sentimental blast from the past. [Apr 2012, p.79]

Twin Mirror begins with an intriguing set-up but, disappointingly, ends up going nowhere.

A solid survival horror experience unfortunately plagued by bugs and control issues.

If you've been jonesing for a return to a huge, open-ended roleplaying world with a ton of depth and a rousing storyline, you'll find yourself right at home in at least one of these Two Worlds. [Dec 2007, p.78]

There's no camera control/But don't be so droll/You've still got a prayer/In head-to-head multiplayer. [Aug 2006, p.91]

Parts of Final Fantasy XIII are worth the absurd amount of time it takes to properly open up, but this port is a big letdown.