Tennis nuts will like it, but I'm still pining for a control-perfect "Virtua Tennis" port. [Nov 2002, p.132]

Even with its attractive $20 price, Journey offers more aggravation than enjoyment. [Holiday 2003, p.97b]

A challenging and atmospheric platformer with a remarkable sense of tension, occasionally.

For $25, the value proposition of this time-sink is impressive if you consider yourself more managerial material than on-field talent. [Sept 2008, p.67]

Black Ops 7 is Call of Duty at its most obnoxious and least enjoyable.

Underlying all the advances made in bot technology and the updated maps, Condition Zero is still fundamentally a five-year-old game...but this standalone package should satisfy both the Counter-Strike-curious and the broadband impaired. [Jan 2004, p.90]

A compelling story with many outcomes, but the game itself is a little too rough around the edges.

You'll need a great deal of patience to have fun with this one, though. [Sept 2008, p.73]

Mediocre. [Jan 2010, p.80]

A great game, unimpressively updated. Get the bigger, cheaper version instead.

If the competition were par, this would be a double bogey. [Feb 2001, p.57]

Only terrible AI, Starforce copy protection, and a semi-rare game-crashing bug ruin Heroes' otherwise enjoyable gameplay. [Mar 2007, p.66]

There's no significant improvement over Trainz 2004, though, so stick with the older game if you have it. [Jun 2006, p.105]

Egregious DRM and poor matchmaking mar a surprisingly fun and accessible multiplayer shooter. [May 2012, p.80]

Lethis has gorgeous art and a terrific musical score, and it aspires to great heights. But the game underneath isn't fully baked, and the result is only an interesting experiment in frustration—when it isn't outright boring.

It might seem gimmicky, but Chess Royale is an effective introduction to an often-confusing genre.

Unaware of its absurdity, Blacksad: Under The Skin fails at much of what it attempts.

This game simply isn't fun for very long. [July 2003, p.76]

Running around 3D urban locales such as a mall or a corporate office building in the midst of a full-blow riot is sure to hook a few people, but flat gameplay and god-awful controls will make them turn away in disgust. [Dec 2003, p.132]

A strange animal, Darkspore doesn't seem to want you to like its characters-and won't let you make your own.

Combat quibbles and muddy graphics do little to spoil the fun of this enjoyable RPG.

A game that pushes VR’s boundaries. Strange, playful and committed to creativity, but intense if you're new to VR.

An action strategy spinoff that disappoints both genres and misses Minecraft's magic.

I’m confident that young kids will get a kick out of HP:SC, but everyone else is better off doing their adventuring elsewhere. [Feb 2002, p.68]

EA Sports has once again screwed PC owners over with a cut-rate edition of one of its big fall sports games, and NHL 08 is even more of a disappointment than its football and golf comrades. [Holiday 2007, p.83]

This one will move a few units at Wal-Mart, but no more. [July 2005, p.69]

Compelling, but not quite there yet. Needs two seasons to grow the beard.

Daemonica is not the kind of RPG that will appeal to most hardcore gamers. [July 2006, p.77]

Better "Half-Life" fixes can be dowloaded for free. [Feb 2001, p.71]

Underneath its tarnished exterior is a game that's surprisingly engaging and intense. [Feb 2004, p.83]

The background scenery is attractive, but the game's floaty vehicle physics significantly undermine the actual driving experience. [May 2003, p.70]

Try though it might, <i>Blazing Angels</i> is no <i>Crimson Skies</i>. [July 2006, p.97]

Weak characters kill loftier ambitions, but a brisk pace keeps the combat lively.

A disaster. [Feb 2005, p.60]

If you can get past the painfully unfunny "humor," S.W.I.N.E. offers some solid fun for action-RTS fans. [Mar 2002, p.68]

I'm confident that Strike Fighters will eventually grow to become one of the genre's all-time classics. [Jan 2003, p.108]

Given the series' heritage and the long buildup to this entry, it's hard not to feel let down. [July 2004, p.70]

Tennis Masters would be much more fun to play, however, if it weren&#146;t for a bunch of annoying niggles. Chief among them is a strangely stuttery style of animation that goes totally against the seamless, fluid feel you&#146;d expect.

Burning villages and abducting princesses for ransom as a loot-hungry, fire-breathing dragon might be fun on the PS3 version, but Hoards PC port is riddled with beastly bugs that'll make you wish you'd hoarded your money. [Aug 2011, p.76]

Lacks the polish and panache to be a true champion, but Viking is still solid, no-thrills entertainment.

Considering its budget pedigree, Overdose's $39.99 price tag may seem a bit steep. But for fans of mindless fun, it's worth every penny. [Jan 2008, p.88]

Concord feels out of touch and already out of time.

Some of these brainteasers--including a tricky Enigma decoding machine segment and a complex darkroom sequence--are brilliant additions, while others will strain your patience and gray matter to the breaking point. [Dec 2008, p.59]

An increased focus on action and unsatisfying cases overshadow the decent bits in this detective adventure.

Manages to pull of a surprising amount of chuckles with its well-written dialogue. [Apr 2002, p.80]

The effort made for new palyers is commendable. [August 2002, p.73]

A spectacular, occasionally very fun tour of Star Wars battles that disappoints with a boring story, crappy progression system, and endless grenade spam.

This is a game about crashing that feels restrained, almost sterile. [Aug 2017, p.87]

A competent MMO shooter marred by a lack of polish, whose TV tie-in ambitions only seem set to cause problems.

Few games have had me scratching my head over design decisions like this one, and yet I'm still avidly playing it nearly three weeks later. [May 2003, p.64]

Exploring Cargo's bizarre world is charming and even thought-provoking at times, but ultimately turns out to be a superficial experience. [Sept 2011, p.69]

A faded shadow of "Jagged Alliance 2," minus all the elements except combat. [May 2001, p.70]

Boasts some beautiful, convincing countryside to hunt in, but the glacial pace will challenge the limits of most people’s patience.

A straightforward tactics game buried beneath an impassable mountain of roguelike metagame.

Piloting insect mechs in a beautifully tiny world is a breeze, but heavy resource grinding stops this adventure taking full flight.

The tractors look great, but the rest of Farming Simulator 15 comes off like shovelware from 2012.

Given the material, Away Team fails to reach its potential - or even come close. [June 2001, p.69]

An intriguing but often incoherent mystery that’s bogged down by long-winded dialogue and terrible puzzles.

As of press time, several negative Rise and Fall reviews have cropped up online. Mine is the dissenting opinion; in my mind, this RTS' fun and innovative gameplay far outweighs its minor faults. [Sep 2006, p.57]

Disappointingly old-fashioned. Nostalgia isn't enough to save this boring shooter from stagnant FPS limbo.

​Game of Thrones gets the feel of Martin's universe right, but it relies too heavily on familiar themes to form a memorable identity of its own.

The single-player campaign is simply a series of missions with no cohesion other than the fact that they all lead toward your final objective. [Dec 2003, p.106]

It's a little shy on realism, challenge, and gameplay depth but Attack on Pearl Harbor still delivers an accessible and diversionary ride in some terrific old WWII warbirds. [Oct 2007, p.60]

But repetitious single-player, frustrating co-op and a laughable narrative reduce it to a mess that's fun only as long as it takes you to realize nothing interesting is ever going to happen. [Oct 2010, p.81]

This game doesn't take itself too seriously (especially the new surprise ending), which is either a credit or a fault depending on how seriously you take the movies. [Feb 2006, p.35]

Looks are pretty much the only appeal. The main culprit in sabotaging the attractive premise is the horrible AI. [May 2003, p.82]

I'm sure that coaching in the NFL is one of the world's most grueling desk jobs, but the whole idea behind sports management games is to indulge fans after they get home from work, not make them feel like they've swapped one desk for another. [Oct. 2006, p.106]

Would have benefited from a little more graphical polish, but the weather and lighting effects do create a strong atmosphere. [Dec 2002, p.122]

For pirate lovers and diehard roleplaying fans only - a pass for everyone else. [Oct 2003, p.118]

A novel premise wrapped in an awkward and repetitive survival slog.

A fiddly take on management, survival and city building that you can still lose a weekend to.

Fun hero designs and solid combat offer a promising start, but it needs to shed its grind and borderline game-breaking bugs.

An above-average time-killer for stupid-shooter fans who won't miss multiplay. [July 2003, p.70]

I'd really love to know how Corruption 2029 came to be. It feels like a very stripped down, bare bones game—a space for the designers to experiment with concepts in a turn-based tactics space. The big problem with Corruption 2029 is that the same developer put out a very similar game with the same strengths and far fewer shortcomings only two years ago. Fans of Mutant Year Zero might want to check it out to get a bit more of that stealth tactics fix, but anyone else should opt for its more illustrious predecessor.

The best fan experience for the series by far, but cut corners and poor design choices bog down an otherwise fun beat-em up.

We're especially tickled by the game's delightfully campy '50s-era moster-movie trailers used to introduce our origins, and how you can play the game in black-and-white. [May 2003, p.84]

Little more than a two-year-old repackaging job that fixes little and adds even less. [Jan 2004, p.107]

As a simulator, SimCity advances the achievements of SimCity 4, SimCity 3000, and SimCity 2000, but as a product, it is inferior to all of them. Constant connectivity does have benefits, such as leaderboards, worldwide challenges, and the Global Market, but it’s not even close to being worth the hassle for those features, and hardly touches the essence of what makes SimCity so diabolically addictive and engrossing.

Gods Will Be Watching is a very clever idea well executed; one that opts to avoid the branching and overt morality of most similar games in favour of simply asking you to judge yourself as you see fit.

Gory, beautiful chaos, if a little frustratingly rough behind the scenes. A good afternoon's chaos, and that's what matters.

Two new guns make it a bit too easy to fumigate entire rooms with a few quick blasts, and any hope for an exciting new challenge quickly melts away as I hobble towards the ambiguous, lackluster ending. [April 2011, p.79]

Starships isn’t terrible, but it isn’t the polished product you’d expect from a studio with Firaxis’ history. Comparing it to its full-scale PC competitors, like Endless Space and GalCiv is cruel, as it’s sub-par in every single regard: unbalanced, repetitive, badly explained, rather ugly, with a dreadful mobile phone UI, and buggy as hell. Even judged against Firaxis’ other mobile games, Civ: Rev and Ace Patrol, this is small and crude.

Delivers the bare minimum for an expansion pack. [Jan 2005, p.71]

An MMO for kids that doesn’t patronise. Accessible, sometimes repetitive, but with enough adventure to hold interest.

Strafe skillfully recaptures the look and experience of a full-tilt twitch 1990s shooter while faltering at building upon its potential.

Uneven, bleak and unflinching. You won't enjoy it, but it's one of a kind.

There's virtually no plot, and a lot of the mid-level game seems like a repeat of the novice-level game. [Jan 2005, p.84]

A nasty catch to playing C&C4 is having to log into EA’s servers before launching the game, even for single-player. Considering that EA recently shut down servers for the less than two-year-old Mercenaries 2, I’m not enthusiastic about buying a product that depends on active servers to play. The multiplayer battles are good enough fun once you’ve ranked up, but a potentially short-lived service is a dagger dangling over our heads.

A half-hearted recreation of some fun movies, with almost nothing to offer over its predecessor.

FBC: Firebreak's madcap mission conceits are delightfully silly, but balancing issues and limited replay value hinder the fun.

Sea of Solitude is a gorgeous adventure that knows its way around mental illness, but doesn't make great use of the medium to tell its story.

Beautiful as you could ask for, especially in VR, but exhaustingly repetitive. [Partially tested with VR]

Anyone who enjoys spy thrillers and retro settings should check out this oddball sneaker. [Jan 2005, p.55]

A good Metroidvania trapped in the shadow of too many better ones.

An ambitious attempt, but substandard physics and AI demote it to the B-list. [Sept 2005, p.62]

Die-hard Potter fans will thrill throughout to checking Hogwarts' huge and detailed environs, but Order of the Phoenix's repetitive gameplay will make many wish someone would cast an Avada Kedavara spell in their direction and put them out of their misery already. [Oct 2007, p.66]

Colorful characters alone can't wake up this sleepy sailing and farming adventure.

A solid, if thin puzzle game, with not quite as much to say as it thinks it has.