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

Inversion is a heavily linear by-the-numbers cover shooter that fails to make the most of its few high points. [Nov 2012, p.72]

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

Unfortunately, it's the monkey's paw of game ports. [Aug 2007, p.70]

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

Blade and Soul's excellent PvP is buried beneath a mountain of tired MMO tropes that are sometimes frustrating and rarely innovative.

Heritage of Kings unceremoniously abandons the heritage of Settlers. [May 2005, p.62]

Enjoy it while it lasts, because I doubt it'll last long. [Apr 2002, p.76]

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.

The mid-game settings--a warehouse and a cloning plant--are dull to explore, the script contains few memorable gags and the puzzles don't impress. [Nov 2010, p.79]

Well, there's always the 2004 edition to look forward to. [Nov 2000, p.151]

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

This series is beginning to look less like a unique PC off-road racer and more like a console-port knockoff with each incarnation. [Mar 2002, p.74]

Once installed, the Seawolves mod bundle will certainly improve your "SH3" experience, but if you have a broadband conncetion, you're much better off with the vastly superior Grey Wolves supermod from Subsim.com. It outperforms Seawolves on every measurable level and it won't cost you a dime. [Dec. 2006, p.128]

The ride is quite fleeting, however, and most experienced PC prop-jocks will whip through Battle of Europe in a single afternoon. [Aug 2006, p.90]

I'm still so amazed over Mortyr II's playability that I'm not thinking straight. [June 2005, p.72]

Beautiful, polished and painfully hollow. Ravenlok’s bones are immaculate, but lack meat or connective tissue.

When you insult your audience by coughing up some of the weakest physics and AI ever coded for a PC racer, then kudos quickly turns into Bronx cheers. [May 2003, p.62]

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

It's too shallow for gamers, and the stars' lackluster effort may disappoint the show's fans. [July 2003, p.78]

Being forced to tap the left/right keys to navigate every corner makes for some decidedly non-fun gaming. [Holiday 2003, p.113]

If you like "military authenticity" but prefer button-mashing to tactical squad work, CDS is for you. [Jan 2003, p.110]

You're left with the feeling that someone decided that an add-on was a good way to get you to pay more for "Empire Earth"'s bounteous content overflow. [Holiday 2002, p.102]

Simply missing too many features to justify the purchase. Collectible-card-game fans should opt for "Magic: The Gathering Online" instead, so they can face truly challenging opponents: other human players. [Apr 2004, p.83]

The entire game is just one big jumping puzzle... Right from the get-go, Rayman 3's puzzles are irritatingly difficult. [May 2003, p.78]

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

Solid tactical engine. Now, if it only had a brain to back it up. [Feb 2006, p.52]

Driv3r's broken gameplay mechanics are just too significant to overlook. Ultimately, they turn this high-budget vehicular shooter into a mediocre "GTA" clone with two flat tires. [June 2005, p.69]

A free massively multiplayer tactical first-person shooter in the vein of "Counter-Strike" and the "Battlefield" games? Sounds too good to be true! And, guess what? It is! [June 2007, p.66]

The 3D graphics all look positively amateurish. [July 2002, p.62]

LA Cops has some cool ideas, but the frustratingly shoddy execution works completely at odds with the experience the game is trying to create.

A massive overworld combined with a playful lick of humor doesn't mask Krater's wasted promise and grindy design. [Oct 2012, p.66]

SP2: Faith in Destiny is a mess. [Oct 2012, p.69]

An achievement in cramming as many puzzles into a game as possible. [Apr 2001, p.81]

Fighting bugs on Mars is a repetitive exercise only enlivened by the presence of your chatty pal Hurk.

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

Staving off complete suckage, multiplay is where Thrones actually works. [May 2004, p.69]

If you demand a high amount of polish, you'll probably want to pass on <i>Minions</i>. [July 2006, p.78]

Despite its stability problems, impenetrable plot, localization issues, and repetitive missions, Tarr Chronicles will likely still find an audience with long-suffering space simulation fans. [Jan 2008, p.87]

The series leaves its garage looking even worse than when it went in. Decent handling doesnt save it.

After a promising start, Light's simplistic take on stealth quickly plateaus and then abruptly stops, falling well short of its potential.

Gangs of Sherwood shows initial promise with its creative setting and colourful combat but runs out of steam well before the end of its already brief running time.

With a title like Wacky Worlds, I expected this first add-on for "RollerCoaster Tycoon 2" to be a little, well, wackier. [Aug 2003, p.67]

Pirates of the Caribbean Online is only good for those who want to feel tangentially connected to the movies. [Feb 2008, p.82]

Persistent bugs, a convoluted interface, and incompetent colonists hold back a great premise.

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

However, it's telling that the best of the Black Ops DLC packs is 80 percent recycled material. [Holiday 2011, p.75]

Beautiful game, with some nice puzzles, ruined by your character's inability to perform the platforming as well as you need.

Perception offers a decent set of horror stories, but exploring this house gets dull pretty quickly.

There are moments of fun, especially towards the end, but too often I just wanted to ram a garlic-flavoured stake through Vampire Crawlers repetitive, grindy heart.

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

Overly simplified combat. [July 2008, p.60]

It's unfortunate that the same level of fun didn't make it into the single-player campaign. [July 2004, p.73]

Regrettably, BOS is an FPS that's a POS. You can definitely do better. [Holiday 2005, p.68]

Normally, a weak narrative isn't necessarily a deal-breaker, but in this case, where the technology is so horribly dated, the reason you play Spiderweb's games is for a great story and memorable characters. And Blades fails in that regard, instead using rehashed gameplay, leveling mechanics, and inventory management. [Oct 2004, p.96]

I wanted to like Getting Up, but flawed game mechanics and a hip-flop plot send this Trane off its tracks. [May 2006, p.98]

Those seeking a PvP-based massively multiplayer game may want to wait for "Guild Wars," which will offer PvP straight out of the gate as opposed to 70 levels in. [July 2005, p.61]

If you want to learn Hold 'Em strategies, I recommend one of the many free poker websites over Stacked. [Oct. 2006, p.104]

Neither a good Lego game nor tribute to the movie—at best, The Lego Movie Videogame is enough fun to be called a functioning promotional product.

Sonic Forces is not, like several entries in the series, offensively bad. There are some stages where you can’t help but be swept up by its breakneck pace, pounding soundtrack, and chaotic pinball table levels. It’s just unfortunate that it was released so soon after Mania, which took the best of old Sonic and made it sparklingly relevant again. Forces, however, is plagued by inconsistent level design, floaty controls, and a risible Saturday morning cartoon storyline that only kids and rabid Sonic fans will find entertaining.

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

Disposable content. [Jan 2005, p.85]

Here's an oddity: there's no auto-save after each level, or even manual saves. With 30 single-player levels, including bosses, it sure would've been nice to load any level you'd completed. [Mar 2002, p.64]

Now this part&#8217;s whack. Carson isn&#8217;t even in the game! Ohmigod, they so totally got this other MTV himbo, Brian McFayden, to do the talking. And you don&#8217;t even see him. What is up with that, y&#8217;all?

Frontiers of Pandora's stunning presentation and fantastic world design are failed by atrocious technical issues.

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

Goat Simulator 3 neither excels at gif-able joke physics nor at being a structured singleplayer platformer.

Shoot stuff, it explodes. Repeat as desired until you either blow up or get tired of it, whichever comes first. [Oct 2000, p.129]

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

Even diehard grognards may be turned off by its complex interface and esoteric control panels, and newbies will be frustrated to no end. [Nov 2007, p.70]

Power Chord’s slick card-slinging combat is weighed down by a gaudy aesthetic and lack of variety.

Since it liberally cribs from better games that are now selling for $20 or less themselves, you'd be a fool not to check them out first. [Mar 2002, p.63]

An attempt at delivering four imaginative Spider-Man games at once ends up delivering a single disappointing one. [April 2011, p.68]

It's a shame that a Last Of Us review has to carry such a low score. It feels like slamming Citizen Kane because its Blu-Ray features aren't up to standard, such is the game's stellar reputation. But the state of the PC version isn't just disappointing or annoying—at the time of writing it's actually a real barrier preventing you from playing the experience properly. There's an all-timer laying dormant behind all the issues, but at present on PC, this one just doesn't click.

The promise of giving content to the battles never really comes together. [April 2011, p.79]

The impressive 3D graphics lose their luster because of the lack of interaction, and the actual gameplay falls short because of its spreadsheet mentality. [Dec 2003, p.124]

A great looking game, but its beauty is only skin deep.

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

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

Like a dinosaur skeleton in your local museum, Dino D-Day is barebones, missing some pieces, and ancient-looking. [July 2011, p.78]

Wuchang brings some fun ideas to soulslike boss fights, but the rest of it is a pale imitation of much better games.

A promising concept but dismal execution on just about every level.

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

As it stands, it's an almost-there game that you can't stop playing in the hope that it eventually gets better. It doesn't, but that might change if developer Koios Works goes back to the drawing board in a few areas. [Nov. 2006, p.76]

There is potential for amusing cat-and-mouse exchanges, but a lobby full of humans is hard to find.

Ultimately, like so many franchise tie-ins, it's just criminally mediocre. [Feb 2005, p.68]

Remains saddled with enough broken parts to guarantee this title a quick trip to the slag heap in the sky. [Sept 2002, p.78]

Dull combat, countless boring gray rooms and an abandoned story make Cryostasis as appealing as frozen dog droppings. [Aug 2009, p.76]

Another fumbled PC port blighted by poor optimisation and unpredictable performance issues.

Poor execution and lack of content. [May 2010, p.82]

Empire of Sin's many bugs, balance issues and competing systems undermine what could have been a novel mob management game.

Instead of spending $50 on Beowulf the game, read the poem instead; this game isn't epic, it's just epically tedious. [Feb 2008, p.74]

This game is terminal. Let it find the peace it deserves. [Mar 2006, p.50]

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

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 controls are awful...L.A. is nowhere near fully modeled. [July 2004, p.60]

Bionicle's horrible controls and confusing camera angles (which shift at inopportune times) make it a terribly frustrating experience. [Feb 2004, p.77]

But it's the game's many bugs and glitches, not mere repetition, which sap Dark Messiah's might and magic. [Feb. 2007, p.77]