Redfall's empty open world, flimsy shooting, and siloed systems make for a flat, dull experience.

The problem with Apocalypse Weekend is that it lacks the cleverness and thoughtful execution that made the original worth laughs. [Oct 2005, p.72]

MOBA genre conventions are much better executed by Dota 2 and League of Legends. Dragons and Titans just isn’t a worthwhile alternative.

Repetitive gameplay and an inability to communicate with your co-op teammates will keep Guns of Icarus grounded. [Sept 2010, p.82]

A miserable blend of flawed game mechanics that's a giant leap backwards from its predecessor.

A tiny bit of truly awful combat has been thrown in when it should have been thrown out, and this may be the last third-person game in existence that doesn’t support the mouse in any way.

Tharsis is well made, but not well designed—an attractive, interesting board game idea, but only the first draft.

Garshasp falls short of genre standards in nearly every way, and its shortcomings are too numerous to compensate for. [Sept 2011, p.75]

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 work of sulky blandness that does itself no favors by latching onto better games and cooler vampires. [ Nov 2013, p.68]

It's far outshined by older flight sims that are available at the same price. [Jan 2004, p.110]

Unfortunately, the gameplay grows stale real quick, and any joyful fantasies about dropping smoke-jumping firefighters into an inferno are quickly put to rest. [Jan 2005, p.75]

The control scheme is horrifically oversensitive to any analog input: it's often a huge struggle just to keep the car tracking in a straight line. [June 2003, p.86]

We suggest you play the original, free, Flash version instead – the full explanation isn’t worth the outlay.

In summary, 'wrath' was an apt choice of name. [Feb 2015, p.77]

A collection of fun hacking minigames attached to a bland metroidvania.

Even $12 is too much to ask for what feels like a half-hearted community mod. [Apr 2012, p.79]

It's a poor follow-up: the biggest puzzle is how, with the Layton games to steal ideas from, it gets the basics so wrong. [Oct 2011. p.76]

The sandbox play that makes up the bulk of Superpower 2 is alternately tedium and lunacy. [Feb 2005, p.70]

Frustratingly uncooperative controls. [Jun 2006, p.105]

A beautiful but baffling space strategy game. Bugs and bewildering menus make for a frustrating and very missable experience.

You can’t just chuck players in a maze with a ghost and tell them to be scared. Unfortunately this is exactly what Daylight does.

For what it is, The Incredible Hulk isn't too bad. The problem is, it's still bad. [Oct 2008, p.68]

Awful enough. [Jan 2010, p.80]

Unfortunately, despite offering an eclectic mix of turn-based strategy and RPG elements, the Night Watch game is a clunky mess. [Oct. 2006, p.88]

This is one monster mash that leaves me mortified. [Oct 2007, p.57]

Disaster. Despite a beefy visual upgrade, this insultingly short add-on plays like a skanky collection of deleted scenes from the original game. [Feb 2005, p.68]

My biggest complaint is that you can't design your own stores: you have to use one of the four ultra-bland pre-fabricated designs. [May 2002, p.69]

For $5, it might be worth it on a tablet, but as a PC game Ace Patrol would be hard to recommend even if it were free. [Feb 2014, p.74]

Even more annoying is the omission of any kind of multiplay, which is where the real joy lies in this kind of game. [Sept 2004, p.70]

Too sloppy to be fun. [Sept 2002, p.81]

Getting from point A to point B doesn't get any more wearisome. [Aug 2008, p.74]

A decent adventure game may be lurking beneath The Secrets of Atlantis' tiresome pixel-hunting, nonsensical puzzles, and substandard imagery, but you'll have to work to find it [Sept 2007, p.58]

Maybe Global Star's next "Jetfighter" studio will get the formula right. We hope. [Apr 2006, p.100]

Crystal Key 2 isn't an adventure; it's a slide show with the occasional puzzle thrown in. And we've had enough of these kinds of games. [July 2004, p.65]

Under-delivers on the promise of the licence. A middling action-RPG that you’d have to be a Marvel fan to love.

Gearheads may be temporarily amused, but for the rest of us, Monster Garage delivers about as much entertainment value as a fender-bender with a Hell's Angel. [July 2004, p.65]

Events unfold inexplicably, unrealistically, and almost arbitrarily. [June 2002, p.69]

A horror game with few scares, Inmates is imprisoned by its lack of ambition.

Worst of all, there are no in-mission saves (only five "lives"), and each of the game's 13 missions can take up to an hour to complete. [Nov 2002, p.129]

There's little to recommend. Bad combat, horrible vehicles/animals, a miserably boring missions--yup, it's a game based on a film. [Jan 2010, p.84]

Dated graphics, poor AI, buggy gameplay, cumbersome controls, and uninspired design choices make playing Conquest an exasperating experience. [July 2008, p.64]

Fold this one. [Oct 2005, p.74]

SL's graphics engine is by far the buggiest and most poorly optimized that I've seen in years, with enough frame-rate bottlenecks, clipping, draw-through, and CD-access pauses to leave you gasping in your chair. [Mar 2003, p.91]

There are only so many ways you can arrange poker tables and slot machines. [July 2002, p.67]

For a title like Legend, it's a first class ticket to the recycle bin. [Nov 2008, p.68]

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]

Dear interactive movies: Go away, go away, go away. And get eaten by dinosaurs. Thank you very much.

This clumsy, dated misadventure steals from all over and contributes no ideas of its own. Brilliantly bad dialog though. [March 2014, p.58]

Unintuitive, uninvolving and overpriced. Not even its satisfying trading system can put the wind in Port Royale 3's sails. [Sept 2012, p.66]

Just another tiresome and unimaginative RTS. It’s a real shame. [Holiday 2001, p.72]

A few good ideas, but Prospekt is hurt by uninspired design and infuriating combat encounters.

A mediocre XCOM-like in the form of a deeply worrying depiction of militarised police.

Whatever charm the campy dialogue provides wears off after about 10 minutes, leaving you with a game that suffers from obstructive camera angles, tedious gameplay, and uninspired combat. [July 2008, p.70]

As empty-headed a treatment of modern conflict as you’re likely to find on store shelves. [Feb 2002, p.80]

This isn't a bad console port--it's a bad game, period. [June 2008, p.74]

If Fort Solis really was a Netflix series, it wouldn’t get a second season.

I just sat there and gambled until I finally felt so angry with the game that I wanted to stab my screen. [Nov 2013, p.78]

There are simply too many flaws, and too little gameplay for even the bargain price. [Nov 2011, p.70]

Poorly stapled-on mechanics and a general lack of polish make Breakpoint's open-world tactics simply not worth the time.

The performance is nohwere near as smooth as I remember on my mothballed Dreamcast - nor as fun. [Jan 2003, p.104]

You're better off buying DVD's of History Channel shows. [May 2008, p.59]

Action-adventures this blah should be sunk to Davy Jones' Locker. [Sept 2007, p.56]

Occasionally entertaining, but plagued by AI bugs and hamstrung by a clunky user interface. Less than the sum of its parts.

TalonSoft deserves a good keelhauling for dumping such a buggy game on shelves. [May 2001, p.82]

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

While not a total disaster, [it] barely even offers cosmetic upgrades to the 2000 version's incredibly dull gameplay format. [Oct 2003, p.112]

The Suicide of Rachel Foster builds a haunting hotel, but fills it with an insensitive story ill-equipped to deal with the issues it covers.

Road also boasts snore-rific multiplay that adds nothing. Even if the game's selling for less than its $19.99 M.S.R.P., leave it to rot. [Mar 2006, p.51]

Recommended only for history buffs on a budget. [July 2006, p.67]

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

The bastard twins of sucky AI and sucky pathfinding are both present and accounted for. [Sept 2004, p.66]

Sanctum of Slime could've been partially redeemed with co-op, but since it's ridiculously limited to local-only(no online or even LAN), few will ever bother to play it on PC. [Aug 2011, p.76]

Just a kiddie console racer in PC clothing. [Mar 2002, p.74]

Even if you loved "Myst," you'll have a frustrating time with this sequel. If you do buy it, get your hands on the strategy guide ASAP. [Jan 1998, p.289]

I need Professor X to wipe the memory of this game from my brain. [Aug 2006, p.85]

Flashy weapon effects partially mask the mediocre gameplay, and to the untrained eye, Alpha Prime could almost pass as "Doom 3". I trust that PC Gamer readers are smart enough not to be fooled. [Apr 2008, p.66]

Deus Ex: The Fall belongs on your phone, not on your monitor. This is a woeful port with few redeeming features.

Lacking the sharpness needed by both shooters and comedy, High on Life is a low point in the gaming calendar.

It still feels like a six-year-old game, and that's probably a sign to move on to something a little newer. [Holiday 2012, p.73]

Lacking in meaningful challenge, Murdered: Soul Suspect fails to deliver on its promising premise at every step. [Sept. 2014, p.70]

Right now Moon Breakers suffers: its ships handle like HGVs and it's a multiplayer game that doesn't actually require you to work with other players at all. [Sept 2012, p.61]

Although Stunts & Effects is an intriguing collection of scraps from Lionhead's cutting-room floor, it just isn't worth the price. [Sep 2006, p.58]

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

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

A wearisome crime-solving adventure game with poor graphics, boring stories and buggy cases. [Feb 2011, p.76]

But, even if it were more stable, lackluster controls, awkward camera angles, and a too brief story would still make Via Domus a game fit for fanatical completionists only. [June 2008, p.77]

This gameworld is essentially a bad parody of a David Lynch production. Every scene is draped in “weirdness wallpaper.” It’s weird, all right, but not exactly engaging.

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

We saw plenty of good action/adventures in the year 2000. This wasn't one of them. [Mar 2001, p.82]

As much as I love impaling skeleton warriors with the Stake Gun, if I'm paying for this experience I want something new. [June 2011, p.72]

It's one thing to make a bad game - that I can forgive. It's worse to take one of the great PC-game franchises and ruin the hell out of it. This isn't Leisure Suit Larry - it's just annoying softcore porn. [Holiday 2004, p.106]

The most annoying shortcoming is the narrow path you follow, with no option to roam freely. [Aug 2003, p.67]

Good ideas all, but the execution is a muddled mess. [Feb 2002, p.71]

Sounds promising, but from the shoddy graphics to the horrid enemy AI, this game fails to be any fun at all. [July 2004, p.68]

The main problem I have with this sports sim is the wild inaccuracies I found in its generated stats. [Apr 2007, p.49]

As if the flat, static gameplay weren't woeful enough, there's also an apparent bug: sometimes you get hit with high interest loans that you never took out! [June 2003, p.88]

X misses the spot. The occasional bit of spectacle can't save this boring, broken and charmless space simulation. [March 2014, p.60]