This version is fine for a single-player quiz, but it's no party. [April 2011, p.75]

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

Pretty much just an ebook, but its form means you can gamify your progress and listen to some bangers while you read it.

Yes, there is groping, discrete heavy petting, and conveniently concealed canoodling, but it's all rendered in fewer than 10 different animations...which get old quickly. [Sept 2004, p.68]

A frenetic, old fashioned monster blaster best played with friends. Creepy-crawlyphobes, look elsewhere.

With its emphasis on crafting and trading rather than action, Last Epoch puts the cart before the horse.

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.

Narnia could be an all-time great movie adaptation, but its difficulty makes it unsuitable for its kiddie audience...and for pretty much everyone else, too. [Mar 2006, p.102]

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

The Surge isn't the same as Dark Souls but comparison's inevitable. Like that cyborg whose torso I severed, it struggles to stand on its own.

For all its technical cleverness, Cloudberry Kingdom fails to get the basics right. [Nov 2013, p.79]

There’s no strong sense of place, and nothing to anchor the high falutin ponderings that make up so much of the game. And even if we were to take it at face value, which seems to be impossible, it’s only a snapshot, a vertical slice of this world without much context, making it hard to reach any solid conclusions.

It's simply an average two-bit thug. [Aug 2007, p.63]

Only big "PR" fans should bother; everyone else, wait for the new "Pirates!" [Jan 2005, p.82]

Wildgate is a fresh combination of a ship battler and an FPS that is a better concept than it is a game.

I know that there's a great, massive RTS beneath all these issues. I've seen glimpses of it when everything works correctly, but at the moment I can't recommend Planetary Annihilation without a warning that it's bound to disappoint and frustrate, even if you do teach yourself to play it.

Repetitive and middling, Crackdown 3 is a totally average open-world game that doesn't give itself a way to stand out.

Its simple and forgiving dynamic, short span, and quirky characters hit its intended "family fun" mark. [Mar 2003, p.106]

A rough port and bungled narrative make The Last of Us Part 2 hard to recommend, though the remaster's additions and moment-to-moment action satisfy.

I quickly tired of War Inc.'s incredibly limited map selection. [Nov 2011, p.74]

The biggest problem in Conflict Zone is map design...It results in tiresome strategies and predictable battles. [Holiday 2001, p.76]

The previews looked fantastic, but the final release of Lifeless Planet fails to build that potential into a worthy game.

Hack 'n' Slash starts as a clever game about game design, but ends up feeling like homework.

Despite the considerable issues with the PC version, I've still had long stretches of fun with Fallout 76. I really wish PvP had more at stake then lost junk (or at least more willing participants) but the world retains a lot of what I love about Bethesda's previous RPGs with finely crafted environments, enjoyable weapons and crafting, and surprising little scraps of story to uncover and investigate.

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

Earns points for originality, but with better pacing and a heftier casting budget, it could have been a much better zombie game contender. [Nov 2011, p.79]

Industries of Titan starts strong and has some bold ideas, but they just don't really go anywhere.

Bugs and dodgy design decisions don't quite negate the novelty of spaceshipping in confined spaces.