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

A smart top-down reimagining of the Halo experience, let down by mobile game monetization. [Nov 2013, p.66]

Don’t be a fool of a Took and rush into Moria. An authentic and authentically grueling game.

It not only brings nothing new to the RTS table - it takes stuff away, too. [Mar 2004, p.70]

A decent murder mystery game that suffers heavily from poor controls and menus.

An "Air Quake" for the masses with no noteworthy features to speak of. [Feb 2001, p.79]

Hard Reset isn't just a reference to what you're expected to do to the killer robots infesting the city, but what the developer tries to do to the shooter design itself. [Holiday 2011, p.80]

The final insult is the atrocious console save-system. The game saves automatically between each level and a couple of times during each level, but if you stop playing, you have to restart teh entire level. [Jan 2005, p.86]

Mediocre and repetitive, there are far better options for action RPGs out there.

A competent shooter, but lifeless. You could spend many hours mastering Desync, but it does nothing to earn your time.

Impressive ogre battles and challenging, hectic missions, but I just wish there was a bit more to Extinction.

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

VR can’t elevate Edge of Nowhere’s mediocre climbing, shallow combat, and contrived story. [Tested with Oculus Rift]

Confusingly good fun at first, Dragon Quest Heroes soon falls into a familiar, inane rhythm. Dynasty Warriors' audience will at least get something out of it.

You can probably find single-player games that are just as fun. [Jan 2005, p.84]

Held back by a difficulty that isn't satisfying to overcome, but annoying for its fiddly controls and cheating AI. [May 2012, p.77]

More game than you might expect, but still best played for an audience.

There's merit in Ravenbound's kinetic combat, but the game's ambition is undermined by technical issues and an empty world.

Suffers from a case of getsboringquick-itis. [July 2002, p.74]

Lifestyle simming is engaging for a little while, but its sluggish pacing and repetitive tasks do irreparable damage to the game's fun quotient. [Jan. 2007, p.78]

There always came a rather abrupt moment when city management turned from a challenge into a chore, and the sameness of the battles made it hard to sustain the illusion of waging a genuine "campaign." [Oct 2003, p.106]

The game's enormous potential is squandered by bad playbalancing. [Jan 2004, p.82]

Synduality has some smart ideas, but the end result is a misguided, hollow franken-game.

While the graphics are very appealing, your progress is utterly railed, which sort of defeats the purpose of all the impressive architectural design. [August 2002, p.69]

By the time you've learned the mysterious mechanics, you'll be bored with the game. [August 2002, p.71]

As it stands right now, this game is a mess. [Jan 2002, p.77]

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]

If you've just taken a course on Greek history, you might appreciate the setting, but for both strategy and visuals, Spartan is very...well, spartan. [Dec 2004, p.106]