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’s whack. Carson isn’t even in the game! Ohmigod, they so totally got this other MTV himbo, Brian McFayden, to do the talking. And you don’t even see him. What is up with that, y’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]