As beautiful as the background and characters are, the entire game has a slightly dated look to it. Once players delve into the story, though, the sense that the graphics belong to a game from two years ago disappears, and only the world of Septerra matters.

Desperados 3 turns the Wild West into a brilliant tactical playground that will fill you with lead over and over again.

It runs perfectly in a window while you're doing something else on your PC; attend to it in free moments to rack up loot, levels, new spells and satisfaction. [Nov 2010, p.86]

Like a reunion concert of a band you once loved, or a candy shop selling a particular brand of candy that brings to mind childhood summers of sun and sea and all that other cliched crap, Broken Age is a well deserved chance to remember the old days and realize that they're still closer than they might sometimes feel—even if the second part is a little further away than intended.

The "Quake III" engine has been stretched to its limits here, but it still gets the job done. [Sept 2003, p.70]

Bigger and more stable than ever, Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion will happily strip-mine your life of its free time.

I'm coming up on 100 hours logged in the expansion and I don't even feel close to done, nor have I slowed down a bit. My friends and I have been burning the midnight oil and playing almost every night, which would've been unthinkable before. After a precarious first year, I'm finally enjoying Destiny 2 again. It feels good to have it back.

What it lacks in complexity, it more than makes up for with intense action and ease of lay that consistently draws you back for more. [Feb 2005, p.48]

An exhilarating adventure teeming with unique things to see and do- and most importantly, people to stab.

There's a comprehensive and remarkably easy-to-use scenario creator, too... Squad Assault is a delight. [Jan 2004, p.86]

A fresh, high stakes take on card-based videogames, sure to appeal to more than just deck-builders.

A fantastic addition to an already fantastic strategy game. [Dec 2005, p.94]

A survival colony builder that generates stories of triumph, disaster, and white-knuckle rescues.

A great game and, with time, potentially a classic. Much rests on Frontier's ability to build on these broad but somewhat shallow foundations.

Kunitsu-Gami's a gorgeous and engaging take on the tower defence formula.

A superb tactics game that looks like an XCOM clone but really, really isn’t.

The Gladiators trades in bumpkin-building for fast-paced and hilarious arena combat... An eminently chewable bit of bubble-gum entertainment. [Mar 2003, p.94]

A deep tactical wargame with strong fundamentals supporting a broadly successful campaign system.

Vivid and tactically demanding, Assault Squad is a brilliant multiplayer game that's even better with friends. [June 2011, p.78]

PUBG takes the tradition of big-map survival games like DayZ and compresses it into digestible, 3-to-30-minute sprints that are reliably scary and low-key.

Beneath the lo-fi visuals and simple animation is a sophisticated, thrilling, and occasionally brutal shooter. [Nov 2013, p.64]

Age of Wonders: Planetfall, while a bit opaque in some areas, is the most entertaining 4X I've played in years.

A sublime blend of fighting, puzzling and exploration, but the unforgiving difficulty may be too much for some.

Brilliant writing and puzzle design make this first expansion a success, although it's a little familiar in places. [Nov 2015, p.72]

A serene gravity flipping puzzler with impossible structures to wrap your head around.

Oxenfree 2 is a more mature second run at the walk-and-talk formula.

Ashen's slant on the Soulslike subgenre isn't revolutionary, but is a wonderful example of the familiar formula executed well. It's thoughtful, gorgeous, challenging and a dream to explore.

Atmospheric, imaginative, and enjoyably unpredictable—this is one of the year's best horror games.