Essentially more of its predecessor but with a more consistent quality of levels. Which is fine: its predecessor was great.

A delightful visual novel and a great deckbuilder combined. What more could you want?

At last, Ensemble fully capitalizes on the game's setting, and the result is most satisfying. [Holiday 2003, p.96]

Don’t let some clunky inventories scare you off from this excellent strategy RPG.

A CPU- and GPU-draining masterpiece that's about a year ahead of its time. [Holiday 2006, p.110]

With a huge load of content comes unforgiving difficulty and complexity. Challge seekers inquire within. [July 2008, p.58]

An exceptionally generous free-to-play action-rPG. What it lacks in punch it makes up for in depth and value for money.

Mask is much more polished than NWN2's initial release, and while there are still a few loading and scripting bugs, they shouldn't deter you from enjoying this classic D&D adventure. [Holiday 2007, p.78]

Northgard is a surprising, elegant RTS that's laden with a very dull story.

The most any studio has done to open up a complex genre to a new audience. Inviting, entertaining, and deceptively deep.

Living as a werewolf is still pretty cool. You can inflict serious damage with those claws, leap amazing distances, and take on more enemies than would be possible in your human form. [Sept 2003, p.74]

A smart and thoughtful science fiction mystery featuring a cast of believable, nuanced characters.

An excellent beat-em-up with tons of wit and great combat, Full Metal Furies belongs on any couch co-op playlist.

Hyperbeat is brief and a little twee at times, but its lively musical flights are one-of-a-kind.

This is the detective game L.A. Noire claimed to be. It doesn’t have the inflated budget of Rockstar’s game, but it makes up for its rough edges with quality detecting, compelling cases, beautiful world-building, and and endearing gusto.

An ambitious and mostly successful—if a bit buggy—expansion about expansion.

Victoria 3's attractive historical sandbox is filled with potential, but it's on you to unlock it.

Not the most advanced F1 sim on the market, but it's the most immersive and enjoyable. [Nov 2000, p.143]

Fantasian will make you work hard for every win, but the reward's always worth the effort.

DICE is certainly guilty of taking an “if it ain’t broke” attitude to creating BF4, but its modest multiplayer refinements alongside excellent maps are enough to make it one of our favorite current FPSes. A cynic would call BF4 a deluxe map pack in sequel’s clothing. If that’s your predisposition, know that it’s at least a wonderful map pack, one with enough variety, depth, and quality to survive a year of intense play.

More wasteland to wander. New Vegas is good, but the failure to move the series on makes it feel a tiny bit stale.

This is a game perfectly suited for the tournament scene, where players are being tested for tactics and teamwork and care less about immersion. [Holiday 2007, p.76]

A quality remake that broadens the scope of the original and massively improves its final chapters.

Kingdom Come is a mess of bugs, and there’s the constant feeling that independent developer Warhorse is biting off more than it can chew. But there’s a charm to its scrappiness, and it does enough interesting stuff that I’m willing to tolerate the creaky framework struggling to prop everything up. It’s one of the most satisfying, rewarding role-playing experiences I’ve enjoyed on PC for a while, but the inconsistent performance and the game’s tendency to completely break does test my patience from time to time.

Effortlessly stylish, perhaps to the detriment of substance. But Superhot isn't one to miss.

Stylish, succinct and spiritual, Year Walk coins its own genre: the fright of passage.

A quality adventure game with challenging puzzles, oddball characters, and an intriguing, mystery-laden plot.

Doesn't do enough to be the uncontested definitive version, but provides a fresh perspective on an exceptional RPG. [March 2014, p.72]