Wonderfully weird and inventive. Katamari Damacy isn’t perfect, but it holds its own impressively well 14 years on.

Like a board game you play to death then put on the shelf to bring out on special occasions, but with street urchins and priest-stabbing.

Excellent combat and a stunning sense of scale help steer Lost Ark through its more tired MMO conventions.

A slightly messy first-person shooter lifted by some excellent weapons and a gorgeous art style.

Nails the look, the sound, and the speed, but Redout stalls on the sensation.

It's been an excellent year for the Freelance Police; it would be a shame for the series to end here, but it gives a fitting send-off. [Nov 2010, p.79]

Black Myth: Wukong blossoms with an eccentric cast of characters and expressive combat all wrapped up in the rich world of its source material.

Developer dream teams should get together more often. AoE III may be an elder statesman in the RTS world these days, but BHG has dipped the game in the fountain of youth with this revitalizing add-on. [Jan 2008, p.80]

Defense Grid's excellent personality and gameplay make it both a great game for experienced tower defense fans and an excellent starting point for new players. [Apr 2009, p.86]

The combination of drop-jaw visuals, absorbing missions, and overall realism make for good times...Better suited for casual players. [Nov 2004, p.102]

Lighthearted humor and creative story elements are unveiled at every turn, pushing this simulation to the head of its genre. [Dec 2003, p.96]

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

Still the best football game you can buy for your rig, but FIFA 16 feels unambitious.

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

Maintaining an almost impossible level of polish across its many modes, FIFA 19 might not eclipse PES 19 on the pitch, but it demonstrates its worth via The Journey.

Gears Tactics' structure couldn't quite sustain the 25 hours or so it took me to get through the campaign, but slap the combat into a sequel with a couple more strategic systems that balance out the variety and pacing, and I'd honestly rather play it over XCOM, a recommendation I never expected I'd make.

Just what a visual novel should be—fun characters and the rush of solving mysteries make you eager to keep going.

A clever spiritual successor to Civilization full of both novelties and big ideas.

The heights of Warzone 2’s combat and stunning map design are held down by a rocky launch rife with issues.

An exercise in heavenly multitasking that’s exhilarating alone but better with a friend.

Old-school Yakuza for better or worse, but still a good point of entry for newcomers.

It's not quite there yet, but since it did launch with a substantial load of content, it will keep 95 percent of players busy for at least a few months. [Sept 2008, p.64]

A shot of adrenaline for the year-old game, these new armies bring the best parts of Company of Heroes into the upgraded Company of Heroes 2 world.

Even after the free-for-all matches start to feel redundant, the punchy, full-body action in Hover Junkers remains hilarious fun.

A grab bag of game systems to bring new life to Civ V. Definitely worthwhile, and almost certainly holier than thou. [Sept 2012, p.76]

A deep, and potentially rewarding alternative to Hearthstone that suffers from underwhelming art design and desperately needs an injection of players to grow the scene.

There's nothing in its new content that can be considered absolutely essential. [Holiday 2006, p.76]

A messy story and horrible characters get in the way of decent, violent action in a scintillating open city.