A well-made remaster with beautiful modern visuals and outdated platforming rooted firmly in the past.

The steely smash-and-crunch of the combat merrily pushed me through its 20-hour campaign and beyond into New Game +, compelling me to ignore the rudimentary world and focus on those glorious moments where sparks, limbs and scrap metal fly with brutal abandon. Deck13 has come a long way, welding together a solid, structurally sound Soulslike that adeptly showcases what makes this genre special.

Noita combines classic roguelike progression with complex RPG-style spellbuilding and sets it in an incredibly dynamic environment.

For The King 2 is surprisingly one of the most tactically challenging games of 2023, but suffers from being a bit too much of the same next to the previous monarch.

A genuinely enjoyable, gorgeous action-RPG that lacks the storytelling nuance of previous Dragon Age games.

An RTS designed for entertainment rather than e-sport. Colourful, fun and memorable, its elements mesh surprisingly well.

It may not be original, but Rush to Berlin is fun, which makes it worth considering for a second, third, or fourth tour of duty. [Oct. 2006, p.73]

Evil Dead brings a brand new tactical thrill to the multiplayer horror genre.

A generic shooter with lots to say. Spec Ops: The Line trades quality gaming for quality narrative and interesting characters. [Oct 2012, p.72]

The roguelike and FPS genres haven't been spliced so successfully since Deathloop—and Wild Bastards deserves just as much acclaim.

A witty take on sci-fi and co-op that’s teeming with life and begging for you to get creative with its gadgets.

More of the same, but with an increased focus on combat and dungeons. If that appeals, The White March may be worth a visit.

Neo Can is ambitious and thoughtful, but it sometimes overshoots into something too bleak.

Finishing it off and watching the credits roll is a bittersweet moment, as Pandemic's final game is also one of its finest. [Jan 2010, p.68]

Heaven's Vault communicates the beauty of assigning meaning to symbols, and thus the people who wrote them.

There still isn't any game on the market quite like Farming Simulator, but the series is overdue for a gameplay makeover.

Compelling, slick, handsome. The predictable campaign and so-so skirmish AI are mere flesh wounds.

Flashpoint's fresh subject matter, clever approach, and deep strategies make it worth playing. [May 2005, p.]

Blood Bowl 2 is the flashiest iteration of the game so far, but its dice rolls are frustrating, and its amble ruleset isn't introduced well to newcomers.

A quck-and-dirty port that's worth trying, especially for "Deus Ex" fans. [July 2005, p.60]

As a high-level expansion, Kingdom of Sky is well done, but lower-level players can give this one a pass. [Jun 2006, p.88]

The Ship is the shooter Agatha Christie didn't live long enough to make. [Sept 2007, p.65]

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.

Shadowrun Returns’ bang-to-buck ratio is largely going to depend on the quality of content that springs up from the devs and the community after release, but as it stands today, it’s a mostly average RPG running in a visually underwhelming engine.

It won't win any awards for innovation (or its horrofic yacht-rock soundtrack), but City Life is still a great, slightly offbeat take on an old-fashioned formula. [Sep 2006, p.58]

Riding and maintaining your bike is great—the boring world, dull missions, and overly serious tone, not so much.

A clever time loop setup devolves into frustrating repetition.

Surviving Mars is a lot of hard work, but managing a burgeoning colony never stops being compelling.