Fract OSC’s puzzles are often too few and far between the open-world wandering, and the music integration does little to stir the soul.

A pretty good RTS that knows its limitations and succeeds within them. [Holiday 2005, p.79]

This is a very generic, very buggy shooter. One other plus: translations and voice acting so bad, they're often entertaining. [July 2006, p.55]

I'm confident that Strike Fighters will eventually grow to become one of the genre's all-time classics. [Jan 2003, p.108]

The second problem is that your squad will heal each other and you: you "die" only when your entire squad has been felled. [Apr 2005, p.76]

Flat writing and a confused plot fail to deliver on some promising ideas.

Somewhat dodgy AI can mar certain missions and the game practically screams for a co-op mode, but unfortunately, it's strictly single-player. [Apr 2007, p.55]

The pirate decor is barely a skin-deep covering on a sim that could just as easily have been made about the ACME Widget Factory. [July 2003, p.68]

Rime is a middling puzzle platformer with some genuine narrative depth, but the latter doesn't quite justify the former.

Masochists and suicidally confident RTS veterans might embrace the challenge, but for the rest of us, Frontline: Fields of Thunder delivers an entirely one-sided ass kicking. [June 2007, p.59]

It’s not just cashing in on a fad—there’s a genuine love for everything '80s that seeps into every fuzz-filtered sound and every crunchy pixel. But there are so many games like this around right now. They’re doing fantastic things with the genre, to boot. Unless you’re screaming for a synth-tracked adventure, it’s hard to recommend Rad over its more contemporary counterparts.

If you're the slightest bit impatient, you'll be bored within five minutes. [Feb 2005, p.59]

A vibrant presentation doesn’t save Sentris from a lack of depth or direction.

The game is great fun, but there's simply not enough content here for $15.

There's fun to be had here so long as you aren't expecting a serious World War II sim. [Feb 2001, p.64]

This game should really be called "The Rather Mediocre Escape." [Nov 2003, p.116]

Bland and unambitious save for its combat, Lost Sphear draws so heavily from the traditions of past JPRGs that it fails to build a personality of its own.

When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die--there is no middle ground. [Holiday 2011, p.74]

Merge the complexity of a real-time navel strategy game with the hand-on-joystick appeal of an arcade flight simulator and you get Pacific Storm, an ambitious but buggy new RTS title from Russian developer Lesta Studio. [Jan. 2007, p.74]

With less loot to grab, simplified platforming and easy puzzles, Darksiders 3 leans harder on its combat than previous games. And while Fury packs a punch, the wonky camera makes fights more frustrating that they should be. It doesn’t condemn Darksiders to oblivion, but it’s the lowlight of the series so far.

There are better games, but not too many better B-grade scripts. [Dec 2005, p.88]

A lot of thought put into new chess pieces; not enough put toward PC gaming. Also, kinda pricey.

Intuitive and accessible but also repetitive, SSZ is a flight combat game that trades on tradition rather than imagination.

On the whole, this game feels like a retreat of older ones - only with +10 wackiness. It's decent, but hardly heroic. [Apr 2004, p.70]

Honestly, I have never seen a hunting game this beautiful... Truly hardcore hunters will probably find Cabela's 2004 a deep, authentic game, but more casual gamers will be happier with the easier and more enjoyable "Hunting Unlimited 2." [Holiday 2003, p.105]

To be clear MLB 2K12 is hardly a terrible game. It simply lives the worst fate imaginable for gamers: It's never fantastic, but it also perennially avoids being too terrible to merit blowing up and rebuilding from scratch. [June 2012, p.81]

I grappled with Victoria for a solid 10 hours before I actually started having fun, and most folks will deem this figure unacceptable. Even then, the game's glaring bugs had a tendency to disrupt the deep and absorbing machinations that eventually develop. [Mar 2004, p.65]

A post apocalyptic road trip with more stops than starts.