If you're a reality fan looking for a full-on Civil War experience, this is it. [Aug 2006, p.54]

While it's never going to match "Pro Evolution Soccer" on the pitch, the authenticity does genuinely make a difference. [July 2006, p.79]

There's little content on offer here, with only three islands and four new miracles making this hardly an essential purchase. [July 2006, p.86]

It's deep, if you like repetitively killing things. [Sept 2006, p.77]

Dreamfall never taxes the brain, and progression is more often than not a case of running to the next location and having a bit of a chat. [July 2006, p.75]

The fundamental problem is that it all feels a little detached - for an MMO, solo play feels far more natural, as the speed turns most of the battles into one-on-ones dotted around the map. [July 2006, p.88]

A cheaper, slightly longer and certainly more rewarding slice of saccharine silliness than before. Still not perfect, but very, very cute. [July 2006, p.74]

As long as you're not some kind of hippy who abhors violence, besides the slightly repetitive level design, the game is a masterpiece of nerve-jangling tension the first time round. However, the linear levels, short length (ten hours of play), story that's never fully explained and lack of multiplayer don't offer much in the way of replay value.

This is a marketing bullet, heading straight for the impressionable brains of your child/wife/mother/effeminate brother (delete as applicable) - and possibly even your own pocket. Avoid it. [Aug 2006, p.77]

Sadly, once the script stops, the game quickly becomes a joyless chore. [May 2006, p.90]

Fantastic soundtrack with integrated riffs and tunes. [Aug 2008, p.70]

With patience, it can be an engrossing experience, as you tentatively eke your way through a foreign town, with deadly threats lurking round every corner. It's dramatic, it's tense, it's infuriating, but is it fun? No. It's not fun, it's war.

If you absolutely must play this game, and the wretched commercial system that chugged out this idiot child hasn't put you off the whole sorry shebang, then get a console version. Please don't buy this. [Oct 2006, p.74]

Typography aside, Battle of Europe is an enjoyable game that simply fails to distinguish itself as a particularly great one. [Oct 2006, p.65]

I wanted so badly to be enjoying myself, with all the effort that had gone into the characters and likenesses, but I wasn't allowed to. And now I am cross.

If you love gaming - if you love leaving your identity at the door and embarking on red-blooded adventure that's previously only been the domain of high literature and childhood imagination, I can give no higher recommendation. Make no mistake, this is more than the best role-playing game of our times. It's the best one we've ever seen.

Unfortunately, the conversion to PC is a sloppy affair, leaving it with a number of issues, such as a frame-rate that's at times slower than a bed-ridden sloth, a bizarre lack of sound effects, an option to change resolution that doesn't work and the fact that the game defaults to running in a small window.

You can download content of similar or even better quality for free off the internet. Sorry guys, but we don't appreciate the thought.

It's very good at what it's doing, but the problem is that's very limited. [July 2006, p.83]

If you'd like to know what it's like to keep check on every bullet you have left, or how easy it is to parallel park a Panzer, then Red Orchestra is the war game for you. [June 2006, p.78]

The Battle For Middle-Earth II may look impressive, and its basic, by-the-numbers RTS approach is fun in a mindless sort of way. However, in no way is it anywhere near the game we hoped for. What a waste.

A curious but elegant levelling system. [May 2006, p.88]

The whole routine of coming to a doorway, deploying your Optiwand, storming the room, arresting the suspects, cuffing them, picking up the weapons, reporting it all to dispatch - it all just becomes a bit of a chore after the hundredth room or so.

Even though it feels so very wrong to say this, Open For Business is a Sims expansion worth buying.

It's still ploddingly adequate in an unsurprising way, but the faults are just too many. [Sept 2006, p.72]

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, this kind of last-generation gameplay would relieve the daily tedium. Now it's in danger of adding to it.

Unfortunately, an hour's excitement out of eight is poor going, so RF Online is best played only if you enjoy continual grind with minimal reward. Most of us get enough of that at work.

It's designed for console, so the mouse and keyboard controls are horrendous and the disparate gameplay elements don't add up to a whole hill of black-eyed beans.