Inoffensive busy-work for the ankle-biters. Nothing more. Nothing less. [December 2013, p81]

Lacking challenge and there's not enough new content to justify that full-priced purchase. [December 2013, p81]

If you’re yet to buy yourself a FIFA game on the Vita, then you probably don’t see the problem in all this. But even still, we’d recommend you just go out and buy yourself last year’s game and save 20 bucks. [December 2013, p80]

Going off Faith we're in for a hell of a ride. Now more bourbon-fuelled piggies, please! [December 2013, p80]

There's definitely fun to be had here for the F1 faithful, but we can't shake the feeling that Codies is taking the foot off in preparation for the inevitable next-gen follow-up. [December 2013, p79]

Still the best basketball franchise out there. Avoids greatness due to a smattering of visual bugbears. [December 2013, p79]

Packed full of content. Looks and plays better than ever before. Consider us a fan of the Skyland. [December 2013, p78]

Nowhere near ripe enough to consume. Just a big ol' bale of boredom. [December 2013, p78]

A somewhat flawed albeit ultimately fantastic entry to the Bat-series. Storyline really delivers, too. We can't wait to see what Warners Montreal does next. [December 2013, p76]

As another foray into the world of interactive storytelling, it's an interesting experiment. But as a game, it doesn't come together nearly as well as it should. [December 2013, p74]

Hereditary sins aside, the core experience of Assassin's Creed IV is one hell of a thirty-cannon salute that has so many tantalising distractions that we honestly can't wait to sail back into its world again. [December 2013, p70]

All-in-all the features add up to a game that is one of the best replications of the real thing thus far, especially with some top notch presentation. Just watch out for those damn ghosts. [November 2013, p85]

If you’re a fan of the franchise you’ll be getting this for new challengers Jacky Bryant, Rachel, Momiji, Leon and Ein. The Power Launcher move is about the only new mechanic addition. It looks hilarious, won’t rock worlds. [November 2013, p85]

In almost all other respects Castle of Illusion pales in comparison to the Rayman Legends of the world. We’d also recommend Duck Tales Remastered over this in a heartbeat, too. But if you prefer your platformers easy and protagonists in pants, Castle of Illusion is still worth the price. [November 2013, p85]

While the narrative is bonkers, Killer Is Dead iterates on tired gameplay to make a gorgeous game playable. [November 2013, p84]

It’s still far from perfect – main menu freezes abound and the EU and NA servers will frequently fail to even show up, so you’ll probs find yourself on a JP one – but when it works, it really works. Finally. [November 2013, p84]

A solid update to this apex icecapade. Feels like EA's holding back for the next-gen though. [November 2013, p83]

Combining the depth and difficulty of a rogue-like with the thrill of a platformer, it's an elegant and endlessly replayable gem of a game that is perfectly suited to a portable format. Co-op multiplayer over WAN (no netplay – boo!) is especially rewarding.[November 2013, p83]

All you really need to know is that this is a very capable port of one of the most celebrated games of 2012. Prepare to be drawn into a superbly written apocalyptic tale that will hook you in completely and aim for your feels. [November 2013, p83]

All-in-all the features add up to a game that is one of the best replications of the real thing thus far, especially with some top notch presentation. Just watch out for those damn ghosts. [November 2013, p83]

Visually astounding and addictive, few videogame worlds are as fleshed out as Puppeteer’s. [November 2013, p82]

The lead’s voice actor is completely miscast with all of the depth and nuance of an English dubbed 1980s Jackie Chan movie, the story doesn’t engage you at all and its telling is plodding and laboured. Let this experience slip from your mind and… Fade to Black. [November 2013, p82]

Mercenary is a big budget FPS on a handheld, done as right as it can be, but it’s still not quite good enough. [November 2013, p80]

Another fine refinement of one the best games of football on the market. [November 2013, p79]

PES still isn’t ‘better’ than FIFA, but by the golden boot of Beckham it’s the best one yet. [November 2013, p78]

This year isn’t over yet – let alone the generation – so it’d be foolish and premature for us to throw acronyms like ‘GOTY’ or ‘GOTG’ at you just yet. Even still, we simply cannot see anything out on that horizon which looks like it’s up to the task of toppling this titan – and we don’t say such things lightly. Acquire this game at all costs. Thieve it in a heist if you have to. [November 2013, p74]

You’re looking at an insanely simplistic sidescrolling platformer with a handful of power-ups and ‘special skilled’ Smurfs to swap through. Doing our due diligence, we road-tested this with a six and a nine-year-old. After 30 minutes, they wanted to go play outside. Says it all, really. [October 2013, p83]

God knows why you’d want to invest in this crap, however. A match consists of mashing triangle to overcome an uninspired selection of bland nobodies. Thumbs down, we say. [October 2013, p83]

What starts out as a delicious parody of The A-Team soon becomes a mess of cramped level design, mediocre graphics and ridiculous difficulty spikes. Couple that with framerate issues and more screen tearing and this is more miss than hit. [October 2013, p83]

A HD remake created with TLC, but it’s still brutally difficult. Argh! [October 2013, p83]

Fun and frustrating in equal measure, Cloudberry Kingdom is both as delicious and ugly as a Picnic bar. [October 2013, p82]

Coupled with a stronger focus on the sound and feel of gunplay, gamers are granted the chance to pull off memorable robberies worthy of Ocean’s Eleven, with shoot-outs as intense as Three Kings, unfortunately minus the Clooney. [October 2013, p82]

There’s a wealth of new content here, and it’s all been given the love and care this beloved franchise deserves. Whether you’re a veteran, or somebody who doesn’t know the business end of a keyblade, give this a shot. [October 2013, p81]

Absorbing, personable, and a lot cleverer than it initially lets on. The wildcard Tales series continues to impress. [October 2013, p81]

Starts slow then builds into a time sink, and each victory feels like a monumental win. Tacticians and action fans finally have something in common to obsess over. [October 2013, p80]

If you don’t have others to play with, that doesn’t mean you should miss out on the fun, though, because have no doubt about it, Rayman Legends is one of the best platformers we’ve played in years. [October 2013, p79]

Thank the gods Blizzard not only ported its baby over, but refined it, tweaked it and spiked it specifically for console. We feel all warm and gooey inside. [October 2013, p78]

Don’t be fooled into thinking this is a mindless beat ‘em up obsessed with treasure chests (and pleasure ones): it’s so much more than that. Dragon’s Crown is the renaissance of the genre and it’s well worth your gold, soon-to-behardened adventurer. [October 2013, p77]

Brilliant ideas, but the game feels old. Worth a weekend rental but that’s it. [October 2013, p76]

Brimming with fan-service, unlockable content, and freeform ‘create, share, play’ fun. A must for the young and young-at-heart. [October 2013, p75]

While Saints Row IV might be crass, stupid and a bit ugly in places, it’s a lot of fun. Expect to lose yourself ‘til the early hours with this. [October 2013, p74]

At the end of the day, though, Splinter Cell Blacklist is all about thwarting evil doers within the veil of shadows and in that it excels exponentially. With an enjoyable globe-trotting campaign and a robust multiplayer offering, we’re glad Sam has re-entered the Sony spotlight. [October 2013, p72]

Dust 514 is ropier than a Japanese adult movie marathon. Movement is clunky, combat feels archaic, and this war takes place on worlds so drab they look like a rip off of Futurama’s Neutral Planet. This is yet another paid DLC bear trap. [September 2013, p80]

In 20 palette-swapped stages you’ll need to awkwardly flap your way through rings, whilst managing a stamina bar. Horrific collision detection abounds and you’ll spend more time in the wings watching load screens than getting airborne. [September 2013, p80]

Magic 2014 has a perfect UI system but its tutorials aren’t particularly gentle with Magic virgins. Veterans know what to expect, buy with confidence. [September 2013, p80]

Tough, frequently ingenious and amusing, Stealth Inc is full of surprises. [September 2013, p80]

R.I.P.D.: The Game is basically Atlus’ previous released game, God Mode, stripped of its more interesting features and re-skinned by an intern. It’s an aggressively boring, disastrously ugly, barely-functional mess that will make the majority of those who play it feel dead inside. [September 2013, p79]

In the end, Pacific Rim: The Videogame feels like a trap. It’s designed to lure in the casuals, offer them the barebones framework of a fighting game, and drown them with a tsunami’s worth of paid DLC options. [September 2013, p79]

If you’re an absolute newcomer to this series, this is must-buy material as it’s the best value PS3 bundle since the Orange Box. Each title has been lovingly remastered and every entry included pushed the boundaries back in the day to be the best titles of their release year, if not their entire generation. No serious PlayStation gamer should be without these. [September 2013, p78]

The good looks of most JRPGs will be in some way anime-influenced, but Time and Eternity is flat-out anime that you play. With that comes the often cringe-worthy plotting of the latterday art form, too.[September 2013, p77]

Only for diehard fans interested in the mildly enjoyable, but highly repetitive gameplay. [September 2013, p77]

Painkiller Hell & Damnation is a short, unattractive beast that will sink its claws into you if you give it half a chance. But be warned: it could also be a throwback that may fly right over the head of a modern FPS gamer. [September 2013, p76]

For all its unfamiliarity and family-over-friendliness Legends of Chima is a technically solid production that should please its intended audience. Oldies can skip it and continue to vainly hope for LEGO Die Hard. [September 2013, p75]

It sucks then that getting Diggs out of the frying pan takes a scant three hours, tops. Do that and you’ll unlock the option to replay and use the Move as a virtual camera to scour the augmented environments for hidden objects and other goodies – but that gets old pretty damn quick. While it lasts, Diggs Nightcrawler is full of surprises. If you’re looking for what Wonderbook can do it’s the best eggs-ample out there. [September 2013, p75]

We can’t help but feel as though this port was booted out of the door without so much as a kiss goodbye. Case in point: you still have the option to toggle ‘vibration’ on and off in the settings menu. Come on, guys... really? The Jak and Daxter Collection should be played by anybody who hasn’t already. But our advice: skip past this port and go for the home console version instead. [September 2013, p74]

At its core, Epic Mickey 2 is still an enjoyable throwback to the golden days of mascot platformers – albeit an incredibly unfocused one – but it simply doesn’t shine on the small screen. [September 2013, p74]

If The Last of Us is gaming’s Citizen Kane moment, this is its Plan 9 From Outer Space. [September 2013, p73]

In 400 Days, no single character comes across as quite right. It’s often tough to choose which line of dialogue to say at times. It’s a perfect setup for the second season, presenting a broad glance at diverse situations and tying them together deftly with a small amount of overlap. [September 2013, p72]

All you really need to know is that Hotline Miami is one of the best, and hardest to master, indie games to ever grace a PlayStation. That said, Hotline Miami still needs to be a permanent fixture on your PS3, and the Vita version executes train trips without mercy. [September 2013, p70]

If you’re all for the idea of chuckling at a game that’s under budget, intentionally offensive and a bit archaic – here you go. But when you find out that same punchline includes a pitiful seven hour runtime and a 70 dollar price tag, we think it’ll probably wipe the smirk right of your face. [August 2013, p72]

As a game, The Last of Us will occasionally falter. Imperfect underwater mechanics and careless friendly AI that insists on blocking your path or causing unnecessary firefights can irk, but they are very minor niggles and should be treated as such. Because as an experience, The Last of Us is powerful, emotionally draining and absolutely one of the finest games of this generation. [August 2013, p70]

Only look into this one if you’re a big fan of the Sacred series and have similarly minded friends. [August2013, p76]

Tries to be charmingly hard, but the design simply does not match the vision. [August 2013, p76]

Spiders has been ambitious here but the team’s budget restraints and questionable writing hold Mars: War Logs back. Even with one’s ‘go underdogs!’ hat on, this Martian sand-fest offers less true grit than it does constant chafing. [August 2013, p75]

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is the most charming and important downloadable indie game since Journey, and that’s not a claim we make lightly. [August 2013, p75]

By not taking itself seriously and focusing on the exaggerated swagger of old folk legends, Gunslinger manages to be the best game in the series. [August 2013, p74]

If you’re an avid cyclist you’d be much happier outside on a bike, getting fit and savaging your sperm count, not suffering this flat, endorphinless facsimile. [August 2013, p78]

This formula may be 20-years-old but Chronicles’ gameplay is still razor sharp and the visuals are oddly endearing. To quote one of its Engrish quest-givers: please investigate into it. [August 2013, p78]

Milestone hasn’t lived up to its name with this release – MotoGP 13 isn’t a landmark event in motorcycle racing games. It is, however, a noticeable veer back on track for this otherwise out-of control franchise. [August 2013, p79]

It’s just like being back in the arcades (with lots of Japanese kids kicking your arse). [August 2013, p79]

Generic in most senses of the word, but still dumb fun with friends. [August 2013, p80]

If you take only three sentences away from this review, let them be the next ones. Fast & Furious: Showdown is a cash-in that somebody didn’t use half their arse to create – they used one quarter of a buttcheek. The box may look pretty, but the disc inside is like a HD update of Burnout’s beta code. Like, the PS2 [August 2013, p80]

Got a Vita and never played the original? Then get this. [August 2013, p77]

Casual egg-chasers who played the predecessor could sidestep this and not miss much. But those of you hard-headed types with ears too cauliflowered to hear our warnings will probably buy it regardless. [August 2013, p77]

Cross-buy, cross-play, cross-save: the three non-words every ‘PS3ita’ gamer hungers to hear. Zombie Tycoon 2 has all of these, and that’s what it does right. What it does wrong: its solo play is boring, and gets in the way of its rather decent multiplayer action. [July 2013, p80]

Darkstalkers Resurrection is a well preserved piece of history of which no fighting game fan should be unaware. Go check it out. [July 2013, p80]

Thomas Was Alone comes together into something more than the sum of its multiple simplistic parts. [July 2013, p79]

Muramasa is twenty hours well spent amongst some of the most breathtaking visuals and sound on PS Vita. Unsheath your wallet and ninjadash your way to the store now. [July 2013, p76]

Soul Sacrifice isn’t the deepest Action-RPG out there, but it’s certainly one of the most interesting, and it feels right at home on PS Vita. [July 2013, p78]

There are some neat ideas here, like the random modifiers that trigger in each area, and being able to turn on ‘oaths’ that increase the challenge while rewarding you with extra XP and coins. But these features aren’t original, and it’s hard for an unoriginal game to hold one’s interests after the 500th skeleton has had their head shot off. [July 2013, p79]

As a game based on a movie, Star Trek is ok. This is no rush job but it lacks either the expertise or imagination to make it passable as a game in its own right. And who the hell would bother with that. [July 2013, p77]

Grid 2 is a gem of a racer. There’s never been any doubt that Codemasters have the skills and resources to make good looking games with world-class handling, and Grid 2 reinforces that. While its storyline provides reason, the thrilling events are the reason you’re here. [July 2013, p74]

There’s so much potential at play in Remember Me that we feel compelled to belabour the cons to emphasise what could have been with the abundance of strong ideas, well-paced narrative beats and an intuitive game soundtrack. It gets more right than it gets wrong though, and it leaves us yearning for a sequel that addresses its unfortunate shortcomings. [July 2013, p72]

One of the most memorable indie games of the past decade. Best played with friends. [June 2013, p76]

Basically, the same great PS3 title we reviewed a while back, but portable and with exemplary CrossPlay functionality. Being able to whip out your Vita and pick up from where you left off (by downloading a Cloud save) is an absolute godsend and the synching process is flawless. [June 2013, p80]

Team Ninja takes one more stab and tweaks a below par sequel into being barely on the pace. Dismemberment has been reintroduced and shitty button mashing kills are now automated. [June 2013, p80]

This game is surreal. So much so we’re not entirely sure if it was rushed (doubtful, given the 360 original came out in 2010), or if the game designers are deliberately trolling us. [June 2013, p80]

Easily one of the best downloadable titles on the Vita. Grab it pronto. [June 2013, p80]

It almost feels as though developer Terminal Reality ran out of money, right on the home stretch. If only the game was shot in the head long before it ever got to that point. [June 2013, p79]

If you’ve never played a golfing game before this would be a great place to start. It’s packed with a great introduction to the sport, dozens of hours of content, and there’s few things more satisfying than rocking up to the 18th one stroke behind, only to sink an astounding 35-metre chip for the tournament win. [June 2013, p79]

What you’re left with is Max Payne 3 if it was stripped of half its budget, created by Michael Bay and forced into a co-operative experience. Fans might get a kick out of the fire and limb filled explosions, and the cameos from older characters in the series, but make no mistake, it will be short-lived. [June 2013, p78]

A kick-ass second chance at one of the best action RPGs released in the past decade. [June 2013, p77]

A bold and innovative reboot of a classic, but definitely geared for the hardcore. [June 2013, p76]

In a world full of shooters tackling real-world problems, it’s a refreshing palate cleanser when a game decides to give dinosaurs lasers for eyes, just because it can. Can ya dig it? [June 2013, p75]

If Defiance were purely offline you wouldn’t look at it twice. Objects wink out of existence, characters have little weight, and unless you’re in a team the enemies are tough. But it will get under your skin. [June 2013, p74]

For hardcore nerds, it’s a wet dream made real; for everyone else, it’s a spectacle like no other. [June 2013, p72]

Riding boats, a new character, a couple of new skills and light tower defence mechanics is pushing that full retail tag, especially when you can pick up the original for less than half the price. [June 2013, p70]

A very competent, atmospheric shooter that isn’t solely about blowing shit up. If you’re not afraid of the dark and need a change of pace, a ride with Metro: Last Light might be exactly what you need. [June 2013, p68]