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]