Like a dry cracker for dinner, this is very bland, very boring, and not much fun at all. [Jan 2010, p.75]

A mostly delightful platform experience, and the creation tools mean this is a time sink. [Jan 2010, p.76]

A shade too workmanlike in most areas. [Feb 2010, p.75]

Dreadful presentation. [Feb 2010, p.74]

Collection is a title that you ought to play even if you played God of War and II back in 2005 and 2007. You ought to play it so you can marvel at the technical achievement, and to see how the games have shaped so many of those that we play today. [June 2010 p79]

Braid deserves success for being bold, original, and brilliant. Get it as soon as you can. [Jan 2010, p.83]

"History is written by the victors" says one character. Infinity Ward has just written history. Modern Warfare 2 is fast paced, deep, flexible and utterly, totally belongs in your console. [Christmas 2009, p.64]

Take away the (great) LEGO visuals and chuck a few extra songs in there and there’d be no reason you wouldn’t be able to pass this off as Rock Band 3. [Christmas 2009, p.76]

Where PES trumps FIFA is in its tactical depth. This year it's bordering on ludicrous just how in-depth you can manipulate the way your team plays. [Dec 2009, p.80]

Impenetrable for twitch gamers, essential for patience imbued fantasy fans. [Jan 2010, p.72]

Just as robust as we’ve come to expect, although the over-zealous censorship grates a lot. [Feb. 2010, p.74]

Newbies should check the originals, whilst veterans will find this frustrating. [Jan 2010, p.82]

There’s nothing particularly wrong with Tekken 6, but the series is starting to age. Gorgeous graphics help, but this genre needs some fresh blood. [Dec 2009, p.66]

A surprise package, impossible to write-off as a gimmick: utterly and totally addictive. [Dec 2009, p.68]

The game designers at Insomniac have treated their series with some respect, but if you’re meeting these heroes for the first time you certainly won’t feel lost at sea. Ratchet & Clank’s latest adventure isn’t a revolution in platform-jumping, just a solid game that can suck up time like a black hole. [Christmas 2009, p.69]

Reading about it in abstract, one could be forgiven for thinking that Fairytale Fights is a game for deviants and sickos, created to corrupt the young. This is not the case; everything is far too cute to be offensive. While it may sound sinister that the Naked Emperor character has visibly erect nipples, or that the Mother Goose Gun has an inflamed, purple ringpiece, in reality these flourishes are too stylised to make one bat an eye. It’s like the difference between ‘#@%&!!’ and a proper swear word. [p74 Christmas 2009]

It’s very simple to get in to, and although there are challenges you don’t ever lose, making it more of a toy than a competition. It’s still largely irrelevant for adults, though. [Christmas 2009, p.76]

It might not take you that long to run through and the amount of skeletons you’ll take to pieces might rack up like a Geiger counter, but this is a charming game. [Dec 2009, p.87]

Borderlands starts out great and only gets better from there. If you’re up for an epic, awesome and subversive good time, get your arse to Pandora and explore the Borderlands. [Dec 2009, p.72]

The amount of content you’ll reap from the create-a-wrestler alone will astound. If WWE’s your thing, welcome to nirvana. [Dec 2009, p.76]

Football fans who go to sleep with their laces on and foam at the mouth at the prospect of creating a virtual team ... should tattoo this title’s release on their hand and sell their copy of FIFA 09 to the blind kid around the block. [Nov 2009, p.74]

Compared to GTAIV’s paint-by-numbers mission design, the average job in Chinatown Wars is more of a left-field, mayhem-filled shenanigan. This even extends to the wanted system; Huang doesn’t skulk away and hide from the heat like Nico – he prefers to utterly destroy pursuing cop cars in a crazy Blues Brothers-esque escape. [Christmas 2009, p.78]

If God gave rock ‘n roll to us then it is settled: Tim Schafer is God. A must play. [Dec 2009, p.62]

The spectacular combination of generation-defining visuals, high adventure and cinematic intensity makes Uncharted 2 absolutely essential. There aren't any reasons not to own this game. [Nov 2009, p.64]

Visually it’s a real treat, and the animations are top drawer. It’s a massive step-up from last year and precisely what the series has needed with the long-time critical dominance of the 2K franchise [Christmas 2009, p.77]

The best basketball you can buy, and a great effort for 2K’s 10-year bash. [Christmas 2009, p.77]

21st Century standards such as midlevel checkpoints and an inventory system that halts the action so you can equip yourself are eschewed in favour of, well, death. You can't even pause the game, so if you're in for this you're in it for the long haul, hours at a time. [August 2010 p76]

Minute attention to detail proves that slow and precise can still mean tense and exciting. [Dec 2009, p.81]