Frustration is bad enough, but pain? Unacceptable. [Issue#186, p.82]

The story is muddled and not engaging, which could be forgivable if the action was more involving. Using the monocle to see clues is a nice idea, but it’s underutilised and poorly implemented (though it’s possible some of this could be a porting error). The encounters with the Mother are successfully tense, and the (few) monster designs are good. It’s almost a shame you don’t see more of them. Silver Chains does achieve some solid jump scares and would be worth a run-through with friends if you can pick it up in a sale. Overall, though, it sadly lacks both substance and polish. [Issue#186, p.85]

A game that while atmospheric, turns monotonous very quickly, and whose ideas are never developed in a way that makes it interesting to play. [Issue#184, p.86]

Ironically, this played better in 2003. [Issue#183, p.81]

If you never got the chance to experience the original when it came to PS3 and want to pick this up out of curiosity, it’s probably best to avoid it – it’s outright damaging to the legacy of Crysis. [Issue#181, p.88]

With a fantastic lineup, interesting fresh mechanics like the minions, and a bounty target being placed on the player performing best, Bounty Battle was in a good position to succeed, but it’s frankly hampered by being clunky and not much fun to play. A real shame. [Issue#181, p.86]

You’ve played this before, 25 years ago on PS1. The ideas are ancient, the implementation poor, and when a dubiously named hero is the only fun you get from a shooter in 2020 it’s time to avoid. [Issue#182, p.160]

It’s not terrible, but it’s not the game we (or anybody else) wanted either. This game gets tired long before 90 minutes have passed. [Issue#180, p.80]

This is visually bare-bones and an incredibly sloppy port of the PC original. The menus have an eye-jittering delay that makes navigating a chore. Worse still, hard crashes occur every 20 minutes in the final third of the story, forcing you to replay tombs already conquered. It’s hard to recommend a game that punishes you with its bugs. Pray for this one. [Issue#178, p.82]

Poor signposting is a problem throughout, compounding frustration in by-the-numbers stealth/chase sequences (though each of these is mercifully to the point once you figure out what you’re supposed to do). Bright spots, such as the early story’s compassionate portrayal of childhood bereavement and some genuinely unsettling sound design, are too often overshadowed. We’re not leaving the light on for this. [Issue#177, p.156]

Is it enough to make you forget you spent ten minutes trying to load a gun, or ignore the way the characters look like they were made in 1998, or forgive a story that delivers the emotional impact of Question Of Sport repeats? No. [Issue#176, p.74]

Well-intentioned training minigames don’t really help, and nor does the multiplayer mode. There’s always something in the environment that seems more interesting than the game itself, such as a Japanese garden you can’t explore, or arcade cabinets that you can’t use. Give the table tennis experience this game serves up a miss. [Issue#170, p.92]

Patches may rescue this to some degree. For now, it’s an unfinished game which should remain unpurchased by your wallet. [Issue#170, p.86]

It’s got passion but is far from having all the answers. We can’t recommend what we played but hope that a patch has addressed the bugs obscuring its bright ideas. [Issue#170, p.90]

Travis Strikes Again spends so much time calling back to other games, it forgets to be fun itself. [Issue#169, p.92]

One of the worst open worlds Ubisoft has released. Even if its issues have been patched by the time you read this, this is one seriously uninspired sandbox. [Issue#168, p.88]

A once-in-a-generation release that changes absolutely everything, and resets what a ‘game’ can be. Dreams is essential and should be on every PS4. Especially yours. [Early Access Review score = 100]

The shooting is less responsive, because Space Junkies doesn’t allow you to use PS Move controllers. Instead, you aim by pointing the DualShock – something that can work in slower-paced VR shooters like Resident Evil 7, but just isn’t suited to frenetic head-to-head combat, especially when the game’s crossplay links you up with PC players using full motion controls. [Issue#162, p.82]

RICO fancies itself as the sterotypical hard-bitten police officer who gets results but refuses to play by the rules. In reality, it’s more like Paul Blart: Mall Cop. [Issue#161, p.96]

Left Alive is most disappointing because it had such potential to revitalise the stealth genre. Instead you get something far behind even the titles it tries to emulate. [Issue#161, p.85]

A fighting game that won’t appeal to anyone. Newcomers won’t be endeared to the Shonen Jump series, and longtime fans will know there’s better out there. [Issue#160, p.96]

What you get for your money is terrible, rendering the mid-level price insulting. There's no reality in which this is worth buying, virtual or otherwise. [Issue#158, p.97]

Even at a penny shy of five quid, this is hard to recommend. [Issue#158, p.86]

The Quiet Man is a once-in-a-generation terrible game mired by technical and racial issues, pretentious ideas, and poor execution. It’s an ineffable game that fails to land any of its posy punches. That it merely exists… now that is something to cry over. [Issue#157, p.97]

As big a letdown as Tim Henman's efforts at Wimbledon, it does a huge disservice to Top Spin's legacy. No amount of Pimm's should sanction you buying this. [Issue#151, p.96]

One of the most unfinished, least fun games of recent years, and almost unplayably jerky on a standard PS4. A total disaster of a game. [June 2018, p.97]

By turns mildly irritating and laceratingly dull, Extinction is a hopeless mess with one of the worst third-person cameras you'll ever encounter. Give it a miss, eh? [June 2018, p.86]

It's all too simple, and a little basic, and aside from brief moments of arcade fun brings little new to PS VR. [June 2018, p.80]

Repetitive gameplay, soulless visuals, and uncomfortable fan service. [May 2018, p.80]

A joyless chore. [Apr 2018, p.84]

Creaky old level design, a loathsome entourage of heroes, and a lifeless open world. [Nov 2017, p.81]

Bungie's blaster offers some of the best shooting on PS4, but right now, it feels more like a bumper expansion than a full-blown sequel. The Strikes are amazing, mind. [Nov 2017, p.75]

This revolution deserves to be mercilessly crushed. [Sept 2017, p.82]

Punishingly samey environments. [Aug 2017, p.93]

A longer development period might have made this into something more playable, but it would still be a game of rehashed concepts notable only for its sheer banality. [May 2017, p.96]

2Dark will not make you feel annoyed, it will make you feel sad, and that's definitely worse. [May 2017, p.96]

Not buying this would be the ultimate lucky escape. [May 2017, p.92]

A boring stealth game, made all the more annoying by Tom's bewilderingly poor fitness (four seconds of sprinting and he's knackered) and the worst gun in the history of games. It's rubbish. [Apr 2017, p.90]

It's just dull. [Feb 2017, p.96]

Maybe with another update Surgeon Sim will be a slice of VR brilliance, but until then, it's time to pull the plug and call it. [Feb 2017, p.96]

A disappointing PS VR offering from a studio that should know better. It feels like an early tech demo that someone's attached a daft price to. Basketball? Nope, just balls. [Jan 2017, p.129]

Almost everything about Weeping Doll underwhelms. [Jan 2016, p.115]

Far too often, Sports Bar VR takes its ball and goes home. [Christmas 2016, p.86]

A solid idea, but that's all. [Dec 2016, p.73]

This installment lacks the humour, thrill and charm of any of its franchise's predecessors. [Oct 2016, p.94]

It's ambitious, but there's no real spark of life. [Sept 2016, p.111]

An ill-conceived mess that goes down as the worst PlayStation game to besmirch the Resident Evil name. [Sept 2016, p.110]

This may not be the worst Kick Off game ever, but even blind nostalgia can't redeem its many faults. [Sept 2016, p.108]

Trials of the Not-Very-Good Dragon, more like. A collection of mismatched parts, haphazardly assembled, this has to be one of 2016's biggest disappointments so far. [Sept 2016, p.106]

One afterlife that's plain hard to enjoy. [Aug 2016, p.94]

A festering corpse given an unnecessary kiss of life. [Aug 2016, p.93]

Weirdly passionless, with rough edges at all corners that leave you wondering where all that money went. Current sequel talk is bonkers. [Aug 2016, p.90]

Lamely executed. [July 2016, p.94]

Botched and broken, irritating and offensive, this samey, soulless sandbox fails to overthrow the old regime's ruling shooters. Good guns, mind. [July 2016, p.75]

It just feels like it was made by children. And not in a cute way. [June 2016, p.94]

On a technical level, the game is simply a shambles, with amateurish animation and obtrusive texture pop-in accompanying your every step. [June 2016, p.87]

It's a minor tragedy that there are so many false starts within. [June 2016, p.87]

It's the most broken game I've played on PS4. [Apr 2016, p.94]

A mobile freemium game in a poor disguise, then, Guns Up! feels soulless, with all the variety locked-up tight, early on, behind level gates and constant, nagging pleas for cash. [Feb 2016, p.90]

A flimsy-feeling team shooter that squanders an appealing premise in a mess of poor controls and design. This is one set of dinosaurs that should be put to rest. [Jan 2016, p.91]

This scrappy outing has little to offer apart from easy trophies. [Christmas 2015, p.94]

A smart, tough base game completely obscured by janky execution. [Christmas 2015, p.83]

Its worst sin? It's boring. [Christmas 2015, p.83]

Not just a missed opportunity, but an insulting and pitiful gamble on the Tony Hawk name that deserves little more than a collectible agreement to pretend it didn't happen. [Dec 2015, p.84]

All nine stages are far too cramped and zoomed-in. [Nov 2015, p.107]

When the game does slip into heavy narrative - which is infuriatingly often, creating a horrible stop/start pace - the story is a mess. [Nov 2015, p.107]

Stale gameplay, unevocative level design and a control scheme that's about as responsive as a cave troll on Ketamine. [Oct 2015, p.89]

Looking past the glitches, Wander's environment fails to reward your curiosity. [Aug 2015, p.94]

It seems kinder on everyone to stand there and let the bull impale you. [Aug 2015, p.94]

You realise that you've been driving across the same square of virtual earth for half of a real-life hour, and you feel empty inside. [Aug 2015, p.90]

Borked. [June 2015, p.94]

As sure as I am that Infinity Runner is a bad game, it's certainly not a game I dislike. [June 2015, p.88]

A shattered kidney of a sports sim. [March 2015, p.94]

Wading through all that offal to get to the mildly interesting stuff is hardly time well spent. [Jan 2015, p.86]

Awful. [Christmas 2014, p.85]

The formula needs an update. [Nov 2014, p.94]

There's just too much wrong at the grass roots level. [Nov 2014, p.92]

Cheap, shonky, sometimes non-functional, Air Conflicts: Vietnam is so pitifully crap that it's almost adorable. Just like those little two-legged dogs with the wheels. [Oct 2014, p.95]

It felt genuinely good to not be playing it anymore, and that is a rare thing in games nowadays. [Oct 2014, p.92]

Among the rubble there are elements of what could be a good game, but it's not worth your time to excavate them. Technically disastrous, it lets down its own story. [Sept 2014, p.111]

This is cynical profiteering of the most detestable order, and sullies the good name of one of 2014's best-liked films. [Sept 2014, p.107]

Fleeting moments of fun and an improved Escalation mode aren't enough to save Spark from becoming yet another bland tie-in destined for the bargain bin base. [Sept 2014, p.106]

That those thrills are buried beneath so much frustration, however, is utter madness. [Aug 2014, p.94]

In a game build around multiplayer, it's baffling that the developer would undermine any gains made through Infinity being freely available by making it so difficult to play once you have it. [Aug 2014, p.91]

An interesting concept with half-decent story beats, dragged to hell by shonky puzzles, odd dialogue jumps and bugs that are far more terrifying than the subject matter. [Aug 2014, p.87]

Juddering. [July 2014, p.93]

This is barely a game. [July 2014, p.80]

The lack of multiplayer is baffling. [July 2014, p.80]

Depressing fare. [May 2014, p.83]

It only avoids the worst score I can give by virtue of the fact that it (just about) functions. Rambo inspires more anger than biting your tongue just after you’ve stubbed your toe.

Yaiba is guilty of the most heinous crime: creating difficulty not with precision combat, but with myriad borked design calls and some utterly broken camera work.

A good narrative could have saved Saint Seiya from bargain bin oblivion. [Feb 2014, p.94]

A browser game on a disc. [Jan 2014, p.95]

If I stopped to process the notion that I'll never get the time back I spent wrestling with A-Men 2's spongy, imprecise jumping and clunky puzzles, I might never stop trembling with impotent rage. [Jan 2014, p.95]

There's only so long you can spend looking at this piss-poor running animation before you start seriously wondering "What if I just looked out of the window for a few minutes instead?" [Jan 2014, p.95]

There's simply nothing here to justify you buying it ahead of 2K's b-ball champ. [Jan 2014, p.84]

Mastering hard games can be supremely rewarding, but overcoming a punishing encounter in Knack more often draws a sigh of relief rather than a loud whoop and fist pumps.

Appalling textures, clunky systems and gameplay you have to shake yourself away from. [Dec 2013, p.95]