Is it fun in small, vitamin C-rich doses? Absolutely. [March 2017, p.96]

To be fair, this is a game that degrades everyone. [Dec 2008, p.106]

It's a cheap way to show off your sexy new HDTV. [Christmas 2007, p.112]

Brainteasers are trapped in an overly punitive framework. [Apr 2012, p.113]

A decent-ish shooter that makes you feel like the Terminator - until you start regularly crashing. If it were more reliable it would be highly recommended. [March 2017, p.97]

The stealth lacks Ezio's style. [Apr 2012, p.115]

A bit inconsistent. [Apr 2012, p.115]

Somewhat dull resource management. [Nov 2012, p.117]

For all its easy-going accessibility, it doesn't play anything like a realistic game of rugby, so those looking for authenticity should kick this one into touch. [Sept 2007, p.106]

Nauseatingly basic. [March 2013, p.114]

Might lack depth, but it certainly isn't short of fire power. [July 2011, p.91]

It's a bit dull, sure, but there's also something oddly soothing about it. [March 2013, p.117]

Give me the option of a night in with the first season's Blu-ray boxset or this mostly shabby spin-off and I'd go HD Sean Bean chivalry every time.

Laborious menus. [July 2011, p.95]

The problem is it's not fun. [Christmas 2015, p.83]

None of it is enough to keep you coming back for long, though; it’s stuck in the stone mage (sorry). [Issue#161, p.84]

Not good enough to be set free, not bad enough to be tossed to the lions. [July 2011, p.95]

The frame rate is embarrassing. [Christmas 2010]

A control scheme and camera that are aggressively opposed to you actually achieving any success or pleasure. [Christmas 2009, p.116]

It's the repetition that grinds you down. Boss battles provide brief breaks in the monotony, but they're just the seeping gizzard of consolation inside a disappointing, fleshy haystack.

An opportunity missed. [Christmas 2010]

All in all, this isn't a good month for life on Mars. [July 2011, p.103]

Clumsy menus and the endless randomness quickly ensure the adventure is lost in space. [March 2016, p.88]

In a game as average as this humour is the X-factor. For some, Deadpool elevates it; for others, he renders it nigh-on unplayable. I call it nearer the latter and – for the sake of your taste – hope you do, too. Like the main man himself, this is utterly chaotic: funny, fun, rubbish, forgettable. Sadly, the hit rate of that first attribute is too poor to save it.

A staccato, trick-land-trick-land experience. [Christmas 2008, p.118]

The first half hour of this stat-heavy RPG is as incomprehensible as Mission: Impossible in Turkish. [June 2011, p.111]

Simple quests, a lack of tutorials, and little-to-no backstory makes Yonder feel unpolished, in direct contrast to its whimsically charming setting. [Sept 2017, p.84]

It's not bad, just basic. [Jan 2011, p.113]

We're going to have to wait a little longer for a true VR Time Crisis. [May 2018, p.92]

Looks awesome in a retro, scattering-of-bright-pixels way, but playing is like trying to perform keyhole surgery after a unicorn has barfed glitter straight into your eyes. [June 2011, p.111]

This has its moments but it’s barely worth the patience needed to find them. Or anything else. If you want a Metroidvania experience on Vita then get the excellent Guacamelee instead.

What excitement there is gets suffocated by the inert tracks. [Aug 2011, p.107]

Even an elephant chase can't save this from incoherent mediocrity. [March 2016, p.94]

Outdated and in need of a serious overhaul. [Sept 2007, p.111]

The choice of missions in the open world is disappointingly limited. [Aug 2011, p.110]

As ever with camera-based games, haphazard detection and rudimentary interaction limit the laughs. [March 2015, p.93]

It fatally crosses the streams after only a short amount of time. [June 2011, p.112]

But losing it all still stings, not least since some runs stack the odds unfairly. You might wander into a room where two shooters are entirely shrouded by the inky shadows, where a wall obstructs your view of an advancing threat, or an enemy-stunning lantern stubbornly refuses to light. When the RNG is against you, too, West Of Dead feels someway south of a good time. [Issue#180, p.76]

Occasionally fun. [Aug 2011, p.110]

Avoid. [July 2010, p.118]

A complex game for strategy buffs, but tiresome and inaccessible for others. [Christmas 2010]

Ultimately less party popper and more party pooper. [Apr 2018, p.85]

There's no reason to choose it over the tabletop version. [Jan 2011, p.121]

The shooting is fun, and there's some chuckle-worthy writing but once you realise you're doing the same things over and over again, it falls flat. [Oct 2017, p.95]

A cheap and cheerful arcade shooter. [Sept 2009, p.112]

This low-rent top-down alien blaster doesn't even seem to be trying. [Jan 2009, p.104]

There's nothing substantial here beyond desperate button hammering. [Dec 2009, p.125]

If this were a PS2 game, we'd still consider the graphics a bitter letdown. [Feb 2008, p.98]

RUN/r is never disastrously bad, it just lacks ambition. [Apr 2016, p.92]

Ultimately it suffers from clumsy controls and simplicity, but the ABC Murders still boasts a solid storyline (obviously), if you're not seeking a serious challenge, the cosy-crime feel makes it passable for a rainy Sunday with a mug of a hot chocolate (Belgian, of course). [Apr 2016, p.92]

By far the game’s biggest problem: a crippling lack of invention. Riptide exhausts through repetition. Your flooded playground lacks the visual variety of the first game’s Banoi and missions never blossom into fresh concepts, merely escalating in difficulty and frustration.

Sadly, unless it manages to pick itself up pretty sharpish, Dead by Daylight may well be dead on arrival. [Sept 2017, p.91]

There's plenty of fun to be squeezed out of this despite numerous technical missteps, but unduly complacent, overly familiar mission design holds it back. [July 2016, p.82]

The gameplay is so repetitive and robotic. [May 2009, p.101]

It's not as if previous game adaptations have set the bar high, but this manages to fall below even those minimal standards. [Jan 2010, p.116]

Sadly, pretty looks and sweetly-edited shorts can't mask the lack of inspiration at its mechanical core. [Jan 2015, p.94]

As a whole, this is a step back for the series and an insult to those who know that Vita and Gotham deserve more. This is not the Batman game that you need.

A disappointment considering its potential. [Jan 2016, p.94]

A surefire way to induce nausea. [May 2012, p.107]

Barge-like handing and joyless backgrounds. Pass. [Jan 2009, p.104]

Playing as different Magic Knights, many of whom are more interesting than Asta, spices things up but it isn’t tantamount to bacon bits, and fights never graduate to anything impressive, not even when the J-Pop theme song kicks in. Much like a baked potato, it’s all perfectly serviceable but not very interesting unless you’re a carb fiend. [Issue#155, p.82]

Arcade fans might be willing to muddle through the comms breakdown, but while enjoyable, this is nothing to phone home about. [Jan 2016, p.94]

When your whole game is build around a mystifyingly unintuitive control mechanic, you're pretty much screwed from the outset. [Sept 2009, p.113]

From the drab visuals to the limp presentation, it screams 'mediocre' like a moped on a steep hill. [Dec 2007, p.114]

Playing as either character simply isn't much fun. [Jan 2008, p.114]

Re:Mind could have been an additional world, or a new chapter to shorten the wait until the next game. Instead it’s more of the same, often literally so. A missed opportunity. [Issue#173, p.96]

While SAOFB tries to shake up its formula, it does little to inject the game with a distinct identity. [Apr 2018, p.96]

An avalanche of mediocrity that you'd be insane to buy. [Mar 2010, p.116]

It’s occasionally clever, and has great art design, but isn’t nearly as smart as it thinks it is. [Issue#173, p.96]

ON its most basic level, IHRB does what it sets out to do, and any excuse to play couch co-op is appreciated, but it never stretches beyond just being basic. [Issue#151, p.84]

As puzzle games set in Oregon go, it could have been a lot, lot worse. [Sept 2010, p.]

Too casual and limited to appeal to anyone but die-hard fans of The Dark Crystal and Final Fantasy Tactics, this tie-in lacks the depth and complexity of its retro references. [Issue#173, p.94]

It's just been done better and bigger a hundred times before. [Feb 2011, p.103]

The only decent fights and objectives that are there follow the main storyline like a stalker - everything else is just busywork filler. [July 2007, p.112]

There's only one major issue with this: unfortunately, it's your ship's handling. [Feb 2011, p.103]

It's a bit of a worry that the redheaded warrior sent out to save the world has been equipped with nothing but a thong and a set of spherical breasts. [Sept 2010, p.117]

Easily confused AI and faltering tech, however, mean it largely struggles to find its voice. [Aug 2016, p.88]

Almost every idea included here is a strong one - yet they've all been exectured terribly. A patch to slow the entire game down by 50% would immediately elevate that score. [Aug 2016, p.89]

The combat's decent, but it falls down on more complex stuff like clumsy boss battles and awful dialogue that makes you want to rip your own throat out. [Jan 2010, p.119]

It just about beats sitting in an empty room, which is my new scoring standard for movie games. [Feb 2008, p.98]

Part gruesome medieval fantasy, part bleak supernatural horror, Berserk evokes the spirit of its source but descends into drudgery in an overlong campaign. [Apr 2017, p.96]

Sometimes infuriating, occasionally wonderful, VR Ping Pong has a sweet spot where it plays beautifully, but it's hard to find. A brave but flawed experiment. [Apr 2017, p.97]

Sadly, Liberation can’t escape its limited gameplay, technical unevenness and poorly told story. While Black Flag kicked the series on, the past holds no glory for Aveline.

Then there's the visual sadness, which includes duff lighting, awkward cameras, and the stuttering Zoetrope-style framerate. [June 2009, p.98]

"Quotation Forthcoming"

A spectacularly unpretty game. [Apr 2008, p.108]

A convoluted narrative muddies the waters too with a series of dubious decisions that affect the ending, and the game fast outstays its welcome with a stack of tenuous puzzles. It’s impossible not to feel like there’s something special hidden between the chases, but for a game with such a wilful director, all it actually needed was an editor. [Issue#164, p.96]

Dangerous Golf is so desperate for you to have a good time that it keeps heaping new elements onto the premise. A robust "less" would have offered so much "more". [Aug 2016, p.95]

Swapping pairs of blocks is unwieldy. [Sept 2007, p.116]

An interesting mash-up of ideas from various space exploration games, from ship building to alien battling, in a single spacefaring package that never quite gels. [Issue#159, p.93]

In a word - Boo. [Jan 2008, p.114]

Though it’s one of best-looking titles on PS4, Anthem’s uninspired action and obsession with grindy tasks mean BioWare’s mechs aren’t on song. [Issue#160, p.83]

It all feels a little soulless. [Sept 2009, p.106]

A good core experience with novel ideas stifled by a disproportionately high price tag, embarrassing amounts of repetitive filler, and pay-to-win mechanics. [Issue#156, p.87]

The striking visual language of Friend & Foe’s stunning world is a painful glimpse of how wonderful an experience Vane could have been. Instead, it’s clumsy, careless, and wholly incoherent. [Issue#159, p.90]

It's not even technically impressive. [Jan 2009, p.103]

Great stuff for masochists who think progress ended with 8-bit gaming - not so much if you're looking to have fun. [Dec 2008, p.121]

Frustrating and tedious. [Apr 2010, p.113]