Supposedly Kholat is six hours long but we couldn’t tell because we stopped playing after two. [Aug 2015, p.084]

I'm going to wonder for a long time how this could have happened. Remedy stumbles like a bunch of toddlers out of the starting blocks of their shooter ambition and delivers the least fun shooter I've played in years. Yes, even that one other game was more fun than this. That's saying something.

Forspoken has a great combat system, a cool way to move through the game world, minuscule loading times and is presented in an acceptable way. Unfortunately, the weak dialogues, the much too short story and the soulless open game world full of repetitive activities mean that the mediocre level is only surpassed at a few moments.

Darksiders III is a bit rough, especially in the technical field, but in terms of content it is a surprisingly cool action-adventure that perfectly combines tasty hack & slash-combat with an interesting, semi-open world.

It really depends on if you've played the original Secret of Mana or if this is your first time, whether you're going to like this remake or not. The first group will enjoy the magical atmosphere and the subtle improvements made to the game, but the second group probably won't understand what all the fuss is about.

Empire of Sin contains a lot of good ideas and intentions that are squandered by a mediocre, unbalanced execution and an inadequate finish. Nothing to Sin here.

WRC 5 is like a sundae, but instead of having delicious chocolate sauce on top of it, there’s five day old gravy from your mother in law’s meatballs. [Sept. 2015, p. 067]

Lost Soul Aside is the definition of "what you see is what you get." No mind-blowing plot twists, graphical masterpieces, or revolutionary control systems, just a super-linear action game with tons of bosses, interspersed with simple platforming and puzzle challenges. While the story, lack of challenge, recycled level design, and sloppy pacing are disappointing, Lost Soul Aside is a straightforward, action-packed game for the enthusiast.

The Crew isn’t perfect, but it doesn’t have any game breaking bugs and the framerate is stable. It’s an enjoyable game when playing alone, but comes to life with multiple players in your crew. There’s a ton of content, a humongous world to explore and the addicting level system will keep you coming back for more.

Not the players, but developer Starbreeze and publisher Deep Silver pulled off one of the biggest video game heists ever with Payday 3. Forty bucks for a lightweight, buggy and downright boring product: this is theft in broad daylight.

Need for Speed: Payback's story is completely irrelevant and the last-gen graphics almost hurt the eyes, but the gameplay is as good as ever, the police remain enjoyably annoying and customizing the cars is nice and comprehensive. Recommended for a rainy weekend.

Drag x Drive originated from a fun idea, but its execution falls flat. Online matches are rarely exciting, while the game frequently frustrates due to flawed controls. A shame, considering the wheelchair basketball concept is well-conceived. The fact that the multiplayer game brings a smile to your face, especially in the offline mode, packed with challenges designed to teach you the deeper mechanics, speaks volumes.

Crackdown 3 dishes up a very basic and outdated experience. Still, it gives us a brilliant feeling of progression and also the hunt for Orbs is pretty fun. At least, coming from a gamer with a huge lack of taste.

I really want to love Disintegration - even if it's just for it's originality, satisfying robot shooting and for the fact that it can be played in single player - but the final product is just not as original as that it wants to be. With a stronger focus on the graycycle-action and without all the unnecessary RTS-elements, an potential follow-up might be hit.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has so many different faces, which makes me ready for a personality test. One moment I'm enjoying Rocksteady's art design, the next I want to hurt myself because of the excruciating gameplay. Then laugh at the voice acting, and then get angry about the boring boss fights. The open ending of the story makes me a little curious about the upcoming seasonal content, but I'm pretty sure: I'm already dropping out.

After the excellent pirate game Assassin's Creed: Black Flag, you would think that Ubisoft did not have much work to do to deliver a good standalone title, but the developer is hopelessly drowning. Outside of the nice ship combat and customization, Skull and Bones is rudderless: uninspired, superficial and, above all, extremely boring. A one-way gangway, please.

Nintendo’s littlest hero misses the mark in his latest adventure. We still love the little bugger but we start to loathe his games. [dec. 2015 / page 068]

The promise of a glorious remake that everyone could have received a Resi 2-sized boner has turned out to be a nice nostalgia trip for many, but a source of frustration and misunderstanding for others. And that last time is unfortunately a little more justified than your average nerd craze.

Despite my admiration for this ambitious project, I can't give The Spirit of the Samurai a higher score. The unique stop-motion animation, atmospheric music and genuinely scary monster designs are very impressive, as is the ability to play as a cute kitten and Kodama. But as a full-fledged game, it falls short. Platforming issues, bosses that are too easy and rigid control systems, in my opinion, too often trade fun for unnecessary, time-consuming frustration.

Anthem's story and combat, both showing plenty of signs of BioWare's (former) genius, forcefully come together in a game that seems to have gotten the wrong genre. Sadly, Anthem is a mess, way more than it deserves to be.

Jurassic World Alive is an exact copy of Pokémon GO, barring some alterations here and there, for example the fact you don't have to leave the house for every capture because the drone will get you quite far. The battles are quite enjoyable, and despite the lack of context, it's fun seeing the prehistoric freaks taking each other apart in this pleasant app.

Dr. Mario World is so different in gameplay, it should not be called Dr. Mario. Though the gameplay is pretty fun, this game is not the instant must play that the original Dr. Mario is.

Stitchy in Tooki Trouble is clearly an ode to Donkey Kong, but it's just an ode. This game cannot compete with the popular Nintendo franchise due to its strange rhythm, because it simply lacks flow and requires too much patience. A pity, because in all its simplicity Stitchy in Tooki Trouble offers beautiful first steps in the world of platform games, especially for small children.

Calling Sacred 3 a desecration might be a bit harsh but the new direction this series has taken is questionable at best. It’s a decent but overtly simple action RPG. Probably not the sequel Sacred fans were waiting for. [Aug 2014, p.61]

Skater XL fills a niche for skate fans who can have the patience to discover fun spots and come up with tricks and lines themselves, just like real skating. But due to its empty world, the lack of challenging content and the fact that community mods are needed to really speak of realism, the console version of Skater XL in particular is not worth its price tag.

It’s an alright Pokemon clone but why would you go for a clone if you can just play the original? [Jul 2015, p.072]

Gearbox has no idea what made the first Tales From The Borderlands so good. Even more bizarre: they also seem to have no idea what humor is. New Tales is painfully unfunny and also way too expensive for its length.

Jump Force looks amazing, but in the end it is just one huge, shallow, one-dimensional smörgåsbord of Japanese franchises that deserve much better. Hopefully, for the next Jump-game, the developer doesn't spend all it's money on graphics.

A great concept and an obvious love for the source material provide a handful of extremely memorable moments, but it can't disguise that the overall product is poorly developed and simply offers too little content.

Modern Warfare 3 does not offer much more than extremely smooth multiplayer and a dose of nostalgia. The game feels incomplete, is often boring and disappoints in many areas.

A shooter in which you slaughter vampires with your friends sounds fun on paper, but in the case of Redfall it is especially frustrating in practice. The game has a nice game world and great shooting action, but that doesn't make up for the bizarre choices, technical problems, stupid enemies and extremely short playing time. Redfall is an Arkane-unworthy product.

Gangs of Sherwood is hardly recommended in its current state. It's a fun co-op action game that doesn't take itself too seriously and provides (online) players with fast, fluid and simple battles. At the same time, the game is currently plagued by crashes, bugs, illogical upgrades, random side missions and a lack of varied enemies.

What should have been a glorious celebration of three leading open world games has turned out to be a major disappointment that is definitely not the 'definitive' way you should experience the games. Don't get me wrong, the games themselves remain great, but the updated (camera) controls and some graphical updates are far from being able to compete with all the missing content and the numerous graphical misses that this collection makes. This makes Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The (So Called) Definitive Edition feel like a lazy cash grab that Rockstar Games should be ashamed of.

Metal Gear Survive is a powerful survival experience which is sadly being hindered by sneaky microtransactions. But the game has proven that the gameplay and story of Metal Gear might be able to survive without the help of Kojima.

The only truly shocking thing about this Carmageddon reincarnation is the fact that they charge 25 bucks for it. This monstrosity is about as fun as getting run over by a car. [Jul 2015, p.066]

In addition to its beautiful appearance, this game is repetitive in all areas.

The expansive and varied Appalachia in Fallout 76 cannot compensate for the tormenting bugs and a huge list of defects. Uninspired MMORPG quests, brainless grinds and disposable co-op functionality make this game feel like an enormous piece of Fallout DLC, but without the factions and compelling side quests, and added frustration.

It is pretty clear that its troubled development prevented Homefront: The Revolution from living up to its true potential. And that’s a shame, because the game has some interesting ideas that haven’t come to fruition.

This should’ve been an even lower score, as The Devil’s Third is the most middling, archaic and ugly action game Itagaki has made in recent history but we’re forced to admit we had a tiny bit of fun playing it. [Sept. 2015, p.058]

CrossfireX is already the biggest disappointment of the year. It tries to be so many things at once that it's really nothing at all. The multiplayer is an unbalanced, dull, nauseating experience and the campaign misses too many opportunities to be really worth it. The large amount of microtransactions is the rotten icing on the collapsed cake.

I really can't recommend The Lord of the Rings: Gollum to anyone. From the ghastly gameplay to a story that adds nothing to, and actually only detracts from, Middle-earth's brilliant overarching history... Not even the biggest LOTR fan can get anything out of this. The only bright spot is that J.R.R. Tolkien is spared.

Tony Hawk is simply unplayable, looks awful and is infested with bugs. An outright tragic ending to a legendary franchise. [Sept. 2015, p. 066]

Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition is the best dungeon crawler in recent history. It looks great, it plays smoothly and it’s filled to the brim with content. This is truly the ultimate version of Diablo III. [Aug 2014, p.61]

Behind the game’s annoying signup process lies a cute, cuddly and most of all addicting game. But don’t expect to rack up any cool points playing this puzzler. [Aug 2014, p.64]

The most addictive and fascinating card game in recent history just got more addictive and fascinating with the Whispers expansion. [July 2016 / page 071]

Gigantosaurus: The Game really is a game for young kids. We are happy about the Dutch spoken voice over, but less content with the graphics. The animation style is old school and seems a bit cheap, whereas the animation style of the cartoon is amazing.

Apart from the Momentum mechanic, Battlesector adds little to the tactics formula. The tactical confrontations are smooth enough to keep you entertained for several hours, but in terms of mission design, unit personalization and storytelling, the game falls too short.

On older consoles, the magic of Hogwarts Legacy is sometimes broken by technological flaws, but if you've been waiting for a letter from Hogwarts in the past, that's no reason to pass up on this game. Hogwarts Legacy has a fairly basic approach, but the beautiful music, detailed world and fun combat ensure that the game is dripping with atmosphere and also plays nicely.