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For 820 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 43% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 53% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.9 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Game review score: 78
Highest review score: 100 Fire Emblem: Awakening
Lowest review score: 10 Kung Fu Rider
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 561 out of 820
  2. Mixed: 220 out of 820
  3. Negative: 39 out of 820
826 game reviews
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    • 61 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II
    How disappointing to see such potential wasted. What a shame to see a developer so clearly uninterested in their own project. Such is the lack of invention and variety on offer, The Force Unleashed II can't help feel like a cursory cash-grab, more akin to DLC than a fully fledged retail product.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Company of Heroes 2
    Company of Heroes 2 cruises when it should be sprinting, and when you couple that with the fumbling of the tone and setting it becomes a very difficult game to recommend.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Bravely Default II
    AIt hits all of the usual story beats and it will scratch an itch for JRPG obsessives, but there’s an absolute lack of substance. There’s no discernable creativity, flair, or ingenuity in any part of it. It doesn’t want to either reinvent the wheel or even add a lick of polish to it. It is a game which exists and functions as it was meant to; a JRPG as by-the-numbers as they come, I just wish the developers had been brave enough to take a few more risks.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Disney's A Christmas Carol
    As nice as it all looks and sounds, however, one can't help coming back to how lightweight this game is.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Mother Russia Bleeds
    Even the co-op, local-only, fails to save the game from tedium. It’s a shame; aesthetically and mechanically there could’ve been something here, but there just weren’t enough ideas put in play to make Mother Russia Bleeds into anything special. Coupled with the often frustrating collision detection and the woefully poor friendly AI, Mother Russia Bleeds ends up as little more than a tedious, forgettable drudge.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Aliens: Colonial Marines
    The failure of Aliens: Colonial Marines runs deeper than a clumsy stab at sliding into the Alien canon, though. It’s not just a poor Aliens experience, it’s a poor game. There’s a stiffness to the movement and a lack of feedback to the vanilla weapon line-up that’s unexpected from Gearbox Software.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two
    It loses a lot of the adult tone of the original, but it's far too frustrating and convoluted for kids (or all but the most patient of adults). It looks great, and there are some nice ideas, and a few great puzzles, but it's all let down by sloppy execution. Even the songs are miserably bland, which for a Disney title is especially disappointing.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Shadow of the Tomb Raider
    As a Tomb Raider game, as a coherent game in general, and as a narrative experience, Shadow of the Tomb Raider is a startling fall from grace. A severe disappointment in a series that was previously going strong, and a sign that this version of Lara Croft might need to retire.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Dead Island: Riptide
    Everything added is a disappointment, and everything retained only succeeds as much as it did before. It’s not often that a sequel completely fails to build on the successes of the game that came before it, but Riptide achieves that defeat with a cynical lack of ambition.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water
    As a huge series fan, I had high hopes for Maiden of Black Water. I certainly didn’t expect to find my attention drifting because the game became boring. For all its flaws in the past, the Project Zero series has never been simply dull. And yet that’s exactly what Maiden of Black Water is.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Need for Speed
    Despite its less impressive iterations over the years, the Need for Speed name has delivered some truly excellent games - from Underground’s street racing to Shift’s wannabe-simulation, all the way to Hot Pursuit’s absurd action. But rather than build upon this rich diverse history of fun, Ghost Games has sucked the fun out of a game that should epitomise the outlandishness of going really bloody fast. When you could be playing Driveclub, or Forza Horizon 2, or Project Cars, or even the beautiful and superiorly quick Forza Motorsport 6, offering a racer without speed? That’s suicide.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise
    With something like Ring Fit Adventure, the variety of exercises and madcap storyline drew me back in time and time again, and in comparison Fitness Boxing 2 just feels flat. Even the budget RRP of £39.99 feels far too much to pay. Given that we’re all mostly housebound at the moment, it feels like there might have been an opportunity to do something more interesting with the concept.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Tales of Zestiria
    Tales of Zestiria is a profound disappointment, and does not deserve the time investment that huge games of this length require.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Deus Ex: The Fall
    Admiration and respect is due for how N-Fusion has compressed Deus Ex into its iOS form. But as a general rule, straight replicas of traditional console and PC games on touch devices is folly. Despite the developer’s best efforts, the devices have neither the grunt nor control palette to stand up to the task, resulting in a fiddly and pared-back experience.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Mafia III
    At its heart, Mafia 3 is a simple story of revenge, but its actors sell it to you with gusto, and the linear prologue does a great job of getting players invested. Unfortunately, as soon as you’re out in the open-world and you’re free to roam, it becomes a repetitive slog, not least because when you’re doing the same thing on repeat, it only serves to highlight the limitations of the rest of the game.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Fallout 76
    The issue is these positives are dwarfed remarkably by the huge and underlying pitfalls of this title. Even if the countless glitches get fixed, and updates whip the technical side of the game into shape, there are intrinsic issues in the mechanics of Fallout 76. This hurts for me to say as a fan of the Fallout series, but 76 is a slog to play, a chore to deal with and certainly not worth your time.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Gray Matter
    Beyond the poor dialogue, patchwork visuals and ridiculous interface of the console version, there is an interesting adventure game buried here.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Spider-Man: Edge of Time
    Much worse than a pipe in the face, though, is the fact that Shattered Dimensions' excellent structure also appears to have been a victim of cost-cutting.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Cave
    Considering Double Fine nailed the whole 'characters with differing abilities' concept so well in the brilliant Stacking, it's bizarre how poorly it's been pulled off here. Disappointing as a puzzle game, inconsequential as a platformer and far too reliant on players having the patience to traipse around, The Cave ends up feeling extremely hollow.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Thief
    I had more fun making my way up to bed in the dark after playing Thief than I did at any point during its benighted trudge across The City.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Redfall
    There is a mission relatively early on in Redfall’s tale that draws you into the mansion of one of the town’s main antagonists. It is a creepy, looming pile creaking with atmosphere and, once inside, plays smartly with Arkane’s knack for twisted level design; shifting time and space and spinning a hair-raising tale through gameplay and artistic direction. It is brilliant and, for a moment, recalls some of Arkane’s best work. But then it’s gone, fading in the wind as you return to wrestle the so-so shooting, lacklustre looting and barrage of bugs...Rather aptly, the mission is called The House of Echoes.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Anthem
    Right now, despite those fabulous jetpacks, Anthem stumbles more than it soars.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    SimCity
    Nothing /quite/ works as it should, and when Simcity is built on those systems from the ground up, that’s an incredible shame. There’s so much to like, but there’s so much that will frustrate, and it’s hard to recommend you brave the many ailments.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Hitman: Absolution
    Hitman Absolution is a fascinating case of an error of judgment costing a game its heart. For Absolution, that mistake was placing a focus on a story that didn't need to be told and nobody wanted to hear.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Assassin's Creed Syndicate
    Syndicate is a massive shame. Ubisoft’s yearly development cycle is really beginning to leave its mark on the series. Assassin’s Creed has been good. It is a series that can be great, but unfortunately Syndicate is a misstep. For a series concerned with making its players historical tourists, it is ironic that it is so stuck in the past.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2
    Sadly we'll have to do with this for now, a bland, unimaginative shooting gallery that lacks the thing that matters most: magic.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Dood's Big Adventure
    While it has some nice ideas, Dood's Big Adventure is far too basic and scrappy to be worth your time.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Alpha Protocol
    It's a harrowing tale of ambition which far exceeds its boundaries, of broken promises and broken game mechanics.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Call of Juarez: The Cartel
    The Cartel is a calamity; an unfinished, unpleasant piece of dreck that even developer Techland got bored of before hoisting it out of the door. The Cartel's list of misdemeanours is lengthy and depressing, but the worst is how either Techland or Ubisoft can have the nerve to put this on the shelves and ask people to pay money --real money-- to play it.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Super Monkey Ball 3D
    Short, disappointing, and certainly not worth spending £40 on.
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In Progress & Unscored

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    • 89 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Apex Legends
    Is it a Fortnite killer? Probably not. But as battle royales continue to be de rigeur, the challenge is to offer fascinating twists on the template. In that objective, it is looking like mission complete. [First-Look review]
    • 71 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Nintendo Labo: Toycon 04 VR Kit
    There is every chance that in a week’s time the toy-cons we built may be languishing in a cupboard, with the thrill of creating something already over. Regardless; what a charming, rewarding and singular way to spend our time it has been.
    • 82 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Tom Clancy's The Division 2
    One of the things that has surprised me during my first hours in The Division 2’s ravaged Washington DC, is just how thoroughly competent it all is...If that immediately sounds like damning Ubisoft’s militaristic looter-shooter with faint praise, that isn’t the intention. Launching an persistent online game in the vein of Destiny et al and having it hold together is bloody hard. Just ask Anthem...Several hours later, I’m still enjoying a compelling, mechanically satisfying --if aesthetically uninspiring-- shooter. And that’s with very few technical hiccups, aside from the odd floating corpse and texture pop-in.
    • 73 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Battlefield V
    I would like to be able to say that in the weeks and months to come, the multiplayer modes will be fuller, the niggles less prevalent. The core of Battlefield V, that raucous and spectacular shooter, suggests that the future is bright. But while those questions hang in the air, this is a game too slim and scrappy to recommend fully. In due course, that could change. But by the time Battlefield V is where it should be, will it be too late?
    • 86 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Cyberpunk 2077
    CD Projekt Red's long-awaited follow-up to The Witcher 3 is brilliant, fascinating and engrossing but bears the scars of a tough development. [Review in Progress]
    • 77 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Street Fighter V
    Most importantly it feels great. The colourful, muscular artwork lends extra weight to already ferocious scuffles, moves landing with crunchy force, accentuated by its brilliant habit of a split-second freeze for fierce hits. Everything is quick and forceful, with fights quickly taking on their own rhythm depending on both the characters and the players using them.

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