The Games Machine's Scores

  • Games
For 2,656 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 71% higher than the average critic
  • 7% same as the average critic
  • 22% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 4.3 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Game review score: 79
Highest review score: 99 Baldur's Gate 3
Lowest review score: 30 Dino Dini's Kick Off Revival
Score distribution:
2658 game reviews
    • 62 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    We tried very hard to like FlatOut 4, but we simply couldn't. Despite some fun game modes and a decent multiplayer offering, the gameplay is overall confusing and bugs are everywhere. And the steep price doesn't help either.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Ambitions exceed the real resources of the young development studio, creating a title that never finds its balance.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Under normal circumstances, Beyond Light would have been a somewhat decent expansion with little new content, despite an engaging plot. However, the vaulting of much of the old content – most of which paid in hard cash by the users – represents an unforgivable sin since all the new activities and equipment of Beyond Light fail to come close to the amount of content removed. If Bungie continues to walk on this self-destructive path, it risks to irreparably compromise the future of Destiny 2.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    A multi-discipline sports title starring the Looney Tunes is a good idea... in theory. Unfortunately with only nine characters, four disciplines and two modes Wacky World of Sports translates it into a game poor in both content and depth
    • 57 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Sonic Forces has an intriguing concept and shows some high production values, but at the end of the day this translates in some shallow and rambling ideas, and a main character that fails to create any empathy with the player. It's not a bad game per se, but an anonymous one.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    MindsEye intrigues with its cyber-noir atmospheres but stumbles on many, too many of its promises. Everywhere you look while walking through Redrock City, you see an ambitious action game that shoots for the stars but ends up crashing to the ground.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Tour de France 2020 adds some new features, like a first-person view and the resistance management, but it is graphically old and too many problems cut off its wings.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    It's pretty clear that we won't see a game truly worthy of the Tarantino's masterpiece. Unfortunately, the biggest crime committed by Reservoir Dogs: Bloody Days are not the heists, but being dull and lackadaisical.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Narcos: Rise of the Cartels is a strategic turn-based combat game that simply doesn’t work. Despite a high-sounding name, the managerial part and the strategic depth are lacking; moreover, the variants to the classic X-Com gameplay are strange and poorly designed.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The debut title from Parabole shows us that a good, well written story and a fascinating setting aren't enough to create a convincing narrative first person adventure. The derivative gameplay is often sloppy and confused, resulting in an experience far from engaging or satisfying. Technically more than modest, it's a game we could not recommend, not even to the fans of the genre.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    More than twenty years after Defiance, Legacy of Kain: Ascendance proves to be a bitter disappointment. Instead of honoring the saga’s complex narrative background, Bit Bot Media’s title offers a clumsy retcon that resembles terrible fan fiction. In terms of gameplay, we are presented with a banal 2D platformer—devoid of any real challenge—that can be completed in under three hours, all while cycling through inconsistent art styles and an annoying soundtrack. This is decidedly not the title we deserved, especially after such a long wait.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Despite the popularity of the manga, Black Clover: Quartet Knights fails to draw attentions due to the lack of compelling game modes and the presence of dull game mechanics, a repetitive story mode and the almost total absence of customization. There are some good ideas here in the form of an original story and a nice graphic design, but the final product is not able to fully bring out all its potential.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael and Donatello, aka the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, are back on track. Mutant Unleashed is a game that remains in the comfort zone of third-person action, trying to offer a minimum of depth in the off-stage phases but falling into repetitiveness when it comes to taking the field, play the hard way and above all entertaining.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    There’s a game behind the many issues and flaws of Underworld Ascendant; we just don’t know when (or if) we might see it one day.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Wall World is a Dome Keeper clone, but it’s a fundamentally bad one. Its progression system makes little to no sense, as the success of a run is almost exclusively linked to the acquisition of random upgrades. Ultimately, Wall World is a game that doesn’t respect the players’ time.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Despite a quite brilliant look, the 27 minigames designed by Shiver Entertainment are meaningful and fun only for a couple of nights with friends. Unfortunately, they soon become a clumsy attempt to recycle well know mechanics in very superficial way.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires is the depressing follow up to the most disappointing entry in the whole Koei Tecmo hack’n’slash series. The strategic aspect that allegeldy distinguishes it from the predecessor is barely there while the action mechanics are basically the same, with castle sieges being the only real new offer of the whole package. Some clever ideas are noticeable, but most of them are reused from previous iterations. What Omega Force packed in the game at launch is not enough to build an entire experience on repetition.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    A collection bearing the System 3 label that brings the *The Last Ninja* saga back to life, pairing it with some of the most iconic beat ‘em ups of the late 80s—from *International Karate +* to *Bangkok Knights*. Unfortunately, many of the included titles have aged poorly and prove difficult to stomach after so many years; moreover, the collection feels “lazy,” to say the least, offering no significant extras to whet the appetite.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Boring, verbose and too easy to complete: Valkyria Revolution, despite its name, is a real "involution" of the series. Easily forgotten.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Simply put, Shroud of the Avatar is a wreck. It tries to be a single player experience and a MMORPG at the same time, and fails on both counts. Everything is out of time: the combat system is boring, the progression of the avatar is repetitive, and the the graphics would have been OK fifteen years ago.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 48 Critic Score
    Let's be brutally honest: this new edition of Titan Quest is simply terrible. Technically it's a disaster, with a constant flow of bugs and glitches that seriously undermine the game experience (there are still references to the keyboards commands). It's too bad, because the original game was a great hack 'n slash.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 48 Critic Score
    New Gundam Breaker had the elements to be a good game, but the technical and game design flaws drastically ruin all of its potential.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 48 Critic Score
    This reboot is a very big fail. The good subject is wasted because of a careless and a technically poor execution. Just buy the original trilogy and live happy.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 48 Critic Score
    Spike Volleyball has serious problems. We've experienced bugs, graphical glitches and poor AI every single time we played. It also lacks in options, with a really poor Career Mode.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 48 Critic Score
    Boring, repetitive and strategically negligible, Champions of Anteria is a way too simplicistic mixture of real-time-strategy and management. The five champions are blatantly unbalanced, the core of the gameplay requires you to repeat the same identical missions until the end credits, and the only hint of variety comes from the boss battles.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 48 Critic Score
    Eisenhorn: XENOS tells the beautiful and engaging story of the Inquisitor, as told in the Dan Abnett's novels, and that's about it. Everything else is mediocre and boring, including the level design and the combat system, flawed by the fact that it's been designed for mobile platforms.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 46 Critic Score
    The transposition of the Games Workshop miniature games fails to deliver a fun experience on all fronts.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 45 Critic Score
    Honestly, I feel like I can’t do anything but completely pan Nightdive’s efforts on Blade Runner Enhanced Edition: from a technical standpoint, the game is indefensible, with plenty of bugs, and certainly doesn’t feel “Enhanced” compared to the original (luckily still available on GOG). Undoubtedly the lack of chunks of the source code and the format of the original assets did Nightdive no favors, but this is still a poor tribute to Westwood’s legacy.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 45 Critic Score
    Necromunda: Underhive Wars is a disappointment on all fronts, a disaster on both the technical and the gameplay side.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 45 Critic Score
    Fade to Silence is a broken mess where even the simplest of tasks is frustrating.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 45 Critic Score
    Beautiful visuals and suggestive atmospheres are not enough to save Vane, whose obscure and not always working mechanics make the player feel abandoned in a poorly conceived world.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 45 Critic Score
    Frozenbyte tries to deliver a stealth game with some unique gameplay dynamics, but it falls tremendously short: the AI is awful, the controls are inaccurate and awkward. The main gameplay feature, i.e. the idea of the time moving only when the player moves, simply doesn't work. A real missed opportunity.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 45 Critic Score
    A broken game, without anything good and imbued with a tragicomic approach to international economy and politic.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 45 Critic Score
    Gear.Club Unlimited 2 Ultimate Edition has a good Career mode, with plenty of races and events and a little bit of story, but it is far from enough to rescue its incredibly sub-par gameplay, to the point that it is incapable of conveying any emotion. And the game doesn’t fare much better graphically, with poor textures and unstable frame rates. A pity, given the resume of the developer.
    • 36 Metascore
    • 41 Critic Score
    A modern sequel to Flashback could have been a title perhaps not as memorable as the original, but certainly a worthy sci-fi experience. Unfortunately, everything seems to have gone wrong as Flashback 2 is a disaster in almost every respect.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint is a gaming experience at its most mediocre, packed with all the worst practices that the videogame industry can offer and completely decimated by an embarrassing level of polish. This looter shooter seems to want to squander its large budget, failing to develop its premise in a way that is at least remotely meaningful.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    RiME is still a wonderful game, but the Switch version is a tremendous porting, that can seriously ruin an otherwise unforgettable experience. You can overlook the downgrade of the resolution, or even the lower graphic detail, but the palette is faded, the pop-in is terrible, the frame rate unstable, and all these combined can seriously discourage everyone.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    "Terrifying" is the right word to tell something about Rugby 18. The game is very far from what actually happens on the pitch, and it's not fun at all.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The PC version of Mushroom Wars 2 is a complete disaster: repetitive, boring and badly balanced, the game is everything but an RTS. You should try the free-to-play edition on iOS or Android, before considering to spend money here.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 39 Critic Score
    A wrong, broken, useless action RPG, without anything good in its DNA. Search for something else.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 35 Critic Score
    Touhou Kobuto V: Burst Battle is wrong on so many levels: the gameplay is boring and repetitive, the content is basically MIA, the graphics are old and inadequate. The concept could've worked but, well, it doesn't. If you're a fan of the saga, better stick to the classics (or at least Touhou Genso Wanderer).
    • tbd Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    One of the worst "real something" ever. There's nothing good in Real Farm, a game you wouldn't neither present to your worst enemy.
    • 31 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Dino Dini's Kick Off Revival is an affront to the memory of the original product: a bad game from every point of view.

Top Trailers