The Games Machine's Scores

  • Games
For 2,650 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:
2652 game reviews
    • 76 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    The Survivalists is a fun survival sandbox which can be played both as an arcade adventure, hunting for every treasure and secret hidden around the island, and with a more casual approach by trying to just build some kind of boat and leave. Plenty of situations to face, a huge amount of structures, artifacts and recipes to unlock and experiment with. Each run will be an unique adventure. Monkey training is the icing on the cake. Pretty, fast and responsive, it will keep you in front of the screen for a long time.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The child in me was happy with the first turn of my TIE Interceptor, but the adult in me also has to recognise a very straight-forward campaign and a surprising lack of multiplayer modes. But what’s there is pretty good, thanks to a phenomenal flight system, clever maps and strategic progression system. Oh, and VR support.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Don’t trust art of rally. Even if it looks like a cute, tiny, aesthetic arcade racing game, it is actually a love tribute to the history of rally, from a rally lover to rally lovers all over the world. Underneath his neat visual style and his top-down visuals lies a great rally sim, stripped of every needless detail and still playable by any kind of gamer thanks to a vast array of camera and difficulty options.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Kirby Fighters 2 can be a nice introduction to fighting games, especially for children. But don’t get deceived: the first levels might be easy to beat, but the later ones will prove challenging even for those familiar with the genre.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 82 Critic Score
    For a virtual rider, RIDE 4 is like a trip to heaven. Milestone’s latest game is simply what every two-wheeler and video game enthusiast needs, the best in handling, motorcycle variety and selection of tracks. The simple pleasure of driving lies at the heart of a technologically excellent title, that will soon become a much-welcome haven for those who love riding on two wheels. A pity, however, that the purchase of new motorcycles is locked behind progress in a career bound by classic (not to say old) game design concepts; the races in themselves are fun, but penalized by a weak AI and too strict penalties for minor errors. Despite these issues, RIDE 4 is one of the best racing games of the generation thanks to its excellent presentation and gameplay feel.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 82 Critic Score
    A karaoke based game with the best and most famous songs from Queen. If you love singing and you’re not scared by Freddie Mercury’s challenging voice, you’d have a go with this.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    Awesome. A game that basically does not add anything to the platform genre, and still manages to be original and innovative by mixing all the ingredients with mastery. Despite the extreme difficulty it is never frustrating, keeping you in front of the screen for another run, and then another one and one more, while you promise yourself the next run will be the last. Recommended for both hardcore gamers aiming for the best score, and a more casual audience looking to have fun, and who don’t mind if they will only see a small part of the game. After all, how many of us have ever finished Bubble Bobble?
    • 85 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Crash is back again with one of its best adventures that feels and plays like a modern instant classic. Welcome back good old Bandicoot!
    • 68 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Joy, cheerfulness and the gleeful sounds of carnage accompany us in the carefree fragfest that is every battle, but still Serious Sam 4 feels old: it's like going back to the nineties without anything having changed. In its simplicity, Serious Sam 4 is the very essence of old school shooters, condensed into a dozen hours of gameplay. It represents first person shooters as they were in the beginning, in the fabulous beauty of their original sin: a bloodthirsty naivety made of exaggerated weapons, alien bits and frenetic battles against unreal hordes of enemies.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    There is no middle ground for BPM: either you love it, or you hate it. Personally, I feel this game crosses the line between challenge and frustration, offering a learning curve that is almost impossible to climb if you are not a true FPS lover. The soundtrack is excellent and the bundle with it is worth your money, but if you're not a very, very patient person with lightning-fast reflexes and an excellent sense of rhythm, you better look somewhere else.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Mafia: Definitive Edition is a remake done with plenty of passion, and the charisma it oozes shows it. Hangar 13 rebuilt a great classic without losing track of the original work. Lost Heaven is a shining jewel and there’s plenty of fun to be had. Character animations and the driving system can be a bit wonky sometimes, but those are minor issues in what is overall a great remake.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 66 Critic Score
    WWE Battlegrounds is an excellent idea lost inside way too much repetitiveness. 2K wrestling games needed a fresh new style and approach, but Saber’s game got lost due to an oversimplified fighting system and an excessive use of microtransactions. You need hours to unlock everything, but your wrestling enthusiasm is doomed to expire after the first 2-3 hours of playing WWE Battlegrounds, just when you’re gonna realize its best moments are already gone. Too bad, because I feel the need of a good old arcade wrestling game, but I also would have liked it to focus on entertaining me and not try to strip me of all my money for a useless Undertaker skin.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 65 Critic Score
    Vader Immortal: a Star Wars VR Series is practically a video game amusement park attraction, and I mean that in terms of length as well. But it’s still an enjoyable experience that will delight every fan of Lucas' opera omnia for a couple of hours.
    • 93 Metascore
    • 94 Critic Score
    Hades is an exceptional game. It’s got a fun gameplay loop, incredible visual design, good animations and a ton of story and dialogue (and it’s all voice acted!). Definitely Supergiant’s best game to date, and a must-play both for roguelike fans and newcomers to the genre.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Going Under perfectly combines the Rogue-lite genre in an irreverent and sarcastic environment. The frenetic and immediate action with a good level of difficulty without ever being frustrating goes hand in hand with a fun and ridiculously original story, a real breath of fresh air for those looking for a solid dungeon crawler without necessarily having to rescue a princess or recover fragments of some cursed artifact. A must-play if you love this genre of games, and also highly recommended if you want to give a try to a nice action game able to make you laugh between one kill and another.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 68 Critic Score
    Tennis World Tour 2 improves upon its disastrous predecessor, but cannot completely make us forget its flaws because it’s based on the same creaky structure. It can be fun, but you shouldn’t expect perfection.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Hotshot Racing is a rare and precious work that hearkens to the spirit of 90s racing games without being bound by it. A great title for players of all ages and backgrounds, its modern and fresh driving system provides endless joy, challenge and enjoyment. And it has both local and online multiplayer!
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Crysis Remastered lives up to its name by putting even the most modern and performing hardware under pressure. All in all, the graphical makeover is pretty competent, despite some smudges here and there.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Theoretically, the idea of ​​turning this edition of PES into a simple update is a good idea. Last year’s football season went totally crazy, the two tournament seasons almost overlapped and the pandemic stopped or slowed down videogame development for a long time. Focusing on next year’s game still seems a good choice, and it would be even better if Konami tried to dedicate the least amount of commitment to this update, which it didn’t. The absence of even a partial roster update update on day one is unacceptable, as is the ugliness of the Inter and Milan uniforms, even for a game that is still the best option for any football lover.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Commandos 2 / Praetorians HD Remaster Double Pack contains two excellent videogame productions with a glorious past, but the treatment reserved for at least one half of the package (Commandos 2) leaves something to be desired.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Aegis Rim is another small, but at the same time impressive masterpiece from Vanillaware that delivers an engaging story through an incredible visual style and an enjoyable narrative-strategic hybrid. This will be remembered as one of 2020’s best PlayStation 4 exclusives.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Super Mario 3D All-Stars is a good collection, but more because of the games it contains than because of Nintendo's effort in making it. The absence of extras and of Super Mario Galaxy 2 are an unpleasant disappointment.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    Gameplay wise, NBA 2K21 is once again an excellent product, and the best hoops videogame on the market (also due to lack of competition). While very similar to its predecessor, it is also evolved and revised. However, being a 2K title, microtransactions are inescapable.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    WRC 9 is a mature, democratic and very fun rally game. A driving model suitable for everyone, with cars that finally bite the dirt and a very solid technical realization, ensure that the Kylotonn title is easy to recommend to those looking for a complete rally experience without too many of the burdens of a true simulation.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Peril on Gorgon further expands the background of The Outer Worlds and the colony of Alcyon, but focuses too much on the action parts of the game rather than on its narrative and role-playing sides.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 84 Critic Score
    OkunoKA Madness is an eye-catching, compelling and graphically pleasing platformer, a bigger and more ruthless version of the original game for Nintendo Switch. It is incredibly well suited for the PC as well, as long you’re playing on a joypad.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 45 Critic Score
    Necromunda: Underhive Wars is a disappointment on all fronts, a disaster on both the technical and the gameplay side.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Sims 4 Star Wars: A Trip to Batuu proves to be a great Game Pack for The Sims 4, a fun themed holiday that offers fans of the franchise a pleasant break in the company of Jedi, Sith and first-rate smugglers. Do or do not. There is no try!
    • 70 Metascore
    • 82 Critic Score
    If even the original game wasn't able to take that extra step and stand out among its competition, you shouldn’t expect that its remastered version will be able to accomplish this task. Nevertheless, Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning remains enjoyable despite its age. It is a "vintage" game, capable of entertaining for hours (and hours and hours and hours) with its classic fantasy story full of fantastic creatures, epic legends and fairy lands.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Marvel's Avengers is a strange and somehow unexpected hybrid. Considered on its own, the campaign is an excellent action adventure, able to capture the spirit of Marvel characters both in battle and in everyday demeanor with an enthusiastic cinematic approach. The forced mashup with a Destiny-like multiplayer, however, does not benefit the game as a whole: online features are just weak, to the point they partially water down the singleplayer campaign. Perhaps Avengers Initiative’s time will come, but for now the game deserves to be played mainly for Kamala Khan’s story, which is joyful and inspiring.

Top Trailers