If "Far Cry" was a game of ambition, then here is one of power. Power which Crytek has channelled, with both passion and care, into superb freewheeling gunplay. [Christmas 2007, p.84]

Tecmo's refusal to extend any kind of handhold to less dedicated players is simply a failure of design, not a badge of hardcore honour ... it's impossible to believe they couldn't have found a way to increase the accessibility of the game without undermining the gloriously intractable nature of the challenges it contains. [Apr 2004, p.96]

Reach is a fine conclusion to Bungie's stewardship of the series, but that's what stops it from being anything more. Halo felt like the future. Reach is merely a brilliantly engineered present.

A much-needed statement of authority for PC - an online spectacle that eclipses the grand rhetoric volleyed back and forth between the manufacturers of tomorrow's super-powered consoles. A new level of multiplayer combat begins here and now, with shock and awe.

The degree of refinement and technical polish across every facet of Gears 3 is enough to make most other games look tatty.

A beautiful and graceful fighting game that lets imagination loose, and winks before slapping Dante, Kratos and every other hero back to the drawing board. [Christmas 2009, p.90]

A game that's more than the sum of its parts. [Dec 2009, p.98]

The ambitious, exacting craftsmanship of Evolution goes a long way to ensuring that every person who gives the game a proper chance will be seduced into becoming precisely such a fan. [May 2012, p.106]

The best platformer on iPhone just got better, and there's still no sign of any meaningful competition. [Sept 2009, p.93]

It is an instinctive, ingenious joy to play for every minute, and it sets a new gold standard for game interface design on any platform. [Sept 2007, p.86]

It's unusual to find a game of this sort deal with losing, which is obviously the majority experience, with such care – the packaging of Barry's mad dash turns it into an endlessly rewarding marathon, rather than a series of disconnected sprints.

Playdead's debut title is a rare thing – a wholly realised place as well as a successfully realised game, and both Limbo and the Limbo inside it are one-of-a-kind places to be stuck in.

It may be pulled together from no more than shards of light, but few games manage to be both a science and an art. [Oct 2008, p.99]

Civilization's revolution is daring for a series built on expansion. It strips and pares away, making management easy and command enjoyable. [Nov 2010, p.91]

From its sluggish, restrictive start, Human Revolution opens into a world of scintillating possibility in which your actions' significance reaches far into the future. And with something like that difficult future approaching fast, Human Revolution achieves a rare accolade: it's not just a great game, but a timely one.

The racing, in itself, is excellent. Striking a wonderful balance between simulation and thrills. [July 2007, p.86]

The only thing that's hard to adjust, in fact, is the tension in your muscles. GTR 2 is hugely better than its predecessor in exactly the area that matters. [Oct 2006, p.89]

A shrewd and often brilliant game that reaches its destination with most of its goals realised, not discarded and left in the dust like the forced march of its predecessors. [Apr 2011, p.94]

No other game takes on whole eras of combat with such a combination of respect and fetishism for the rules and wisdom of battle, and no series treats history like such a serious playground of possibilities, yet features such comic-book characters. [Apr 2009, p.114]

Borderlands 2 might not develop extensively on its forebear, but it has even greater power to hold you for hours on end, deftly weaving RPG stat development with skill-based play. It's enough to make every decision you make meaningful and fun, and lend the realisation that Gearbox knows more about the fundamentals of the shooter than almost any other developer.

Demon's Souls is the antithesis of the fashionable approach to gaming. It encourages mastery over mere perseverance and every reward is so hard won as to make it almost unattainable. But if gaming's ultimate appeal lies in the learning and mastering of new skills, then surely the medium's keenest thrills are to be found in its hardest lessons. For those who flourish under Demon's Souls' strict examination, there's no greater sense of virtual achievement.

It’s a game that builds gradually and then becomes irresistible, a beautiful lump of an RPG that continues beyond the close of its main campaign, and will have you thinking about it when you’re not at your 360. [Dec 2008, p.79]

If L4D2 is sometimes over-complicated by its glut of small innovations, then it also substantially rewards the player with its few large ideas: confusion gives way to depth and dynamism, grander thrills and starker dramas. We’re still interested in the fate of the original game’s heroes, but this sequel affirms that the way ahead is due south.

Valve has taken something unscripted and dynamic, and seeded it with the right amount of narrative flavour, pacing and spectacle. [Christmas 2008, p.82]

Valve has taken something unscripted and dynamic, and seeded it with the right amount of narrative flavour, pacing and spectacle. [Christmas 2008, p.82]

If L4D2 is sometimes over-complicated by its glut of small innovations, then it also substantially rewards the player with its few large ideas: confusion gives way to depth and dynamism, grander thrills and starker dramas. We’re still interested in the fate of the original game’s heroes, but this sequel affirms that the way ahead is due south.

Criterion has taken the series back to its first principal of cops vs racers, and constructed a high-octane combat racer of beauty and depth. [Christmas 2010, p.82]

The route you pick through Polytron's floating world is nearly impossible to verbalise, while its puzzles resolve themselves in your mind unexpectedly, in clear, wordless chunks. There's really no language to cover many of the things you get up to in Fez. For a videogame in 2012, that may be the ultimate endorsement.