While it's an ambitious and lengthy adventure, the game is spoiled by an overly confusing story, many ambiguous puzzles, and a flawed interface. [July 2002, p.73]

History Buffs may consider this "Age of Empires" clone if it's cheap, but all else leave it be. [Apr 2001, p.84]

It's too bad Firestarter is executed so poorly because the graphics engine is fantastic, packed with reflections, great textures, and all manner of flashy high-tech visual doo-dads. [May 2004, p.67]

Its generic plot and presentation are so bland, the game's few inventive features are very likely to be lost on most who play it. [Holiday 2004, p.94]

Nostalgic "bookshelf value" aside, this collection isn't really worth the time or money. [August 2002, p.67]

With about 5 more updates, PSU might be capable of holding one's attention. [Feb. 2007, p.72]

This point-and-click adventure should have stayed in Italy. [July 2006, p.99]

Unless you're jonesing for an adventure game fix, your time's better spent rearranging your Netflix queue. [Aug 2008, p.72]

Rome seems rushed and poorly realized. [Apr 2008, p.70]

The Chosen is single-player only, which is probably for the best--you'd be hard-pressed to find many other people playing it. [Mar 2008, p.74]

Darkness Within oversells its Lovecraftian theme because there's just way too much reading and not enough adventuring to keep our interest up. [Mar 2008, p.81]

The saddest part about Spider-Man: Web of Shadows is that the only people willing to endure such a sloppy port are hard-core Spider-Man fans--the same group to whom the plot will make the least sense. [Jan 2009, p.59]

More yawn than yarr, sadly. [Feb 2011, p.80]

Deeply underwhelming. Neither staged carefully enough to be scary nor dynamic enough to be exciting, it succeeds only where other players are capable of breathing life into it. There are better linear shooters, better asymmetrical multiplayer games, and better Aliens sequels, and your love of the motion tracker and pulse rifle would need to be profound to surmount those obstacles.

Enough "StarCraft" clones. Stop the madness and offer some innovation. [June 2001, p.62]

Infuriating, buggy, and ultimately boring. [Oct 2003, p.96]

Sadly, developer Volatile misses the mark. [Jan. 2007, p.63]

Stick with GTA for your gangsta fix. [Mar 2008, p.80]

Sane people. however--folks who don't take their new Leader Class Optimus Prime to bed with them--should probably play something else. [Oct 2007, p.72]

If the rest of this Nazi shooting galllery had as much flair as its between-level vignettes, UberSoldier II could have secured an uber-spot at the top of the bargain bin. As is, it's much closer to the bottom. [Dec 2008, p.58]

Burning villages and abducting princesses for ransom as a loot-hungry, fire-breathing dragon might be fun on the PS3 version, but Hoards PC port is riddled with beastly bugs that'll make you wish you'd hoarded your money. [Aug 2011, p.76]

Though it looks gorgeous and is entertaining to play at times, it's conspicuously underpowered in three critical areas: physics, AI, and gameplay depth. [Holiday 2002, p.110]

Gore's single-player game shoots way over par. [Sept 2002, p.80]

A good idea executed without a trace of wit, energy, or style. About as dull as dishwater. [Sept 1996, p.138]

Factor in BMT 2's dated graphics, clumsy truck physics, and lack of multiplay, and even liquored-up yokels will have a tough time finding any play value with this tiresome retread. [Jan 2005, p.110]

If I'm ever drafted for another tour of duty like this, I'm gonna shoot myself in the foot. [Holiday 2006, p.78]

Overall, OOTP 2006 is a big letdown, even for an unbiased SI fanboy and OOTP nut like myself. [Sep 2006, p.98]

Even if the new features had been awesome, this would have been a pointless re-release. [Jan 2012, p.810]

A Weskered development gives us the Wong game. Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City is evil in the wrong sense. [Sept 2012, p.70]

And really, Lineage isn’t much fun. [Feb 2002, p.80]

The main problem is, there isn't enough new here to maintain interest. [Mar 2002, p.64]

A faded shadow of "Jagged Alliance 2," minus all the elements except combat. [May 2001, p.70]

As a $20 retail product, it's a slap in the face. Games like this one make a mockery of Darwin's theories. [May 2004, p.69]

All the gameplay ingredients are here, but a complete lack of seasoning makes this one dish that should be tossed down the disposal. [Oct 2004, p.98]

It deserves some credit for its realistic physics and attempts at creativity, but it's just not a whole lot of fun. We still await the "Virtua Tennis" of bowling games. [Apr 2004, p.78]

The story wouldn't be half-bad if it weren't for cliched dialogue (delivered by overly dramatic voice actors) and forgettable characters. [Jan 2005, p.81]

So much squandered potential, it's mind-boggling. Needs serious patching. [Aug 2005, p.66]

It's got all the depth of a Petri dish. [Oct 2005, p.63]

The transition from celluloid to digital bytes is a mess of missed opportunities. [Feb 2006, p.37]

It's a pity this game wasn't given more time to come together. [May 2005, p.60]

But the sad fact remains, the intense experience we craved is just...gone. [May 2006, p.54]

If 20 bucks is burning a hole in your pocket, spend it on "Need For Speed: Most Wanted" instead. You'll thank me later. [Dec. 2006, p.122]

You know you've got problems when the feature meant to enlighten a game makes it more tedious. [Sep 2006, p.94]

In short, Blitzkrieg II just doesn't cut the mustard. [May 2007, p.66]

I spent my first hour in Dead Reefs spinning my character in circles while trying to WASD him through doors. [Oct 2007, p.66]

Prizefighting in this simple action game looks like rock'em-sock'em robots disguised as cartoon humans. [Aug 2006, p.91]

Though Terra Wars: NY Invasion is destined for the bargain bin(priced at $19.99, it's actually probably already there), playing through its approximately seven hours of gameplay will at least satiate your natural instinct to kill aliens--but not much else. [Oct. 2006, p.58]

The finished game doesn't live up to expectations. [Sept 2007, p.64]

It's all by-the-numbers stuff that gets old quickly, and the game's muddy graphics, slim single-player options, and comically mistranslated dialog certainly don't help. [Oct 2007, p.57]

Crashes booted me to the desktop a dozen times. And a save corruption resulted in the loss of a level-17 garden and my last shred of patience. [Feb 2008, p.83]

GWN: Sparta offers little desides gameplay as ancient as the Spartans themselves, and should probably fall on its sword. [Aug 2008, p.72]

Jigsaw's game are meant to be cruel, barbaric, horrific and pedantic, but this game is just plain tedious. [Jan 2010, p.79]

MUD TV's detail is swamped in white noise, and no amount of fiddling with the antennae will help a game so poorly tuned. [Jun 2010, p.85]

This short ride's definitely a lemon. [June 2011, p.72]

Finding good matches is not easy in APOX's sluggish community, however, and I cannot fathom why anyone should play this instead of the exponentially better games that it tries to emulate. [June 2011, p.77]

The new chapter of the IL-2 Sturmovik series is a dark one--Cliffs of Dover is visually stunning but technically hobbled. [July 2011, p.74]

It feels like a four-hour tutorial to a game that might have used its mechanics better, never trusting its players enough to present them with a thoughtful challenge. [Oct 2011, p.77]

As it exists now, however, Solar 2 is a simple space physics simulation with just a hint of a game, and building disposable arrangements of revolving circles quickly loses its novelty. [Oct 2011, p.79]

A promising enough idea, Lucius shoots for the depths of hell – but poor execution lands it merely six feet under.

Little Inferno's argument against games I would never elect to play left me rather cold. [March 2013, p.79]

Ace of Spades contains some good ideas and tries hard to ape its influences, but it lacks their charm and stability.

An apocalyptic disappointment that never rises above mediocrity, but often sinks into tedium. [July 2013, p.72]

A tiny bit of truly awful combat has been thrown in when it should have been thrown out, and this may be the last third-person game in existence that doesn’t support the mouse in any way.

The problem with Apocalypse Weekend is that it lacks the cleverness and thoughtful execution that made the original worth laughs. [Oct 2005, p.72]

Repetitive gameplay and an inability to communicate with your co-op teammates will keep Guns of Icarus grounded. [Sept 2010, p.82]

Garshasp falls short of genre standards in nearly every way, and its shortcomings are too numerous to compensate for. [Sept 2011, p.75]

The control scheme is horrifically oversensitive to any analog input: it's often a huge struggle just to keep the car tracking in a straight line. [June 2003, p.86]

Running around 3D urban locales such as a mall or a corporate office building in the midst of a full-blow riot is sure to hook a few people, but flat gameplay and god-awful controls will make them turn away in disgust. [Dec 2003, p.132]

It's far outshined by older flight sims that are available at the same price. [Jan 2004, p.110]

The sandbox play that makes up the bulk of Superpower 2 is alternately tedium and lunacy. [Feb 2005, p.70]

Unfortunately, the gameplay grows stale real quick, and any joyful fantasies about dropping smoke-jumping firefighters into an inferno are quickly put to rest. [Jan 2005, p.75]

Frustratingly uncooperative controls. [Jun 2006, p.105]

Unfortunately, despite offering an eclectic mix of turn-based strategy and RPG elements, the Night Watch game is a clunky mess. [Oct. 2006, p.88]

For what it is, The Incredible Hulk isn't too bad. The problem is, it's still bad. [Oct 2008, p.68]

Awful enough. [Jan 2010, p.80]

It's a poor follow-up: the biggest puzzle is how, with the Layton games to steal ideas from, it gets the basics so wrong. [Oct 2011. p.76]

A beautiful but baffling space strategy game. Bugs and bewildering menus make for a frustrating and very missable experience.

Even $12 is too much to ask for what feels like a half-hearted community mod. [Apr 2012, p.79]

We suggest you play the original, free, Flash version instead – the full explanation isn’t worth the outlay.

Worst of all, there are no in-mission saves (only five "lives"), and each of the game's 13 missions can take up to an hour to complete. [Nov 2002, p.129]

SL's graphics engine is by far the buggiest and most poorly optimized that I've seen in years, with enough frame-rate bottlenecks, clipping, draw-through, and CD-access pauses to leave you gasping in your chair. [Mar 2003, p.91]

There are only so many ways you can arrange poker tables and slot machines. [July 2002, p.67]

Events unfold inexplicably, unrealistically, and almost arbitrarily. [June 2002, p.69]

My biggest complaint is that you can't design your own stores: you have to use one of the four ultra-bland pre-fabricated designs. [May 2002, p.69]

Too sloppy to be fun. [Sept 2002, p.81]

Gearheads may be temporarily amused, but for the rest of us, Monster Garage delivers about as much entertainment value as a fender-bender with a Hell's Angel. [July 2004, p.65]

Crystal Key 2 isn't an adventure; it's a slide show with the occasional puzzle thrown in. And we've had enough of these kinds of games. [July 2004, p.65]

Even more annoying is the omission of any kind of multiplay, which is where the real joy lies in this kind of game. [Sept 2004, p.70]

Disaster. Despite a beefy visual upgrade, this insultingly short add-on plays like a skanky collection of deleted scenes from the original game. [Feb 2005, p.68]

Dated graphics, poor AI, buggy gameplay, cumbersome controls, and uninspired design choices make playing Conquest an exasperating experience. [July 2008, p.64]

Fold this one. [Oct 2005, p.74]

Maybe Global Star's next "Jetfighter" studio will get the formula right. We hope. [Apr 2006, p.100]

This is one monster mash that leaves me mortified. [Oct 2007, p.57]

A decent adventure game may be lurking beneath The Secrets of Atlantis' tiresome pixel-hunting, nonsensical puzzles, and substandard imagery, but you'll have to work to find it [Sept 2007, p.58]

Getting from point A to point B doesn't get any more wearisome. [Aug 2008, p.74]

There's little to recommend. Bad combat, horrible vehicles/animals, a miserably boring missions--yup, it's a game based on a film. [Jan 2010, p.84]

Just another tiresome and unimaginative RTS. It’s a real shame. [Holiday 2001, p.72]

What could have been a latter-day "Close Conbat" or a visually splashier "Combat Mission" is instead a tedious and underwrought quagmire. [Sept 2008, p.70]

For a title like Legend, it's a first class ticket to the recycle bin. [Nov 2008, p.68]

Whatever charm the campy dialogue provides wears off after about 10 minutes, leaving you with a game that suffers from obstructive camera angles, tedious gameplay, and uninspired combat. [July 2008, p.70]

Dear interactive movies: Go away, go away, go away. And get eaten by dinosaurs. Thank you very much.

Unintuitive, uninvolving and overpriced. Not even its satisfying trading system can put the wind in Port Royale 3's sails. [Sept 2012, p.66]

The performance is nohwere near as smooth as I remember on my mothballed Dreamcast - nor as fun. [Jan 2003, p.104]

Just a kiddie console racer in PC clothing. [Mar 2002, p.74]

Where it falls apart is in the game design. [Jan 2003, p.114]

This gameworld is essentially a bad parody of a David Lynch production. Every scene is draped in “weirdness wallpaper.” It’s weird, all right, but not exactly engaging.

TalonSoft deserves a good keelhauling for dumping such a buggy game on shelves. [May 2001, p.82]

We saw plenty of good action/adventures in the year 2000. This wasn't one of them. [Mar 2001, p.82]

While not a total disaster, [it] barely even offers cosmetic upgrades to the 2000 version's incredibly dull gameplay format. [Oct 2003, p.112]

A directionless excercise in solving incomprehensible puzzles. [May 2003, p.70]

As empty-headed a treatment of modern conflict as you’re likely to find on store shelves. [Feb 2002, p.80]

The bastard twins of sucky AI and sucky pathfinding are both present and accounted for. [Sept 2004, p.66]

Even if you loved "Myst," you'll have a frustrating time with this sequel. If you do buy it, get your hands on the strategy guide ASAP. [Jan 1998, p.289]

Recommended only for history buffs on a budget. [July 2006, p.67]

Road also boasts snore-rific multiplay that adds nothing. Even if the game's selling for less than its $19.99 M.S.R.P., leave it to rot. [Mar 2006, p.51]

Although Stunts & Effects is an intriguing collection of scraps from Lionhead's cutting-room floor, it just isn't worth the price. [Sep 2006, p.58]

I need Professor X to wipe the memory of this game from my brain. [Aug 2006, p.85]

But, even if it were more stable, lackluster controls, awkward camera angles, and a too brief story would still make Via Domus a game fit for fanatical completionists only. [June 2008, p.77]

This isn't a bad console port--it's a bad game, period. [June 2008, p.74]

Action-adventures this blah should be sunk to Davy Jones' Locker. [Sept 2007, p.56]

Flashy weapon effects partially mask the mediocre gameplay, and to the untrained eye, Alpha Prime could almost pass as "Doom 3". I trust that PC Gamer readers are smart enough not to be fooled. [Apr 2008, p.66]

You're better off buying DVD's of History Channel shows. [May 2008, p.59]

A wearisome crime-solving adventure game with poor graphics, boring stories and buggy cases. [Feb 2011, p.76]

As much as I love impaling skeleton warriors with the Stake Gun, if I'm paying for this experience I want something new. [June 2011, p.72]

Sanctum of Slime could've been partially redeemed with co-op, but since it's ridiculously limited to local-only(no online or even LAN), few will ever bother to play it on PC. [Aug 2011, p.76]

There are simply too many flaws, and too little gameplay for even the bargain price. [Nov 2011, p.70]

Occasionally entertaining, but plagued by AI bugs and hamstrung by a clunky user interface. Less than the sum of its parts.

Good ideas all, but the execution is a muddled mess. [Feb 2002, p.71]

As if the flat, static gameplay weren't woeful enough, there's also an apparent bug: sometimes you get hit with high interest loans that you never took out! [June 2003, p.88]

The most annoying shortcoming is the narrow path you follow, with no option to roam freely. [Aug 2003, p.67]

It's one thing to make a bad game - that I can forgive. It's worse to take one of the great PC-game franchises and ruin the hell out of it. This isn't Leisure Suit Larry - it's just annoying softcore porn. [Holiday 2004, p.106]

Sounds promising, but from the shoddy graphics to the horrid enemy AI, this game fails to be any fun at all. [July 2004, p.68]

The main problem I have with this sports sim is the wild inaccuracies I found in its generated stats. [Apr 2007, p.49]

Hydrophobia Prophecy suffers from more than a fear of water: It's also afflicted with acute blandness, brain dead AI, and chronic backtracking. [Sept 2011, p.73]

It's a testament to the dullness of this game that its 25 missions feature a wide variety of mission types, yet all of them feel like the same monotonous hunts for brain-dead adversaries. [Oct 2002, p.100]

This little number's a shiny new lemon. [May 2002, p.69]

If the competition were par, this would be a double bogey. [Feb 2001, p.57]

If desiging and producing games was really as boring as <i>Game Tycoon</i> makes it, we'd all be playing <i>Zork</i>. [July 2006, p.99]

Resist, chopper fans. You'll thank us later. [Aug 2007, p.63]

Your current life is too short to waste on this next one. [Mar 2008, p.77]

Cringeworthy voice acting. [July 2008, p.60]

Look elsewhere. [July 2008, p.63]

Considering that combat is as dull as the ship graphics, and that you can't even share the experience due to lack of multiplayer, Shattered Suns' $40 asking price is seriously overambitious. [Dec 2008, p.57]

Weak. [Oct 2009, p.79]

EYE's lack of inspiration is matched only by its ineptitude. [Nov 2011, p.68]

Agonizingly mediocre - and proof that the Blair Witch has had her day in the moonlight. [Apr 2001, p.90]

Not much of a party game. [Apr 2003, p.103]

The contrast between cartoonish characters and sprays of blood only continues the rollercoaster of pain and confusion. Make sure to play on an empty stomach. [June 2003, p.88]

This game got repetitious after about 15 minutes and downright treadmill-like within a half-hour. The emperor's verdict: Thumb down. [May 2004, p.71]

Tedium, interrupted by frustration. [Holiday 2006, p.86]

The moral of the story is, if you're looking for a half-decent real-time strategy game, skip Left Behind. [Feb. 2007, p.66]

On top of the mediocre graphics, translation bloopers, and occasional crashes, these flaws will greatly hasten XIII's fade into history. [Oct 2008, p.70]

We'll always love Michael Crichton for his books, movies, and TV shows. [Feb 2001, p.58]

Even the combat is boring, since it's entirely automated and gives you no control whatsoever over your troops. [Dec 2003, p.132]

Even worse are the ridiculously tough environmental puzzles. Unless you're a member of MENSA, chances are you'll need a walkthrough to finish the game. [Mar 2004, p.62]

It&#146;s exactly the kind of cookie-cutter movie spin-off we could easily survive without. [Holiday 2001, p.88]

The worst part is the voice acting. [Dec 2009, p.77]

It's short, it's bland, and it's got all the ingredients to be PC Gamer's most generic shooter of '08. [Dec 2008, p.66]

After just a half-hour, SLC 2002 will be straight in the trash. It's a mathematical certainty. [May 2002, p.77]

You can barely tolerate the insane irrelevance of the details asked - they really are that dry. [Sept 2002, p.76]

Playing Revolution is like driving a Lamborghini that's been torn apart and reassembled by a blindfolded mechanic: it's cheap, and the engine runs, but I wouldn't recommend you get behind the wheel, because there's bound to be some important parts left out. [May 2003, p.68]

Less unpleasant than having an alien probe stuck up your butt - but not by much. [Sept 1998, p.129a]

Be warned...You Are Empty isn't so much a title as a disclaimer. [Mar 2008, p.74]

A disaster. [Feb 2005, p.60]

A lack of features and plenty of long, boring downtime run this tycoon game into an iceberg. [Nov 2004, p.94]

Come enter! Our game interface is impressively awkward: you'll click three menus to find one performers statistics. [Nov 2004, p.94]

If there's one thing that blows chunks more than a bad console-to-PC port, it's a recycled low-budget PC game that's past its due. [Oct. 2006, p.58]

Save your money, fellow muggles: it's best spent elsewhere. [Mar 2006, p.102]

It's all been done before - and a hell of a lot better to boot. [Feb 2006, p.54]

In short, <i>RF Online</i> fails as a PvE game, and its PvP gameplay isn't engaging enough to make up for that fatal flaw. [July 2006, p.78]

It has some good moments, but it shouldn't take an archaeological expedition to reach them. [Sept 2007, p.58]

Swing and a miss! You can safely skip this one even if they cut the price in half. [May 2007, p.63]

EA Sports has once again screwed PC owners over with a cut-rate edition of one of its big fall sports games, and NHL 08 is even more of a disappointment than its football and golf comrades. [Holiday 2007, p.83]

Payback is a disservice to the Soldier of Fortune franchise, and in no way captures the exciting action of its pedigree. [Feb 2008, p.86]

With no online community, no single-player gameplay and no replayability, Crasher has already crashed. [June 2011, p.74]

After Theatre of War 3: Korea crashed for the last time, I realized it'd only succeeded in whetting my appetite for a good Korean War real-time strategy game. [July 2011, p.69]

Slow, clunky, and prone to glitchiness, playing Daggerdale feels like a sentence to an actual dungeon.

The Cartel's finest feature is a mess. Everything else is merely bland, repetitive, and dull. [Holiday 2011, p.80]

A boring, unoriginal, morally bankrupt, ethically dubious glorification of war, that's not worth your time or money.

This game will find an audience...that could fit into a high-school gymnasium. [Sept 2005, p.70]

There's nothing here gameplay-wise that's new or original, or even competitive, given the season...The lag in online bouts is atrocious. [Holiday 2004, p.34]

My advice? Forget about this accursed game and play "Diablo II", "Dungeon Siege II", or "Titan Quest" again. [Apr 2007, p.68]

Play never feels fluid, a problem compounded by the horrible, poorly ported PC controls. [Sept 2012, p.61]

Pretty darned awful...With barely five hours of gameplay, no voiceovers, non-existent AI, and amateruish chapter-ending cartoons, Hero X can't even rightly be called a decent bargain-bin pick. [Oct 2002, p.102]

After just a few of the 10 missions, it becomes painfully evident that the Myth II engine was simply not designed for the task of modeling modern combat.

The real puzzle is why anyone would consider this entertainment. [June 2007, p.71]

If you can read this review, you're too old to play Robot Arena. [July 2001, p.72]

Unspectacular graphics only serve to accentuate the game&#8217;s myriad physical and visual shortcomings.

No-frills tedium. [Holiday 2006, p.88]

A cynical attempt at milking players for money. Bullet Run plays like a tacked-on online mode for a singleplayer game.

Mass murder by dragonbreath has never been so monotonous. [Feb 2005, p.71]

Almost-passable fare for a wacky-golf game, but it can't hold a candle to the superbly crafted "Links" and "Tiger Woods" games of even several years past - both of which are available for this game's $20 price. [Dec 2004, p.106]

MoB's terrific art style and wanton dismemberment are completely wasted on this overwhelmingly inadequate shooter. [July 2009, p.82]

The only feeling of authenticity you'll get from Platoon is the same sort of futilitiy that pervaded the actual Vietnamese conflict. [Feb 2003, p.68]

Combat is largely devoid of any tactics, and the only interesting aspect of the fighting is a two-fisted system that lets you swing a sword with one hand and fire a gun with the other. [July 2004, p.68]

Overly simplistic gameplay, repetitive jumping puzzles, and all-in-all monotony. [Sept 2003, p.97]

Doesn't offer anything worth even a cursory glance. Even squad-based strategy-game fantatics should take a pass on this lousy $20 beer coaster. [July 2004, p.55]

If you don't buy one game this year, Medieval Lords should be it. [March 2005, p.72]

A sentence of 25 to Life lasts only six to seven hours if played on medium difficulty. [Apr 2006, p.51]

Just a few years back, golf ruled the PC scene. Now we've got one game left, and it's a crappy third-rate console port. [Dec 2007, p.76]

An over-designed shooter that missed the joy in its central concept and instead locks you into purgatorial combat loops. [Mar 2010, p.80]

A shallow, slow, grind-heavy MMO crippled by a horrible interface and nonsensical player limitations.

Good grief--I could buy Half-Life 2 with that $10. [Aug 2011, p.76]

A shameless knock-off that repeats many of DayZ's problems. Worst audio ever. Bullets for sale? Really?

The battles are pretty damn chaotic. They're also devoid of fun, have little rhyme or reason, and often leave you with no idea why you won or lost. [Oct 2002, p.97]

There's little redeeming value to this poor knock-off. Maximus is spinning in his grave. [Jan 2003, p.106]

The same shabby AI and pathfinding that plagued the original have survived the trip. It's truly despicable that none of the problems were fixed. [Jan 2003, p.110]