"Metal Gear Solid 4 is not the inclusive, universally entertaining experience it could have been." (7) It "is a frustrating, fractured game" (2) that "feels ... like a genie struggling to find enough goodies in the lamp, slave to the demands of everyone but itself." (1) "Metal Gear Solid 4 is, in most senses, the biggest Metal Gear yet. But the best? Maybe not." (2)

"As the game starts, with its fairly generic next-gen textures and desert battlefield setting, you can't help feeling that you could be playing the latest Call of Duty, or Assassin's Creed." (3) "After a few chapters, [the] gameplay ... begins to mutate into linear action that feels like an afterthought amidst all the story." (4) "The relatively weak second act is more of the same in a much less compelling setting - a rather unconvincing, blandly designed South American backwater - and ennui starts to set in." (2)

"More intuitive controls could have made the overall experience a better one." (6) "A new feature called 'Stress' isn't explained quite clearly enough" (5) and "the new Stress and Psyche meters don't really gel with the flow of play." (2) "You'll also spend a good deal of time poking through your inventory in the middle of boss battles and protracted firefights, which can occasionally disrupt the dramatic flow." (5) "Because control is ... complex, it's very easy to do something you didn't want to by accident, and it's painful to see the perfect setup blown in an instant." (6)

"GTA IV has its flaws as a game." (1) "The flow of the game basically goes like this: you watch a cutscene, someone in the cutscene says that someone has done them wrong, you're told they need to be taught a lesson, and then you get in a car and go teach them the lesson. At that point another cinema is triggered and the process repeats. ... it can definitely become a little repetitive." (2)

"It's not like previous GTAs, or most other sequels, where there are new stand-out features that you can easily discuss and rate." (4) "GTA IV [actually] reduces the amount of activities when compared to the previous game, San Andreas. You cannot go the gym to beef up Niko's muscles. And eating a ton of cheeseburgers won't turn you into a massive, wobbly mound of lard." (3)

"You'll probably be surprised to hear GTA IV has noticeably fewer weapons and vehicles on offer than GTA: San Andreas did. ... Yes, this means San Andreas' more unusual vehicles like fighter jets, hovercraft, go-karts and jetpacks are all absent. Don't expect to be wielding chainguns, flamethrowers or chainsaws either." (4) "The world itself is smaller than the state-sized San Andreas" (7) and in general the game has "a feature list that's a step back from its predecessors." (4)

"Even though the plot line is simpler than previous GTA games, it still gets cluttered at times, with a glut of characters entering the scene; it can be tough to keep track of exactly why things are happening and to whom." (9) "There's still a clear difference between this and [even] a B-level Hollywood production. ... Every story note [is] delivered by flat, to-the-point dialog [and] we get characters over-explaining their feelings and opinions, leading to some awkward exchanges. (8) On top of that, "Niko's Serbian ... is God-awful." (3)

"Super Smash Bros. Brawl isn't a giant leap forward from Super Smash Bros. Melee." (9) "Repetition is Brawl's ... real crime." (2) The "beat-em-up gameplay [is] relatively unchanged" (3) -- "returning to your stock franchises ... shackles you to old ways." (2) "This game was made for Nintendo fans. ... For the uninterested gamer, it's a curious diversion." (7)

"Subspace Emissary is boring. There, we said it." (8) "The storyline itself seems almost randomly compiled – a pieced together jigsaw puzzle of different factions coming together." (1) No, "there's not much rhyme or reason to the plot" (3) -- "it's a narrative mish-mash and bloated as hell." (2) "Most the time, you don't know what's going on. ... We find the complete lack of storytelling disturbing." (8)

"As a platformer, [Subspace Emissary] is not great." (2) "The fine-tuned jumping mechanics needed for platformers just aren't built into all of the Brawl characters, and shoehorning fighting game characters into action-adventure side-stories hasn't worked well since Tekken experimented with the same." (9) "Dull level design and unnecessarily tricksy warp door antics" (2) don't help, nor does "a seemingly random placement of Nintendo characters and newly designed enemy fodder." (1) "If this mode were a standalone game, it wouldn't rate very highly." (9) "The Subspace Emissary component ... is simply not as balanced or entertaining as the stages designed for multiple human opponents." (1)

"Chains of Olympus doesn't quite live up to the other God of War games." (4) "Ready at Dawn didn't mess with the franchise's proven formula whatsoever, which is ... one of our ... gripes for the game." (3) "Gameplay-wise, nothing much has changed ... You still run around and beat the beejezus [sic] out of enemies and then meet up with the occasional boss fight." (5) "I wish that Ready at Dawn had added something new the canon rather than just re-using what's been done in the past." (7)

"The game feels a bit too familiar ... [and] at times you do feel like you've played the game before." (7) That said, "the game is missing some of the features from other God of War games. ... you won't find the ability to use your blades on grappling points, the Icarus Wings, Rage of the Gods, rope traversal, rope swinging, a fourth magic, etc." (4) "I find myself disappointed ... that the game doesn't quite have the same feeling of showing you something new around every corner that the previous games did." (4)

"The game is also brutally linear: you're constantly running from point A to point B, stopping to administer the occasional beatdown." (5) It could also be described as "a very linear experience, (3) that "may be a touch linear." (9) "Toward the end, combat got pretty repetitious, relying really heavily on the mechanic of blocking you into a room and not letting you out until you finished taking down the waves of enemies." (1) "It would have been nice to have seen a little experimentation here or there to mix things up. (3) "Altogether, ... the game feels like a bit less of an adventure and more of a straightforward action game." (4)

"If you're looking for another game to whittle away the hours perfecting guitar parts by yourself, Rock Band likely won't live up to your expectations." (2) "Rock Band's singing and guitar campaigns aren't as developed ... as standalone games like SingStar or Guitar Hero." (8) The game "isn't great if you're playing by yourself. ... it's not nearly as compelling going through songs with a single instrument." (3) "There just isn't as big of a sense of accomplishment as you climb the ranks without all the little animations and feedback you got on Guitar Hero 3." (5) Yes, "the Solo Tours lack the animations and story elements of Guitar Hero's solo campaign, which make them slightly less interesting to play by yourself." (8) "Expect more than a few awkward silences if you're by yourself." (3) "Guitar Hero is better if you're playing alone." (5)

"The actual online play, honestly, isn't quite as crucial a component as you'd think." (3) "One omission is online cooperative play." (7) "For the full co-op career mode, you have to play offline. That's disappointing." (9) Yup, "you can't do co-op career online - a major disappointment." (1) That's right, "the Band World Tour mode is not available online, and that's a shame." (5) What's more, "you may hear some out-of-sync bleed through the headset ... and the singer's signal won't be transmitted due to lag: the other players will hear the pre-recorded vocal track." (1)

"Crysis is imperfect in a number of ways." (3) "The acting and story aren't spectacular." (5) In fact, "the story ... is pretty standard background fodder for a FPS," (7) and "the game is pretty linear for the story's sake." (4) "I'm sure some people will be disappointed by the eventual alien-powered denouement, or mystified or bored by turns as they discover what lies inside the mountain." (3) "Don't start expecting any narrative cleverness or characters who do much beyond move the plot from one stage to the next." (8)

"When was the last time you upgraded your system? It doesn't matter because you'll probably have to do it again: Crysis is that demanding." (5) "Crysis may very well kick your computer in the balls at Very High settings;" (1) but "results are a bit mixed at medium and low settings. ... At the lowest detail settings, objects pop in and out with a fair degree of consistency. It's annoying at best and frustrating at worst, as it can impact gameplay." (6)
"The constant tweaking of system specs needed to get the game running optimally is also a drag, and the average PC gamer will probably find that their system is nowhere near powerful enough to get this beast even up and running to standard." (5) Without a strong enough rig, the game "may very well turn into more of a slideshow than you'd probably prefer and in some cases become completely unplayable." (1)

Super Mario Galaxy "isn't quite perfect." (6) "It doesn't invent new kinds of gameplay" (2) and "It's not as revolutionary as Mario 64." (3) "If you played that seminal game, Mario Galaxy's star hunt progression probably sounds familiar to you." (6) "There's no denying that Super Mario Galaxy predominantly sticks with the tried and true." (8)

"Once again we have a Mario game with a shell of a story, and this one doesn't even have any ridiculous twists." (8) "The title begins with a predictable ... storybook introduction ... told through very basic and boring storybook cut-scenes." (6) "This all certainly sounds par for the course." (7) Sadly, the game seems to have "a complete disinterest in telling a compelling story." (5)

While Modern Warfare finally brings the Call of Duty series into the present day, "the story itself ... isn't exactly cutting edge." (2) "The story unfolds from an unapologetic 'us versus them, and they are wrong' perspective, with little time spent on the larger philosophy of war." (4) "The story fails to provide many twists. There's not much of a guessing game taking place here." (3) "The story flies by so fast," (1) but at the same time, "there are a few too many shell-shocked slow-mo moments that seem to drag." (2)

There are "no massive renovations in the AI department. ... they're pretty much the clever-clogs Nazis we've shot before." (9) "The enemies aren't the smartest lot, as they are formidable thanks more to their numbers than their IQ." (3) "There are going to be moments when enemies get stuck in dumb routines or stand in the open waiting to be mowed down." (2) "However, some of them have definitely missed their calling as an NFL quarterback -- tossing grenades 100 yards, dropping them right at your feet time and again." (3)

Your squad mates are no better. "It is a little annoying when you figure out that your highly trained and specialized team is totally dependant on you in every situation." (8) "There were several moments when it would've helped for my friends to be a little more proactive. Once, when we were flanked by enemies from both sides, Captain Price just sat there, kneeling, waiting for me to make a miracle happen. If he would have popped a few shots at one of the guys so that I could go after the other, that would have helped a lot--not to mention make the game more realistic." (1)

To start with, there's "the horrendous box art, which I'm pretty certain was designed by a select group of mildy-talented fifth graders." (8)

For Half-Life 2 and its episodic add-ons, "the visuals are not as good as they should be." (8) "The graphics don't compare with say BioShock, Gears of War or Halo 3," (6) and the game "suffer[s] from occasional framerate stutters and issues." (1) "There's also some noticeable pop-up." (6) "You'll ... see some chugs at certain points, such as during large chain explosions with equally large numbers of characters onscreen." (1)

"There are mid-level loads that halt the action... often [for] 30 seconds to a full minute. This is especially aggravating when a load comes during a high-speed chase." (8) "Whenever you approach a new area, the game pauses and loads. This feels distinctly last-gen, especially compared with FPS of the moment Halo 3, which seamlessly loads new areas without pause." (6)

As for the game itself, "some sections feel over-long, others just a lonely set of corridors." (3) Your AI teammates "can often get in your way when trying to move about small places [and] the AI often ignores [your] orders or will simply refuse to stay put and let you get through a corridor." (8) "Episode 2 is still linear. ... It's not exactly innovative - there's only one new enemy type and the lone new weapon isn't seen until the finale." (4) "The sense of familiarity can dull the game's appeal to [an] extent." (3)

"Just like that girl you dated in college, Halo 3 has some issues." (5) "This game might not be everyone's cup of tea, despite the immense hype machine surrounding it." (4) "No one aspect of the game is life-changing on its own" (1) and "anyone would be hard pressed to call it mind-blowing." (1)

"It's genuinely disappointing to note the number of missteps in the single-player campaign. (7) "The campaign ... is Halo 3's weakest point. It doesn't capture the cavalier spirit of the original Halo." (5) "The gameplay doesn't stray too far from Halo 2." (6) "Rather than trying something new, it sticks to the run and gun formula of the first two." (9) "Everything is now pretty much a known quantity ... and a bit of going-through-the-motions gameplay numbs the excitement " (1) "To be honest, it begins to feel a little rote and by-the-numbers by the halfway point." (8) "Others might criticise the developers for a lack of new ideas." (3) "It doesn't hold any big surprises for fans of the last two titles." (1)