The games we put hours into testing so you didn't have to.I wouldn't say we've had many poor games to review this year. Publishers are getting more canny and often don't bother sending over games that are likely to get very low scores.

That still doesn't stop some shenanigans. We've been asked us to not post a review if the score was below a certain level, of course we refused and posted the review. That posting threshold was pretty high too, it seems many publishers can't cope with anything less than 8/10. Madness.

Anyway, below are some of the poorest games we've looked at this year. I've not chosen all the lowest scoring games. Instead I've looked for high-profile games that have scored badly, having failed to live up to expectations. Sonic Unleashed - 4/10.

From Liam's Xbox 360 review: "I know the future is third person and in 3D, but Sonic Unleashed has shown that it doesn’t work with everything. Sonic Team had a potentially great game here, if they had removed the different modes and gone more traditional with the sideways view. The levels are beautifully designed and although the backing music will never be as good as Emerald Hill, it’s still not too bad."

"I do hope that SEGA and Sonic Team read comments made by fans of Sonic. I was always a SEGA and Sonic guy, rather than Nintendo and Mario. It’s sad to see Sonic in bad games, but I am happy that there is potential there for SEGA to publish a great Sonic game. They just have to go back to their roots and forget about these stupid bonus levels and Werehogs."

"However, there isn’t enough of the traditional view and mode in Sonic Unleashed, and too much playing with the Werehog. All I can do, and it kills me to say this, is advise you don’t get this game. Simply because it’s a poor game, with a score propped up by a better, more traditional Sonic available to play. Sadly it’s not available to play with enough."
From Harry's Xbox 360 review: "How hard is it for EA to grasp what fans of the Need for Speed franchise want? It's pretty simple. We want to race exotic cars along palm-lined coastal roads while being chased by the police. And we want it to be a smooth and gorgeous experience."

"What we don't want is a game so badly optimised that at times it seems like a slideshow. And that's on the Xbox 360 version, I hate to think what happens to the frame rate in the PlayStation 3 game. And I'm not talking about frame rate problems when the game is trying to draw a lot of detail - no, I'm talking about the game stuttering along while the virtual camera moves around a tight focus on your car."

"With optimisation this poor Need for Speed: Undercover comes across as a game barely out of alpha. A few more months of optimisation and gameplay balancing and there might have been a great game in here. Instead it was formed into something vaguely resembling a videogame and sent to stores."

Spiderman Web of Shadows - 5/10-From Adam's Xbox 360 review: "Web of Shadows doesn't even look particularly good. Spider-Man's model is about the only thing with style and polish, but the rest of the city is dreadfully under par in comparison to today's standards.

Standing atop one of the higher buildings is where this becomes most obvious as you can gaze out upon the many rectangles sprouting from the ground, caked in only slightly varying window and brick textures. It's a far cry from the thriving metropolis presented in the films, and it makes traversing the city a little confusing when no building really stands out – thank God for the target icon. On top of that there's plenty of texture pop-up and the ominous mist that covers far away buildings."

"So what are we left with? Well, the controls work fairly well and it keeps faithful to the Spider-Man universe – if only in appearances, but other than that we've got another underwhelming Spider-Man game on our hands. There isn't enough variation in the missions to keep any average gamer interested until the end, and what you will play is even that attractive. Web of Shadow's ray of sunshine is the web-slinging mechanic, but you can't really make a game based entirely around that, now, can you?"

Fracture - 5/10-From Adam's Xbox 360 review: "The problem is: your weapons don't feel powerful nor accurate enough. A sizeable force is expelled from either of the four grenades or the rocket or grenade launchers, but the actual rifles and machine guns are quite puny. There's no real sense of power to your encounters like there is in shooters like Gears of War – a game LucasArts definitely played during the production of Fracture – and so taking down an enemy, once you fondle with the aiming for a while, feels more of a formality."

"Fracture is not a complete farce of a game. If it were released three or four years ago I'm sure it would receive greater commendation, but it has nothing new to offer an already crowded genre. Practically everything it does has been seen before, and the parts which haven't are too limited and clumsy to save the rest. The story is difficult to care about; the characters are generic and combat is repetitive and flaccid. Just to finish off: the start button doesn't resume your game either. Rent it if you must, but save your money for Gears of War 2. "

Facebreaker - 5/10-From Jakob's Xbox 360 review: "The thing is Facebreaker is incredibly difficult. For instance I haven't been able to complete the tournament mode yet - on the lowest setting. But that is not a bad thing at all in my book. I think it's refreshing to play a game that demands everything from you. It's just like in the 1980s, where learning curve and save games were unknown entities. Facebreaker is all about becoming good and then even better.

But many won't have the patience for honing reactions that make you avoid hits in milliseconds. My only real complaint is that you only have three attempts to beat an opponent before you get demoted and have to win over the previous boxer again. That's a really bad decision when the game is really about fighting over and over again until you figure the right strategy out."

"So while the technical part of Facebreaker is good, the gameplay is uneven. As I said, a tough difficulty is not a bad thing, as it's good to get challenged. But in the end the boxing action itself is not as fun as it should be, because it's all about being fastest, and the AI does tend to cheat. I miss the intense and genious matches in Fight Night 3. If you're looking for a great arcade fighting game, go buy Soul Calibur IV - or at least wait until Facebreaker gets into the budget bin. That won't take too long."

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - 5/10-From Harry's Xbox 360 review: "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is a crushing disappointment. The game is a short button-mashing slog through narrow linear level after level with the reward being an exciting and thrilling story."

"There are glimpses of great in here that prevent the score slipping down into the negative. In those moments where you can really unleash the force and feel like a powerful sith, where your lightsabre seems like a exotic and deadly weapon, where the location recalls childhood excitement of a galaxy far far away - in these moments The Force Unleashed grants you a glimpse of greatness."

"These moments are all too rare. LucasArts has had six years since the release Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast to improve on the formula of an action adventure that combines force powers and lightsaber action. It has failed to do so. The Force Unleashed is fun enough in parts to entertain for an evening or two, but for nearly £40 of your hard earned money that really isn't good enough."

Hellboy The Science of Evil - 3/10-From Jonathan's PC review: "You might get the impression from this review that I wasn't hugely impressed with this game. That's probably a fair assessment. There isn't much to recommend in Hellboy The Science of Evil. The combat system is very basic and rather repetitive. The cut-scenes and story don't make a great deal of sense. The puzzle and adventure parts of the game aren't very well designed or thought through. The navigation system is a bit annoying. The graphics are also rather last gen."

"There's little to make you realise that you're playing a next gen game. The textures and details are all rather lacking and when you've got it connected to your HDTV you won't know it's in HD. The sound is also rather lacklustre. The voice acting for the main characters is good given the dialogue they're given but the voice acting for other characters is a bit weak and the sound effects and music are rather generic and not very memorable.

All in all it's difficult to recommend this title to anyone. If you're a hard-core fan of the comics and films you might find something to enjoy here. I'd suggest you rent it or pick it up from the bargain bin though rather than paying full price for this. I'd guess that there will be plenty of second hand copies before too long."

Limbo of the Lost - 0/10-From Graham's PC review: "Given the new found popularity Limbo of the Lost has gained over recent weeks this may go down as a cult classic. However that’s not to say that the game is so bad it's good, the game is so bad it's an insult."

"Majestic Studios should not only pull the game from the shelves, if it had any decency it would erase the entire Limbo of the Lost process from the mind of anyone unfortunate enough to have played through it. The Plan 9 from Outer Space of games if you will. But make no mistake about it Limbo is a very poor game that never rewards the time that one puts into it."

"But whether the game or not is any good is to some extent irrelevant. The developer carried out widespread theft of the work of others and tried to make money from it. Even if the gameplay was good (and believe me it isn't) this game should be erased from the face of the earth. For once I can actually see the point of lawyers (don't get excited Jack, not you). Majestic you really should be ashamed of yourself."

Turning Point: Fall of Liberty - 4/10-From Allan's PC review: "What about the game play I hear you cry? Um, there’s the rub. Shoddy graphics could be forgiven if the underlying game was fun and as you have probably guessed, it’s not. There is something very wrong with Turning Point and it isn’t just the ridiculously bad AI where the Nazis kill themselves with grenades like suicide was part of their combat training. Nor is it the fact that if you wait long enough they will always pop up from cover and make a run for you."

"It’s the overall forced feel of the game where the idea is one that could have made a good game but no-one had a clue what to do with them so decided just to have a guy running about and shooting some people who were well known baddies in the past. After all, everybody loves to take a few pot shots at the Nazis right? How can it fail? Easily."