its multiplayer aspect being similar to that of the older Quake games, being called by GameSpot as a more of a "throwback to the days of the original Quake" with the feel of "deja vu". Upon its release, Painkiller received "PC Game of the Month" awards from Game Informer and GameSpot, "Editors Choice" from GameSpy, Computer Games Magazine and PC Zone, and "Kick Ass Product" from Maximum PC. Computer Games Magazine named Painkiller the third-best computer game of 2004. The editors wrote, "Painkiller is dumb turned up to 11, but it reaches a rarefied level of dumb where it flips around to become genius." It was a runner-up for the magazine's "Best Art Direction" award. It received a runner-up position in GameSpot's 2004 "Best Shooter" category across all platforms, losing to Half-Life 2. In May 2008, Painkiller was featured on Escapist Magazine'''s weekly review series Zero Punctuation. Reviewer Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, known for his acerbic reviews, stated that Painkiller was an example of an excellent first-person shooter game, praising its removal of aspects such as key hunting and fetch side quests in favor of "pure genocidal fun." Seemingly hours after the review, the Painkiller banner found on the Steam Store appeared on the front page, now sporting the tag "All you really need to know is that there is a gun that shoots shurikens and lightning...", a quote from the review. In 2010, UGO included the game on the list of the 42 Best Games Ever.Battle out of Hell was also met with a positive response but with less only being an expansion pack. While some were enthusiastic over the new content, like Game Informer even saying "If I had to pick a game to be the poster child for the concept of expansion packs, Painkiller: Battle Out Of Hell might well be it", others like GameSpot found some of the levels not as interesting as the original saying "for the most part, much of the rest of the game is kind of bland" but still found "Great Painkiller gameplay mostly intact". They also pointed out longer loading times and "aggravating" puzzles. Upon the release in 2006 of the Xbox port Hell Wars, many were generally pleased with its translation while others found some issues. IGN were not favourable towards the "Environmental textures" that "don't do much to enhance the experience" and even found the port to have additional bugs