IGN

Turning Point: Fall of liberty is a shining example of a great idea poorly executed. There is fun to be had with the game, but it's not the grand adventure it claims to be. Shooting Nazis in the streets of three major U.S. cities should be a non-stop thrill ride that has me on the edge of my seat. This game provides the opposite experience. If you're a die-hard WWII buff (or zeppelin fetishist), give this one a rent. Otherwise, skip it and read a Harry Turtledove novel instead.

A better fusion of casual and hardcore gameplay styles would be difficult to come by, particularly one with such boundless source material. The game is yours to manipulate as it readily acquiesces to your mood, making it worth playing on nearly any occasion, for any reason, for any person.

There was an opportunity to make Lost Planet on the PS3 an incredible experience, fixing many of the bugs that plagued the 360 and PC versions and making this the version to get. Unfortunately, it comes across more like a bare boned port of an action title, with weak controls, bland and unimpressive visuals, and significant frame rate issues in both the single and multiplayer versions of the game. If you're looking to play this game, you might be better served on one of the other systems than the PS3 version.

Frontlines: Fuel of War is clearly deeply dependent on its gameplay to bring home the bacon. Its single-player performs well enough to get players to work their way through for the achievement points it’s the multiplayer that will hook some FPS fanatics. If you can forget about the fact that you’ve been playing this style game for years with the Battlefield franchise then Frontlines will hook you for some time with its gargantuan battles, but for most Fuel of War will likely be too generic to truly sink their teeth into.

Rail Simulator is a piece of software that seems to accomplish what it set out to do. It doesn't do it with much panache, graphical or otherwise, but it gets it done. You drive trains, and build worlds to drive them in.

The History Channel: Battle for the Pacific isn't necessarily an atrocious game, but it just isn't that fun and brings so very little to the table. There are numerous FPS games out there now that are highly worth your time. Try them. Leave Battle for the Pacific on the shelf, unless you're legally bound to own every World War II-related videogame ever made. If that's the case, I feel bad for you.

The combat is genuinely rewarding and free from the rock-paper-scissors design of most games, which leaves the player free to focus on more sophisticated tactics. It's true that the game is specifically designed for players to make war on each other, so that might turn off some peace-minded 4Xers, but happily we don't fall into that category. In other words, if you like awesome strategy games, then you'll love Sins of a Solar Empire.

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic Elements tells a formulaic story atop repetitive gameplay and is troubled by frequent technical problems. There's some truly fun melee combat and treasure hunting buried deep within the game, but the joy of killing the same enemies over and over, environmentally or not, quickly wears thin. If you're looking for a smooth, snappy, fantasy action game with true RPG elements, keep looking.

If you're a passionate Dynasty Warriors fan, you're probably going to grab a copy of this game regardless of what I write here. Generally, this title delivers just about the same experience that the previous games delivered, so fans should give it a try. Otherwise, I had more fun with Dynasty Warriors: Gundam, which I would recommend to those new to the franchise but looking for a "better" button-mashing experience.

Pirates will definitely offer up something you haven't quite seen before. It's highly original and it takes a lot of chances that pay off handsomely. The real time ship combat is awesome in its tactical complexity and the player economy is deeper than we've seen in just about any other game. Unfortunately, the sword combat feels tacked-on and really cramps our swashbuckling groove.