Bladestorm: The Hundred Years' War

The combat, which at first glance looks like a button-mashing Dynasty Warriors affair, is actually way less interactive and exciting than that longstanding franchise. Whether you're fighting on the side of the all-powerful Edward the Black Prince or the lovely yet deadly Joan of Arc, you simply press a button on the gamepad and then watch your custom-created mercenary (who has the option to take contracts from either party throughout the game) and his or her allies whack away until the slow-moving attack meter is full again. And the wait to strike again is hardly worth it, as the combat here sports no style whatsoever (even when you activate Bladestorm's extremely limited magical abilities such as Ice and Fury). By the end of our time with this one, we were actually hoping the fighting was more of a true hack-n-slash offering like in all of those Dynasty Warriors titles (yeah, we're surprised to be asking for Koei's old combat recipe, too).

Fresh ideas can't save Bladestorm from mediocrity.

Bladestorm is fun, for the most part. If it had a little more polish and fewer technical flaws, we might go so far as to say that this is one of the finest KOEI games we've seen in a while. The change of pace and game direction is incredibly refreshing, so fans of the various Warriors games may want to give this one a shot, especially because those fans are probably used to overlooking technical disappointments. And, in the end, we're total suckers for Joan of Arc. Come on, she's just too cool.