Bladestorm: The Hundred Years' War

It's also a very, very good videogame: another brilliant evolution of Koei's unique interpretation of the real-time strategy genre, and every bit as satisfying as previous efforts. What it lacks in terms of the speed and immediacy of, say, Gundam Musou, it makes up for with strategic range, design ingenuity, and conceptual novelty. Whether it'll sell any better than the Dynasty Warriors games, though, is anybody's guess. It certainly deserves to.

Fresh ideas can't save Bladestorm from mediocrity.

"As we've hinted at plenty of times already, Bladestorm(!) very much feels like Koei's Dynasty Warriors series. The bulk of the game has you slashing at hundreds of enemy soldiers on the battlefield, though with the ability to grab a group of soldiers and take them into battle, it at least does introduce a new mechanic to the gameplay. We're not quite sold on this one yet, but we'll see what happens with the full release."

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.