Battlestations: Pacific
Naval battles are traditionally the domain of the wonkiest World War II games, but Battlestations: Pacific revels in ocean warfare without forcing players into chart-and-compass hell. There are maps with pieces to push around, sure. The wrinkle is that after pushing your F6 Hellcat piece toward some approaching Japanese Zero pieces, you can hop in the cockpit and shoot the bastards down yourself.
Single-player mode offers an American story that picks up near the end of the war and a Japanese campaign that starts over from Pearl Harbor. In spite of voice acting that dips into buck-toothed caricature, the latter option puts together a convincing history of how Japan could have won the war. Even in this alternate universe, Pacific places realism above cheap thrills: While it’s exciting to crash a kamikaze plane into a destroyer, a successful Japanese Navy rarely resorts to such desperate measures. The more outlandish tactics find a home in multiplayer modes that allow players more room for experimentation.