CHROMEHOUNDS
Sega, Xbox 360, $59.99
Giant robots. Guns. Explosions. Everything good in life can (mostly) be found in Sega’s mech simulator, Chromehounds, which takes place in an alternate reality where the Cold War never ended and blue jeans still cost an exorbitant amount of rubles. In this single-player game, you run through a series of training exercises familiarizing you with six different ‘hound’ types, ranging from scouts to heavy gunners, and then you stomp around bombing enemy forces and buildings seemingly made of pudding. You are also able to build your own hound with parts acquired throughout the campaign, but the mechs provided to you are often better than what you could build yourself. It all wears thin quickly, but online the game is an extremely satisfying team-based frag fest… if you’re willing to devote large chunks of time to the experience. You can join a squad of six gearheads to challenge other teams for control of land in a persistent online campaign, but if your team isn’t on the same page, you’ll quickly be sent to the scrapheap, and possibly the poorhouse (losing deducts funds from a virtual bank account). Ultimately, Chromehounds is worthwhile only for the geekiest of mecha geeks, those who have time to invest building bots and getting online. (Like they do anything else, anyway.) Ryan Rayhill
www.chromehounds.com

Love: Giant robots, online team battles
Hate: Crappy solo campaign
Final Word: Half-baked ’hound