If you're the type of person who enjoys video games as a form of escapism, then you may have found the first entry in Activision's True Crime series a bit of a head-scratcher. Of all places, the game was set in Los Angeles--otherwise known as the most frequent butt of jokes about traffic jams and endless urban sprawl. While the game itself proved to be a fairly entertaining action romp, it's hard to deny that the setting could have been a tad more exotic. It's a different situation, however, for the upcoming True Crime reboot from United Front Games. Set in the vibrant metropolis of Hong Kong, the next True Crime--this one free of subtitles--has you taking on the role of an undercover cop attempting to infiltrate the notorious Triads that plague this dense and colorful city.

When you hear the name Toy Soldiers, it might conjure images of the diminutive green army that emerges from a bucket in Toy Story or perhaps remind you of Martika's '80s hit of the same name. Unsurprisingly, the stars of this tower defense game have more in common with the former than with the latter, but they're not risking their green-and-tan bodies in assaults on armchairs or in the defense of dining tables. Rather, they're playing out scenarios from the First World War on battlefields that, though small enough to be towered over by desktop lamps, look a lot like the real thing. When you're not busily arranging defensive gun emplacements and the like on these dioramas, you're free to commandeer them, along with any tanks, planes, and sniper towers that you find. This makes Toy Soldiers an especially engaging entry in the tower defense genre because you have more to do than watch your defenses at work. It's also a lot of fun, and great value at 1200 Microsoft points (US$15) because it offers a Survival mode, as well as competitive multiplayer in addition to two decent-sized campaigns.