Call of Duty: Finest Hour (PlayStation 2, Xbox)

CALL OF DUTY: FINAL HOUR casts players as soldiers fighting with Allied powers against the growing Nazi threat. By presenting multiple views from the battlefront, Call of Duty: Final Hour liberates war video games from a strictly American perspective and casts it for what it really was: a world war. Players will find it a refreshing change of pace to control characters from three different Allied countries: a Russian solider defending his native Stalingrad, a British demolitions expert fighting German armor in the African desert, and an American infantryman fighting to capture a German city.

Call of Duty: Final Hour sets itself apart from the pack by replicating, if only in flashes, the scary vulnerability and frantic rush for survival depicted in the opening scene of Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan." The sharply rendered environments leave players unable to easily identify threats or find safe positions to protect themselves. This war game delivers its share of fighting and killing, though the Teen rating means there is less blood or gore than in Mature-rated games. But that's little solace for a parent watching their child sit behind a mounted machine gun and mow down person after person as they jump a barricade.

Archival footage of the war and an authoritative voice over infuse a degree of gravitas to what is otherwise a relentless exercise in shooting and killing. If you're looking to mix a history lesson into you child's virtual pursuits, you could certainly do worse than Call of Duty: Final Hour. Just don't forget that history has delivered its share of violence.