The Crew: Wild Run

This expansion pack makes Ubisoft's racer -- middling when originally released -- noticeably better. The graphical improvements don't quite bring it up to the bar-setting standards of contemporary competitors such as Need for Speed, but they'll likely be appreciated by anyone who played the original. The new vehicle specs are a lot of fun. Drag racing -- mostly just a series of well-timed button taps -- is a bit of a one-trick pony, but monster truck events are a blast. And drifting takes advantage of The Crew's unusually wide roads to let players swing skillfully around even right-angle turns. Motorcycles are a little stiff, but they open up new possibilities when you're zipping through busy streets. And the Summit is a great way to keep luring players back on a regular basis to pit their skills against the rest of the community.

The real question is whether it's worth the price. The expansion alone is $25, which is a bit steep for what you get -- especially since the visual updates are free for all existing users. That makes it hard to recommend. But you can now purchase both the game and the expansion together in The Crew: Wild Run Edition for only $40, which is a great deal for open-world racing fans who haven't yet picked it up. It's proof that waffling on whether to buy a game sometimes pay off.