The already aging real time strategy Battle Realms is on its last leg. The expansion did little to remake and fix any of the problems that this title was facing. The only thing that makes this expansion worth your time is the tiny amount of campaigns and units included. Most notable is the fact that there are hardly any new animated scenes, and no music/game content changes. The barbarian looking oafs happen to be the new units. These Stone Age warriors just don't match up to Kenji and his samurai warriors found in the first game.

There really were no additions to game play. It was a solid engine based on the same concepts of every other RTS on the market. One exception is that the mineral harvesting is different. Instead of gathering minerals, rice needs to be harvested in this game. I truly hope that Liquid Entertainment realizes they are no competition in this genre populated with titles like Warcraft, Starcraft, and Command & Conquer. The only thing that holds the title afloat is its fan base. However, with such a poor enhancement to an aging dog, I assume it is nearing the end of an overdue death. I for one say, "Farewell Battle Realms."

Nothing new was worth looking at in the visual department of Winter of the Wolf. This is an extremely fatal error. None of the new terrains deserved a second glance. Of course they managed to cram a few new levels and other extras in the tutorial, hardly worthy of being labeled an expansion.

You will see a new assortment of flashy intros and installation screens that are breathtaking; and the in game menus that are just darn right awesome. But as soon as you leave this aspect to load a game, the eye candy amusement park ride is cut short. The in-game graphics, which were dull at best, have not changed in the slightest; they are still ugly, and poorly animated. Another drop kick to this title is the building animations haven’t been changed either. The roughly 3 second animation of some tiny music note or fire from the house are the extent of the building animations, quite weak. Overall there are a few new units that are added with there own animations, but that is where it all comes to an end.

Where did we leave off on the original? Ah, that's right, a prescription to painkillers for my headache. Yet again, Winter of the Wolf falls short of anything spectacular in the sound department. The differences in the sounds from the original to the expansion are not even noticeable at first. As you continue through the scenarios you will quickly notice the new voice acting of an assortment of characters is quite delicious to any gamer, all of which relate to the story of Kenji and his attempt to rebuild a lost city. I dare you to try read their lips, hah! Lip-sync isn’t there, but I wouldn’t bash a title on this alone. Even though there are new units, they only have a few new lines to say. The old unit’s sound effects seem to grow on you. I'm not saying that they are anything out of the ordinary, or spectacular for that matter. When your solider dies you just grow accustomed to the screech they give. To bad more attention wasn’t paid to the rest of the game. Maybe I was wishing for a bit to much, but I had hope in being able to hear sounds from the building, the animals from the trees, and just simple things like this that seem to always get overlooked. When it comes down to it, this update as I will call it, just doesn’t offer much in the music/sound category.