Oh, the fun we’ve had calling it ‘Battlestations: Specific’. It was only about two minutes of fun, mind, but it brightened up an otherwise dull day. So, here we are with Battlestations: Pacific, the sequel to the mediocre Battlestations: Midway, which was criticised for being bland and light on the whole strategy aspect. Battlestations: Pacific takes place just after the events in Midway and sees the US fighting off the Japanese in such historical battles as the Battle of Santa Cruz, which saw the sinking of the USS Hornet and the destruction of a major part of the Japanese air force.

As before you’ll be the one directing the battles, ordering your air force and navy where to go and what to attack. With around 20,000 square feet of open water to fight for, you can see that these massive battles are just that – massive. The single-player campaign is also huge with around 28 different battles to win, and you can choose to be either the Americans or the Japanese.

Each side has their advantages and disadvantages, and furthering the strategic play is the pluses and minuses of each individual aeroplane, battleship and submarine. Will it still be possible to smash your periscope off on the bottom of a boat? We’re not sure at this stage, but we’re really intrigued to find out. Like in Midway, your boats, planes and submarines can mostly take care of themselves and will do their best to see off the enemy attacks. But they’ll only be able to do so much without your guidance, and if you want to gain ‘ground’ then you’re going to have to do a bit of shouting. Metaphorical shouting, though, we really mean you’ll have to press a lot of buttons to get your navy where you need them to be and what you want them to attack.

If that seems a bit impersonal for you, then you can always jump into one of the planes and go on a bombing or strafing run. Doing so will help you win a lot more quickly than if you just watch from the sidelines like some fat general ordering his troops to their certain death. You can also man the huge cannons on the battleships to shoot enemy planes out of the sky and enemy ships out of the water. Or you can always dive under the water and start torpedoing enemy ships from the relative safety of a submarine – just watch out for the depth charges.

The water itself looks a bit better than the flat grey expanse that was in Battlestations: Midway, although, to be fair, that was a game developed for the original Xbox and then ported to the 360, so we can excuse it for looking a little shabby. The graphical upgrade extends itself to all the incredibly accurate ship, submarine and aeroplane models. And this time you’ll be able to tell if you’ve damaged them or not, which was a problem with Battlestations: Midway, as ships would suddenly sink with it looking like you hadn’t hit them. But now chunks of them can be blown off and the explosions are a lot more realistic.

Hopefully, Battlestations: Pacific will be a great improvement over Midway that will unleash the armchair general in us all and won’t end up rusting at the bottom of the sea.