I’ve enjoyed Arcane Alpacas’ £13 (until Aug 27) homage to Delta Force from the outset, but I’m enjoying it even more since leaving Alaska. The venues in the Nukes in the North campaign were often gloomy and grassy, making spotting foes surprisingly tricky. As vegetation tends to be sparse and skies cloudless in Drug Disruption’s Mexican levels, there’s less chance of blundering into trouble.
According to Steam I’ve spent sixteen hours with Korea IL-2 so far. During that time I believe I’ve downed just three swept-wing interceptors. This meagre tally of MiG-15s and F-86s is partly a consequence of play choices (Much of my time has been spent flying the history-smothered Mustang and Shooting Star-focused ‘Home by Christmas’ scripted campaign) and partly down to a lack of practice (it’s a while since I last combat flightsimmed in earnest), but it also reflects just how difficult it is to kill small, swift, nimble jets using nothing but nose-mounted MGs and autocannons.
Two of itch.io’s latest TBT tasters prove that hex wargames don’t need exotic themes or unorthodox mechanics in order to entertain and evoke. The two-scenario Broken Front alpha demo recreates the kind of small-scale post-D-Day clashes that most of us will have orchestrated thousands of times before. And yet, somehow, chaperoning the game’s predictable cast of Shermans, infantry squads, mortars, and AT guns, still manages to be engrossing.
Two new releases vied for my attention over the weekend. Korea: IL-2 had me reaching for my screenshot key every few minutes, but when it came to seeding smiles and producing the good kind of forehead corrugations, it was Nick Nieuwoudt’s dieselpunk artillery sim that came out on top.
GenAIs such as Grok and Gemini are already perfectly capable of coding the vitals of computer wargames… the GUIs, the LoS systems, the AIs. How long will it be before they can spot promising untapped historical themes the way a human designer can? Judging by my perfunctory research, that time may already have arrived!
O is for On War: Stalingrad. I like the sound of Tomislav Čipčić’s next operational offering. The Croatian dev behind the elegant Attack at Dawn: North Africa believes he can deliver a deep Eastern Front wargame that is also “readable, understandable, and enjoyable”. Presumably, like its parched predecessor, On War: Stalingrad will let players switch from turnless to WEGO mode whenever they please.
Steamed on Friday and esteemed (by me) since yesterday, Pistols at Dawn is an inexpensive (£4) and ingenious turn-based pistol duelling game. By thoughtfully placing numbered tokens and special coins on a clockface-style board, you attempt to move your crosshairs onto your opponent’s silhouette and edge their reticle away from your outline.
To qualify for a Dusty But Trusty article, a game must be old enough to vote in Nicaragua, buy tobacco in Djibouti, and make the beast with two backs in Nepal. More importantly, it must be demonstrably super, smashing, great, ace, wizard, bonzer, the knees of the bee, the testicles of the dog, and the whiskers and pyjamas of the cat. You don’t need rose-tinted pince-nez or a cutting-edge pixel pump to enjoy 24 karat golden oldies like… GT Legends.