Two tram sim tasters have appeared on Steam during the past week. Both The Tram and Elektronka: Bratislava centre trundlers produced by Czech firm ČKD Tatra. If you’ve ever visited a city in Eastern Europe there’s a good chance you’ve seen or ridden a Tatra product.
It’s an exciting time to be a bedroom bush pilot. Troubled Deadstick seems to have weathered its developmental difficulties and be maturing nicely, and Lakehopper, a boat-bellied rival, has, since entering Early Access in March, been quietly garnering praise and winning-over sceptics. Sceptics like me.
Assuming Riverview Artificial Intelligence grant me beta code access and give me the go-ahead, on The Corner later this week there’ll be some thoughts on, potentially, one of the most sophisticated wargame AIs ever made.
Deservedly popular WW2 FPS Easy Red 2 plummeted in price last week and gained a new front. Until July 29 the sizeable base game is a piffling £4. An additional fiver buys you Blood on the Danube, a rich, late-war DLC focused on Operation Spring Awakening and the Budapest Offensive.
A few telling moments from my fourteen-hours-and-counting BULT odyssey. Moment #1. It’s roughly three hours since I first set foot on the sim’s soggy Yakutian map. Yet to slay a single duck, I chance upon a promising pond in the midst of a pine wood. Surely there’s a target or two lurking here. Stealing closer to the rippled mirror, a boot-snapped branch blows my cover. There’s a kerfuffle beyond the reeds and suddenly the cruciform silhouettes of two spooked fowls flash across the patch of darkening sky overhead. Instinctively I raise and pan my 12-gauge. Tracking the shrinking shapes, I…
“Train Sim World, Train Simulator Classic, Diesel Railcar Simulator, Derail Valley, Railroader, SimRail… when it comes to rail sims, my polystyrene Travellers Fare cup already runneth over. Do I really need another one of the blessed things?”. This heretical thought crossed my mind as I waited for the surprisingly compact (2.53 GB) and fairly affordable (£18) Running Train to download. A week on I have my answer: ‘Yes. Indeed I do.’
“Time’s up, Mr. Stone.” After glancing at his PMN pocket watch and calling a halt, the geezer in the crumpled corduroy suit removes his spectacles, and starts packing up his stuff. Into the satchel goes the half-finished Battle of Kohima tapestry, the dented tartan thermos flask, and the copy of The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over the Hills. I could beg for an extension – explain that I only need a few more months of peace and quiet to finish Tally-Ho, my unripe aerial-wargame-with-a-twist – but I know there’s no point. Under that corrugated breast pocket beats a…
J is for June no-show? Tally4: Operation Mary, a Hawaii-based “military aviation thriller” promising simmy FMs, sizeable dogfights, and constantly evolving AI pilots (“The more people play, the smarter and more unpredictable the opponents become.”) was meant to enter Early Access this month. Nothing about the Steam page and forum suggests an imminent catapult launch. Maybe the lack of news is a consequence of a nascent publishing deal; Tally4 looks like just the sort of project that would pique MicroProse’s curiosity.