Q is for Quick tea card. For a spell in 1962, boxes of Brooke Bond tea contained colourful portraits of ‘Asian Wildlife’. Illustrated and written by well-known nature artist Charles Tunnicliffe, the 50-card set included this striking image of Pakistan’s national animal, the markhor. Today, outside of zoos and ranches, the ‘snake eater’ is only found in a scatter of small, mountainous areas in Central and Southern Asia. Its magnificent headgear and remarkable agility afford it some protection against predators like snow leopards, but are of little use in ‘contests’ with trophy hunters.
R is for Road trips in American Truck Simulator
Letting deskbound drivers swap HGVs for smaller rides isn’t exactly a new idea in the truck sim sector, but when the devs toying with the idea are SCS Software, and the sim slated for diversification is as strong, sprawling, and popular as American Truck Simulator, giddy excitement seems like the only appropriate response. Although we don’t yet know exactly how road trips will work, thanks to this appeal to pick-up owners, we do have a pretty good idea of the kind of vehicles the Czech sim-smiths are intending to introduce.
S is for Silly state subsidy
I managed thirty minutes of Tank Operations – Diary of War before the combination of hackneyed gameplay and historical illiteracy, broke my will. Astonishingly, this new £17 Panzer General-like was co-funded by German taxpayers to the tune of 185,000 Euros. Where did the money go, I wonder. Judging by the fact the El Alamein battle I tried, insists US forces played a pivotal role in keeping Rommel out of Egypt in 1942, none of it was spent on history books.
T is for “This game is my life’s work”
Fundamental FM improvements, four new steeds, boats and torpedoes, an aircraft editor…. the next version of WW2 air combat sim Sky on Fire is “coming very soon” and sounds like it’s going to be an essential download.
U is for “Unbiased and respectful”
Johan Nagel’s latest COIN wargame has come to the attention of both BelfastLive and The Irish News. Talking to the latter, the dev emphasised that his creation was no “shoot-em-up” and said he was “expecting some kick-back”.
Tagged onto the end of the Irish News piece is some cautious criticism from Relatives For Justice. Looking at the way Early Access NI74 abstracts, for example, rubber bullet use, it’s hard to argue that the game isn’t inadvertently sanitising aspects of The Troubles at present.
Mark Thompson… no relation to the infamous Jack Thompson, by any chance? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_(activist)
Please excuse the off-topic, but do you agree that Jack’s so-called activism campaigns (against Bully, GTA, etc) were nothing more than paid publicity stunts; classic textbook cases in viral marketing? I mean, considering the extra attention in the media (TV, newspapers) and huge sales boost it gave Rockstar (due to the desired “Streisand Effect”)? Especially after it came out that Jack is/was a shareholder on the board of Rockstar Games himself! It’d be interesting to know exactly how much Rockstar paid him to do it, does anyone know? I was always curious about that. He surely made millions and millions, so getting disbarred was the least of his worries when he’s sipping Mai Tai’s in Jamaica all day with Bill and Mark. Well done Jack, you fooled ’em all (except me, haha).