London calling

If anything is guaranteed to make a patriotic English wargamer’s blood boil, it’s the sight of a Nazi flag flying over Buck House. Yesterday, a few hours after watching the Red Arrows stripe the sky over the King’s unpretentious London crib, I returned to the Mall in the company of a force of tea-fuelled commandos and far-from-formidable British tanks.

The scenario I played is one of eight focused on the palace included in the latest Firefight update. As mad as a box of Duchy Originals organic frogs, said update introduces nine new urban maps, each of which serves as the setting for eight authored engagements and any number of custom skirmishes.

Sean O’Connor hasn’t attempted to depict locations such as central Paris, Amsterdam, Warsaw, and Cambridge as they were during WW2 – the street plans are modern – or concoct sensible back stories for the battles. However, as his Close Combat-reminiscent creation already offers over two hundred essentially historical scraps, and this is an unexpected free gift, fans of “one of the most human and dramatic” tactical wargames around, aren’t complaining.

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Hopefully, London Cab will offer equestrian realism as well as Victorian cliches. As I’ve pointed out in the past, the game industry’s obsession with motorised vehicles, means vast swathes of fascinating transport history have never been properly explored.

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Talking of Victorian London, did you know it’s possible to visit the Great Exhibition of 1851 without lifting a butt cheek?

Designed for VR but perfectly playable without a headset, Hooked Wit’s free recreation of Prince Albert’s trendsetting expo is a work-in-progress that regularly gains new carefully researched  exhibits.

You can use a teleport system to move around Joseph Paxton’s huge glasshouse quickly, but I recommend aimless exploration. Be sure to click on exhibits that interest you, as this often triggers illuminating audio descriptions.

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Yoomurjak’s Ring has reminded me that I rather enjoy point-and-click adventuring. Once I’m finished in Hungary, I’m planning to spend some time in Ellingby House in London. Made by a British father and son team, this £8.50 offering hasn’t exactly taken Steam by storm, but the few reviews it has managed to garner are filled with praise.