L is for Lacking linesmen. Football Referee Simulator almost earned itself a Police Week article. Until Referee Simulator and Football Referee Simulator 26 arrive, Vladimir Pilashkun’s 2D effort has the ref sim genre pretty much to itself. Because you don’t get assistant referees for your seventy new pence, some of the trickiest decisions in FRS relate to throw-ins and offsides.

And because the decision rating system is somewhat rigid and opaque, emulating in-game the kind of light-touch oversight that helps keep real football matches flowing, can be difficult.

That said, the highly-condensed matches are very watchable and have a moreish quality that put me in mind of Football, Tactics & Glory, and it’s refreshing to play a sports diversion that doesn’t demand manual dexterity, deep pockets, or serious application.

M is for MicroProse taking the Michael?

I don’t remember playing or reviewing The History Channel: Battle of Britain – World War II 1940 when it launched in 2003. Although I’m guessing it was a weak WarBirds spin-off that couldn’t hold a candle to Rowan’s Battle of Britain (2000), I’ll probably give MicroProse’s £6 re-release a quick test-drive just to check. Obviously, this elderly iEntertainment sim lets you fly versions of iconic BoB aircraft such as the Hurricane, Spitfire, Bf-109, and… B-17?

N is for Novel FPV drone sim

Wireframe offers something no other drone sim offers: randomly generated urban venues. If it didn’t insist on a real RC radio for control I’d probably be playing it incessantly at the moment. Hopefully, once developer Nate Harms is done adding things like combat and racing to his creation, he will turn his attention to gamepad, Spektrum InterLink, and keyboard/mouse support.

O is for Onerous options fiddling

As Firefighting Simulator: Ignite’s technical issues forum isn’t awash with graphics complaints, it appears the problems that have blighted my first session, might be peculiar to my system. After sixty minutes of graphics options faffing, while I’m now reasonably happy with the framerates, the fuzzy-edged shadows and mitten-handed colleagues remain distracting.

P is for Professional Fishing 2

The latest angling sim to hit Steam is Polish through and through. If you’ve ever flung a float or towed a lure in the Masurian Lake District or Tatra National Park or wanted to, Early Access demo-blessed Professional Fishing 2 has to be, at the very least, worth trying. The dev plans to add Vistula estuary and Bug River maps in future, and claims to be a moderate where difficulty/realism is concerned: “Some want the game to be easier with faster bites, while others want it to be more difficult. I won’t be able to satisfy everyone 🙂 My goal is to make something in between — not too hard, but not too easy either.”