U is for Undeserved neglect. Sometimes I’m so busy searching out the obscure and quirky, I fail to give the megafauna of the sim and wargame fields the attention it deserves. SCS Software, the studio that almost singlehandedly created the truck sim genre, is in the process of sidestepping into two adjacent genres. The following vids suggest both Road Trip – a new car-based exploration mode for American Truck Simulator unlocked through purchase of add-ons like this one– and Coaches – a self-explanatory ETS2 DLC – are going to be unmissable.

V is for Very tempting roadmap

Bad Pixels, an Early Access Wild West FPS that manages to evoke the 1980s while evoking the 1880s, has a wonderful aesthetic, a wicked sense of humour, and a promising roadmap. Here are a few screenshots of me and my three deputies (every townsperson is a potential assistant) cleaning up Bogburg in Mission #1.

W is for When night falls…

…the highly entertaining Dagger Directive morphs into a quite different creature. The other evening I spent several happy hours padding around starlit villages, railyards, and factory complexes with an MP5 in my mitts and night-vision goggles on my head. Foes never seem to use NVGs but their tactical weapon lights mean you sometimes find yourself temporarily blinded, blazing away at angry will-o-the-wisps. The fact that flashlights sometimes shine through walls is regretable, but it doesn’t prevent DD serving up gripping nocturnal action.

X is for Xtreme xhilaration

I see TT Isle of Man is available for next to nothing on Steam at the moment. If you’ve not encountered it before, it comes with one of the longest, most convincing and most thrilling tracks ever to grace a race sim. It sounds like perverse advice, but I recommend switching-off the ‘race line’ aid (found under ‘RIDING STYLE’ in the options menu) before tackling the sixty kilometre Snaefell Mountain Course for the first time.

Its garishness plays havoc with the sim’s marvellous Manx atmosphere, and the GUI track map in the bottom-left corner of the screen is a fairly decent substitute.

Y is for Yearning for a Steel Panthers sequel?

Equipped with more than twenty WW2 scenarios and a custom battle mode, the decidedly pantherine Steel Company demo is generous to a fault. Sadly, what it’s not, at present at least, is easy on the eyes. Indistinct sprites sans toggleable bases or outlines make it painfully difficult to find and ID forces on battlefields that aren’t draped in snow.

Z is for Zambala

I’ll probably give Zambala a try when it comes out in December. Twenty-five years in the making (“I started designing this game decades ago, inspired by a few old PBM wargames I used to play back in the day.”) Ratbyte’s debut casts you as a faction leader in a fictional African country on the verge of civil war. It sounds like winning the hearts and minds of the populace will be every bit as important as winning battles, and spies, assassins, and corrupt journos will be just as useful as soldiers and airmen.