A is for Awfully big snap. In 2006 six artists turned an abandoned USMC hangar in California into the world’s largest pinhole camera and used it to create the world’s biggest print photograph. While free sim The Great Picture doesn’t shed any light on the technical challenges the artists overcame (lightproofing the hangar required 24,000 square feet of black polythene, developing and fixing the image 1,800 gallons of chemicals and a stupidly large tray) it does let you inspect the giant snap and roam the camera’s interior pondering the silly things humans do in the name of art.

B is for Broken Front breaks cover

Bijou WW2 hex-em-up Broken Front burst onto Steam earlier today. Sporting seven scenarios, a four-map skirmish mode, and an editor, it obviously can’t compete with the likes of The Troop and Second Front, but, if my experience with the alpha demo is any guide, it will justify its modest £3 price tag with ease.

C is for Chilled and Chilean

If Crosswinds, an upcoming Thirties flight game from Chile, contains thrilling dogfights and nerve-shredding bombing runs, it’s doing a good job of keeping them under its flying helmet. Apart from a fleeting glimpse of air-to-air action in the trailer, there’s nothing to suggest the “pleasant and relaxing flying”, “narrative-driven romantic adventure”, and “cozy cafe atmosphere” will be interrupted by occasional bursts of Crimson Skies-style furballing.

D is for Dinky and dear

I can’t believe Hunted Cow and HexWar Games are asking eighteen quid for Take That Hill, a hex wargame ‘primer’ with a miniscule board, a paltry scenario selection, and a barely discernable AI. Ignore some optional elements and rules, and essentially you’re getting two very short attack missions for your money.

E is for Essex expansion

It looks like Korea IL-2 won’t be without straight-wing hellraisers such as the Panther, Skyraider, and Corsair for long. Scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2027, Korea IL-2’s first DLC will introduce five flyable naval aircraft, an AI-only heli, and a US carrier to the sim. Presumably, the Hawker Sea Furies will operate from a rebadged version of the Essex-class CV.

F is for Finer Fortress firmaments

MicroProse keep plugging away at their B-17 Flying Fortress: The Mighty 8th Redux. In Early Access for two and a half years and currently on sale, the project recently benefited from a significant terrain and firmament overhaul. Although it appears the sim still can’t conjure up convincing cumulus, the new code replaces the old sky domes with a more modern and versatile Bruneton-style system that allows real celestial mechanics. Now the position of the sun and moon accurately reflects time, date, and aircraft position.

G is for Ground Drone Operator

Vladyslav Fomenko, the Dnipro dev responsible for Remote Reaper, a military quadcopter sim with a ‘Very Positive’ Steam reception, is planning to replicate his country’s perambulating drones as well as its flying ones. Ground Drone Operator: Ground Robotic System Simulator has a Q2, 2027 release date and, by the look of it, a fair bit in common with tank sims.

H is for Hog hint

How to levitate a hedgehog in the unpersuasive Lawn Mowing Simulator 2 demo: Using the leafblower drive a drift of fallen leaves into the corner behind the tree. When the leaf pile magically transforms into a scared hedgepig gently raise the animal into the air with your backpack galemaker while singing…

“Love lift us up where we belong
Where the weevils sigh
On a fencepost high.”

I is for Irish Sport Manager

What makes a native New Yorker decide to devote their debut game to two Irish sports – Gaelic football and hurling? Well, John Troy’s favourite PC diversions include Football Manager, Out of the Park Baseball, and Eastside Hockey Manager, and as a youngster he was introduced to Eire’s pitch pastimes while visiting Galway in the company of a friend with Irish parents. The demo-blessed, unusually holistic ISM models the women’s codes (ladies’ football and camogie) just as thoroughly as it models the men’s. That means a recruiting pool restricted by geography rather than wallet size: “Squad selection is not shopping. It’s choosing among the thirty people you have and answering for the choice in front of a county board that remembers. Players sit exams in May and go missing from training. Jobs take weeks back off you. You can sit a player down and try to talk him out of emigrating for one more season, and sometimes it works.”

J is for Jam jabber

Why isn’t banana jam big in Europe or North America? Until I learned of its existence via this Beans and Alpacas infographic, I’d naively assumed lemon curd was the only yellow fruit spread. I’m now picturing banana jam roly-poly, chocolate cake with banana jam filling, and toffee ice-cream with banana jam ripples. I’m not convinced I need Farming Simulator’s next add-on in my life. Banana jam on the other hand…

K is for Kalar at war

Known for its turn-based portrayals of battles such as Stalingrad and Dien Bien Phu, and conflicts such as the the Spanish Civil War and the Mexican-American War, Strategy Game Studio has earned the right to thumb its nose at history for a spell.‘Coming soon’ SGS Burning Banners will be a rifle, tank, and aircraft-free zone, and should sell well assuming SGS adapt faithfully and AI code deftly.

L is for Limited appeal?

Justifying the purchase of this handsome new sim controller set (which may or may not go into production) could be tricky. While it perfectly echoes the cab furniture of the streetcars in likeable Tramcity Hakodate, as most modern trams are operated using a T-bar controller and/or foot pedals, it’s not a great match for titles such as City Transport Simulator. Cornerites, do you own any seriously specialised controllers?

M is for Marble monstrosity

There was some truly awful art in the 1851 Great Exhibition. Because Hooked Wit is out to recreate everything that was plinthed or hung in the Crystal Palace, it was only a matter of time before Theodor Kalide’s controversial ‘masterpiece’ ‘Bacchante on the Panther’ appeared in-game. Said statue emerged from WW2 minus most of its limbs but still as daft and sleazy as ever.

N is for Napoleonic command sim soldiers on

In one of his latest vids, JC of Real and Simulated Wars reminded his viewers that HistWar: Napoleon is still alive, kicking, and, in certain respects, incomparable. As it’s over a decade since I last played one of Jean-Michel Mathe’s creations and my memories of them are very blurry, perhaps it’s time I took another look.

O is for Outlaws echoes

It would be tragic if Fallen Sun Arcade didn’t go on to make a full-sized Western FPS. The free demo-sized Sands of Skullcreek suggests such a game would be well worth playing. Featuring challenging gunplay, a profoundly satisfying double-barrelled shotgun (press LMB and RMB at the same time to fire both barrels simultaneously), and some priceless cutscenes, SoS takes around an hour to complete at ‘medium’ difficulty.

P is for Printer and pal required

In Over the Radio, Polygoose’s upcoming flight curio, one player handles the plane while the other navigates with the aid of a paper map. Judging from the screenshots and vague Steam blurb, missions will resemble aerial orienteering challenges.‘Overfly a series of landmarks in the correct order to win’ sort-of-thing.

Q is for Quick fag card

Released into the wild a few months before the outbreak of WW2, the fifty-card Railway Equipment set by Wills Cigarettes didn’t include many locomotive depictions. This LMS headturner earned a place because of its strange anatomy. Articulated ‘Garratts’ like 4972 combined high tractive effort with good weight distribution. Thanks to their unusual wheel arrangement and configuration (boiler, firebox and cab in centre, engine units at each end) they didn’t require turntables, could negotiate fairly tight curves, and run for long periods without emptying ash. Africa proved to be their natural habitat, a fact that may explain why they rarely feature in train sims.

R is for Racing games with cardboard roots

If the turnbased motor racing in Heat: Pedal to the Metal is as exciting as the turnbased chariot racing in Qvadriga, Mipmap Digital’s boardgame port is guaranteed a glowing review on the Corner. Talking of Qvadriga, its announced-in-2022 sequel Ancient Arenas: Chariots is now an ominous three years late.

S is for Steel Wolverines

Gyr Software isn’t the only studio working on a spiritual sequel to Steel Panthers. Eight months into development and with a demo due in a few weeks’ time, Steel Wolverines will precreate a 2030 clash between NATO and Russia on the Polish-Lithuanian border. Procedurally generated maps, plentiful drones, and detailed AFV detection, armor, ammunition, damage, and vehicle-protection systems (cope cages, APS, jammers etc.) promise to make the scraps served up by this solo project pretty memorable.

T is for Turcanesque

Blimey, free-to-play Command Doctrine sounds like a cross between Hexetera, an AI-powered omni-wargame I envisaged a couple of weeks ago, and Waterloo, the Peter Turcan classic in which players type orders rather than mouse-click destinations and targets. Not only does it use AI to fashion scenarios on-the-fly, it lets players direct units en masse or individually via typed messages. Even if its combat mechanics aren’t up to much, it’s a thought-provoking sign of things to come.

U is for Ukrainian genre blurrer

Like what you see? Made in Ukraine, RTT FPS hybrid Hell of War: Combined Arms is already trialable and should be warming PCs and dampening palms by the end of the month.

V is for Vast ride selection

As Tally-Ho Corner somehow managed to ignore Train Life and Taxi Life – Simteract’s last two endeavours – a review of Bus Simulator 27, their latest thing is a strong possibility. Already available to pre-purchasers (ordinary punters can start playing on Tuesday) it faces tough competition in the form of Bus Bound and City Transport Simulator 2026. One way it’s hoping to win converts is through an exceptionally large fleet of prototypical PCVs. Amazingly, it comes with over 45 officially licenced buses.

W is for Wintery WW2 trucking sim

Road Kings isn’t the only upcoming truck sim promising to spice-up lorry driving with a pinch of peril. In Road of Life players will help deliver the supplies that, during the Great Patriotic War, allowed Leningrad to survive 872 days of brutal siege. Naturally, we’ll be crossing frozen Lake Ladoga in a ‘polutorka’ (one-and-a-halfer) – the iconic Soviet-made version of the Ford Model AA.

X is for Xterior views only?

I’d be more excited about Harvest Skies: Crop Dusting Simulator if the odd screenshot showed a cockpit interior, and the first playtest hadn’t revealed fairly widespread FM dissatisfaction. The dev says aerodynamics improvements are underway. Hopefully, a first-person front office at launch isn’t out of the question.

Y is for Y you can expect a Soldiers at War review on THC

In the late 90s I was too obsessed with the Close Combats to give plodding, fussy alternatives like Soldiers at War a fair crack of the whip. Just in case I stupidly snubbed something special, I’ll be giving SNEG’s Steam version a thorough once-over when it arrives later this year.

Z is for Zzzzzzzzzz

If SCS Software can flourish without clogging-up Steam and incommoding their customers with annual iterations of products, I don’t see why Dovetail Games can’t do the same. If the makers of Train Sim World believe their present business model is essential, then maybe, as a compromise they could at least spare us vacuous trailers that feel like they’ve been scripted by glassy-eyed LLMs.