A is for Air Combat Legends, a retro jet sim with US Navy Fighters and F29 Retaliator on its mood board. In addition to cardigan-snagging low-poly airframes, developer Enlite Games have promised two genre rarities – squadron management, and dynamic campaigns with fluid front-lines.
B is for Bevy of B-17 sims
If MicroProse doesn’t pick up the pace with B-17 Flying Fortress The Bloody 100th and The Mighty Eighth VR, it might find some of its thunder has been half-inched by Indub’s Fortress foray. Although a playtest in the summer revealed flight model failings and a few scenic anachronisms linked to Google Earth meshes and textures, the solo dev behind The Brave Few appears responsive and determined. Which is more than can be said for Big Cheese Studio. The outfit that announced B-17 Squadron in 2021 now seem more interested in crafting cookery games than working on their Fort title.
C is for Clobbered by *********
That’ll teach me. After softening-up South Georgia with a couple of Seaslugs, I foolishly assumed the first mission in Sea Power’s new Falklands War campaign would be a stroll in the park. HMS Antrim and her crew ended up paying a high price for my complacency. D18 is one of numerous Eighties-era Royal Navy vessels added to SP this week by a hefty free update.
D is for Don’t cut
Augmented with its latest DLC, can Arma Reforger give top rally sims like DiRT Rally 2.0 and Assetto Corsa Rally a run for their money? Unsurprisingly, no. However, a ‘Mostly Positive’ Steam reception shows that many Arma owners are willing to overlook the handling flaws, poor controller configuration facilities, and lack of co-drivers and pacenotes.
E is for Euro Truck Simulator 2 expansions
ETS2 has spawned two highly anticipated add-ons this week. Many are calling Iceland the game’s most scenic location yet, and early buyer feedback suggests Coaches has what it takes to transform SCS Software’s aging favourite into one of the PC’s premier PCV sims.
F is for Football Manager with Brylcreem boys
Don’t be put off by Squadron CO’s generic presentation. An AI assistant might have handled the graphics and coding, but a sensitive, history-steeped human is behind the design. Despite using nothing but text, the human in question, Frederic Janik, manages to convey the drama and consequences of WW2 air warfare remarkably well. For instance, there’s more pathos in ten minutes of SCO than there is in ten hours of IL-2 Great Battles. If you want to play the Guadalcanal and Battle of France campaigns you’ll need to open your wallet. The short Battle of Britain campaign costs nothing.
G is for Gallipoli excursion
What the Caribou Trail demo lacks in interesting player choices, it makes up for in atmosphere, sharp dialogue, and historical honesty. Steam’s ongoing World War 1 Remembrance Day sale would feel slightly less cynical/crass if it was populated entirely by thought-provokers like the Gallipoli-themed CT.
H is for Hovering hitman
My current sim quadcopter of choice haunts Ukrainian Fight Drone Simulator’s sunflowered settlements and slays with a four-barrel shotgun rather than warheads or bombs.
As the only way to aim is by orienting the drone, and potential victims are generally good at potting hovering threats, it’s taken me a while to get competent. However, now I’ve mastered the dark art of slaying with an airborne, remotely operated pellet projector, I’m a veritable scourge.
I is for Inglenooks and timesavers
Rooted in the real, shunting puzzles have been diverting railway modellers for more than half a century. Prior to the appearance of two newcomers, Rail Mania and Freight Misconductor (pictured above, and only available in demo form at present), standalone equivalents of these ballasted brainteasers were surprisingly rare on PC. While RM has the less appealing visuals, it’s completely free, includes a handy hint system, introduces a number of ingenious twists on the classic formula, and comes with a sizeable history-tinged campaign.
J is for Jets over Jerusalem
Releasing an Israeli Air Force game – even one focused on low-altitude sightseeing (“Explore 120+ real places in Free Flight”) and decades-old combat ops (“Fly six sorties from training to historic 1967 and 1981 strikes”) – is a pretty bold move in today’s political climate. Presumably, the solo dev behind Sufa: Strike Fighter is ready for the forum lectures undoubtedly headed his way.
K is for Konduct like Karajan
Ever wondered why top orchestra conductors are paid more than top bus and train conductors? Misconductor, a gloriously original and fiendishly tricky £3 (until November 20) baton waving sim from Japan, has the answers.
L is for Lifelike loam at last?
Digger sims have been undermined by amorphous aggregates since the beginning. Might Dirt Town be the one that finally delivers sublime subsoil and blue-chip chippings? Steam page claims like “You have not felt dirt like this in a game before” seed cautious optimism.
M is for Mandatory shooter demo
Three retro FPS demos auditioned for this slot. In the end the two-level Graveheart taster was the clear winner. After all, it’s hard to say ‘no’ to a game that asks you to cull undead Scotsmen, zombie bobbies, and rabid pigeons with an armoury that includes Sterling SMGs, flare pistols, bricks, and cricket bats.
N is for Nothing but ocean
Although the Datum: Rescue One demo has taught me a thing or two about authentic SAR search patterns, and gets slightly more interesting when it asks you to find and recover a water-treading unfortunate after dark, an extremely simplistic flight model (WASD to move, SPACE and Ctrl to rise and descend) and the absence of cockpit views and sea collisions, ultimately left me hankering for SAR 4 and RotorSim.
O is for OpenOMSI
Fans of the world’s finest bus sim no longer have to put up with lousy performance and primitive lighting. Ingenious and gratis, OpenOMSI recreates OMSI 2 from the tarmac up using Rust’s multi-threaded 64-bit engine. The results are breathtaking, and bugs are being squashed at an impressive lick.
P is for Project 1815
That first-person Napoleonic commander sim we’ve been talking about for years is just over the next rise. Evidence? Project 1815, a browser-based proof-of-concept that captures the spectacle of a early Nineteenth century scrap nicely, but falls a little short in the AI dept. There’s a Steam version on the way. Presumably, like the prototype it will rely heavily on machined code.
Q is for Quick fag cards
Annoyingly, my incomplete collection of Turf Cigarettes’ ‘Sports Records’ doesn’t include the set’s most valuable card, #50, George Sisler, or those devoted to flying and gliding record-breakers. Reading the text on the reverse of the two examples pictured above you’d think plucky Brits had reached the South Pole first, and conquered Everest by 1925!
R is for Radar Shadow
Although I treat hexagons sans turns with the same wariness I treat cheese sans pickle, Radar Shadow’s boiled-down treatment of the war in in Ukraine is far too clever to cursorily dismiss. ZMEJ describes his creation like this:
“It’s a real-time strategy game about reconnaissance and long-range strikes. Both sides can see the terrain, but neither can see what the other has built. Each side has one command base hidden somewhere on its half of the map, and whoever finds the other’s first wins. You scout with drones and satellites, plot every strike route around the air defences you’ve found, and design each aircraft from a hull and modules. A ridge between your aircraft and their radar hides it: that blind zone is the radar shadow the game is named after.”
S is for Sylvan secrets
I chanced upon another WW2 tree tattoo a few days ago. Found on MoD land approximately three kilometres from the accidental memorial arboretum described in The Trees Remember, it incorporates an unmistakeable date. Unfortunately, as the rest of the carving consists of initials – EIS or possibly GIS, followed by CA (Canadian Army?), CD, or CP – identifying the soldier responsible will be close to impossible.
On the subject of Wessex bark brands, I think I now understand why Tor Scot, ‘M. Decker’, proved so hard to track down back in 2023. After re-examining my photos with new spectacles, I think the Private in question may have been a Decher not a Decker and the M might actually be a huddled B (?) and G.
T is for TinSpring Soccer
Imagine if Subbuteo figures were attached to the pitch with vertical springs and sat in the centre of small saucer-shaped depressions. You’ve just visualised the vintage board game TinSpring Soccer strives to simulate.
I wasn’t expecting to be still playing this £12 demo-blessed oddity a week after installing it, but thanks to action that blends luck and skill most agreeably, exciting World and European Cup competitions, and “computer opponents whose reaction speed, accuracy and shot selection reflect their national team’s strength” I’m well and truly hooked. If there was a league option and a team/kit editor, and I could pick opposing teams in single matches, TinSpring Soccer would be almost perfect.
U is for Ulysses: General-In-Chief…
…one of the best adverts for AI-coded wargames I’ve come across to date. It might lack the charm and sophistication of the best handmade ACW hex-em-ups, but its clarity, scope, pace, and price (£0) are all admirable.
V is for Vertical gunnery
According to some sources, for every 12,000 shells fired into the firmament by German 88mm flak guns just one four-engined Allied bomber plunged to earth. If the due-before-Christmas Flak Simulator is historically accurate, operating its sky-splodging Fortress frighteners could be extremely frustrating. As well as letting up to five people crew the same gun, Horseman Interactive’s creation will also provide an arcade mode in which AI crewmen handle range measurements, fuze setting, and loading.
W is for Which of the following should be the subject of the next THC review?
X is for Xinjiang next?
I wasn’t expecting the French to crop-up in Cold War Battles’ free, ten-scenario Middle East expansion, but amongst the Arab-Israeli and Iran-Iraq ding-dongs are two Gulf War missions, one of which recreates Division Daguet’s main contribution to Operation Desert Storm. Now the first DLC is done and dusted, Chris of Kudos Games is contemplating an Asian adjunct.
“I am 90% certain that the next trip will be Eastbound. Hard information on Sino-Soviet war clashes is tricky to find as neither society was particularly open about it but the conflict should be covered as it rarely gets attention. Alongside that there were several times that the Korean War almost reignited so some hypothetical scenarios there would be interesting. Some of the British actions as the Empire wound down would fit a Far East pack too.”
A Game #2 announcement probably isn’t far off either.
“CWB will receive new content for as long as there is demand, but there will also be news about a new project in the none too distant future.”
Y is for Yikes!
If your formative years were spent dabbing the rubber rectangles of a ZX Spectrum, there’s a high chance you’ll enjoy free Gyron homage Abyss: The Shadows of Elder Cities. I’m a little sceptical the game’s nerve-racking maze crawls will work without the Speccy’s serrated lines, simple colour palette, and primitive sounds, but perhaps the additions Pawel Dziemski has planned for the PC version will compensate for lost charm.
Z is for Zodiac Legion
Extended by a campaign rework, an AI and UI overhaul, a new “nerdy over-engineered armour system combining layered protection and weak points”, and lots of balancing, Zodiac Legion’s long trudge to Early Access is set to end in Q1, 2027. If you like your fantasy combat hexy and low headcount, your dungeon walls destructible, and your campaigns dynamic, the latest demo warrants a whirl.
One vote for a Battleship Command review, please, Tim.
Strategos