L is for Lamentable landscapes. Clumsily created and employed, AI art can ruin otherwise sound computer games. For proof of this, look no further than Frontline: Assault Corps, a £12 hex wargame in which southern Italy looks awfully like the Eastern Front, visuals and underlying terrain types barely correlate, and isometric battlefields are dotted with bizarre architecture and baffling objects.

The sad thing is, FAC’s mechanics, AI, and unit art, are not unappealing. I probably wouldn’t have uninstalled after an hour of play if the venue visuals hadn’t been so inappropriate (That’s meant to be Salerno above)  and misleading (The two ringed tanks have mutual LoS!).

M is for Mount Suribachi in 1:1 scale

The latest free update for Squad 44, the tactical shooter formerly known as Post Scriptum, includes a groundbreaking, uncondensed recreation of the southern half of the island of Iwo Jima.

N is for Nautical noodle warmer

Bearings Only, a browser-based TBT created by ex-USN submariner, Carl Kolon, boils sub duels down to the bare essentials. Using nothing but a broadband sonar display, simple rudder and speed controls, and a few eels, the player must outmanoeuvre and eliminate an unseen enemy that’s out to do exactly the same thing.

O is for Oceanic cat-and-mouse

Talking of simmed sonar, it appears enterprising subsimmers have managed to turn vehicular sandbox Stormworks into a surprisingly sophisticated MP Battle of the Atlantic sim.

P is for Pescara and Brno recreated

Fans of sprawling sim GPs are in clover at the moment. Thanks to a £5 add-on from an outfit called Italotracks, Formula 1’s longest ever circuit is now driveable in Assetto Corsa, rFactor 2, and Automobilista, and, not long ago, indefatigable modmakers added a 29 km pre-war Moravian circuit to Grand Prix Legends.