O2T
O is for On War: Stalingrad. I like the sound of Tomislav Čipčić’s next operational offering. The Croatian dev behind the elegant Attack at Dawn: North Africa believes he can deliver a deep Eastern Front wargame that is also “readable,…
Maziac
Pistols at Dawn deserves a winged sequel
Steamed on Friday and esteemed (by me) since yesterday, Pistols at Dawn is an inexpensive (£4) and ingenious turn-based pistol duelling game. By thoughtfully placing numbered tokens and special coins on a clockface-style board, you attempt to move your crosshairs…
Dusty But Trusty: GT Legends
To qualify for a Dusty But Trusty article, a game must be old enough to vote in Nicaragua, buy tobacco in Djibouti, and make the beast with two backs in Nepal. More importantly, it must be demonstrably super, smashing, great,…
General Staff general knowledge
There’s arguably not much point in analysing General Staff’s AI at the moment as the code that ensures the game’s Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century soldiers soldier sensibly and believably is still under the rasp. What I can do, having toyed…
Down to the sea in ships (A nautical news round-up)
Although the stiff throttles annoyed, and the mooring tutorial tied itself in knots after I accidentally skipped a stage, the time I spent with the Professional Ship Simulator demo yesterday passed pleasantly enough.
Crimson Banner feels like a sinicised Unity of Command II
The Crimson Banner: War of Liberation demo is quite something. Deftly translated, lavishly tooltipped, and unusually generous (including tutorials it boasts fifteen scenarios), it does exactly what trials are supposed to do: illuminate, entertain, and pique interest.
Tram sim tasters
Two tram sim tasters have appeared on Steam during the past week. Both The Tram and Elektronka: Bratislava centre trundlers produced by Czech firm ČKD Tatra. If you’ve ever visited a city in Eastern Europe there’s a good chance you’ve…
Clingy lakes and complex cockpits: Lakehopper is full of surprises
It’s an exciting time to be a bedroom bush pilot. Troubled Deadstick seems to have weathered its developmental difficulties and be maturing nicely, and Lakehopper, a boat-bellied rival, has, since entering Early Access in March, been quietly garnering praise and…
General Staff: Black Powder unlimbers
Assuming Riverview Artificial Intelligence grant me beta code access and give me the go-ahead, on The Corner later this week there’ll be some thoughts on, potentially, one of the most sophisticated wargame AIs ever made.
Blood on the Danube is bloody entertaining
Deservedly popular WW2 FPS Easy Red 2 plummeted in price last week and gained a new front. Until July 29 the sizeable base game is a piffling £4. An additional fiver buys you Blood on the Danube, a rich, late-war…