A2F
A is for Alphabetised game news. There’s nothing especially original about the way I gather game news. Like other reporters, every so often I set cage traps baited with chunks of old telephone directory or stale urinal cake in likely…
Category Sims
Rat Run (Part 2)
When I put down my microphone last Friday we were just about to plunge into Shildon Tunnel. In Locomotion, the Dr Who script I’m almost ready to pitch to the BBC, navvies digging this hill hole in 1840 unwittingly rouse…
Rat Run (Part 1)
Few parts of the UK have had such a profound impact on the world as the mineral-rich corner of North-East England I’ve picked as the venue for this Tally-Ho Corner rail tour. A pioneering rail network conceived and constructed two…
It’s high time for another THC rail tour
Fancy getting to know another interesting bit of Britain via a classic train sim? You’re in luck. Having picked up several bargains in the almost-over TSC2024 sale, I plan to spend the remainder of this week exploring unfamiliar lines, researching…
In 2004, steam loco sims didn’t come any better than SpoorSim
Microsoft Train Simulator, BVE, Trainz… in 2004 the PC rail simmer had far fewer choices than they have today. Oddly, one of the most realistic options available to desktop train drivers back then featured South African rolling stock. If you’re…
Teardown’s bewitching blazes
Like a bone-white ember quietly ticking amongst the feathery ash of a burned-down bonfire, Firefighting Week still has some life left in it. Yesterday, a Cornerite tip-off (Thanks, phuzz!) led me to try blaze battling in Teardown, a voxel-based demolition…
Laser beam (Storm Sailor should put a smile on your boat race)
Gosh, where did that hour go? Tearing about in a polygonal Laser dinghy courtesy of the free Storm Sailor prototype is a blast, and you don’t need to look much further than the sim’s strong hydrodynamics, helpful AI, and friendly…
Firefighting Week: Addendum
Hanging up my axe, hose, and hydrant spanner at the end of Firefighting Week proved harder than I’d anticipated. Not only am I still exploring new (to me) extinguish-em-ups, battling all those virtual conflagrations seems to have altered my attitude…
Bus simming in Roblox is more engaging than I expected
I’ve just driven my first route in Croydon: London Bus Simulator, and the twenty minute ride has transformed the way I think about Roblox. Although the complete absence of AI traffic is a big pill to swallow if your usual…
RotorSim needs a job generator
An hour after firing up RotorSim, Immaculate Lift’s SimCopter-reminiscent chopper game, for the first time, the campaign progress bar is a third full, and I’m wondering whether I’ll have seen all there is to see by lunchtime. While I don’t…
Firefighting Week: Firefighting Simulator – The Squad
A combat flight sim that forewent flak or a sub sim that didn’t include death-by-depth-charge would get ripped to shreds by reviewers, so why aren’t firefighting sims taken to task for leaving out two of the most dangerous aspects of…
Firefighting Week: Into The Flames
Deep down I doubt any armchair hose jockey wants a totally realistic fire brigade sim. If forty percent of in-game call-outs were false alarms caused by confused or malfunctioning fire alarms, extinguish-em-ups would alienate all but the most patient and…