Beach house boss battle
I think I’m finally ready. Well, as ready as I’ll ever be. Today I’m going to take on Curly, Virtual Pool 4’s numero uno, for the very first time. Defeat in the first-to-five-frames contest will cost me a cool ten…
Category Sims
Brief ‘n’ briny (a quick maritime news round-up)
Calling the latest freebie from Wargame Design Studio a demo does it a serious disservice. None of turnless Spanish-American War’s engagements are included in other Naval Campaigns titles, and show me another demo that lets you play, from start to…
Review Reprise: OMSI
I’ve written hundreds of reviews and previews during my twenty-odd years as a games inspector. As many of these appeared in the British version of PC Gamer magazine and nowhere else, and involve titles largely forgotten today, now and again…
Full Ace is properly ace
One of the advantages of spending my formative years in close proximity to two English manor houses (my Dad was a gardener) was my siblings, pals, and I were never far from a tennis court. When these courts weren’t in…
New Heights is literally and metaphorically uplifting
Generally, when I spend several hours in the virtual Ardennes, tanks end-up ablaze. This weekend, however, I managed a rare flame-free visit. In launched-last-Friday Early Access climbing sim New Heights the only things you burn are your avatar’s over-worked muscles.
Sunday Sounds #1: The Race Sim Central podcast
Although THC will never cast pods, it isn’t averse to granting high quality ones access to its external acoustic meatus. Race Sim Central’s aural suppositories contain the words of three extremely knowledgeable individuals. If you’ve ever used your PC for…
A2J
A is for Abbreviated A2Z. My mammoth monthly news round-ups are on hold, but truncated digests like this may appear from time to time.
Review Reprise: Apache Air Assault
I’ve written hundreds of reviews and previews during my twenty-odd years as a games inspector. As many of these appeared in the British version of PC Gamer magazine and nowhere else, and involve titles largely forgotten today, now and again…
Traction inaction (Where are the traction engine sims?)
The steam-powered tractors/tractor units of the Victorian era and early 20th Century have reason to cast resentful glances at fellow transport forms like the aeroplane and automobile. Bar a few flimsy Farming Simulator mods, they’ve been completely ignored by sim…
Nuclear Option has a NovaLogic feel
As Prigozhin seems to have cancelled his insurrection, I think I can drag myself away from Twitter and the TV for long enough to type a few lines on Nuclear Option, a ‘coming soon’ combat flight sim with some seriously…
Hard Truck 2 – the first true trucking sim?
SCS Software have been making truck sims for so long and so dominate the sector, it’s easy to forget they didn’t invent the genre. That claim to fame, I’d argue, belongs to Siberian studio SoftLab-Nsk – more specifically a chap…
Combat Pilot – a promising speck on the horizon
I’d argue the natural skull slot for ‘Combat Pilot excitement’ is one adjacent to ‘Task Force Admiral excitement’. Whereas Drydock Dreams are intent on creating the most realistic/ravishing WW2 Pacific carrier ops wargame ever made, Entropy.Aero, a subsidiary of Barbedwire…