V is for Verisimilitudinous virtual tides. The tiny selection of maritime sims that acknowledge the Moon’s effect on sea levels grew by one late last month. Not only do eSail owners who opt in to the V3 beta get improved visuals and a new ‘Trade Islands’ map with dynamic tide heights (tidal flows have yet to be implemented), when close to land they may now encounter anabatic and katabatic breezes in addition to wind shadows.
Q is for Quick fag card. The 25 cards that make up ‘Victoria Cross Heroes in Action’ are not your typical fag cards. Released in 1970 by Sheffield firm Bassett & Co, they were distributed in packets of candy cigarettes. Compared to the tea cards of the time, the artwork was crude, the subject matter dramatic. Shown below, card no. 6 commemorates Gordon Campbell’s VC. A remarkably cool Q-Ship skipper, Campbell allowed his wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing to be torpedoed, then sunk the U-boat responsible with close-range gunfire when it surfaced.
Using the following clues (the map above is purely decorative) in combination with Street View, work out my location.
L is for Light at the end of the tunnel at long last? General Staff: Black Powder’s website and Steam page haven’t been updated in a dishearteningly long time, but recent posts on the Kickstarter page give wargame AI aficionados a faint glimmer of hope.
Every Friday, Tally-Ho Corner’s cleverest clogs come together to solve a ‘foxer’ handcrafted by my sadistic chum and colleague, Roman. A complete ‘defoxing’ sometimes takes several days and usually involves the little grey cells of many readers. All are welcome to participate.
F is for Fourth time lucky? Originally slated for a Q1 2024 release, then rescheduled for September 2024, and, later, May 2025, the sequel to one of Simulatia’s most realistic motoring sims acquired its fourth ETA earlier this week. The devs say issues with traffic AI and performance are the main reasons the City Car Driving 2.0 release has been pushed back to November.
A is for Adorable Arthurian art attached to abstruse aggro arithmetic. I love Legends of the Round Table’s artwork, animations, and Anna Azéma music and narration, but I’ve not yet warmed to the number-heavy combat maths in the demo for this new side-scrolling RPG.
You’ve had your chance, SubwaySim 2. Although you come with nicely modelled EMUs, attractive ribbons of Hamburg and Berlin, a replay-friendly timetable mode, imaginative scenarios, and exemplary tutorials, because I can’t seem to get you to run smoothly and look decent simultaneously, there’s a good chance you’ll be gone from my HD by the end of the week.