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 dedicated PDQ. That said, I like the fact that the consistently entertaining Into the Flames occasionally sends me on wild goose shouts.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this title turned out to be the simmiest firefighting diversion I play this week. Not only has Bochum-based developer Crenetic faithfully reproduced German firefighting techniques, it has created remarkably detailed facsimiles of the equipment used by German blaze battlers. £20 (until July 10) Emergency Call 112 is almost worth buying just for its fab fire engines.
Artur Tabiszewski, what, in the name of all that is combustible, were you thinking? As you are listed in the credits as Fire Commander’s designer, producer, and lead programmer, I’m guessing you are the person who made the bewildering decision to leave fire hoses out of this 2022 firefighting RTS.
Beware! The air quality on Tally-Ho Corner is going to be abysmal this week, and thanks to the tangle of quivering hoses on our puddle-strewn drive, there will be trip hazards galore. Keen to address one of my stranger blindspots (While I’ve dabbled with the odd wildfire tactics title in the past, for some reason I’ve not explored games in which buildings and their contents are the primary flame fodder) I plan to audition a number of firefighting games.
Using the following clues (the map above is purely decorative) in combination with Street View, work out my location.
V is for Verbose sleuthing. It’s a fairly safe bet fans of The Case of the Golden Idol and The Rise of the Golden Idol will enjoy the Confidential Killings trial. The game’s short but tangled whodunnits are set in late Seventies Hollywood and are solved by accurately filling-out crime summaries using words collected from crime scenes and witness statements.
Thanks to a much appreciated submission from a reader, Roman spent most of yesterday afternoon amongst squabbling sparrows, overdressed bumble bees, and peripatetic marbled whites rather than at his desk. My colleague added the odd word to the following hive foxer but the majority of it is the work of guest foxer setter, Colonel_K.
Q is for Quick stogie card. Significantly larger and younger than all previous occupants of this slot, the thirty cards that make up ‘Soldiers of Waterloo’ were issued in 1995 and came in packets of Castella cigars. The text on the reverse of the card pictured below includes the story of Kenneth McKay, the plucky piper who, at the height of the battle, marched around the outside of the Cameron Highlanders square playing Cogadh no Sith (War or Peace).