I spent yesterday evening contentedly mauling marus, raking Rufes, and dodging depth charges. The fact that I opted to patrol the Pacific in a familiar Crash Dive 2 Gato, rather than a brand new Silent Depth 2 one, speaks volumes about what I found when I fired-up MicroProse’s latest release for the first time.
If MicroProse make their deadline, tomorrow’s THC post – and possibly Thursday’s too – will consist of first impressions of Early Access Silent Depth 2: Pacific, a “sim lite game for those who want to put their foot in the door and understand the challenges of being a Submarine Commander”. The newcomer appears to boast snazzier visuals than its main rival, the recently expanded Crash Dive II. What I’m keen to find out is whether it can out-realism CD2, and match it for accessibility, operational freedom, and mission variety.
Reason 1. In other train sims you seldom fail a task because you’ve accidentally shot a prostitute.
Using the following clues (the map above is purely decorative) in combination with Street View, work out my location.
Liftoff: Micro Drones lights-up parts of my brain that haven’t been illuminated since I last dallied with Airfix Dogfighter. In the follow-up to Liftoff: FPV Drone Racing (a top-notch drone sim that has been pressed into service as a training aid by both sides in the ongoing war in Ukraine) you sometimes find yourself limboing under parked cars, darting through half-opened windows, and alighting on chairs, shelves, and sofa cushions.
Task Force Admiral, Burden of Command, Armored Brigade II, Sea Power, Strategos. I’ve just re-jigged the upper echelons of my ‘Upcoming PC Wargames I’m Most Excited About’ list, and the following interview with the creator of Strategos, a turnless Ancients battle sim with myriad tactical subtleties, is partially responsible.
Tally-Ho Corner is going to look and feel a little different for the remainder of the summer. In an effort to banish malaise, give promising projects more limelight, and possibly gain a reader/subscriber or two, Friday features will make way for shorter daily posts for the next couple of months. News items, 3×3-style ‘reviews’, miniature interviews, bijou AARs, foxers, competitions, thinly-disguised rants… there’s no telling what each day (Sundays excepted) will bring. Today, for instance, there’s a Q&A with the father of Strategos, a recently announced Ancients wargame.
Every Friday at 1300 hours, 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.