Bigger, better, browner: Door Kickers 2 is almost the perfect sequel

I don’t reach for the ‘m’ word – masterpiece – very often, but describing this top-down turnless tactics game without recourse to it would be perverse. Those fifty-one months of Early Access tinkering have paid off big time. If it wasn’t for the potentially divisive theme, the lack of saving, and some minor realism failings, I’d say KillHouse had produced that rare thing, a critic-proof game.

Read MoreBigger, better, browner: Door Kickers 2 is almost the perfect sequel
More molehills, please

Simulatia and Grognardia can be awfully dour places. In realistic military and vehicular fare, frivolous details tend to be rare. While the lack of the whimsical and the extraneous arguably isn’t surprising given the development demands elsewhere, I love encountering stuff like Door Kickers 2’s gratuitous gas hobs and aerofly RC’s mischievous molehills in my digital playthings.

Read MoreMore molehills, please
Would you like a Door Kickers 2 review?

When a game’s Steam review graph looks like this (image link), reviews of said game can feel a tad superfluous. While I’d be more than happy to spend the next few evenings playing the endlessly entertaining Door Kickers 2 with my critical head on*, if the majority of Cornerites have already decided how they feel about this Early-Accessible-no-longer sequel, I may come at it from a different angle or assign the Friday slot to a game that isn’t blessed with quite so many satisfied customers.

Read MoreWould you like a Door Kickers 2 review?
In the Task Force Admiral demo you can task Wildcats AND pilot them

In addition to a choreographable Coral Sea clash between taskforces linchpinned by the Lexington and Yorktown, and Shokaku and Zuikaku, the due-out-early-next-week Task Force Admiral demo includes an Easter egg the size of a Pratt & Whitney Double Wasp. Courtesy of a “crude experiment” called Fleet Defense, trialists will get to experience a small Japanese strike from the cockpit of a controllable Grumman F4F fighter.

Read MoreIn the Task Force Admiral demo you can task Wildcats AND pilot them