Rat Run (Part 2)
When I put down my microphone last Friday we were just about to plunge into Shildon Tunnel. In Locomotion, the Dr Who script I’m almost ready to pitch to the BBC, navvies digging this hill hole in 1840 unwittingly rouse…
Tag friday feature
Words from a Wildebeest (Mark Judd interviewed)
When Mark Judd began self-publishing, indie game developers were as rare as hen dentists. After a lengthy hiatus, the chap behind pleasingly physical diversions such as Detonate*, X-Sail, and Vertigo has returned to the fray recently with a new instalment…
Rat Run (Part 1)
Few parts of the UK have had such a profound impact on the world as the mineral-rich corner of North-East England I’ve picked as the venue for this Tally-Ho Corner rail tour. A pioneering rail network conceived and constructed two…
Bounce the Bogen (THC’s latest play-by-comment Combat Mission game begins today)
It’s early April 1945 and, a week or so after ‘bouncing the Rhine’, the Western Allies reach another watery obstacle, the Bogen river. At Mannsfeld a few gung ho US AFVs manage to barrel across the bridge before it is…
Interview with an Icelander (Dig In designer Baldvin Albertsson fills in some holes)
Reykjavíkian dev Baldvin Albertsson doesn’t simply want to make an entertaining WWI game, he wants to make a thought-provoking and insightful one. In the following Q&A the ex-actor and theatre director describes some of the ways in which upcoming management game…
Maximum fog-of-war (A Q&A with a blind wargamer)
If you frequent certain forums at Matrix Games, Subsim, and Reddit you may have come across posts written by today’s interviewee, ‘BlindGuyNW’. As his online handle suggests, Zack wargames by ear and touch rather than eye. In many battle sims…
Sod Minecraft, Warcraft, and Roadcraft, we need Cushioncraft
Yesterday I ticked another vehicle off my transport bucket list: hovercraft. Inevitably, while being whisked across the Solent by a descendant of Christopher Cockerell’s SR.N1, my mind turned to the question of why these marvelous machines still lack a serious…
Return to Riesberg (Remembering the very first Combat Mission demo)
For many, the love affair with Combat Mission began with Chance Encounter and Valley of Trouble, the astonishingly replayable CMBO demo scenarios that showcased Big Time Software’s brave new world of 3D WeGo wargaming so well. It’s easy to forget…
“We’ve got our hands full” (DeGenerals talk candidly about Tank Squad’s torrid past and uncertain future)
Missing tutorials and Zimmerit-rough in places, flawed-but-fun Tank Squad feels like it should have launched as an Early Access title. The following Q&A explains why it didn’t, and reveals just how much DeGenerals had to sacrifice in order to keep…
Tim’s take on Tank Squad
Three of my favourite Tank Squad moments so far. Moment 1. I’m advancing towards a seemingly neutralised Soviet position in a lone Panzer IV. There’s an HE round up the spout in case of unpleasant surprises. A short distance from…
“I’m not driven by a profit motive” – Gregory Adam Scott on money, martial fatigue, and museum visits
Five years ago today, Early Access Armoured Commander 2 hit Steam. Part-time developer, full -time academic, Gregory Adam Scott promised “over a year of planned additions and updates” in his first post-launch communique. What he and his customers didn’t know…
Steam recommendations for alphabetical completists
Mildly troubled by the fact that your Steam library doesn’t contain games beginning with all 26 letters of the alphabet? The following list of top-notch time-killers is designed to help completists fill gaps wisely. In its original form THC’s Steam…