For decades forum sages have been telling us that a Total War-style strategy game with WWI’s famously static and linear Western Front trench warfare at its core wouldn’t work. The Great War proves these Cassandras wrong. While the action-packed real-time…
Stalingrad, October, 1942. A bullet-dimpled Sd.Kfz. 250 halftrack grinds to a halt beside a vast Tractor Factory assembly hall. Its passengers – two flamethrower operators – hurriedly disembark. Within seconds the pair are directing a stream of blazing napalm through…
To ensure you get a full and rounded picture of 2023’s most eagerly awaited computer wargame, THC will be running a series of articles on Second Front rather than one traditional review. In this, the first of those articles, I’ll…
Despite exposure to Charles Games’ and iNK Stories’ fine creations I still recoil slightly when I see the word ‘edutainment’ in the blurb for a game. I recoil because I know – or think I know – what’s coming. 1.…
Harvest time is power outage time here in rural Wessex. In August it’s not uncommon for Bramley End to have its electricity supply interrupted by combusting or carelessly driven farm machinery. Knowing this, I’m careful to have at least one…
Steam tells me I’ve played Panzer Division Games’ debut for twelve hours and would like to know if I’d recommend it to other players. When, shunning the proffered ‘yes’ and ‘no’ options, I reply “That depends”, the Great One’s speech…
I was hoping to persuade Keith Douglas, the writer of some my favourite WW2 poems, to review Early Access The Troop for me (Douglas, a Sherman commander, was killed by a mortar blast near Tilly-sur-Seulles on D-Day+3) but as THC’s…
Dungeon Keeper, Diablo, Carmageddon, MDK, Sid Meier’s Gettysburg!.. some of the chart-toppers that went gold the same year as East Front, the first instalment of the Campaign Series. If, in 1997, anyone had suggested that EF’s vitals would still be…
It looks like I need to add another entry to the THC Wargames Top 50. While lumping together the Ultimate Generals (Gettysburg and Civil War) for voting purposes doesn’t offend my sense of taxonomic propriety unduly, putting Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts…
While it’s technically possible to create an exact replica of a Tiger tank in angry house architect sim, Sprocket, the chance that you’ll actually produce one is Panzer roadkill slim. Recreate that distinctive, perfectly perpendicular hull front within this ingenious…
All nations need a ‘Charles Games’ – a game studio staffed by open-minded truthseekers, dedicated to exploring difficult historical subjects from multiple angles. Although your first playthrough of Svoboda 1945: Liberation is unlikely to last longer than three hours, chances…
The fact that, outside of mods, Close Combat and Combat Mission never made it to the Pacific, has to rank as one of digital wargaming’s biggest disappointments. Anyone who argues that PTO warfare lacked tactical colour or wouldn’t have suited…