A2Z
A is for Abbreviated A2Z. My mammoth monthly news round-ups are on hold, but short, scattergun versions like this will appear from time to time.
Tag the experiment
Review Reprise: MX Simulator
I’ve written hundreds of reviews and previews during my twenty-odd years as a games inspector. As many of these appeared in the British version of PC Gamer magazine and nowhere else, now and again something from my archive may appear…
Beach house boss battle (part 2)
Outside Curly’s beach house, the keening of sea gulls and the soft plashing of the Pacific Ocean. Inside, the click-clack of clashing pool balls and the faint groans of a Limey cue pusher struggling to find form. My $10K first-to-five-frames…
Beach house boss battle
I think I’m finally ready. Well, as ready as I’ll ever be. Today I’m going to take on Curly, Virtual Pool 4’s numero uno, for the very first time. Defeat in the first-to-five-frames contest will cost me a cool ten…
Brief ‘n’ briny (a quick maritime news round-up)
Calling the latest freebie from Wargame Design Studio a demo does it a serious disservice. None of turnless Spanish-American War’s engagements are included in other Naval Campaigns titles, and show me another demo that lets you play, from start to…
Truth and lies jostle in The Darkest Files demo
The video game industry’s obsessive interest in WW2 in Europe all but vanishes the moment Doenitz throws in the towel in May, 1945. Bringing to justice the architects of the war and hunting down the worst of their agents? Reconstructing…
Full Ace is properly ace
One of the advantages of spending my formative years in close proximity to two English manor houses (my Dad was a gardener) was my siblings, pals, and I were never far from a tennis court. When these courts weren’t in…
New Heights is literally and metaphorically uplifting
Generally, when I spend several hours in the virtual Ardennes, tanks end-up ablaze. This weekend, however, I managed a rare flame-free visit. In launched-last-Friday Early Access climbing sim New Heights the only things you burn are your avatar’s over-worked muscles.
The long and rocky Road to Moscow
Long before 88mm/Slitherine slapped ‘Road to Moscow’ on the cover of a forgettable Panzer General-like in 2014, the moniker was associated with two profoundly memorable wargames. One of these is available today through a number of abandonware sites, the other…
Miniature interview: Ali Hamza (the brains and muscle behind Battle Tactics 2025)
Graviteam, Black Hand Studios, Freedom Games, Matrix Games, 1C… you can count the devs that have attempted to produce Combat Mission-comparable 3D tactical wargames on the fingers of one hand. Counting the devs that have actually succeeded arguably requires just…
Lock ‘n Load Tactical Digital’s forty pence ‘demo’
I don’t recall Lock ‘n Load Tactical Digital’s vitals ever being as attractively priced as they are right now. Besides tutorials, the core game may only include two WW2 and two Vietnam War scenarios, but as those scenarios cost, in…
Bloody hell (Battle Tactics 2025 is going to be brutal)
The Bangladeshi dev behind Battle Tactics 2025, an upcoming Unreal Engine-powered Combat Mission-like, refuses to draw a veil over war’s grim realities. Combatants in his high-fidelity RTT/TBT are going to lose limbs and buckets of blood in the line of…