Q2U
Q is for Quick stogie card. Significantly larger and younger than all previous occupants of this slot, the thirty cards that make up ‘Soldiers of Waterloo’ were issued in 1995 and came in packets of Castella cigars. The text on…
Tag the experiment
L2P
L is for Largely forgotten rally sim. The first video game worthy of the tag ‘simulation’ wasn’t a flight sim but a 2D side-on recreation of the sport that’s currently monopolising the THC idiot box. An attraction at Brookhaven National…
F2K
F is for Flying pencils added to Scramble. Slitherine’s thoroughly 3D BoB wargame has some Schnellbombers at long last. While the new Do 17s must run the gauntlet of player-controlled Spits and Hurricanes, there’s no danger of them suffering the…
A2E
A is for Affordable angling games. It’s not too late to grab a price-slashed piscatorial plaything on Steam. Ending in approximately seven hours’ time, the emporium’s nearly-over Fishing Fest includes two of my current fishy favourites, Ultimate Fishing Simulator (£2)…
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…
Panzer III (Three new tank games trundling in our direction)
As strong, original tank sim names are hard to come by nowadays, and many of Spearhead 2’s potential customers probably won’t be old enough to remember that Spearhead 1 wasn’t up to much, perhaps MicroProse’s latest choice of title isn’t…
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…
ViewApp brass-off mousey bus simmers
If Tally-Ho Corner had a hall of shame ViewApp would be its most recent inductee. Yesterday the Viennese studio behind City Transport Simulator released the omnibus component of its latest sim either not realising or not caring that many early adopters…
Master of Command executes a pleasing pivot
By switching to a 1:1 venue scale, thoughtfully redesigning terrain visuals, and enabling almost-ground-level spectating, Armchair History Interactive send out a very clear signal to serious PC wargamers. Anyone who has enjoyed Ultimate General and Take Command/Scourge of War in…
The Void War demo may leave you conflicted
If demo-equipped Void War doesn’t actually cross the line between ‘affectionate homage’ and ‘cynical ripoff’, it gets awfully close to it at times.
Little Bird, big ask (finishing the Cleared Hot demo isn’t easy)
I’ll admit it. After an hour with the Cleared Hot demo I decamped to the Steam forum in search of fellow failures. Surely the place would be teeming with others who, like me, loved the trial’s physics, visuals, and writing,…