RPS Feature Meet Mare Nostrum
Mare Nostrum, the galley warfare wargame currently in production at Turnopia, shouldn’t have any trouble eclipsing the competition. To my knowledge, in the forty or so years since home computing and tactical gaming first cuddled up, ancient naval aggro has inspired only one title and that title is probably best forgotten. Read the rest of this entry »
RPS Feature WELL?
April showers filling my gutters, May blossom spangling my hedge, June bugs headbutting my window… Mother Nature seems to have muddled her months this year. I’m not one for idle gossip as you well know but Mr Valentine at the sweet shop reckons she’s back on the gin. Apparently she reeked of the stuff when she came in for her sherbet lemons on Monday. Just to be on the safe side I recommend everyone stays in this weekend and plays personal computer games about war and aeroplanes. That’s what me and the six FOFPs* below are planning to do.
*Friends of Flare Path Read the rest of this entry »
Strategy publishers Slitherine have sent word that they’re working on a Battlestar Galactica game. It goes by the name Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock [official site] and is under development at Black Lab Games, creators of 3D tactical fleet battler Star Hammer. Galactica looks to be similarly based around ship-to-ship combat, focusing on the defense of the Twelve Colonies during the first Cylon war. Expect fleet building as well as tactical combat, and characters old and new. It’s coming this summer and you’ll find more details and a trailer below.
RPS Feature FOB watch
Let’s see if I can get through this without using the W word. Afghanistan 11 is a w****** (history-steeped military strategy game with influential terrain and plausible, reality-derived unit relationships) but it would be a tragedy if w******* (habitual users of history-steeped military strategy games with influential terrain and plausible, reality-derived unit relationships) were the only people who ever stumbled into its quicksand. The W word, especially when used in close proximity to hexy screenshots, tends to imply threadbare themes and moribund mechanics. It doesn’t generally suggest a game with the irresistible momentum of Civ, or the colourful intricacy of Tropico. A game like the quietly brilliant Afghanistan 11. Read the rest of this entry »
The Panzer Corps [official site] are showing their age. You can see it in the rust that is accumulating around their joints and hear it in the strained rumble of their engines. Even the hexes look a little worn around the edges these days. It’s no surprise really – the old stalwart has seen a lot of action. Five years in the field. Five years of branching campaigns and the kind of wargaming that even a genre novice can hope to learn. Well, it’s time for reinforcements to arrive so the old Corps can take some time for rest and recuperation, or perhaps be put out to pasture for good.
Slitherine send news that Panzer Corps 2 is in development and it’ll be all shiny and 3D thanks to Unreal Engine 4.
RPS Feature Exciting battles but a dull campaign
The never-ending conflict between Warhammer 40K’s Orks and the greatest warriors of the Imperium of Man, the Space Marines, is an ouroboros that’s already trapped us all inside it. An infinite war, spawning an infinite number of smaller digital wars on our PCs, making sure we can never, ever escape.
Warhammer 40K: Sanctus Reach [official site] is the latest snapshot of the war, a turn-based strategy affair that, of course, pits Space Marine against Ork over a planet that nobody in their right mind would want to live on anyway. Here’s wot I think. Read the rest of this entry »
Warhammer 40,000: Sanctus Reach [official site], the turn-based wargame of grimdark futurewar and wacky fun orky waaagh!, launched last night. It’s not quite an adaptation of the tabletop ruleset but I do hear it feels like a streamlined version, which is nice. For all the Warhammer 40k games we have growing on trees, showering the waaaaghpavement with waaaaghfruit and waaaaghleaves that make careless waaaaghchildren slip and break their pretty little waaaaghfaces, they rarely get too near tabletop territory. Read the rest of this entry »
