Month: November 2024

Clippings: Sea Power, Metal Slug Tactics, DQIII, Ara update, Flight Simulator 2024, C:MO in real life

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Hi, everyone. Over recent weeks:

  • I’ve been playing one new release, Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom on Switch (nearly finished!).
  • I’ve also been replaying several older games on PC:
    • Terra Invicta (now finished — stay tuned for some thoughts);
    • Crusader Kings III with the “Roads to Power” DLC (not far from the end of my latest run — put on hold while Terra Invicta was ongoing);
    • Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord (again, stay tuned — I have an article half-written on how my thoughts have evolved since the game was in Early Access);
    • Sengoku Jidai (and courtesy of this bundle, its newer stablemate, Field of Glory II: Medieval);
    • Total War: Three Kingdoms; and
    • The most classic of them all — Chrono Trigger.
  • And I’ve read a mix of fiction and non-fiction by the late Tim Severin (Amazon link), a sailor and adventurer whose exploits included sailing across the Atlantic in a tiny leather coracle, sailing from Oman to China in a dhow, and trying to cross the Pacific in a bamboo raft. You could make a pretty good game out of his journeys!

Recent releases

  • Sea Power: Naval Combat in the Missile Age, a Cold War naval sim, is now available in Steam Early Access.
    • It looks spectacular, has a pedigree (the studio’s founders previously worked on sub sim Cold Waters), and early impressions seem positive: see Stormbirds’ writeup and the “Very Positive” rating on Steam.
    • On the other hand, it’s also very early in its life — so early that, for example, saving & reloading aren’t implemented yet. A campaign mode is slated for 2025.
    • I might take a look once the game is more mature.
  • Metal Slug Tactics is now out, to moderately positive reviews (Metacritic 79%, Opencritic 78%).
    • The game’s greatest strength is its personality — it has the colourful sprites and exuberant animations I associate with the Metal Slug arcade games.
    • Despite the name, this is an extremely puzzly game, closer to Into the Breach than to XCOM. (For example, most characters can only shoot at enemies in a straight line.)
    • After trying the Game Pass version, it’s too puzzly for me, but Metal Slug and genre fans might want to take a look.
  • Classic JRPG fans might be interested in the new HD-2D remake of Dragon Quest III.
    • This one might be too retro for me, based on my experience with Octopath Traveller II and Eiyuden Chronicles.

Updates

Upcoming games

Other interesting reads