A is for Afghan annihilation. A British Army defeat so unexpected and complete it caused a Governor-General of India to suffer a stroke on hearing news of it, inspires Wars Across the World's newest module. In the 16-turn Gandamak 1842 (£2) a vicious kick up the Khyber Pass awaits British players unable to overcome the overlapping challenges of rugged terrain, harsh weather, vulnerable lines of supply, and a steadily multiplying enemy.
]]>I always skip over the details of licensed equipment manufacturers in industrial simulators, treating them largely as different paint schemes, but a new interview with Farming Simulator 19 creative director Thomas Frey makes me more far more interested in the issue than I ever thought I would be. Talking with our corporate siblings GamesIndustry.biz, Frey explained the difficulties of landing licenses, and, unexpectedly, some of the ethical issues presented by particular brands and products. Okay, I guess I'm now into tractor brands.
]]>Skipping a whole number for this year's iteration of the popular farm-'em-up, Giants Software is looking to the future with Farming Simulator 19, which has just been announced for release this Autumn/Fall. By the sounds of it, it should be a comprehensive update, with a "complete overhaul" of the graphics engine, new crops and farming activities, plenty of shiny tractors, and horses. You can hear a solitary neigh in the CGI reveal trailer, before a man opens a barn door and then that's all she wrote.
]]>If you're a fan of virtual farming, then chances are you're one of the over one million players that have bought a copy of Farm Simulator 17 [official site]. Giants Software and Focus Home Interactive say that the launch sales of one million units in its first month is almost twice the sales of the previous installment at launch.
]]>Farming Simulator 17 [official site] brings a new setting, new vehicles, livestock, crops, and mechanics. Oh, and you'll finally be able to play as a female farmer at long last.
Players will be able to choose between male and female avatars when creating their character. When it's time to expand your farm, you'll get to hire both men and women to help you tend the fields, too. As an added bonus, you'll also have the option to customize your character's clothing, so you can be fashionable while driving your tractor around the farm, dodging cows and harvesting corn and such.
]]>Will we, in years to come, be asking "How would you revamp Farming Simulator?" Will we wonder if it's time Farming Simulator took a few years off from annual sequels to rethink what about virtual farming excited people so? Will we dream of an Ancient Egyptian reboot, tilling the soils of the Nile Delta? Or will you, wide-eyed, propose a slaughterhouse with PhysX Flex blood and a knife-sharpening minigame? Do you want a wee organic farm with no machinery, just a workforce of gapyearers?
I ask because developers Giants Software have announced Farming Simulator 17 [official site], coming "at the end of 2016."
]]>Yes, it's the Farming Simulator Titanium Edition trailer. What does that mean? It means a bunch of new farming machinery, new vehicles, and the capacity to have a more American-looking farm.
TITANIUM.
]]>The Flare Path lights are dimmed today, the wind socks are at half mast. Jim Mackonochie, one of the most influential, approachable, and well-liked figures in flight simulation died on Tuesday. If you've flown a faithfully simulated military jet at any point during the last quarter century, there's a good chance you've enjoyed a game that Jim signed or nurtured. Though most closely associated with Eagle Dynamics creations like Flanker and DCS World, his combination of unquenchable aero enthusiasm and incomparable industry experience also Pavewayed the way for the Falcon series and the early Rowan sims.
]]>Joe Martin is not a farmer. Not even a simulation of a farmer. But that didn't stop him from becoming one with Farming Simulator. Here's what happened.
Farming Simulator 2011 is, on the face of it, not a very interesting game - but if you look deeper you'll find that it's actually very badly made too. It's boring, even to those who resign themselves to tedium in advance, as pointless as a chocolate covered cat turd and built on physics so unnatural I genuinely suspect it to be haunted. So, you can imagine my excitement at sitting down to write a modding guide for it. Even after I'd grabbed ten of the weirdest mods I could find, from deployable crates to driveable corpses, it was still drearier than a car-load of wet Mondays and utterly unable to hold my attention. Eventually however, using one of the smaller mods I'd downloaded, I found a mission that imbued the game with much-needed purpose. The mod was called Bottle Finder.
]]>Mother Nature is up to something. In my neck-of-the-woods cuckoo pint and dog's mercury have begun appearing amongst the leaf litter. The bare treetops are abuzz with avian Morse code. If I didn't know better I'd say a Big Push was in the offing. Gaia is going to try another assault with her Elite Photosynthesizers. It's as if she doesn't remember how it ended last year. How it ends every year.
If war should come, you won't find me anywhere near bursting buds or strafing butterflies. I'll be ensconced in my Hans Christian Anderson shelter preparing pieces like this week's GIANTS interview and Microsoft Flight report.
]]>Mildly perturbed by the lack of Panzerkampfwagen references in The Sunday Papers? Feel that Bargain Bucket needs more locomotive love, Cardboard Children less Parpellimony misinformation*? You're in luck. Every Friday from now until Ragnarok, I'm going to be presenting a ragbag of news and reflections covering all-things simulated and wargamey.
If a game features wings, wheels, war, or windlasses, and so much as nods in the direction of realism there's a good chance it will eventually appear in The Flare Path.
*The idea that an airliner engine could function with fewer than three Parpellimonies inside it, is - as all serious simmers know - absurd.
]]>
