Stately Play

Tag: Simulation

Cardboard Critique: Healthy Heart Hospital

April 26, 2017 David Neumann 4

Tabletop • As a sad and lonely man, it’s only natural that I would gravitate toward games I can play by myself. This used to mean playing a game meant for 2+ players alone by taking control of all sides. Over the past year or two, however, I’ve discovered that there are great solo games out there, you just have to look. GMT is one company that regularly puts out games that play great when you’re all by your lonesome, and Victory Point Games is another. To be honest, before HexWar brought Infection: Humanity’s Last Gasp to digital, I wasn’t familiar with VPG’s offerings. Since then, I’ve fallen in love with several of their designs, and have Kickstarted several others (including their latest Kickstarter for Chariots of Rome). The latest to draw my attention is one with a unique board game theme, Healthy Heart Hospital.

Prison Architect has arrived! (If you’re Dutch)

April 25, 2017 David Neumann 1

iPad, Android Tablets • One of Owen’s ongoing lamentations about the App Store involved the absolute dearth of good city-building sims, and sims in general. Properties like Roller Coaster Tycoon, SimCity, and Dungeon Keeper were all available, but saddled with free-to-play shenanigans that robbed them off their joy. [For the record, a proper port of RCT was eventually released -ed.] A couple years ago we were told that our suffering was near an end because Introversion Software was bringing their funny, deep, and horrifying prison sim, Prison Architect, to mobile. While news has been slow since those initial announcements, Paradox (yes, Paradox…they’re publishing the mobile version) came forward last week and announced that Prison Architect has been released…in the Netherlands.

Every Single Soldier recruiting iOS sailors for upcoming Carrier Deck

April 24, 2017 David Neumann 1

iPad, PC • Every Single Soldier are the genius minds behind the beloved Vietnam ’65 and this year’s Afghanistan ’11. Vietnam ’65 has been on our tablets since 2015 and Afghanistan ’11 should make it there shortly. Their next title, Carrier Deck, is coming to iPad as well, but if you’re thinking it will be another hex-and-counter war game, think again. Instead, Carrier Deck will be a naval real-time management simulation without a hex in sight and they’re looking for beta testers now for both iOS and PC.

Early Access Preview: RimWorld

January 30, 2017 Nick Vigdahl 3

PC/Mac • RimWorld is a colony building and survival simulation game that has everything you’d expect from the genre. You’ll act as the architect for a new colony and guide its residents to ever greater levels of survivability, self-sufficiency, and success. This includes zoning the settlement area for residential buildings, farming, and storage as well as identifying what structures should be built, how electricity should be generated, and what tools of production, furniture, and artwork should be used. There’s also the usual research function to build out a technology tree and open up new options. What’s cool about RimWorld is not that it hits these hallmarks of base-building and survival games. It certainly does. It’s not that it does it really well or better than most—though this is also true. What really makes RimWorld so good–I had to force myself to stop playing–are two things: a true open-world style and a relatively unique story-infused narrative.

Review: Don Bradman Cricket 17

January 30, 2017 Alex Connolly 4

Cricket, or baseball with less chewing tobacco. Second only to soccer in terms of global attendance and popularity, but a game of impregnable mystery to our North American friends. [Up until this article, my nearest brush with cricket has been watching Ian Faith smash his cricket bat into a television. -ed.] It was also a sport done a decade-long cycle of digital travesty in the 2000s, so much so that a game heralding one of cricket’s greatest clashes was released in such a state, it was removed from sight and beaten to death with a Gray-Nicolls.

Early Access Preview: Factorio

January 23, 2017 Nick Vigdahl 2

You’ve crash landed on a strange planet and need a plan to survive. There’s a couple different ways you can go. There’s the Mark Watney way—eking out an existence thanks to potatoes fertilized by your own feces. Alternatively, you could build a massive, sprawling, and fully interconnected factory complex using your off-the-charts engineering know how. Which do you choose?

Wait…there’s a decent Rollercoaster Tycoon for mobile?

January 11, 2017 David Neumann 1

One of the greatest memories I have of my Good Ol’ DaysTM working at Pocket Tactics occurred in 2014 when Owen went apoplectic regarding Atari’s botched release of RollerCoaster Tycoon 4. Seriously, go read his review. It’s a beautiful thing. Not only did RCT4 fail to bring a fascinating simulation to mobile, it basically became the face of the free-to-play downfall of the App Store. Here was a classic title with promise that was retooled to wring as much cash out of players as possible, fun be damned. I had given up on seeing a decent RCT game ever make its way to mobile but then this week I spotted something else over at our old digs. A five-star review for something called RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic. What the hell?

Review: Silent Depth

December 14, 2016 Kelsey Rinella 0

Silent Depth is a long-gestating WWII submarine sim, placing you in an American sub in the Pacific Theater in 1942. Success means slowing the flow of vital supplies to Japan, sinking troopships, and buying the U.S. industrial effort time to rebuild the surface fleet after the catastrophe at Pearl Harbor. And, in a cruel metaphor involving sinking ships, it represents the first Stately Play use of the tag “Windows_Phone. [and possibly the last. -ed.]

WWII submarine sim, Silent Depth, dives onto the App Store

December 7, 2016 David Neumann 1

As the grandson of a WW2 submariner, the war under the waves has always held a special significance for me. As a fat dude with claustrophobia, actually being in a submarine is the most terrifying thing I can imagine. I even get uneasy touring the U-505 in Chicago or the USS Cobia in Manitowoc, WI, and they’re just sitting there. I’m a wimp. Lucky for me, there have always been pretty decent sub simulations for PC with the Silent Hunter series and way too many others to mention. This week ushered in a new sub simulation called Silent Depth, and this one we can play on our iPads.

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