Apologies for the slow down in posts but I have entered my second childhood and am never likely to return! (Yes, yes, 'Teabag', will we know the difference even if I do? Very witty!) Anyway, I have bought two new games; MS Flight Simulator X and Medieval II: Total War. Regrettably the latter was rather rude about my museum piece machine and demanded a bolt-on that is bound to cost a fortune from PC World and will almost certainly not fit when I get it home. Perhaps the delay is heaven sent because the flight simulator has me hooked. I did learn the basics on the earlier 2004 version but this new one is altogether different. I have finally remembered the technique for flying straight and level, a deft mixture of engine revs and trim tabs and if you think flying straight and level is dead easy - you try it! And at last, tonight, I successfully landed my Cessna - twice - although I confess to some erratic steering on the runway until the blasted thing stopped.
Medieval II is a new one on me but I think it is the game that David Arranovich in The Times reported as being so addictive his friends gave up on him and his wife threatened divorce. Fortunately for me, the little 'Memsahib' has been used to me war-gaming for 30-odd years so she is broken in, so to speak. In the old days we used 15mm or 25mm Napoleonic-era figures, all beautifully and accurately painted (God help the gamer who failed to have the correctly coloured plumes on his Grenadier company!) and we played across enormous table tops. The warfare on the table was as nothing to the war that always broke out over interpretations of the rules which were as huge and intricate as a barrister's brief. When computer games came along, I gave up on the table-top games and nowadays confine myself to shouting at the screen when things go wrong (translation: when I lose!) 'Son of Duff' (SoD) still prefers the old ways but then he spends all day in front of a computer anyway. I only buy what are known as strategy games, the 'shoot 'em up' ones I leave to the kids, not because I am in any way superior, it's just that my reflexes have gone.
Well, there we are, another variation of toys for boys and I can imagine my lady readers rolling their eyes. However, if you hear or see a Boeing 747 lumbering overhead with racing engines and rolling wing tips, take cover, it's Pilot Officer Prune at the controls!
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