Virtually indistinguishable from magic

Flying in games which are not designed from the bottom up as flight sims will inherently be cartoony. I've previously wondered why Battlefield and ARMA didn't make an effort to make the flying portions of their game at least replicate the feeling of flying in a more realistic way, often assuming it was a conscious decision to not implement rigorous physics. The reason they don't is quite simple: their maps sizes are way too small to allow for anything close to realism. The diagonal distance across a typical Battlefield 2: Project Reality map will be something like 5.7 km (4 km width & height), and the for the Limnos island in ARMA 3 is something like 35 km (25 km width & height). For infantry and land-based warfare, these numbers really aren't bad and are on the order of what you'd expect the scale of a conflict would be at (though tanks actually also fight each other over several kilometers), but here is a minimal argument for why planes cannot work at th...

I haven't always played many simulation games in any sensible way. Sims like IL-2 or FS9 , after a few sorties, or a couple circuits and ramming into buildings, I readily bounced off of. The exception to all of this, and the origin of my increasing interest in sims was when two years ago I bought Take On Helicopters and enjoyed flying the campaign. Take On Helicopters did a great job recreating Seattle in the most convincing way I've ever seen a city rendered in a videogame . Though it might seem superficial to say that it took a detailed environment for me to become interested, I think it's difficult if you aren't a pilot to be motivated to play a simulator given the reputation newer flight sims have. In any case, environments have always been a defining feature of flight sims so I really shouldn't feel too bad! Free-to-play has been a fantastic way to keep me flying lately. I found a friend in Microsoft's free-to-play game Flight . Flight does a decent...

This is episode 5 of the accompanying podcast to this blog. In this episode, we're joined by guest Ped, who is working towards becoming a cab driver but, as we mention but fail to explain anytime during the podcast, has a past as a civilian pilot. Conor joins us again and may as well be regular! We talk about planes after a visit everyone but Ali has gone on to the RAF museum near Edgeware, London. We then  **spoil**  Jane Eyre but it's probably been around long enough to not need a spoiler warning. This podcast is a little longer than usual, but don't worry since there's an intermission! We discuss (click below for Ped's very own photographs of these planes!): Part 1 Short Sunderland , Eurofighter, Hurricane fighter, Falcon 4.0 BMS , Taranis , F22 Interceptor video , Wolfenstein 3D video . Part 2 Dune, American Gods, Aleksandr Orlov's A Simples Life, Harry Potter series , Heart of Darkness. "Imagine what worlds were there" [#5, 49min30] ...

I've been tinkering for a little while on something quite ambitious (for me, anyway). I've sort of hit a knee-high wall in progressing it further so I thought I'd show what I have and talk about the things I found hard when writing it so far, before I vault my wall and carry on. Making sketches and notes to figure out designs. This is a sketch of a artillery car from a 1939 Polish train. (Don't google 'armoured train' because then you'll know this is the first thing that comes up!) The basic idea is a singleplayer videogame in which you command an (armoured) train across vast landscapes. You progress by transporting goods from town to town and hopefully turning a profit so that you can kit out your train to better fend off baddies. So far, so gamey. I wanted to rely on some optional storytelling, presented  in text form to fill in the gaps and make the world make a bit of sense, and to give you a reason to keep exploring. An aesthetic aim would have b...

This is episode 4 of the accompanying podcast to this blog. In this episode, Conor joins us again as we end up talking about Nintendo a lot, and then the rest of the news in games and finally we **spoil** (in order to speak about) Game of Thrones series 3. We discuss:  E3 , WiiU, Next gen consoles , Game of Thrones . "Good Nintentions"  [#4, 29min49] More about the new Xbox .

This is episode 3 of the accompanying podcast to this blog. In this episode, Prince and Conor join us again as we make judgements about a film we've recently seen, and then we very rushedly speak about multiplayer games. We discuss: The Place Beyond the Pines , XBOX Live, multiplayer games. "What a loada crap"  [#3, 29min46] Can you guess where the little soundbite at the start comes from? If you can, you are super cool .

This is episode 2 of the accompanying podcast to this blog. Our guest Prince is a rotoscope and paint artist, and aspiring compositor. He works in visual effects for adverts. He discusses his work with us, and Ali and I ask pleb questions. We discuss: VFX in films and adverts, The Matrix , changes in the VFX industry, vtec , 1up show ,video games a little bit. "Wot, this? This is just trigonometry!.."  [#2, 24min] We have a feeling that next week we'll probably end up talking about Mark of the Ninja. Can you guess why?