A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

 From the lead designer of Cold Waters, Sea Power lets you control NATO and Warsaw Pact forces in modern naval conflict campaigns. Use your advanced naval weaponry and sensors to respect rules of engagement and defeat the enemy forces in a tense fight for initiative and air/naval supremacy. – Promotional blurb on Steam, MicroProse/Triassic Games Well, it's been nearly a week since MicroProse released Triassic Games' Sea Power: Naval Combat in the Missile Age, and I'm impressed by how much attention to detail the game's developers lavished on this sim.  If I had to describe the game succinctly, I'd say it's a more muscular and visually appealing version of both Harpoon Classic '97 and Fleet Command, with a bit of Cold Waters added for good measure,  (That latter bit is not a casual observation because, as MicroProse's promo blurb states, the lead designer of Killerfish Games' 2017 submarine sim created Sea Power along with others in his new studio, T...

A view from the periscope from my not-so-new game "Cold Waters."  © 2017 Killerfish Games  As you might recall, I have a Steam account that I opened when I bought Sid Meier's Civilization V in the Spring of 2015. I still lived in Miami then, and though she only had a few short months to live, my mom was still alive. And because I was so damn busy, tired, and stressed out by my dual role as homeowner-to-be and my dying mother's primary caregiver, I just thought Steam was for that game and didn't bother to learn that it was a company that not only helped Civ V work well online, but it was a source for downloadable games from various developers and publishers.  I started buying downloads of games from Steam directly about a year-and-a-half after I moved to Lithia, Florida, in 2016. I did so because streaming/downloading games in the 21st Century is as routine as buying "in-the-box" games that you installed with floppies (the late 1980s to early '90s) or...

© 2017 Killerfish Games  As you know, my current favorite computer game is Cold Waters (2017), a submarine warfare simulator set in an alternate timeline where the Cold War turned hot. Inspired by MicroProse Software's 1988 classic Red Storm Rising, this game from Australian game studio Killerfish Games takes players into the cold waters of either the North Atlantic or the Pacific Ocean and depicts three separate and chilling scenarios set in alternate versions of 1968, 1984, and 2000.  I play Cold Waters at least twice a week on average, but there are times when I play the game a bit more. I enjoy it more than most of my other games because:  It does remind me of the many hours that I played Red Storm Rising back when I was younger It has kickass graphics It has immersive sound and dialogue It is full of heart-pounding action and intense situations full of suspense and drama Did I mention the kickass graphics? It is challenging and makes players want to learn more about ...

Final Outcome screen in Cold Waters' South China Sea 2000 Campaign game. (All game design elements in this and other screenshots are © 2017 Killerfish Games.) The South China Sea conflict between the United States and the People's Republic of China has ended in a victory for America and its NATO allies and a humiliating defeat, and I can now say that I successfully completed my first Campaign in Killerfish Games' 2017 submarine game Cold Waters.    © 2017 Killerfish Games After 114 days of the war, the loss of five submarines — out of six total — under my command, and quite a few frustrating war patrols, my career as a seagoing combat officer in the late 20th Century U.S. Navy has come to a conclusion. The boats I commanded, along with their crews, did their part in destroying much of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) between October 2000 and February 2001 and ended (momentarily, at least) Beijing's aggressive foreign policy in East Asia and the Weste...

A Chinese warship's topmast and some smoke from her funnel can be seen above the horizon in this periscope-view screenshot. (All of the graphics elements in these screengrabs are © 2017 Killerfish Games.)  Hello again and welcome to another installment of Old Gamers Never Die, the section of this blog where I talk about computer games and gaming in general. Today we return to my series of updates about my playthrough of Cold Waters' South China Sea Campaign, which depicts a hypothetical war between the People's Republic of China - which is allied with Vietnam and a Soviet Union that never vanished - and the United States in an alternate version of the year 2000. A Mark-48 ADCAP torpedo hits home, as seen from USS Jefferson City's periscope.  An aerial view of that same ship. Note the shock wave (in the water) and the fireball as the enemy vessel's magazines explode as a result of that torpedo hit.  It is now late December 2000, and USS Jefferson City has returned to...