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 Chinese destroyer is hit by a torpedo in this "low-light" periscope view in Cold Waters . (All of the illustrations are actual screengrabs from sessions of Cold Waters, and all game design elements are © 2017 Killerfish Games As you know, one of my favorite computer games of recent vintage is Killerfish Games’ Cold Waters (2017), a submarine warfare simulator that was inspired by MicroProse Software’s classic “subsim” Red Storm Rising (1988). I bought Cold Waters nearly two years ago during Steam’s Fourth of July Sale for 2020. I had added the game to my “wish list” on Steam (just as I have MicroProse’s Regiments and Second Front on my wish list now) in 2017 because I thought paying $49.99 or more when the game was new and buggy was a bit too much for my taste. Eventually, though, Steam offered it at a price that I could afford, and by 2020 all the “bugs” and kinks in the game had been fixed. For the better part of my time playing Cold Waters, I avoided playing the Campaig...

HIJMS Shokaku burns in Silent Service II's An Embarrassment of Riches scenario. © 1990, 2015 MicroProse/Retroism (Tommo)  Hi, there, Dear Reader. As you know, my favorite video games or computer simulations deal with some aspects of military conflict. Whether it’s a flight simulator along the lines of F-15 Strike Eagle II or a land warfare sim like M1 Tank Platoon or a grand-strategy game along the lines of Strategic Command WWII: World at War, if it is action-packed, historically interesting, yet not so complex that you must earn a degree in Military Science to play it, the wargame genre is my favorite. Within that category, there is a sub -category of wargame that I am fascinated by, and that’s the submarine simulation game. "Logbook" of USS Cavalla, © 1990, 2015 MicroProse/Retroism (Tommo) Since 1987, I have owned quite a few submarine-centric games. The first one I owned was Silent Service , which was published in 1985 by the original MicroProse Software. Desig...

© 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 ...

  Waging Virtual Combat in the War that Could Have Been   © 2017 Killerfish Games If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that I came of age during the last stages of the Cold War between the United States (land of my birth) and the Soviet Union. That “war in peacetime” between the world’s superpowers dominated at least half my life. My mom was pregnant with me during the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962, and I grew up under the shadow of a possible showdown between the U.S.-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Soviet-dominated Warsaw Pact. In order to cope with “Cold War-gone-hot” anxiety, I tried to reduce my fear of a war with the Soviet Union by learning as much about Soviet military technology and strategic/tactical thought. I also did the same for U.S./NATO military hardware, strategy, and tactical doctrine. I spent countless hours at the public library branch closest to my house, poring over the most recent edition of Jane’s Fightin...

Ka-Boom! A Chinese fighter burns in its handstand in Cold Waters' Strike from the Sea Single Mission. © 2017 Killerfish Games  I've been playing Killerfish Games' Cold Waters for nearly nine months, and all this time I've thought that there were only eight Single Mission engagements in this 2017 submarine combat simulator and spiritual heir to MicroProse's1988 classic, Red Storm Rising.  How wrong I was.  There are 17 Single Missions in all, starting with the relatively easy sub-versus-sub  The Duel all the way to Foreign Trade , a sub-versus-convoy mission. In addition, the last six missions allow players to take on the burden of command of either Soviet or Chinese subs and pit their boats against the best antisubmarine warfare (ASW) forces in the U.S. Navy. I have to admit that I would have discovered the nine missions that follow Junks on Parade had I bothered to read the manual (I've glanced at it a few times, but since it's a digital PDF document and no...