People love K-pop idol groups, and this is one of the least controversial things I’ve ever written. Where J-pop has traditionally struggled outside of the domestic market, K-pop has become one of Korea’s most powerful cultural exports. So it’s entirely unsurprising that there would be K-Pop Idol Stories: Road to Debut, to give people a chance to get behind the…
The Two Point series has a lot to answer for. Yes, SEGA’s brand of casual business simulations is silly and charming, and it’s fun to see what whacky schools, hospitals and museums you can cobble together. But in their desperate effort to be feel-good fun times, the Two Point series…
Football Manager is in a fortunate position of having no meaningful competition.…
Of all the empires in all of history, the Roman Empire seems…
Sword & Fairy is one of the biggest properties that we in the West barely notice. As Taiwan’s answer to Final Fantasy the JRPG (CRPG?) series offers some excellent production values and gameplay systems, and it’s a pity the series continues to exist in obscurity outside of its homeland, because…
Read More
Dandori is a pretty simple word in the Japanese language. It simply means “plan,” “arrangement,” or “organisation.” A person that’s really effective at organising their time has good dandori. A person that is always late to meetings has poor dandori. For most Australians, dandori isn’t that important. If I could…
Read More
Once, many years ago, I read an argument that the enduring popularity of Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons in its homeland in Japan has to do with a very real desire for a “sea change” or “tree change” among Japanese urban populations. If this is true (and I believe there is…
Read More
Bee-keeping sim Apico is quite bee-loved (Matt even featured it in his interesting games on an itch.io roundup), and is currently available basically everywhere… except anything Xbox. Well, that’s set to change – though I can’t tell you when past it will happen “soon.” As it does on current platforms,…
Read More
There is no shortage of choices when it comes to city builders on the PlayStation 5 (and PlayStation 4). There is the recently released Anno 1800 and Transport Fever 2, but then there are also older titles like Cities: Skylines, Tropico 6, and some of the more out-there efforts like…
Read More
Transport Fever 2 is a celebration of the value that transport networks bring populations. It is a “builder” simulator, but similar to the likes of the classic Transport Tycoon and A-Train, you don’t build the building directly. You build the road, train, ship and air transport networks that the cities…
Read More
I haven’t played an Anno game since Anno: Create A New World on the Wii and DS, but I absolutely loved those games, and I likewise love Anno 1800, the first game in the main series to also get a console release (the Wii and DS titles were spinoffs). If…
Read More
I often wonder how successful I’d be working as an air traffic controller. It seems like it would be a stressful job, given how quickly air flights can turn deadly, and how busy airports are these days. I also suspect I’d be less-than-good at the job, given how many nightmare…
Read More
I love the Airport Hero series, which has been kicking around for many years now. Out of nowhere the most recent one for Nintendo Switch was released this week, so that’s what we played on this stream! Come see what it’s like to be an air traffic controller!…
Read More
The “Golden Age of Piracy” will never cease to fascinate historians and amateur enthusiasts alike. While the caricatures of peg legs, eye patches, and parrots on the shoulder might not fascinate the imagination long past childhood, the political environment that allowed piracy to flourish, the role it played in the…
Read More