Recent reviews by Von Grumble aka aloha quackbar

Military cover shooters have become a genre onto themselves in recent years, thanks to the success of franchises like Call of Duty and Battlefield. Gameplay in these titles focuses on tactical teamwork and army culture, turning away from the more fantastical elements of modern action gaming in both story and implementation. Insurgents sit in for aliens and narratives spring from newspapers instead of novels, all in the service of "realism." Realism means different things to different people, however, and hardcore players have long wished for a game that combines a multiplayer military tactical approach with the level of detail seen in proper simulations. Czech developers Bohemia Interactive have been dabbling in this field for almost a decade following the debut success of Operation Flashpoint, and ARMA II: Combined Operations ($33, free demo) is their most recent marketplace deployment.
ARMA II: Combined Operations has a realistic look that makes the imprecise controls all the more frustrating.

Combined Operations bundles several releases under a single title, including ARMA II and the standalone Operation Arrowhead expansion. That translates to a lot of mission for your money, but keep in mind some of the content shipped in 2009 when ARMA II was initially released. The gameplay found here is of a specific flavor and the difficulty level an order of magnitude more challenging than a traditional FPS. Not all of that challenge is due to the gameplay, either. There's a general imprecision to the controls and sluggishness to movement that pervades Bohemia's 3D engine and makes game interactions feel like your computer suddenly skipped two upgrade cycles. Other game mechanics are equally poorly implemented. Climbing ladders, utilizing inventory, and operating vehicles are all examples of obscurely designed mechanics that feel more like add-ons than actual core code.

To counter this, Bohemia offers a sandbox experience par excellence, with mission design tools and an easily moddable structure that invites users to take chances and play around with the results. This more than anything has been the key to ARMA's success. For example, you might ask why this elderly niche shooter leads the sales charts at Steam so frequently, but the answer is simple: This is the package that's required to run DayZ . Forward thinking and trust in their community paid off to the tune of 1.3 million new sales and development of what's sure to be a hit sequel, largely without Bohemia lifting a finger to do anything other than count all the money. I wonder if encrypted game files still seem attractive to their competitors.

Most of ARMA II's real action takes place in multiplayer mode, where cooperative teams can employ small unit tactics and other military strategies against one another. The levels are vast–hundreds of kilometers in size–and the game's architecture supports dozens of players, vehicles, and aircraft simultaneously so aerial support, heavy weapons coverage and more are all part of the tour. Weather changes, terrain, and day/night cycles are all crucial tactically, while enemy AI is good enough to be uncanny at times. The promise of all this is tempered by the reality of the engine's shortcomings, but it's an impressive feat nevertheless.
Night missions utilize vision enhancement gear and other stealth goodies.

With ARMA III on the horizon, Combined Operations is difficult to recommend. Hardcore players may be drawn to the high levels of detail and realism, but they are sure to find disappointment in some of the awkward systems that lay underneath the uniform. For these users, I'd recommend waiting for a sale at Steam or GOG before taking the plunge. Players curious about DayZ shouldn't wait however. ARMA's flaws aren't nearly as disruptive in that environment, and the excitement around the mod makes playing sooner rather than later worthwhile.

Farming Simulator 2013 is one of the purest and most focused business simulations I’ve ever played. You own a farm in a country town, and your only goal is to grow crops to make as money without any “final objective” to chase. There are no scores, storylines, cosmetic money sinks (such as new player skins or houses), or other long-term goals. You simply choose a crop from four possible seeds to start your career, plant it in your field, harvest it, sell it and put that cash back into the farm. It’s almost impossible to damage your crops unless you’re not paying attention, so it’s difficult to fail or find yourself in a no-win situation.

Still, you should harvest as much as you can because of the sheer number of investments you can make into your business. There are dozens of licensed vehicles, forty plots of land (of which you only start with one), and additional buildings such as solar collectors and greenhouses that you can sink your money into. As you increase the number of fields you own, it can take more than a dozen tractors and tools to coordinate all the work and minimize downtime. It could take hundreds of hours of work to afford everything, but you have complete freedom in how you accomplish your goal and what your priorities are. Livestock, more or bigger fields, and faster machines are all available, so you’ll have to think about what best suits your particular play style. More valuable crops take extra work and extra machines in order to maximize your profits, so you need to decide whether you’re willing to make the investment or stick to simple but low-value crops. The entire system gives you a tremendous amount of freedom in how to best approach your business, although that first week will be fairly slow-paced.

The most unusual aspect of Farming Simulator 2013 is the complete lack of competition. In a single-player career, there is only you, the farm, and the AI townspeople who wander around but can’t be interacted with. Even in multiplayer, all players work together on a single farm. In both modes, the game will not fail you for slow production or even no production at all. As a result the gameplay is incredibly peaceful, though possibly a bit daunting for newcomers to the series. Admittedly, the act of virtual farming doesn’t sound like it would require a complex series of steps to perform, given that most of your job involves jumping in a tractor, attaching a tool, and slowly driving in straight lines. However, there are subtleties that are under-mentioned or completely undocumented that require some practice to master. AI-controlled workers can be hired for most tasks, and watching how they perform can teach you techniques to use when you get behind the wheel. Hiring those workers is the key to running a successful and profitable farm, especially when you’re trying to manage a half-dozen fields or more at once.
Those aren’t the only presentation missteps. To help keep you busy during those slow early days, you’re given regular “missions” to earn you some extra cash. There is no punishment for failing a mission, and they pay really well when you’re starting out, but they’re executed poorly. There are only two types of missions that ask you to mow some grass or move heavy equipment across the town. The problem is, you don’t have the equipment to perform either mission when you start off with a new career, so you’ll be forced to decline the mission unless you spend all your first-day profits on the machines. Further, the mission types seem a little strange… no missions for delivering certain crops to certain houses? No scrambling to save a field from a pest outbreak? How about a mission where you have to drive your water trailer to assist the fire department to help extinguish a burning building? While reward money is good, mowing grass is incredibly boring, and the mission system simply doesn’t feel rewarding enough.