It’s that time of year: The calendar is counting down, the days are numbered and everybody and their mother’s blog is churning out stories about what they did over the last 12 months.
But this isn’t going to be that. I’m looking for new things to do in 2021, mainly: New video games to lose countless hours of my life playing. Personally, I do a lot of my first-person shooting (all of the Call of Duty games, Rainbow Six: Siege, and a few others) and some simulator gaming (Star Wars: Squadrons) on Xbox One. For computer gaming, I use my slightly upgraded bargain bin PC for real-time strategy games like Company of Heroes (both the original and the sequel), Star Craft 2, Age of Empires 2 and 3 Definititve Edition, and really just about anything that THQ has put out over the years — I like how they consistently incorporate cover and concealment into their RTS combat.
Just this morning I found a new time sink: Iron Harvest by King Art Games, which is basically an alternate reality set in the 1920s just after their First World War. The dominant nations in Europe are gearing up for a second global conflict — with some important changes to history, including the fact that black-smoke spewing combat walkers have taken the place of tanks and other tracked fighting vehicles. If you’re not sure this is of interest to you, it has a free to play demo out on Steam, so you can give it a test run to see if it’s your speed.
But this got me thinking about what else might be out there that I should try, so I figured I’d ask you, dear reader. What military video games should I (and others) play this coming year? These games can be new, they can be old, they can be strategy games, shooters, or simulators, or something that simply defies classification. And I don’t care what platform they’re on — console or PC, or Mac or even a smartphone — doesn’t matter. Even if I can’t play it on my systems at home, it might be perfect for someone else reading this.
Drop your suggestions in the comment section below — include the name, type of game it is, the system it should be played on, and why it’s good — and let’s get our game on. That way if 2021 turns out to be a wash like 2020 at least we’ll have a solid list of distractions lined up.