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Panzer Bonanza

Discus Games, the brutes that inflicted Phantasmagoria ("the most terrible game which left on PC") and Harry's Adventures: Prooves Under Underwear ("the funnyman and the ladies' favourite named Harry undertakes investigation") on Russian gamers, are just about to make amends by giving them a surprisingly decent WWII tank sim.

A fresh-from-the-smelter ingot of Steel Fury: Kharkov 1942 can be found here. Play is a little confusing to begin with (hence the brief guide after the jump) but give-up and you'll miss out on some vintage armour drama. I won't give too much away, but my first three attempts at holding Sovkhoz Krasny Gigant ended in dismal failure. In one my trusty T-34 toppled into a shellhole. In another I was sniped after sticking my head out of the hatch to observe a trench-line. Then there was the time I ran out of AP shells and resorted to ramming Fascist war machines while singing 'Konarmeiskaia pesnia' at the top of my lungs. (With luck they'll name a Moscow Metro station after me.)

For the Steel Fury basics...

You start the mission sat in the gunner/commander seat (one-and-the-same-thing in a T-34). Dabbing F9 takes you to a useful external view. The WASD keys get you moving.

Sovkhoz Krasny Gigant is over the hill directly ahead. If you don't want to go in through the front-door you can pick your own route using landmark icons (+/-) or the map (F8) as orientation aids.

Surveying terrain is best done from the turret. Hit F9 to take you back to an FP view, then H to open the hatch and P to stand up. Binos are accessed with B.

Before you engage anything you need to put a shell up the spout (load status is indicated by the icon bottom-right). Press 1 to select AP (good against armour) or 2 to select HE (good against everything else) . R loads.

On spotting targets you'll probably want to come to an abrupt halt (Q) and jump to the gunsight view. J closes the hatch, INSERT activates the sight, BACKSPACE zooms in. To loose a shell click LMB. To hose with the coaxial MG click RMB.

If ever the WASD keys stop responding then you've either damaged your tracks (by default auto-repair is on, meaning you should be moving again in a few minutes) or lost your driver. In the latter situation, take-over the levers (F1) and drive youself around using the cursor keys. F2 returns you to the gunner/TC perch.

Well, that's the rudiments. Good hunting!

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Tim Stone: A vereran PC games journalist, Tim has been covering simulation, strategy and management games in print and online for over 30 years. At Rock Paper Shotgun, he was the writer of The Flare Path, a weekly column, from 2011 until 2022.
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