Codies looks for taxi driver progeny

By Robert Purchese Published 8 February, 2008

The one that almost killed Churchill.

Codemasters has hired a historian to track down the descendants of a taxi driver that almost killed Winston Churchill.

No, not to get revenge, but to promote its new game Turning Point: Fall of Liberty. It wants to honour the progeny of Mario (unrelated) Contasino for providing the inspirational twist to its game, you see.

Turning Point is based around the idea that Churchill (then a statesman) had been killed years before the war broke out, and Hitler had not been repelled but continued unchecked onto American soil.

Seems far-fetched though, given that a Japanese invasion would have been more likely. And the US had no quarrel with Hitler until Pearl Harbour was bombed anyway. Crossing that ocean would have been no small feat, either. But bear with us.

You can keep up with historian David McCarthy - no relation to the Eurogamer reviewer Dave - on his blog.

"It's a modern-day treasure hunt, and one I'm relishing," said David McCarthy, face buried in books.

It does an ample job of detracting attention away from recent comments by developer Spark Unlimited that it was hurriedly trying to polish the final version of its game for a February launch on 360, PS3 and PC.

Many of you had bad things to say about the recent Live demo you see, but Spark said its final code was very different but that it was listening to your concerns. Which seemed a bit close to release for our comfort.

Pop over to our Turning Point: Fall of Liberty gamepage for more.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (8) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • pjmaybe #1 4 years ago

    Can't help but think it'll take more than tracking that bloke down to help this fat pile of crap to sell...

    Better off tracking down Linda Lusardi and jamming a copy of the game betwixt her sagging mounds to accurately reflect the average consumer opinion of TPFOL
    Edited by 1 at 08/02/08 @ 14:00

  • the_dudefather #2 4 years ago

    maybe they should hire some testers to get rif of those bugs amirite?

    seeing 3 NPCs vanish for no reason in a 10 minute long demo cannot be right

  • bioreit #3 4 years ago

    /History hat on

    Hitler always though of America as a 'mongrel race', so after dealing with Soviet Russia, he'd probably have been happy to clear them out and make them 'pure'. Also, if the Battle of Khalkhin Gol had never happened - http://en .wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_K... - then it is likely that Japan would have attacked Russia instead of Pearl Harbour, meaning Russia would have had a two-front battle on its hands, while America, having not been attacked, would have remained in its isolationist hole; meaning Hitler would have not had to endure his two front-war hell.

    In those circumstances, I could readily see America not joining in, Russia and all of Europe falling and Hitler eventually dealing with America at a later date.

    Overly simplistic view, mind, but kudos to Codies for pinning so much on the fat smoker.

    /Historian hat off, gaming cape on

    Turning Point could be really good, if only they could make the graphics, AI and controls slightly above average. Combined with an alternate history setting/storyline, turds can indeed be polished til they shine. But only if they're small turds. Stinking great donkey ones, not so much.

  • Gurgeh #4 4 years ago

    You need to check up on your history. Before the USA entered the war U-boats were patrolling off its east coast so close that the crews could smell the flowers. In 1942 U boats were landing teams of saboteurs onto the mainland while wreaking havoc on coastal shipping - one quarter of all sinkings in World War 2 were off the east coast of the USA. With no coastal blackout in force ships were easily picked out while crowds on the shoreline would watch the battles.

  • sharpfish #5 4 years ago

    Maybe while they are at it they should track down the guy responsible for the sorry ass graphics and the piss poor control/aiming/gameplay of the demo and run them over with a taxi?

    Oh and being midly obsessed with 'Manhattan' I was really looking forward to this game, should've known not to get my hopes up. Maybe GTA will nail it.
    Edited by 1 at 08/02/08 @ 15:22

  • hulahoops #6 4 years ago

    /Strategist hat on

    As the Risk board reliably demonstrates, attacking North America from Europe is no mean feat due to the choke point in Iceland.

    My guess is that if it weren't for Monty Hitler would have concentrated on conquering sub-saharan Africa before either taking South America before North or perhaps even streaking off into Australasia for a slow but steady extra two units per turn.
    Edited by 1 at 08/02/08 @ 15:36

  • bioreit #7 4 years ago

    @ Gurgeh

    Correct about U-boating - was thinking about mentioning the fact that since the Allies were being supplied by America on very favourable terms for a long while before Pearl Harbour, a lot of American merchant sailors were getting killed by the Nazis. Hitler and his inner cadre always believed that to defeat England meant cutting off their supply lines - I remember writing some boring A-Level essay on how England was desperate to transport and build more 'tonnage' of ships than the Germans could destroy; one of the best examples of materiel being deemed more important than personnel.

    But I wanted to keep my post simple and short(-ish) :-P

  • MGG #8 4 years ago

    /History Hat on

    Japan did not attack Russia because of Stalins frantic efforts to make China unite and attack the Japanese first (as the Japanese had taken over the German territories within China after WW1, to join the other major Western powers France, UK and the USA; which the Chinese saw as a national disgrace. ) Hence Stalin actually sent more aid to the Chinese nationalists under Chiang than he did to the Chinese Communists. Once the Japanese were dragged into a conflict with the Chinese, it took them further and further south away from their original gains in Manchuria, close to the Russian territories of Mongolia.

    Even then, there was furious debates within the Japanese ruling clique about whether to attack Russia or go for the "southern option". In the end, the Southern Option won, possibly thanks to the Americans lining up their entire Pacific fleet in an unprotected line at Pearl Harbour. Some argue that FDR wanted the USA to be dragged into a war.....

    What followed next were some of the most shameful battles in British and American history - the fall of Malay and Singapore being possibly the worst military defeat for the British (and the Aussies) against a much smaller force (Churchill described it as his biggest single regret); and the American performance in the Philippines was even more pathetic when you realise they had much more warning that an attack was coming.

    /History Hat off.