Fire up the Steam page for Stellaris, one of my favourite space sims, and you will see 28 pieces of DLC, ranging from free character portraits to £35 expansion passes that span a bunch of species and story packs. Stablemate Europa Universalis 4 has 37 DLC packs under its banner, while Cities Skylines is streets ahead with a whopping 62. Paradox Interactive have long built their core game business around putative forever-projects that trail an enormous mantle of paid expansions. It's seemingly this, as much as their institutional expertise with 4X, that justifies their commitment to grand strategy games, whose worlds and systems can be fleshed out for literal decades.
]]>Paradox are integrating four of Europa Universalis IV's DLCs into the base game. The Rights Of Man, Art Of War, Digital Extreme Upgrade and Common Sense DLCs will be free to all current and future players of the eleven-year-old grand strategy game from October 17th onwards.
On the same date, Paradox are also introducing a new Starter Edition of the game and lowering the price of the its Ultimate Bundle DLC collection.
]]>Yesterday’s Paradox Announcement Show saw the reveal of some new games, including the turn-based strategy The Lamplighters League, and a sequel to their hit city builder Cities: Skylines 2. But, with a bucketload of ongoing games, Paradox weren’t content with the newbies, and announced a blast of DLC. Flagship historical grand strategies Crusader Kings 3 and Europa Universalis 4, as well as colony builder Surviving The Aftermath, are all getting expansions.
]]>Earlier this month, we asked you to vote for your favourite strategy games of all time to celebrate the launch (and glorious return) of several strategy classics this month, including Relic's WW2 RTS Company Of Heroes 3, Blue Byte's The Settlers: New Allies and Cyanide's fantasy Warhamball Blood Bowl 3. And cor, I've never seen such love for individual expansions and total conversion mods among mainline RTS games and 4Xs. As with all strategy games, however, there can only be one victor - and you can find out what that single strategy game to rule them all is right here. Here are your 50 favourite strategy games of all time, as voted for by you, the RPS readership.
]]>Tick tock it's free game o'clock, with Paradox's Europa Universalis IV now becoming the latest freebie on the Epic Games Store for the next week. The historical grand strategy game puts you in charge of a nation from the middle ages through to early modernity, charting a course through countless economic, political, military, and religious crises. EU4 is eight years old but still a good'un, and Paradox are still updating it with expansions and patches.
]]>Paradox Tinto’s studio manager and game director Johan Andersson has apologised for the state of Europa Universalis IV’s Leviathan DLC. The buggy release was so bad that it swiftly became Steam’s worst reviewed game, and remains 'Overwhelmingly Negative' on the store. Andersson posted on the game’s forums taking full responsibility. "This is entirely my fault," he said.
]]>Europa Universalis IV's latest expansion, Leviathan, adds new ways to enrich your historic empire. Unfortunately it seems a slew of bugs has led to it becoming the worst rated game on Steam with 90% negative reviews.
]]>Last month, Paradox launched an optional subscription service for Crusader Kings 2 which gave access to all its expansions and DLC for a small monthly fee. Now they're doing the same with another grand strategy game. Yesterday they launched a separate subscription for Europa Universalis 4, once again offering all the expansions and DLC for a price of £4/month. And it's still optional, they're still selling stuff separately too.
]]>Strategy games is an enormous genre in PC gaming, with real-time, turn-based, 4X and tactics games all flying the same flag to stake their claim as the one true best strategy game. Our list of the best strategy games on PC covers the lot of them. We like to take a broad view here at RPS, and every game listed below is something we firmly believe that you could love and play today. You'll find 30-year-old classics nestled right up against recent favourites here, so whether you're to the genre or want to dig deep for some hidden gems, we've got you covered. Here are our 50 best strategy games for 2023.
]]>Six weeks after the release of Crusader Kings 3, and there are already over 1200 mods, tweaks, and more to download. Paradox's grand soap opera is as much fun to fix as it is to play, it seems.
A lot of the more extensive mods are still heavily in development, so I've steered clear of most total conversions (aside from one that I couldn't not highlight) and stuck to more general upgrades and rules for your kings and queens.
]]>What to do when you've completed a Crusader Kings 3 campaign? You could start over as a new ruler in a new place, I suppose, but isn't that negligent? A truly responsible leader would steer their nation through the middle ages, the Victorian era, and World War 2. And you can do that thanks to a tool which transfers a CK3 world into Europa Universalis 4, picking it back up in the Paradox grand strategy game set in the following era. You could also then use another tool to take that from EU4 into Victoria 2, then into Hearts Of Iron 4 with yet another tool, converting the same world across one millennium-long 'megacampaign'.
]]>The game that's spawned more offspring than some actual emperors has popped out another. Them strategy game folks at Paradox Interactive have released the new Emperor expansion for Europa Universalis IV. It's all about keeping the faith and controlling the people with new Pope abilities to help you stand against revolutions. Alongside the new expansion is a free update for all EU4 players.
]]>Paradox Interactive, the makers of Crusader Kings and Stellaris, have announced the "impending completion" of a collective bargaining agreement with the labour unions for its employees in Sweden. By the end of this month, Paradox employees should have a formal way of influencing their pay, benefits and responsibilities, and be generally better protected by the unions they're part of. If you're a little confused on what all this "collective agreement" business means though, bear with me while I have a go at explaining it.
]]>Paradox Interactive today announced the opening of Paradox Tinto, a new Spanish studio who will focus primarily on grand strategy games. Led by a Paradox veteran with two decades of gran estrategia under his belt, the studio based in Barcelona will initially help out with ongoing work on Europa Universalis IV then later start making new grand strategies of their own. No hints yet at what they might have in mind.
]]>Paradox Interactive have formally announced the next Europa Universalis IV expansion, named Emperor. It will bring new powers for the Pope, livelier revolutions, some troubling incidents for the Holy Roman Empire, and more. And as is customary for Paradox strategy games, the expansion will be accompanied by a free update overhauling bits and pieces.
]]>I did not expect that I would ever Google something like "will Big Ben bong?" in service to an article for RPS, and yet here we are - and it turns out it will not. The big B day has arrived, not with a bong but a whimper. It's a sore subject for a lot of us (stuff disappearing off of Netflix; my partner is European and won't have to queue as long at airports), a genuinely frightening one for others (unknown economic impact; forced repatriation).
As in most times of stress, I turn to video games for both a distraction from and mirror to life. I don't even mean obviously Brexit-y things like Not Tonight or Spinnortality. There are many games notionally unrelated to today that nonetheless feel apposite to play. Here are a few that I thought of.
]]>Paradox Interactive, the publishers of games from Crusader Kings to Cities: Skylines, have settled into a familiar and successful model: release a game then, rather chase it with a sequel, spend years expanding it with free content updates and paid add-ons. I quite like this when I buy a Paradox game near the start of its long life, and happily buy an expansion or two a year, but the sheer mass and price of extras for later games can be intimidating. Consider Europa Universalis IV, which after sevens years has almost £200 of expansions. I'm very interested, then, to see Paradox are experimenting with an EU4 subscription service that would cover the strategy game and it expansions.
]]>Empire builders, rejoice. Thanks to the latest Humble Bundle, you can now conquer the whole of Europa Universalis IV and its many, many expansion packs for as little as £13 / $17, or just get the base game (and six other DLC packs) for a single US dollar - that's 76p in the UK! That's an outright steal if ever I saw one, so why not read on for the full list of Europa-themed spoils?
]]>Bugger me, Paradox Interactive’s grand strategy games are a lot, right? If I could put that even more in bold, I would have fattened up like a sacrificial pig before god-appeasing slaughter, because they really are.
My experience with Crusader Kings II, for example, mainly involved me staring at menus for half an hour then crushing half a pack of ibuprofen into a fine powder, mixing it into a hot chocolate, and cradling it while rocking back and forth in a corner for the evening. I am, to put it lightly, not a bountiful well of expertise when it comes to these devilishly complex map-painters. Which is why I was pleasantly surprised to find that, about four hours into Imperator: Rome, the thing had got its wreath-decorated hooks well and truly into me.
]]>The next expansion for Europa Universalis 4 is taking the grand strategy game into a particularly high-stakes part of history. Golden Century is set to expand on the naval aspect of the game, building on the Spanish Reconquista and a broad focus on the Iberian peninsula. Where there's mountains of stolen Aztec gold, there's opportunity, and the chance to tussle with or even play as entire pirate nations. You've got until December 11th to whittle your perfect peg-leg or pick out the perfect plumage for your Spanish helm. The announcement trailer shines below.
]]>Impaling the Ottoman Sultan was not part of the plan. When the Ottoman Empire declared war on tiny Moldavia, my objective was to survive, not to murder the most powerful king in the region. Moldavia, which in 1444 begins the game with a handful of provinces and neighbours eager to conquer them, defeated the last of the Ottoman Empire’s armies on the European side of the Aegean Sea in 1474. A few months later Constantinople fell to a Moldavian siege.
I could, and perhaps should, have stopped then, having made modest gains and secured the province I needed to form Romania. Instead 6 February 1474 will be infamous in the Ottoman annals as the day the two most important individuals in the realm were murdered in a bizarre and grotesque way by marauders from across the Danube. I captured the province I wanted, but the Ottoman Empire hated me with the maximum possible intensity forever.
]]>Historical conquer 'em up Europa Universalis IV got its newest expansion yesterday, Dharma, which adds elephants, monsoons, trade company shenanigans, and an overhaul to the Indian nations. Basically, it lets European nations engage in their traditional love of colonial economic browbeating, but also gives smaller individual Indian states more attention, with new missions and national ideas of their own. You should come and read more. Not for the expanso-chat, but for the ridiculous patch notes that always accompany these big war game updates.
]]>“Don’t you go to Goa,” a wise band once sang. Well, eat my dust, Alabama 3. I’ll go wherever I please, up to and including Goa. But fair enough, I can’t afford the airplane ticket. I’ll have to just play strategy game Europa Universalis IV’s upcoming Dharma expansion, which is reworking the Indian provinces on September 6. It’s adding ruthless European charter companies to the region, as well as monsoons, the caste system and a bunch of “scornful insults”.
]]>We've just passed the half-way point of 2018, so Ian Gatekeeper and all his fabulously wealthy chums over at Valve have revealed which hundred games have sold best on Steam over the past six months. It's a list dominated by pre-2018 names, to be frank, a great many of which you'll be expected, but there are a few surprises in there.
2018 releases Jurassic World Evolution, Far Cry 5 Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Warhammer: Vermintide II are wearing some spectacular money-hats, for example, while the relatively lesser-known likes of Raft, Eco and Deep Rock Galactic have made themselves heard above the din of triple-A marketing budgets.
]]>The Paradox DLC factory continues to diligently extend the lives of its myriad grand strategy romps, with all but Stellaris getting new DLC announcements at PDXCON last month. We’re getting restless pagan warriors, war elephants and even some sharks. If you can match the feature to the game, you get a polite nod of respect.
Rather than tiring you out, making you click on three articles like a thoughtless task master, I’ve gathered all the sizzling deets in one place. Rest those fingers and direct your eyes below to find out what’s changing in Hearts of Iron 4, Europa Universalis 4 and Crusader Kings 2.
]]>Power-hungry Europa Universalis IV players in capes and funny hats will stalk the halls of a Polish castle when the historical grand strategy game's four-day LAN-o-LARP event 'The Grandest LAN Party' returns in November. We sent our boy Brendy to last year's forty-person rumble, and his two-part report on the intrigue and drama of diplomats skulking around a castle and holding secret talks while their teammates played the video game still delights me. What a strange and wonderful event. EU4 devs Paradox and event organisers Dziobak LARP Studios today opened ticket sales, and if you're crafty and loaded you might fancy a look.
]]>Another year over, a new one just begun, which means, impossibly, even more games. But what about last year? Which were the games that most people were buying and, more importantly, playing? As is now something of a tradition, Valve have let slip a big ol' breakdown of the most successful titles released on Steam over the past twelve months.
Below is the full, hundred-strong roster, complete with links to our coverage if you want to find out more about any of the games, or simply to marvel at how much seemed to happen in the space of 52 short weeks.
]]>With this week's release of Star Wars: Battlecrate 2 marking the end of big, noisy shooter silly season, there's a whole lot more breathing space for a wider variety of games. Case in point, a double-whammy of DLC for Paradox's grand strategy heaviest-hitters, Crusader Kings II and Europa Universalis IV.
Big add-ons for both have landed today, with CK2: Jade Dragon putting China front'n'centre, and EUIV: Cradle of Civilization looking at the state of the Middle East and Asia during the early modern era.
]]>With Halloween fast approaching, I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about typical spooky things: ghouls and ghosts, vampires and werewolves, marrying off my daughter to an appropriate suitor and the best trade strategy to dominate the Aegean. The Steam Halloween Sale is in full swing until November 1, and thanks to Paradox Interactive, it’s full of grand strategy games.
]]>We sent Brendan to a castle in Poland to witness a giant session of strategy game Europa Universalis IV [official site]. In this final report, he tells us of the manipulative merchant kings of India, and how blood money corrupted the world. You can read part 1 here
I’m eating soup with the ministers from Malaysia, Italy and Bavaria when the head diplomat of Mughal India comes to our table and starts talking about money again. His long black robe flows over his thin frame, a matching velvet cap on his curly dark hair.
“The Ottoman have trade locked up,” he says. The Italian minster smiles. You can always trust a Mughal to talk about markets. Soon, all the world leaders at the table are speaking in impenetrable detail about world affairs - intricacies and intrigue, money and merchants. It’s like sitting in a restaurant with the Illuminati. They smirk, they joke, they laugh. Tomorrow, they will be at war. Anywhere between 7-10 million people will die.
]]>We sent Brendan to a castle in Poland to witness a giant session of strategy game Europa Universalis IV [official site]. In the first of a two-part report, he tells us of war-hungry Germans, scheming Saxons and unlucky Irish - the victims and villains of an epic four-day LAN party
I wake up to the sound of muskets. Outside, the ministers of France, Japan and Hanover are shooting 17th century flintlock rifles at nothing in particular. Two helpers, holding belts of wooden jars strung together like sausages, refill the guns of the world leaders with an eardrum-shattering amount of gunpowder. I plug my ears as they fire into the air. I want to ask the ministers from Hanover about the war. One million people have died - 292,000 from starvation and freezing, the rest from bullets and sabers. But all talk of treaties, battles, deals and diplomacy has been put to one side, replaced with deafening bangs and childish giggles. I stuff my hands in my pockets and walk back to the castle. Welcome to the strangest game of Europa Universalis IV ever played.
]]>[Update: the organisers have now set up a Twitch livestream for this, which you can see here]
Hello from Poland, where I am currently living in a castle with forty angry strategy gamers. The castle is Zamek Czocha, a 13th century fortress that has been occupied more times than an airport toilet cubicle. This week its invaders are the Grandest LAN Party, a giant multiplayer match of historical strategy game Europa Universalis IV [official site]. This is normally a game of slow and ponderous decisions on a big map of the world, but in this castle it also involves four days of clambering through secret chambers and crossing high balconies to talk to the representative of Norway about an underhanded alliance with Moldavia.
]]>Paradox's historical strategy Europa Universalis IV [official site] will expand once more later this year with Cradle of Civilization, the next paid expansion. Its main focus is Muslim empires, expanding and reworking the Persian region and Islam. And as is the Paradox strategy way, the expansion will be accompanied by a free update bringing related changes for all players.
]]>As a wayward youth, I spent many an hour scribbling willies of all shapes and sizes on school jotters. As a respectable, responsible adult, I’ve graduated to ruining multiplayer games instead. Specifically online games of Europa Universalis 4. Bohemia is my muse, and I’ll never stop trying to make it look like a winky.
]]>Paradox have started handing out games as compensation to those affected by their recent surprise regional price hikes. Prices went up by only a few percent for some people but almost doubled for others. Paradox have reverted the prices now. They had thought they might be able to give partial refunds but that's proved unworkable.
Instead, anyone who bought Paradox products at the higher prices -- which were between May 17th and July 6th -- is eligible to claim a game from a list including Stellaris and Crusader Kings II, or alternatively two bits of select DLC.
]]>Big, slow, sweeping strategy games expose their rules in a way no other game does. Call of Duty doesn’t have floating numbers above enemy heads, telling you their movement speed, for example. But in most 4X and grand strategy games, there is no attempt to hide exactly how everything works: the stats, their interactions, are all laid out and plain to see. Yet these games are utterly dependent on their ability to evoke a sense of place, scale, and history – they have to be much more than just a fancy chessboard, they have to feel alive, or they’re just not much fun. How can these games survive and thrive under such conflicting pressures? I spoke to three of the world’s top strategy game designers, from Firaxis, Paradox and Amplitude, to find out.
]]>Adam is away at E3 and thus someone who isn't Adam needs to develop emotions and/or words regarding the new DLC available for two of Paradox's grand strategy games, Europa Universalis IV [official site] and Hearts of Iron IV [official site]. That person is me so I was hoping that somehow it was an under-the-sea expansion of some kind. The fact that the DLCs are called Third Rome and Death or Dishonor respectively implies not. I'll wear my snorkel just in case, though.
]]>At the Paradox Convention last month, I was hoping to see something new from Paradox Development Studio, the internal team responsible for the company's core strategy titles. There were new expansions for Europa Universalis IV [official site] and Hearts of Iron IV [official site], and the hiring of Jon Shafer is an interesting move, but no actual games were announced. I sat down with creative director Johan Andersson and CEO Fredrik Wester about the possibility of a Crusader Kings [official site] sequel, the expansion model, and what the future holds for the development side of Paradox.
]]>Paradox have announced a historical grand strategy expansion blowout-o-rama for June 14th, when they'll launch the Third Rome 'immersion pack' for Europa Universalis IV [official site] and the Death or Dishonor 'country pack' for Hearts of Iron IV. Yup, both on the very same day. Paradox had a similar plan in April, releasing Europa Universalis and Stellaris expansions on the same day, so I guess they're confident a grand strategy double-header is not as odd an idea as it might seem. For players who do want both of 'em, Paradox will offer a small discount. It's a war-o-rama.
]]>Jon Shafer was 21 years old when he became lead designer of Civilization V. Now working at Paradox on an unannounced project and on his own historical strategy game At The Gates in his spare time, he says he's learning from the likes of Spelunky along with the more obvious strategic influences. We spoke about how the second half of every Civ sucks, the part the series played in his life, the perils of boredom in strategy design, how much we love maps, and what the future holds for both Shafer and Paradox.
I began by asking how he ended up sitting at the Paradox Convention, in Stockholm, the city that has now been his home for two weeks: "It's quite a long story, actually."
That story begins in Denver, around 2003.
]]>Since you already know what the best Crusader Kings 2 mods are, I thought you should probably get the skinny on the best additions to Paradox’s other grand strategy romp: Europa Universalis 4. It’s got more than a few, too.
Tweaks, fantastical overhauls, graphics improvements – modders have given the game plenty of love. And while some mods have fallen by the wayside, there’s still a mountain of crackers to dig through.
]]>He was a boy. She was a girl. Can I make it anymore obvious? He wrote the weekly Steam charts. She read them.
What more can I say?
Other than that these are the ten Steam games with the most accumulated sales over the past week, obv. See ya later, boy.
]]>Oh goodness me, I'd forgotten that Europa Universalis 4 [official site] has an expansion out today too. Along with releasing Stellaris: Utopia, those busy bees have launched EU4: Mandate of Heaven. This tenth expansion for the historical grand strategy game focuses on China and Japan, expanding them with new unique systems. Have a peek:
]]>You must choose: history or sci-fi? No time to explain. Pick now. No do-overs. 3. 2. 1. Time's up! Huh, that's your decision? Interesting. You'll have to stick with that. Okay, now there's time to explain: Paradox have announced a release date of April 6th for the next Europa Universalis 4 [official site] expansion, Mandate of Heaven, which is also the release date for Stellaris's Utopia expansion. What are you going to do, play them at separate times? Tch! So if you chose history, you can look forward to an expansion focused on China and Japan.
]]>Space is getting grander and more interesting thanks to the Utopia dlc for Stellaris, and Crusader Kings II is receiving a rabble of Monks and Mystics next week, but Europa Universalis IV [official site] hasn't been left out. A tenth expansion is coming. It's called Mandate Of Heaven and it adds an objective system based around semi-dynamic ages (from Discovery to Revolutions) to the world while introducing new mechanics for the Empire of China, daimyos and Shogunate of Japan, and Manchu.
]]>Video games always come with an expectation that the player will suspend disbelief to some extent. Genetically engineered super-soldier clones don’t exist, radiation has never and will never work like that, and overweight Italian plumbers could never make that jump. In most cases, if we are unwilling or unable to suspend our disbelief, we may well struggle to enjoy the game and our questioning of the basics of its ‘reality’ would probably make us insufferable to be around.
There are some games however, where the realities of our world are key to enjoying the game. These are the builders like City Skylines, simulators and sports games like Prison Architect and FIFA, and even crime games like Grand Theft Auto. One genre has a particular problem when it comes to maintaining a foot in the real world yet still creating a setting where one can have fun without becoming mired in morally questionable events and choices: historically based games. And among historical games, few subjects are as complex to represent as slavery. Many have tried, from Europa Universalis IV and Victoria II to Civilization and Assassin's Creed: Freedom Cry, and in this article I'll investigate the portrayal and use of slavery in these games and more to explore what they get right, what they get wrong, and how games could do better in future.
]]>From the forum threads full of arguments to the constant tweaking and occasional overhauls via patches – balance has long been one of the pillars of strategy games. It means fairness, a level playing field, and in competition it means that victory comes purely from player skill. But balance, and the quest to reach it, can easily become the enemy of surprise and of the joy that comes from succeeding against the odds.
Balance’s lofty position implies that nobody wants to be the underdog, that conquest is only satisfying if you have the exact same or at least equally effective advantages as your opponents. Sure, when actual money and trophies are involved, this sort of balance is necessary, but when you’re playing for fun? When you’re playing on your own? Give me the imbalanced every time.
]]>I have a terrible confession to make. While, on a weekly basis, I protest about the oft-unchanging nature of these charts, the truth is that a new entry makes me sigh. It means I have to laboriously type out new HTML rather than just copy the links from last week. This means terrible, unspeakable suffering in a week such as this, where there actually are quite a few 'new' games.
]]>A new Europa Universalis IV [official site] expansion, named Rights of Man, is out today. This means that people who pay £15 can play with expanded diplomatic options as a Great Power. As is the traditional Paradox grand strategy way, a big update has launched alongside this expansion with fixes and additions for all.
Look, if I sound half-hearted, it's because I'm reading the notes for a Crusader Kings II patch Paradox also released today, and that has the lot: cats, fraudulent mystics, and cannibals finding human heads in their beds. EU4 is a let-down on the japery front.
]]>What if Paradox Interactive are a shadowy front for the Swedish tourist board? What if they're being nice - with all these lovely games and free DLC - to lure us to lonely lakes and forests? What then? We all know what the UK government did with The Beatles. Now, I'm not saying this is true, but the latest free bit of DLC supports my theory completely. A collection of 18th-century Swedish songs from poet and composer Carl Michael Bellman is now resonating around Europa Universalis IV [official site] in free DLC, ostensibly to selling Paradox selling many games but... if you download this and start pining for pine, don't come crying to me for help.
]]>Total conversions are like mods, except so ambitious they never get released. Ho ho! A little bit of 1999 mod community humour there. They're also sometimes mods that completely change the face and function of game, bending its every part in service of some new purpose. That's what Paradox want to support more of across all their games, and to that end they've released a 3D model exporting tool alongside a new developer diary discussing modding for their upcoming procedural space strategy game, Stellaris. It looks hot like that sun.
]]>Ahead of its The Cossacks expansion release on Tuesday, Europa Universalis IV [official site] developers Paradox have pulled together all of the features the sixth major update has to offer in one handy developer diary. Expect improvements and more in-depth explorations of domestic politics, culture, diplomacy, and maintaining peaceful inter-territorial relations in exchange for a little coin. Running countries, eh? Easy when you know how.
]]>The next expansion for Europa Universalis IV [official site] goes by the name The Cossacks and it'll be with us before the end of the year. As the name suggests, there's a spotlight on the independent soldiers of the steppes but the new features mostly seem to improve your options for peacetime management. The key addition is the "Estate system", which allows you to assign control of provinces to local factions. You'll lose out on some income but gain benefits related to the faction in charge. More details below as well as a trailer.
]]>Paradox Interactive's grand strategy games create extraordinary scenarios. Often they're based around small, local events - everyone seems to love sharing Crusader Kings II's twisted family trees and tales of incest, treachery and knives in the dark - but occasionally a story emerges that shows how preposterous and impressive these games can be at the other end of the scale. I've never seen anything quite like this million-man battle from Europa Universalis IV [official site] though.
]]>September was absolutely packed full of games in the RPS community, with events taking place in Dirt Rally [official site], Europa Universalis [official site], Guild Wars 2 [official site], Terraria [official site], Trove [official site] and more!
Want to know what happened and how you can get involved? Read on!
]]>July is for lazy mornings in the sunshine, lounging around beer gardens with family in the afternoon, and tackling gaming challenges with friends in the evening. Despite the height of summer, the RPS community has continued to soar, with action in Arma 3 [official site], Europa Universalis [official site], Guild Wars 2 [official site] and Terraria [official site].
]]>First off, let's not fall to finger-pointing of the laying of blame. It's nobody's business but your own why this article is suddenly relevant and important to your well-being. Europa Universalis IV [official site] is a game of ruthless caprice, where even slight mistakes, misjudgments, and lapses in attention can bring you to ruin.
Perhaps you declared war on someone the day before they hit a new level of military technology. Maybe you gambled that your enemy's powerful ally wouldn't actually bother to travel across Europe to fight you, but they did, and now they have arrived, unwanted and obligatory guests at your war, and they look hungry. Or maybe you just got unlucky, and your enemy had a military genius in their back pocket while you're stuck with the equivalent of Ambrose Burnside.
The point is, you're losing a major war in EUIV, and you're losing it badly. And getting out isn't going to be easy. If it were easy, if it were just a matter of agreeing to a minor settlement, you wouldn't hesitate. But no, this is a war that poses an existential threat.
It seems like all is lost. But this is why EUIV is a game where it pays to never give up, and never reload. The chances are, you can not only survive this crisis, but come out of it almost unscathed.
You might be watching a rout unfold, but here is how you turn that into a victory.
]]>Common Sense prevails! At least in Europa Universalis IV [official site], since that's the name of its new expansion. It won't let you shrug off the monarchy like it ain't no thang, but it will add "new tools so players can manage the growth of their domains", and "adds depth to domestic rule and adds a number of major changes to diplomacy." Come see a teaser trailer below.
]]>“We don't want to be a cult.” Shams Jorjani is VP of Acquisition and Portfolio Strategy at Paradox Interactive. He's the guy who reads through and listens to a thousand MOBA pitches and occasionally finds a Teleglitch hidden behind them. He laughs at the cult line as soon as its out there. This, after all, is a company that frequently dresses its employees in coloured wizard robes, faces concealed.
Cultish maybe. Cult adjective rather than cult noun. Bruce Campbell's career rather than Tom Cruise's alternate career.
]]>Europa Universalis IV's [official site] fifth expansion will be released on February 26th. It adds automated land and sea exploration, with chained story events involving expeditions to the New World, as well as increased depth for Aztec, Mesoamerican and Incan cultures. Separate to those thematic expansions, there will also be a custom nation building tool, with RPG-style point allocation for national traits, leader stats and territorial possessions. There is also an option to begin with a randomised world, reminiscent of the Shattered World mod for CK II.
]]>I like to avoid conflict Europa Universalis IV as much as possible, preferring to play small nations prioritising survival, and seeing what happens if I decide to convert to protestantism. The new Art of War expansion might compel me to dabble more deeply with the grand strategy game's options for aggression and conquest, though. It's got 100 new countries, it revamps the Reformation to encourage more religious conflict, and it makes it easier to gather soldiers and form armies.
It's out now and there's a launch trailer below.
]]>I haven't checked in on Europa Universalis IV or Crusader Kings II for a while, but both games continue to expand in my absence. For Crusader Kings II, the Charlemagne expansion pushes back further into the early medieval period, with another hundred years added to the timeline and enough features to make the DLC equivalent in size to the gargantuan Old Gods expansion. EU IV's Art of War expansion might be even larger and is certainly the grandest piece of DLC for Europa Universalis to date. As the name suggests, the focus is on military campaigns, but every system in these games is linked, so it'll affect far more than the fracas. Videos below.
]]>I don't think I'd mind if Crusader Kings II received fresh DLC for the next twenty years. Judging by the latest announcement, which I witnessed live at a fan gathering/press conference at Gamescom, the greatest medieval strategy RPG-sim of all time might soon be simply the greatest historical RPG-sim of all time. The upcoming Charlemagne expansion brings the possible start date ever closer to the classical era, with the option of beginning play in 769 AD to follow the life and times of Big Chuck. EU IV is also set to expand, to the beat of a warlike drum.
]]>Where does DLC end and an expansion begin? What's the difference between DLC and a mini-expansion? Are all downloadable expansions DLC anyway? Stirring those muddy waters with a stick and giggling, those Paradox rascals have released what they're calling "the third expansion" for Europa Universalis IV, which they're also saying is sort of a "mini-expansion." What scamps.
Res Publica is out now in the usual places for £3.99, giving opportunities to run your own republican dictatorship, schmooze with aristocrats, guilds and traders, and shake up staid Dutch elections.
]]>Europa Universalis IV's Wealth Of Nations expansion is practically named after me, so I'm more than a little disappointed that I didn't find time to plunder its depths. Announcement that the game was expanding again sent me into a cycle of mildly obsessive panic. If I haven't mastered Wealth Of Nations, how can I be expected to unpick the changes that Res Publica brings? I was preparing for a 72 hour Venetian Marathon until I read the entirity of the Paradox press release, which confirms that Res Publica is a 'Mini Expansion'. Deep breaths. No need to lose control.
]]>Every time I write about a Crusader Kings or Europa Universalis expansion, I make fun of it for being hopelessly nerdy. Why can't I just be honest about my feelings without hiding behind a self-conscious veneer of silliness? Why can't I just come out and profess my love directly: these games are boss, and I don't care who knows that I'm interested in Europa Universalis IV: Wealth of Nations and its fleet of trade revisions.
It's a historical grand strategy game in which you can hire privateers to steal business from your rival nations, or use covert options to begin conflicts between neighbouring countries. Pirates and spies! Those things are cool, right? Who wouldn't be interested to know that the expansion is out today and that there's a launch trailer below.
]]>As the second coolest person at RPS, I've spent many hours in Europa Universalis IV, attempting to conquer Venice as that lovable nation state, Austria. If you're only as cool as the third or fourth coolest person at RPS, you might not know that Venice is valuable because it's a centre of trade.
If you're not as cool as me, you might also not know why Europa Universalis IV's new expansion pack, Weath of Nations, is exciting. It's because it expands the games trading mechanics to include privateers, trade companies and conflicts.
]]>As several commenters pointed out, all of the screenshots that accompanied my Conquest of Paradise interview showed either Europe or usual Americas. The ones that you can see on any map. A few images of the randomly generated New Worlds had been released in developer diaries on the EU IV forums but I was expecting a video before release and, my spyglass confirms that we're about to make a grand discovery. Land ho! See footage of the random continents and archipelagos awaiting your colonists below.
]]>Ahead of the release of Conquest of Paradise on January 14th, I spoke to Paradox Development Studio Lead Johann Andersson about the changes that the America-centric expansion will bring to Europa Universalis IV. As well as discussing the randomisation of the Americas, a first for the series, we talked about changes to the mechanics that govern Native American and colonial nations. Beyond the meaty mechanical conversation there are some thoughts on cultural representation in historical strategy. Perfect Friday evening reading, I say.
]]>I haven't returned to the fields of European conquest since the weeks immediately after Europa Universalis IV's release, because my Austrian struggles seemed like a personal canonical history I couldn't repeat or replace. The Conquest of Paradise expansion might lure me back with a new world of promise, however. It's due for release on January 14th, and a new developer diary video below explains the mechanics you'll play with if you want to take control of the Native American tribes.
]]>Sunset Invasion is the only expansion I don't use in my regular Crusader Kings II campaigns. It's not that I object to a spot of alternate history - that's what the game generates - but the Aztec assault never felt comfortable, partly because it's a triggered event rather than emergent possibility. It was with a degree of trepidation that I read the press release about Europa Universalis IV's first expansion, with its suggestive title, Conquest of Paradise. I needn't have worried - this is a form of alternate history but it sounds fantastic. In short, to make exploration more unpredictable and exciting, EU IV will gain the ability to randomly generate a New World rather than having players discover the same old Americas time and time again.
]]>Although it's the fourth game in a well-respected series, Europa Universalis IV has been created in the shadow of Crusader Kings II, which unexpectedly but deservedly discovered a wider audience than its predecessors. As the next game from the internal Paradox Development Studio and a chronological sequel to CK II, EU IV has a weight of expectation upon it. The two games can even connect, covering almost a thousand years of history. Daunting, broad and deep, EU IV is more than equal to its burden. Here’s wot I think.
]]>Cancel all plans. Paradox have just dropped the Europa Universalis IV demo on to Steam. They could have waited until the end of business hours on Friday, leaving it there as a pleasant treat for weary commuters to discover as they crack open the first beer of the weekend, or take the first sip of calm-inducing brewed leaves, but no. They have released the demo on a Thursday afternoon. Enjoy the next few hours, as the office walls close in and dreams of conquest swim through your mind. Enjoy dragging yourself to work tomorrow, leaving a world of possibilities behind. I love pre-release demos, even if the timing is cruel. Check below for demo details.
]]>Paradox have uploaded a brief highlight reel from their recent broadcast, in which the save game converter for Europa Universalis IV and Crusader Kings II was discussed. The hosts are Paradox Development Studio manager Johan Andersson and Crusader Kings II lead Henrik Fahraeus, and at one point they fight, Henrik wielding a sword and Johan a lightsaber. These are serious men discussing serious business. The most important piece of information, which I'd missed when reading comments about the feed, is that CK II games can be imported, updating to the correct period, no matter what position they are saved at. For example, save in 1100 and EU IV will automatically advance that game to the fifteenth century and begin. Lots more and a full breakdown of post-release prices for preorder bonuses below.
]]>Paradox have sounded the news bugle to announce that Crusader Kings II, the game that has continued to expand and consume my days throughout 2013, is refusing to abdicate its crown. A polite ruler would step aside to make room for the next in line to the throne, but CK II has never been polite. It's a devious, murderous omnicidal lord and it will never die. Today's grand strategy news is this - Europa Universalis IV will couple with Crusader Kings II via a save-game converter.
Fans of Crusader Kings II will be able to maintain the empires they have established and guide them through the age of exploration in an all-new strategic experience, continuing their personal stories of expansion and conquest.
There's a very good chance I won't be playing anything else ever.
]]>We are approaching the historical strategy event horizon. I've been playing Civ V all weekend, exploring the Brave New World expansion, which has sucked me back with all the effectiveness of a vacuum cleaner in a black hole, triggering a late night Michael Corleone impression that left my flatmate concerned for my wellbeing. Then there's Rome War: Total: The Second, which threatens to march into my life on September 3rd and conquer all of the free time that remains. There won't be a great deal of free time because on August 13th, Europa Universalis IV arrives. I might as well say goodbye to the world for the rest of the year. Several developer diaries and songs below. Paradox really do like their songs.
]]>Preordering anything in a digital format seems like an odd thing to do, unless you're absolutely confident of the product's quality and are getting some form of discount. Otherwise, why not wait, look for the best deal on release day and purchase then? All of that said, Europa Universalis IV is now available for preorder and, having spent almost a hundred hours with the pre-release version, I'm not afraid to say that it's very good indeed. I'm sure you'll be sad to hear that my preview copy has now vanished so I'll have to wait until August 13th to play, like everybody else. The video below is less than a minute long so you'd have to watch it around 90,000 times to pass the time until release.
]]>The story so far. Twenty people gathered in Stockholm to engage in a multiplayer Europa Universalis IV session. On the first day, I made France powerful and formed an unnatural alliance with the English. And then I blew it all by misinterpreting an aspect of the game and splintering my own country. No matter. Mistakes are learning experiences and, with that in mind, I was about to make the biggest mistake of my life. By the end of the day, I had renamed Île-de-France. It was now a stain on the map by the name of 'Mostly Corpses'.
]]>A few weeks ago, Paradox invited a group of journalists to Stockholm in order to see how much violence we could do to one another in a massive two-day multiplayer session of Europa Universalis IV. I packed my bags, steeled my nerves and prepared to present Rock, Paper, Shotgun the only way I know how - with fruitless acts of violence and a burning desire to reduce France to ashes. Inevitably, it transpired that I would be playing as France but I wasn't going to let that petty detail shake my resolve. Europe was about to meet its maker.
]]>They say history is written by the victors and they quite often go on to say that Churchill said that, but they don’t appear to have any proof of the latter. I’m here to prove the former wrong as well. This is a Europa Universalis IV tale of betrayal and bellicose bastards, in which the losers have the final word, and that word is an obscenity, bellowed across a field of the dead.
]]>Europa Universalis IV won't be out for a long time but it's already looking polished and that could be the most important fact of all. Whatever new features are in place, whatever old ones have been kicked to the courtly curb, the time that Paradox Development Studio are spending to make the sequel the most stable entry in the series is clear evidence that previous praise hasn't drowned out criticism and commentary. In terms of development and content alike, this is a timely tale of choices, consequences and progress.
]]>If there was no Europa Universalis there almost certainly wouldn't be a Victoria, a Hearts of Iron or a Crusader Kings. There probably wouldn't be a Paradox, at least not in its current form. The success of the game, with all its complexities and oddities, led to sequels, expansions and Caesarean spin-offs. Earlier today, the company announced that Europa Universalis IV is in development and we'll hopefully find out much more at Gamescom next week, but through skilled diplomacy we have managed to secure some early details and screens. Click those screens to see maps so large you can read the words on 'em.
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