Envision Entertainment have released a demo for rustic city-builder Pioneers of Pagonia, and as they say in Manchester, by 'eck it's gorgeous. Designed by Volker Wertich, one of the original creators of The Settlers, the new village 'em up puts you in charge of medieval tribes scattered around an almost eerily scenic island chain.
It's all about the little touches: check out those azure windmill blades, flickering in the breeze! And how about the little animations of people hefting barrels of water? Man, it makes me want to jump in there and start stamping on everything, wailing and babbling like a mad god. But let's not do that. Let's play the demo instead. It gives you three maps, and lands ahead of the game's early access launch on 13th December.
]]>The road to launch has been a uniquely turbulent one for The Settlers: New Allies. After an eight-year absence, the next entry in Ubisoft’s beloved city-building series was finally revealed in 2018, only to be delayed indefinitely two years later. The game then reemerged in a fresh new form in 2022, but a less than favourable reception from long-term fans to its closed beta saw the game delayed indefinitely once again.
12 months later, The Settlers: New Allies is all the better for it. An extended delay is never an easy decision to make, yet the team at Ubisoft Düsseldorf (formerly Blue Byte) has seen this additional development time as an opportunity to reach out to those most familiar with the series. “We learned [more] than just what was needed for the game,” creative director Christian Hagerdorn tells me during a recent preview event. “One of our biggest focuses was to be absolutely transparent with the players. Not just on where we were standing, but where we were going. We've been collecting the feedback as we were developing”.
]]>It's been a bumpy road, but the new generation of plucky Settlers are at last approaching their destination. Now known as The Settlers: New Allies, Ubisoft's Settlers reboot is due to come out on February 23rd.
Katharine quite liked what she played of the town-building RTS last January, but the devs decided feedback from their closed beta meant the game warranted more time in the oven, and thus a third major postponement since the game's original 2018 announcement. Come watch the trailer below to see what's new.
]]>After re-emerging from development hell earlier this year, Ubisoft's reboot of The Settlers has now plunged back into its murky depths with another delay. Ubisoft cite feedback from the recent closed beta in January as the main reason behind this further postponement, and have rather worryingly decided to delay its launch until an undisclosed "later date".
]]>It's been over a decade since a core game in The Settlers series last made landfall on PC, and during that time the real-time management landscape has arguably changed quite a bit. There have been some great building games that have risen up, and even developer Blue Byte (now Ubisoft Dusseldorf)'s own Anno series has staked a powerful claim to the city-building throne. But this incarnation of The Settlers isn't so much about connecting to the series' past as it is about laying down foundations for the future. It's had a slightly rocky road to launch, suffering several delays and refunded pre-orders after being postponed indefinitely back in 2020, but at long last this reboot of the classic city-building conquest-me-do is finally ready to beat down our door and come barrelling in. It's launching in full on March 17th, and I've been hands on with an early version of the upcoming closed beta build that will be running from January 20th-24th. So settle in, folks. Here's how it's shaping up.
]]>Town-building simulation The Settlers has been in the works for a while but it will be some more whiles yet before it launches. Ubisoft have announced that the upcoming eighth entry to the Settlers series is delayed so the team can work on responding to fan feedback. A new date hasn't yet been chosen.
]]>I apologise for the Seinfeld moment, but what's with games dropping numbers from titles? The Settlers series got up to its seventh (admittedly with a couple Name: Subtitles) before returning us to 'The Settlers'. Still, at least a new one is on the way, announced at Gamescom and due for release in autumn 2019. Also announced- presumably to cause further confusion - was The Settlers History Collection, due in November. It's a compilation of all seven games in Blue Byte's city-builder series so far, "improved and optimized for modern PC systems". See their trailers below.
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
The Settlers is one of the games that defined my early years. I was thirteen years old when I first played it and I fell in love with the world as soon as I saw the first lumberjack chopping at a tree. I didn't realise then, but it's a simple example of a game's systems working like a machine: functional, each part reliant on another part, visually cohesive. It's also a game that doesn't require conflict to work.
]]>It's been two years since we last looked at The Settlers: Kingdoms of Anteria, and we'll never see it again. Developers Ubisoft Blue Byte announced yesterday that they have "made the decision to steer this project in a new direction, meaning The Settlers: Kingdoms of Anteria as you know it no longer exists." It's no longer a kingdom-building strategy game or a 'The Settlers' game at all, but some sort of singleplayer party-based tactical RTS/action-RPG... thing? But hey, it isn't a MOBA. Even if the new name, Champions of Anteria [official site], really does sound like one. Here, have a look:
]]>The new Settlers game, Kingdoms of Anteria, is about 'persitent city building'. Hurrah! The news arrives in the form of a press release from Ubisoft, who will be presenting Kingdoms at Gamescom next week. There are other elements alongside that city building though.
Players will work to build up, control and optimise their production chains and economy to unlock building upgrades and new sectors, resulting in kingdoms growing larger than ever before. They will also have the opportunity to face-off against fierce enemies and frightening bosses in tactical battles to earn resources and special loot as they level up. Players can choose the champion class and skill set that best suits their play style from the thousands of different combinations possible.
So what am I? A town planner or a champion?
]]>And so it has come to pass. Revelation chapter thirteen tells of the beast that rose from the sea, "upon his heads the name of blasphemy", and old blaspheme-bonce is followed by other portents of the end-times. The final chapters of Revelation introduce yet more incredible signs of doom, so incredible in fact that they have long been considered apocryphal. Take this excerpt from chapter 47: "Yea, from the mountain a rumbling, a crack in the firmament, a host cried out in anguish and looked upon the plummy terror of a third-person Settlers action game. Or maybe even a sodding MOBA." Can it be that we live in those times even now? A trailer for the newly announced Kingdoms Of Anteria caused me to tremble and gnash.
]]>The argument being, of course "are free to play browser games necessarily hateful to traditional gamers?" The Settlers Online is taking a beloved strategy name and affixing all manner of new business models to it, but is the ol' Blue Byte spirit safe and sound in there or has it entirely gone over to the microtransaction dark side? You can find out right now, as the open beta's just gone live. Miracle of miracles it doesn't require a Facebook account, though that is an option. Seems primarily bound to Ubisoft's UPlay system, which fortunately I was already signed up for or I might have screamed at the sight of yet another registration page. And lo, it loaded in my browser, and it looked quite nice.
As to Settlers Online's place on good-evil spectrum, it's too early to say. I've been at it about 20 minutes so far, and it's glacially slow, has quite a few resource types and micromanagent screens, a little overcomplicated and well.. like the Settlers in many respects. Which is good. But...
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