Rock, Paper, Shotgun

I played War of the Roses, and I liked it pretty well. I also died a lot. But before long, I found my ornate steel shoes sloshing through syrupy pools of repetition. There’s only so much frantic deathmatching and all-over-the-place point-capturing you can do before you start to see cracks in War of the Roses’ armor, and that threshold is woefully low compared to other multiplayer fight-o-fests. Fortunately, Fatshark’s throwing its oh-so-characteristically sharky girth into setting things right, and we’re finally about to see the results. Come Wednesday, you’ll be able to take the exceedingly high-stakes Pitched Battle mode for a spin.

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Surprisingly popular transport management game Cities In Motion has been regularly updated with DLC, and its latest lump of transport extras contains the ingredients necessary to keep London’s commuters in motion, with bright red buses, the Gherkin, the Eye, and Buckingham Palace, as well as new scenarios and so forth to suit London’s vehicular travel context.

The trailer (below) fails to show us London’s bowels being moved by the Underground, but it’s there, apparently. Also: trams. Not sure that’s entirely accurate, but perhaps that’s the point. The new DLC arrives on November 20th. I’ve also posted a documentary about Britain below for those of you interested in our tiny corner of the world.
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Q. Is that headline pun the main reason I am writing this story?
A. If you had to even wonder, YOU DON’T KNOW ME AT ALL

So yes: Fatshark’s meaty, crunchy, splattery, well-received medieval action game War Of The Roses is due to have a lanceful of new content rammed into its armoured face. Sounds like a strange hybrid of free’n'paid, dependent on how many, I dunno, Tudorpoints you’ve managed to accrue in the game, and it’s due to fatten up the game next month.
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The busy game-mines of Paradox have hauled more announcements to the surface. This time it’s the turn of A Game Of Dwarves, which will arrive on the 23rd, and costs $10 to pre-order. And there’s a bonus of sorts: “Every pre-ordered copy of A Game of Dwarves will include access to the Ale Pack DLC, a delectable and delicious add-on that introduces dwarvenkind’s favorite drink to the game and is a must for maintaining happiness in any well-to-do underground fortress.”

I’ve had a little play of this, so there’s some thoughts on that and the trailer below. (There’s also a livestream tonight at 2000CET, here.)
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Argh: Double posted. I am the worst. I’ve posted my apology video below to make up for it.

Paradox send word of a new Hearts Of Iron this game, called East Vs. West. As you might be able to guess, it’s about The Cold War. They explain: “Little known fact, the Cold War was so named because it was very, very cool, and East vs. West: A Hearts of Iron Game is shaping up to be the coolest Cold War game ever made. Players will be able to take control of ANY nation in those nerve-wracking decades in a strategy game with a host of tense features, from taking issues in front of the UN Security Council to nervously watching the game’s Doomsday clock.”

Trailer below.
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Good news! Better news! BEST NEWS. TaleWorlds is finally pregnant with another Mount-&-Blade-shaped baby, and your hopes and dreams are the father. This is no With Fire and Sword-style spin-off, either. Or at least, that’s what the number two (and in Roman numerals, no less – making it the two-est two of them all) suggests. Unfortunately, I say “suggests” because there’s really not much else to say. All we have right now is a full title – Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord – a brief description, and a trailer that seems determined to abandon its family lineage and become a Powerpoint Presentation.

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Haha, I love it when trailers are just menus and maps. I mean all due respect to the intricate work of strategic cleverness that is Hearts of Iron III, obviously, but that image up there is their parting shot in the trailer. Really. Of all the menus or maps they could leave lingering in their mind at the end of the trailer, that’s the one for their latest expansion, Their Finest Hour.

Beautiful. Beautiful. I mean that.
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Regardless of the final product’s authenticity, it’s pretty easy for, say, Medal of Honor, Battlefield, or Call of Duty’s developers to get an inside look at how their subject matter really works. The real War of the Roses, on the other hand, took place roughly six centuries ago, and time travel either hasn’t been invented yet or was wiped out by someone who traveled back in time to destroy time travel. And so, the War of the Roses team did the next best thing: they ran around England in authentic medieval armor. Hilarity, as you might expect, ensued. You can now view the entire four-part behind-the-scenes saga (which also contains some pretty fascinating info) via the modern sorcery that is streaming video after the break.

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