A Family Affair: Crusader Kings II - Way Of Life

Crusader Kings II is almost fully grown. As a kid, it didn't have the breadth of thought to explore more than one belief system and certainly didn't know how a Republic operated. With age came wisdom and the youngster was soon travelling all over the world to learn about different cultures and faiths. As part of the MA in Early Medieval History that it completed recently, CK II wrote a biography of Charlemagne and now it has left the cloisters of academia and is ready to enter the real world. The school of life. I give it two weeks before it's bedding its own father in law and having its brothers chopped into messes.

Rather than expanding the timeframe in which the game takes place, or adding a new culture, Crusader Kings II: Way of Life boosts the roleplaying aspects of the world's finest strategy game. Here's the word from Paradox.

Today we’re announcing that we’re in the midst of developing something new for Crusader Kings II, a project that will allow you to get even deeper into the role-playing aspects of the game. Way of Life, the next DLC for CK2, will let you become a better (or worse!) ruler and grant you more power over personal relationships than ever before.

Sure, it’s nice to have someone cozy up to you and be your lover while you’re sitting atop the throne, but what if you could choose who to seduce? Or, after getting into that relationship on the side, what if you discover that you just need some space and had a way to break it off? You know, without having your soon-to-be ex-lover assassinated. These things and much more, including hundreds of new events, are coming to Way of Life.

This is good news. I don't need the game to be any bigger - I still haven't spent more than a couple of hours with Charlemagne - but I can always take a little more depth in the family management side of things. As always, the expansion will be released alongside a patch for all users and the studio will be seeking beta testers to assist with the updating process this time around.

With every piece of DLC, we always issue a patch for the vanilla game that allows everyone to take advantage of the changes being made to CK2, and this will be no different EXCEPT this particular time we’re asking for your assistance by helping us test out the patch ahead of the launch of Way of Life. The beta test will begin next week and we’ll have more details on how to fabricate a claim to beta test soon, so be on the lookout.

I suspect the temptation to tinker with relationships will lead to more terrifying complications and twisted branches on the old family tree than ever before.