Crusader Kings II

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…

Tagged with 2018, Age of Empires II HD, arma iii, Bless Online, Call of Duty World War 2, Final Fantasy XIV Online, NBA 2K18, sales figures, Shadowverse CCG, Steam, The Sims™ 3, Vamypr, A Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia, Ark: Survival Evolved, Assassin's Creed Origins, BattleTech, Black Desert Online, Borderlands 2, Call of Duty: WW2, Cities: Skylines, Conan Exiles, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Crusader Kings II, Cuphead, Dark Souls III, Dark Souls: Remastered, Darkest Dungeon, Dead by Daylight, Deep Rock Galactic, Divinity: Original Sin 2, Don't Starve Together, Dota 2, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Dying Light, Eco, Elite Dangerous, Euro Truck Simulator 2, Europa Universalis IV, Factorio, Fallout 4, Far Cry 5, Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, Final Fantasy XV, Football Manager 2018, For Honor, Frostpunk, Garry's Mod, Grand Theft Auto V, H1Z1, Hearts of Iron IV, House Flipper, Human: Fall Flat, Hunt: Showdown, Jurassic World Evolution, Just Cause 3, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Middle-earth: Shadow of War, Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom, NieR: Automata, Nioh: Complete Edition, Northgard, Paladins, Path of Exile, Payday 2, Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, Planet Coaster, Playerunknown's Battlegrounds, Raft, RimWorld, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Rocket League, Rust, Sid Meier's Civilization V, Slay the Spire, Smite, Sniper Elite 4, Squad, Stardew Valley, Stellaris, Subnautica, Surviving Mars, Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet, Team Fortress 2, Terraria, The Elder Scrolls Online, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR, The Forest, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, theHunter: Call of the Wild, They Are Billions, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, Tom Clancy's The Division, Total War: Warhammer, Total War: Warhammer II, War Thunder, Warframe, Warhammer 40000: Inquisitor – Martyr, Warhammer: Vermintide 2, Watch Dogs 2, XCOM 2.

One of Crusader Kings II’s best mods just got a little less fiddly. Elder Kings is a mod that turns the world of khans and popes into one filled with cat mayors and lizard barons. It’s been around since 2013 and the developers have long been tinkering with it, but playing an up-to-date version involved a bunch of irritating steps, not so much jumping through…

Tagged with mods, Paradox Interactive, The Elder Scrolls, Crusader Kings II.

Yesterday, things got a little weird for fans of historical sandbox Crusader Kings II, as a screenshot of the game used in a Bosnian newspaper led to a flurry of interest in the history of forks, of all things. CKII fans confirmed that the newspaper's article on the history of the now-ubiquitous cutlery was inaccurate, and it didn't actually originate with an obscure Venetian Doge's…

Tagged with Forks, Paradox Interactive, Crusader Kings II.

Tee hee hee. A newspaper has used the portrait of a character from Crusader Kings II to illustrate a small article about the history of the fork as an eating utensil. The article is in Bosnian newspaper Dnevni Avaz and shows a picture of everyone’s favourite 11th century Doge of Venice, Domenico Selvo. Don’t you know him? He’s a cool guy. He’s humble, shy, just, stubborn and…

Tagged with Paradox Interactive, Crusader Kings II.

As part of this avalanche of Paradox Interactive material today, you'll be excited to hear that the hyper-specific bread and butter of their strategy games, Crusader Kings II, is getting an expansion born of pure hellfire. The Holy Fury add-on will be changing the way crusades are waged, from starting in a randomly generated map to raiding something called "Pagan Warrior Lodges" to using special…

Tagged with Crusader Kings, crusades, Holy Fury, Learning History Against My Will, paganism, Paradox Interactive, Video Game Board Game, Crusader Kings II.

It's good to be king, and even better when you're not paying a penny for it. Today, Paradox are giving away the base version of their enormously enduring historical simulation sandbox Crusader Kings II, completely free. Grab it on Steam here, and you get to keep it forever, no strings attached, although the temptation of collecting over a dozen major expansions is now open to…

Tagged with free games, Paradox Interactive, Crusader Kings II.

We've already seen which games sold best on Steam last year, but a perhaps more meaningful insight into movin' and a-shakin' in PC-land is the games that people feel warmest and snuggliest about. To that end, Valve have announced the winners of the 2017 Steam Awards, a fully community-voted affair which names the most-loved games across categories including best post-launch support, most player agency, exceeding…

Tagged with CPU Invaders, Gothic II: Gold Edition, HuniePop, I Am Bread, Luna, Mount & Blade: Warband, Steam, The Steam Awards, The Witcher: Enhanced Edition, Titan Quest Anniversary Edition, Abzu, Alien: Isolation, Antichamber, Assassin's Creed Origins, Bayonetta, Broforce, Call of Duty: WW2, Cities: Skylines, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Crusader Kings II, Crypt of the NecroDancer, Cuphead, Dark Souls III, Dishonored 2, Divinity: Original Sin 2, Doki Doki Literature Club, Dota 2, Factorio, Garry's Mod, Goat Simulator, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, Hollow Knight, Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number, Just Cause 3, Life Is Strange: Before The Storm, Middle-earth: Shadow of War, NieR: Automata, Outlast 2, Path of Exile, Playerunknown's Battlegrounds, Pony Island, Red Faction Guerrilla, Resident Evil 7 Biohazard, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Rocket League, Rust, Saints Row IV, Sid Meier's Civilization VI, Slime Rancher, Sonic Mania, South Park: The Fractured but Whole, Stardew Valley, Team Fortress 2, The Evil Within 2, The Stanley Parable, The Walking Dead: A New Frontier, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, To the Moon, Total War: Warhammer II, Transistor, Undertale, Warframe, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus.

Royal incompetence simulator Crusader Kings 2 is one of the best games ever. Over hundreds of years, sultans and kings create new empires and murder their families. Today a data science man gets in touch to say he recorded a 700-year game in ‘observation’ mode, pulled out all the data like a big reel of cassette tape, shoved it through some kind of magical process…

Tagged with Paradox Interactive, Crusader Kings II.

Jon Shafer, the lead designer of Firaxis's Civilization V and his own strategy game At the Gates, is gone from strategy specialists Paradox only six months after joining. Paradox say neither that he ditched the company nor that they fired him, rather that they have all "decided to part ways due to creative differences." How enigmatic! We didn't even know what he was working on.

Tagged with Paradox Development Studio, Paradox Interactive, Crusader Kings II, Jon Shafer, Sid Meier's Civilization V, Stellaris.

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…

Tagged with Crusader Kings II: Jade Dragon, DLC, Paradox Development Studio, Paradox Interactive, Crusader Kings II, Europa Universalis IV, Europa Universalis IV: Cradle of Civilization.

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.

Tagged with Paradox Interactive, Steam, Steam Sale, Victoria 2, Age of Wonders 3, Crusader Kings II, Europa Universalis IV, Halloween, Hearts of Iron IV, Stellaris.

Crusader Kings 2 is a strange thing. At first glance, it's a wildly complex grand strategy game in the vein of Europa Universalis, but dig a little deeper and you'll find something not far divorced from The Sims; an ant-farm sandbox driven not by goals or win-states, but the personal dramas of a cast of thousands. As with The Sims, Crusader Kings 2 just keeps…

Tagged with Crusader Kings 2: Jade Dragon, Paradox Interactive, Crusader Kings II.

The next expansion for Crusader Kings II [official site] will introduce China as a power offering potential riches or ruin depending on how you play the cards. Paradox today announced the Jade Dragon expansion, "coming soon". It's not properly adding China to the world of Crusader Kings II, mind, rather as an "off-map influence" accessed through a "China screen" with the pertinent options and information.…

Tagged with Crusader Kings II: Jade Dragon, Gamescom 2017, Paradox Development Studio, Paradox Interactive, Crusader Kings II.

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…

Tagged with Paradox Interactive, Crusader Kings II, Europa Universalis IV, Hearts of Iron IV, Stellaris.

Paradox Interactive, the gang behind games including Crusader Kings and Hearts of Iron, have pledged to undo their recent increases to regional prices across much of the world. While many of the price rises were minor, others were huge. For example, the price of Stellaris in Russia went from 699₽ to 1199₽. Paradox had said the increases were "to make our prices match the purchasing…

Tagged with Paradox Interactive, price rises, Crusader Kings II, europa universalis, Hearts of Iron IV, Stellaris.

Forget everything Fallout has ever taught you because war is changing. We already knew about upcoming geographical expansions in Crusader Kings II [official site], making areas that were previously impassable playable, but fresh news arrived in today's dev diary and it involves changes to fundamental systems. The major shift will be in the causes of war, which will no longer require justification in every instance.…

Tagged with Paradox Development Studio, Paradox Interactive, Crusader Kings II.

Crusader Kings 2 [official site] is secretly Crusader Kings 5 or 6. The specific number isn't important; the point is, Paradox's alternate history generator has grown in all directions since release. The timeline covered has expanded, the map is much bigger, there are more cultures and religions, and you can join a cult and give birth to the antichrist. There wasn't an official expansion announcement…

Tagged with Paradox Development Studio, Paradox Interactive, Crusader Kings II.

Cults and orders of assassins, satananiacs, Hermetics, monks, and more are now roaming the historical simulation of Crusader Kings 2 [official site], if you buy the latest expansion anyway. Paradox today launched Monks and Mystics, which boshes in secret (and not-so secret) orders who reward loyalty with handy abilities, pops in holy relics and masterwork weapons, and more. In short, yes, you can sacrifice people…

Tagged with Crusader Kings II: Monks and Mystics, Paradox Development Studio, Paradox Interactive, satans, Crusader Kings II.

It’s that time again – Crusader Kings II [official site] is already obese with DLC and expansions but that is not stopping Paradox from bringing yet more obscure possibilities to the historical son-murdering simulation. The next addition, Monks & Mystics, is going to let you join religious sects and shadowy groups of clandestine devil worshippers among others. It’s release date has today been confirmed as…

Tagged with Crusader Kings II: Monks and Mystics, DLC, Paradox Interactive, Crusader Kings II.

What is Crusader Kings II [official site] missing? I've been playing again recently, drawn back in by The Reaper's Due and its perfect simulation of the general snotty sickness of an English winter. I'd never have thought of disease as such an important addition, which is a bit silly really considering the historical impact of the Black Death, and the fact that entire military campaigns…

Tagged with Crusader Kings II: Monks and Mystics, Paradox, Paradox Development Studio, staring eyes, Crusader Kings II.