The Banner Saga

You'll ocassionally find someone on the internet sounding off about how the strategy genre is dead. If you see such a person in the future, send them this list of the best strategy games ever made.

Tagged with Bestest Bests, feature, AI War: Fleet Command, Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2, BattleTech, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, Crusader Kings II, Darkest Dungeon, Dawn of Man, Defcon, Distant Worlds: Universe, Druidstone: The Secret of the Menhir Forest, Dune II: The Battle for Arrakis, Endless Legend, Endless Space 2, Europa Universalis IV: Art of War, Frozen Synapse, Hearts of Iron IV, Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising, Imperator: Rome, Into the Breach, Invisible Inc, King of Dragon Pass, Master of Magic, Men Of War, Neptune's Pride, Northgard, Offworld Trading Company, Panzer Corps, Sacrifice, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, Sid Meier's Civilization IV, Sid Meier's Civilization VI, Sid Meier's Colonization, StarCraft II: Wings Of Liberty, Stellaris, supreme commander 2, Surviving Mars, Surviving Mars: Green Planet, The Banner Saga, The Settlers, Total Annihilation, Total War: Shogun 2, Total War: Warhammer, Total War: Warhammer II, UFO: Enemy Unknown, Unity of Command, Warcraft III, Warhammer 40000: Mechanicus, XCOM 2.

Look! A ranking of the 50 best RPGs on PC. I know, you never asked for this, but here it is. It is 100 percent correct, we double-checked. The RPG is a broad and deep sea and fishing out the best games from its characterful waters is no easy task. But we are capable fishers on the good ship RPS, and know when to humanely…

Tagged with Bestest Bests, feature, ADOM, ADOM (Ancient Domains Of Mystery), Anachronox, Avernum: Escape From the Pit, Baldur's Gate II, Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition, Brogue, Dark Souls III, Dark Souls: Remastered, Darkest Dungeon, Deus Ex, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Diablo II, Divinity: Original Sin, Divinity: Original Sin 2 Definitive Edition, Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition, Dragon Age: Origins, Dwarf Fortress, Fallout, Fallout: New Vegas, Kenshi, King of Dragon Pass, Legend of Grimrock 2, Mass Effect 2, Monster Hunter: World, Mount and Blade: Warband, Neo Scavenger, Neverwinter-Nights-2, NieR: Automata, Pillars of Eternity, Planescape: Torment, Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale, risen, Shadowrun: Dragonfall Director's Cut, Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic, Stardew Valley, Sunless Skies, System Shock 2, The Banner Saga, The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Titan Quest, torchlight, Ultima VII, Undertale, UnReal World, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, Wasteland 2.

An idea I’m happy to see the back of, is the notion that “graphics” is a one-way sliding scale towards photorealistic perfection. While I’m certainly fond of games that exhibit hyperbudget beauty along the lines of Metro: Exodus or Shadow of the Tomb Raider, I’m equally - probably more - excited by those who eschew realism in order to utterly master a particular aesthetic. Often,…

Tagged with feature, Have You Played, stoic studio, Versus Evil, The Banner Saga, The Banner Saga 2, The Banner Saga 3.

We don’t expect much of a typical video game map. As long as it guides us to our destination (and perhaps looks pretty while doing so) most of us won’t waste a second thought on it. And yet, maps can be much more than tools that make our way from A to B a little more convenient. Some games reject the notion of maps as…

Tagged with feature, Cultist Simulator, Eidolon, Gone Home, Planescape: Torment, The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit, The Banner Saga, Thief: The Dark Project.

Banners, then and now, are often a curious amalgamation of plain communication and naked aggression. They’re well-known as heraldic devices, displaying a coat of arms to identify one side to the other on the battlefield, usually just before they were about to attack each other. However, they’re also just a means of communicating who or what a place or thing belongs to. If you’re shipwrecked,…

Tagged with feature, Overthinking Games, Stoic, Versus Evil, The Banner Saga, The Banner Saga 2, The Banner Saga 3.

From the outset, everything in The Banner Saga seems designed to encourage you to be careful. As you lead your caravan towards safety, you try to keep people alive by rationing food, managing the number of your followers and weighing the dangers of the unknown. Anyone who has ever given a soldier in XCOM a custom name knows that it takes very little to get…

Tagged with feature, Stoic, The Joy Of, The Banner Saga, The Banner Saga 2, The Banner Saga 3.

The Vikings have long ago invaded the coasts of pop culture on their dragon-headed longships and carved out their own Danelaw in the realm of video games. In recent years, they’ve grown even bolder, taking over most genres from RTS to RPG, classic point and click adventure to action, with an utter disregard towards distinctions between AAA and indie. They’ve settled in Hellblade and Frostrune,…

Tagged with feature, Crusader Kings II, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, The Banner Saga, The Banner Saga 2, The Banner Saga 3, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

After waiting two long years for the final instalment of Stoic's fantastical strategy trilogy, The Banner Saga 3 begins in the best possible way. It picks up where the second The Banner Saga 2 left off, and one of the first things you get to do is punch your scheming arch nemesis - who probably made your last moments of that second game a right…

Tagged with feature, review, Stoic, wot i think, The Banner Saga, The Banner Saga 2, The Banner Saga 3.

An entirely objective ranking of the 50 best PC strategy games ever made, now freshened up to include our favourites from 2017 and 2018. From intricate, global-scale wargames to the tight thrills of guerrilla squads, the broad expanse of the genre contains something for everyone, and we've gathered the best of the best. The vast majority are available to buy digitally, a few are free…

Tagged with Bestest Bests, Dominions 4: Thrones of Ascension, Dune Legacy, feature, Galactic Civilizations II, Gary Grigsby's War In The East, Ground-Control, Heroes of Might & Magic III – HD Edition, Imperialism 2, Jagged Alliance 2: Reloaded, Myth, Rise-of-Nations, RPS Recommended, rps-ultromegafeature, Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance, Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War, Warlords II, Age Of Wonders III, AI War: Fleet Command, Battle for Wesnoth, BattleTech, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, Company of Heroes, Crusader Kings II, Darkest Dungeon, Defcon, Distant Worlds: Universe, Dune II: The Battle for Arrakis, Endless Space 2, Europa Universalis IV: Art of War, Frozen Synapse, Hearts of Iron IV, Homeworld Remastered Collection, Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak, Into the Breach, Invisible Inc, King of Dragon Pass, Men Of War, Neptune's Pride, Northgard, Offworld Trading Company, Panzer Corps, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, Sid Meier's Civilization IV, Sid Meier's Colonization, Solium Infernum, StarCraft II: Wings Of Liberty, Stellaris, The Banner Saga, The Banner Saga 2, Total War: Warhammer, UFO: Enemy Unknown, Unity of Command, Warcraft III, Wargame: AirLand Battle, XCOM 2, XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

The bearded warrior looks exhausted. Part of a band of mercenaries, he blinks slowly at us. Even while the player chooses their next words, the crease-eyed humans and horned Varls of The Banner Saga 3 stand there, blinking slowly. Their hair fluttering, eyes searching you for intent. These are quiet moments of incidental detail. Twitching moustaches, billowing capes, tensing fists. They are looping animations, designed…

Tagged with feature, Stoic, Versus Evil, The Banner Saga, The Banner Saga 2, The Banner Saga 3.

Despite its flaws, The Banner Saga [official site] is one of the most memorable indie releases of 2014, and now the second act is here to push the story to even more desperate frontiers. But does The Banner Saga 2 improve upon its predecessor's lackluster strategy combat while still expanding on its promising story? Here's wot I think. (Note: there are spoilers for the first…

Tagged with feature, review, Stoic, wot i think, The Banner Saga, The Banner Saga 2.

What are the best Steam Summer Sale deals? Each day for the duration of the sale, we'll be offering our picks - based on price, what we like, and what we think more people should play. Read on for the five best deals from day 10 of the sale.

Tagged with Assetto Corsa, Darksiders, feature, gog, NEO Scavenger, Steam Summer Sale 2015, Telltale Games, Door Kickers, Garry's Mod, Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, Payday 2, The Banner Saga.

It's a pleasant fantasy to think that holidays mean long weeks of playing games, but in reality there's trains and planes to be boarded, family to be visited, lives to be unavoidably lived. Gaming during holidays is therefore similar to gaming at any other time, about stealing moments to sneak away to a quiet corner and catch up on backlogs or curl up with comforts.…

Tagged with being sick, creepy santa, eating too much, feature, Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes, swimming, visiting family we love really, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Elite Dangerous, Far Cry 4, Football Manager 2015, The Banner Saga, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, The Talos Principle, XCOM: Enemy Unknown.