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#crusaderkings Keep your space operas and fighting things things, my favourite game of 2012 so far has been the wonderfully deep marriage/backstabbing simulator Crusader Kings II. More »

Napoleon was most likely of average height rather than being the tiniest man in the world and I’m sure that’s been taken into consideration during the making of this expansion for Mount and Blade: Warband. Everything else seems to be as historically accurate as might be expected in the excessive warmongering of the Mount and Blade series. Weapons, uniforms and even military musicians playing authentic songs of the period are all in place, as the hooves and hacking are somewhat eclipsed by boots and mortars. Taking in the final years of Napoleon’s conquest, it’s a multiplayer only affair that will be out later this spring. I’ve rounded up some documentary footage of the early 19th century below.

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Paradox Interactive are getting a taste for the limelight. Mmm, citrussy. Tonight at 8PM CEST, which my brain refuses to accept is 7pm UK time, they’ll be showing off four of their upcoming games on their Twitch TV channel. There’s something for everyone, as long as you like 2D shooters, dwarf-based strategy, co-op action adventures , or competitive RTS. Do you like those? I’m interested in The Showdown Effect, personally. He’s dreamy.(more…)

The Showdown Effect, the new jam from Magicka developer Arrowhead Game Studios and newcomer Pixeldiet Entertainment, was inspired by '80s and '90s action movies, and even Nintendo's multiplayer-focused brawler, Super Smash Bros.

Emil Englund, Design Director at Arrowhead Game Studios, offered some insight regarding the creation of the game as he watched me experiment with the shotguns, pistols, rifles, pool cues, stools and rocket launchers cluttering up Neo Tokyo, 2027. The future's a pretty violent place!

We certainly don't blame you for wanting to play The Showdown Effect -- heck, we wanted to. Thankfully, here at GDC, Paradox Interactive was more than happy to oblige and sat me down in front of a PC next to Emil Englund, design director at Arrowhead Game Studios. But before I could place my fingers over the WASD keys and start shooting everything in sight, I had to ask one question: Will there be a beta?

"Beta in the summer," Englund quickly responded. As for how the beta will work and who will get in, Englund says "that's still being decided" by publisher Paradox Interactive and that more would be revealed later.

Another question I had was in regards to controller support -- Magicka on the PC is compatible with Microsoft's Xbox 360 controller, and when asked if The Showdown Effect would support the Xbox 360 controller, Englund told me that the earliest testing on The Showdown Effect was in fact done with controllers. "The first months of development we actually only used game pads so, yeah, it should be in there," he told me.

The Showdown Effect is currently slated to launch "when it's done -- in 2012."

Zeal Game Studio’s Robin Flodin goes into a bit more detail on the development of A Game Of Dwarves in a new developer diary, which you can see below. He discusses the management of your dwarves, building your economy, and the open-ended building/management challenge that the game offers. Dealing with dungeons full of monsters becomes an issue, too, says Flodin, and he explains that this aspect becomes “tower defense-ish” as you work out how to deal with enemies.

There are also neutral gnomes.(more…)

Paradox has, as promised, revealed the next three projects in the pipeline from Arrowhead Game Studios, Critical Studio and Zeal Game Studio at GDC. Each is set to launch on the PC and Mac sometime this year.

The first game is The Showdown Effect, from Pixeldiet Entertainment and Arrowhead Game Studios -- you may recall the latter outfit's previous effort, Magicka. Paradox describes the game as "a 2.5D multiplayer action game in which players will be participating in death-matches to gain glory and fame." It's set in Neo Tokyo in the year 2027, and focuses on a cop destined to meet his ... destiny.

The second on the list is Dungeonland, from Brazil-based newcomer Critical Studio. Up to three players assault Dungeonland, a theme park where adventurers can go to hack and slash stuff together, while the fourth player takes on the role of Game Master, devising traps and overall trying to kill their friends -- sounds like the perfect role for that one passive-aggressive friend of yours.

Finally, Red Frontier is a competitive RTS that tasks players with mining resource deposits in space. Sharing is caring, guys -- even in the future we can't get along? It seems so.

Hit the jump to check out the rest of the announcement trailers and some screens, hot off the wherever screenshots come from.

#review I was playing as the King of England. I ruled for over thirty years, sometimes a tyrant, other times a hero. When I died, I could keep playing, because I was now controlling his son. Who, it turns out, not only had a lisp, but was gay, whose arranged wife hated him and wanted him dead, whose brothers instantly declared war and whose holdings were soon being picked over by Frenchmen. More »

Paradox’s CEO Fred Wester has revealed the startling growth of Paradox’s digital distribution revenue. I’ll put it in the man’s own words, because not long afterward he himself grew in relation to the number. He’s a giant now, and incapable of understanding numbers. He said.

My own experience of digital distribution is that we made 1.5 percent of our revenue from digital distribution in 2006, while the digital number in 2011 was over 95%.

Blimey! I’m having brainthinks about the numbers. They’re both surprising, and yet if you sit and stare at the desk your PC is on, I’ll bet any discs are starting to look out of place and a bit dusty.(more…)

King Arthur II: The Role-Playing Wargame combines the massive armies and strategic elements from games like Shogun 2: Total War and sets them in the dark fantasy world of Arthurian legend, complete with Sidhe (faeries), magic, and The Knights of the Round Table. The demo is available now, giving players a chance to see if they have what it takes to be king and hold Camelot together.

This demo includes the game's tutorial and first mission, which is about an hour's worth of gameplay. System requirements are shown after the jump.

Download the King Arthur 2 demo (1.66 GB)

Swedish developer Paradox Interactive held an annual convention in its hometown of Stockholm last week, and took the opportunity to announce a brand new title by Zeal Game Studios called A Game of Dwarves. As you can see from the trailer above, the Game has sort of a casual Dwarf Fortress feel, allowing you to build, upgrade, and improve a dwarven clan's headquarters, while also looting and battling whatever mysterious foes happen to be living beneath it.

We hope that trailer announcer gets over that sore throat he seems to have, though; that's one heck of a frog. A Game of Dwarves is due out later this year on PC and PSN -- you can see some screenshots, along with some brand new concept art from the also-announced Magicka expansion, in the galleries below.

When Valve introduced the hat system to Team Fortress 2, you swore off Steam forever. You're a die hard PC Battlefield player, and simply won't play it anywhere else. You refuse to use standalone clients for launching your favorite PC games. Do these things describe you? Then you're probably a big fan of EA's Origin game service, which will be getting content from 11 publishers "in the coming months," according to a press release issued by EA this morning.

The first game to be added is the aforementioned Rift from Trion Worlds, with games from Robot Entertainment, CD Projekt RED, Freebird Games, Recoil Games, Autumn Games, 1C Company, Inxile Entertainment, Paradox Interactive, Core Learning, and N3V Games joining Rift's ranks soon. EA says that more specific information on pricing and release dates will be offered in the near future via Origin, so keep an eye out while you're remaining steadfast in your stance against that other major digital retailer.

Another tidbit from Paradox's convention in Sweden now: the company has revealed A Game of Dwarves. Developed by Zeal Game Studio, which has had some experience with dwarves -- and pirate ... griddles -- A Game of Dwarves is a strategy title that has players in control of a dwarf settlement, in which you must "manage your crew of dwarves to dig, build and defend themselves," reports Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

A Game of Dwarves is slated for release this year, though other details remain under wraps for the moment. Head over to RPS for some more screens.

Cheeky co-op action title Magicka has hit another sales milestone, passing 1.3 million in sales, according to StrategyInformer. Paradox Interactive revealed the news during its recent convention in Sweden. Meanwhile, the various DLC packs have totaled over 4 million in sales and the "Magicka: Vietnam" expansion has topped 500,000 units.

Paradox is also planning a new expansion for the game entitled "The Other Side of the Coin," which sees players taking on the roles of Magicka's enemies. More details on the expansion are expected later today.

In a one-two punch of Paradox news, our man in the field, Jim Rossignol, has sent a telegram from Sweden reporting that the publishers have announced A Game Of Dwarves. STOP. It’s a strategy-cum-management game, by Zeal Game Studios, in which you must control a dwarven settlement. It has a Theme Hospital meets Dungeon Keeper vibe about it, with a sprinkling of Settlers, as you manage your crew of dwarves to dig, build and defend themselves. It’s going to be randomly generated, meaning each time you start a new game it’ll be a completely unique dungeon, requiring new strategies. We’ll have more information just as soon as Jim can find the internet. The game is supposed to be coming out at some point during 2012. You can see a collection of screenshots below.

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If the world's in danger from a creeping, Cthulhu-inspired nightmare, who you gonna call? Umm, perhaps not the four wildly powerful wizards ... imbued with a clumsy tendency to immolate one another.

#magicka Goodbye, Vietnam. Paradox Interactive's acclaimed and comical multiplayer wizard computer game will be getting an expansion called The Stars Are Left. It will pit up to four players against monsters in "a horror-mystery inspired byt he Cthullhu Mythos." So says the PC-gaming champions at Paradox. They say that the expansion, made by the Magicka madmen at Aarowhead, will be out this winter. More »

Have you and your three wizardly cohorts blown up everything in the universe using your crossbred incantations? No, friend, you haven't. Just ask the subtitle of Magicka's recently announced expansion: The Stars are Left. The add-on isn't just a commentary on your failure to destroy heavenly bodies; it will add a whole new campaign to the title featuring a "horror-mystery inspired by the popular Cthulhu Mythos." Cthul-who? (We kid.)

The campaign, which is set to launch this Winter, will feature new enemies and (assumedly tentacle-faced) bosses, items and, according to a fact sheet sent to us by Paradox Interactive, "we make fun of Minecraft this time." Man, it's about time someone took that game down a peg.

After failing miserably to conquer All Of Japan on my first attempt, I’ve been back for more. And then for some more. And just then, five minutes ago, a little bit more. I don’t think I’ll ever be the shogun but I have experienced enough of the highs and lows of the family feudal system to tell you if my excursion to Japan has been worthwhile and whether my desire for plotting and prevarication has been sated. Read on.

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Quickly! Kerberos’ gargantually betitled 4X sci-fi strategy sequel, Sword of the Stars II: The Lords of Winter, is due out at the end of this very month and Paradox are now accepting applicants for the closed beta. You’ll need to go here to register your interest, providing intimate details of your life, such as how many hours a day you can spend directing squadrons of swords through the aether. Applications close on October 12th and the lucky few should find out if they are in by the 13th. I never found the time to play the original very much but I’m quite the fan of conquering space so perhaps I shall become acquainted with these Lords of Winter.

(See here for the story so far.)

“We live on the promise that we will not inherit the problems of our fathers in this time of Sengoku but will instead be Lord of the new worlds they have wrought, able to take pride in their works and in turn grant our own children the honour of a name and the produce of rich and stable lands. It is the dream of every generation to improve the lot of the next, to elevate their position in society and their power over the weak and the wanting. We live on the promise that our fathers are not fools and some of us will die on the empty, rotten nature of such a promise. Screw you dad. Screw you with a shinai.”

Nanbu Akifusa, January 1478

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Is anyone interested in watching an hour and a half of Salem’s developers playing an early version for an hour and a half while answering viewers’ questions? Salem isn’t the easiest game in the world to describe, being a crafting-based MMO set in 17th Century New England, with permadeath, alchemy, farming and beasties. That’s why it’s so impressive that I just described it, even if I may have told you nothing you don’t already know. Thankfully, you’ll find out lots you don’t know in the video. The audio is more informative than the actual game footage, with combat in particular looking a bit of a chore at the moment, but there’s a lot of detail on how things will actually work. The first fourteen minutes of the video is dead air, as this was originally a livestream that started too soon.

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Mount and Blade: Warband is about as fine a Mount and Blade game as I’ve played to date. I prefer it to With Fire and Sword but that may be partly because I’ve not really given the newer title a chance because I’m playing Warband with two lovely mods that I can’t imagine doing without. The first is the simplest of mods, all it takes is a rejigging of configuration files, so if you like flames to go with your swords, you’re in luck. The second is Prophesy of Pendor, which is far from simple and altogether brilliant.

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“Security is to surround oneself with friends and then to surround those friends with heavily armed men willing to commit brutal acts for a mere pittance, or preferably because they are also surrounded by heavily armed men who are glowering and sharpening their swords with purpose and intent. Diplomacy is to be history’s forgotten man, so obscure in your actions that your enemies do not know you are a danger until you strike. Honour is to present a smiling face to the world but, at night when alone, to weep for all the blood that must be spilled. This is the path of conquest. This is my path.”

Nanbu Nobutoki, 1470

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I’m going to die in dishonour, my people bowed under the yoke of my bastard neighbours. I’ll try to prevent it, I’ve got a yoke of my own after all, but it’s going to happen. I’m playing Sengoku, you see, the new grand strategy game from the clever people at Paradox. I’ve been looking forward to it for ages and now it’s finally time to start my nefarious domination of Japan. But I’m already worried. It all seemed safe at first; it looks enough like Europa Universalis III (same engine) and feels enough like Crusader Kings that I was confident for at least a few minutes. But the more I see, the more I realise that I’m out of my depth. Should a mildly neurotic Englishman, wired up on coffee, ever take charge of a Japanese clan at such a turbulent point in the nation’s history? I think not and I’m going to show you exactly why that is.

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Anyone unsure as to whether they want to plot their way to the top in Feudal Japan would be well-advised to download the demo for Sengoku. You won’t get anywhere near the top because there’s a 15 year time limit, but, as is the intention of demos, it should help you to decide if the game is for you. Get it from Fileplanet here or read on for a bit of help if all this strategy business baffles your brains.

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Map-clicking simulation Sengoku is out on September 13th and if you’ve been following its development, you already know why this is exciting. If you haven’t, allow me to summarise in a crude and reductive fashion. Sengoku is Shogun meets Crusader Kings, it’s Europa Universalis in Japan. Helpful to an extent, if you’ve played those games, but what’s more important than those comparisons is Paradox’s desire to emulate what is unique about the clans and culture of the period and place. That’s why it’s unfair to suggest Sengoku will be Crusader Kings with nothing more than a different hat and moustache. Behold the thrilling world of Feudal Japan in the video below.

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#thewaroftheroses Paradox Interactive not only makes games for nerds, it also codenames them after Kevin Costner films. More »

"The focus initially is gonna be on the PC," Paradox Interactive senior producer Gordon Van Dyke told me in an interview last week about the next title from Lead & Gold devs Fatshark. "Project Postman," now known as War of the Roses, was announced earlier this year by Paradox head Fredrik Wester as a "dream game" for the collaborators, but we knew little else about it. That is, until this afternoon at Gamescom, where the Swedish publisher unveiled the melee-based title.

"Absolutely, it's being thought of as a franchise," Van Dyke continued, though he's not yet sure how that will play out in terms of branding. "We've been looking into franchise names. It's actually really hard to find a name that has anything to do with combat in video games." As the name implies, the game set between 1455 and 1485 -- during the "War of the Roses" era in England -- though it's not necessarily steeped in Medieval politics. Instead, it focuses on the regular battles between English houses jockeying for control of the kingdom.