Given the variety of kings, factions and political intrigue throughout the world of The Witcher, it’s only right that its universe be paired with a game that enables Machiavellian-style warfare.

Crusader Kings II, a sprawling PC game with around 17,534 buttons and menus, is coming to tabletops, and has been condensed so much that it’ll be playable in 2-3 hours.

After work yesterday, I had a hankering to play some Crusader Kings 2. I set aside a couple hours in the evening, ordered some Indian food and cracked a beer, thinking I’d get to bed around midnight. By the time I closed the game and went to bed, I heard birds chirping.

Crusader Kings 2 is a complicated game about conquering Europe through diplomacy and war. It’s a game where characters not liking you can make it hard to expand, or at worst, start a murder plot. One modder added another wrinkle to this already overstuffed simulation: dick sizes.

Patches are one of the best parts of gaming; you get to play Calvinball in real time, over the span of years. When developers announce their patches, though, they can sound ridiculous whether they’re describing what’s being fixed or introduced.

When I first reviewed Crusader Kings II in 2012, I called it “one of the most challenging, entertaining and rewarding strategy games [I’ve] ever played.” Five years later, it turns out that was only the beginning of my long journey with the game.

Game of Thrones is a cultural wrecking ball, but despite being around for seven years now (or 21 counting the books), it hasn’t left much of a mark on video games. There might be a very good reason for that.

Forget RPGs, action games or even a broken if decent adventure series. The perfect Game of Thrones video game is a mod for a 2012 strategy game on the PC.

When you think about it, the troubled heroes and world of Warcraft is a perfect fit for a regicide simulator.

The Black Death, an outbreak of the bubonic plague which swept through Europe in the 14th century (killing anywhere from 30-60% of its population!), does not seem a good setting for a video game. Oh, unless it’s Crusader Kings II we’re talking about. Which, hey, we are.

Only in Crusader Kings II could a horse rise to power and, after decades of war and conquest, restore the might of the Roman Empire.

Crusader Kings II was released in 2012, and promptly became my Game Of The Year. And that was in its paltry vanilla state! In the years since, it’s gotten so much new content and so many big expansions that it’s practically become its own sequel.

The perfect Game of Thrones video game—a lot more perfect than Telltale’s one, which ate my save game—is a mod I’ve been writing about for years. So it’s awesome to see that it’s finally out of beta and wearing v1.0 after its title!

Crusader Kings II—one of the best video games ever made—has had a ton of great expansions and post-release content over the years. But none of it has been quite as exciting, at least to me, as this.

When it was first announced, I was worried that Crusader Kings II's Way of Life DLC would be bad news for my spare time and even worse news for my sleep levels. I was right to worry.

Been a while since I played Crusader Kings II. I must have missed the patch notes about this.