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.
Video games don't usually get into the Christmas spirit. Which is a shame! So it was nice to see that, upon reinstalling Crusader Kings II yesterday, I ran into this: a new holiday soundtrack to one of the most bloodthirsty games ever made.
And here I was, only just saying how good Crusader Kings II - nominally a strategy game - was at depicting inter-personal relationships. Guess I'm not the only one who digs that aspect of the game, because developers Paradox are now going to double down on it, announcing an expansion that's all about role-playing.
As we've seen with its patch notes, Crusader Kings II is a game that, taken out of context, sounds completely insane. The game's forums are no different.
Oh. Great. Just as I wean myself off the wonderful Game of Thrones mod for Crusader Kings II, now I find out there's a Lord of the Rings mod for Crusader Kings II.
