Hello, everyone! I hope you’re doing great! You probably noticed that I haven’t posted anything last week. That’s because I was taking a rest from launching a massive project at my real-life job, and the week had been quite exhausting. But I’m back again and in full force, and we have a lot of amazing news we need to go over!
Europa Universalis 5 Was Announced And It Amazed Me!
A couple of months ago, a new entry into the Europa Universalis franchise had been teased. Now it has been officially announced and I have to say, I am just flabbergasted by the seemingly amount of detail the game’s packing. Everyone who had the chance to play it shares the opinion that Europa Universalis 5 is going in the right direction, and this is shaping up to be Paradox’s biggest game ever. I also suspect that this is the game Paradox is going to use as a basis going forward, because of the fact that they have massively extended their timeline, even going as far as highlighting medieval historical events like the Hundred Years War. There’s no release date, but I’m pretty sure it’s launching in 2025.
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Definitive Edition Is Happening!
The Warhammer Skulls festival is live, with games of the titular franchise going for cheapies at Steam! But even more important than that is the fact that Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Definitive Edition has just been announced and everyone is rightly excited. Being one of the best real-time strategy (RTS) games of all time, Dawn of War has a special place in many players’ hearts. The Definitive Edition is going to have all 9 armies, all 4 campaigns, 4K support, upscaled textures, improved camera and lighting, and 64-bit modding support. It’s very exciting to see this one make a comeback, 21 years later after it planet-dropped into the RTS scene.
Warhammer Skulls Festival Is Going On
This is also a thing, and if you’re an avid fan of the franchise or someone looking to get into it in digital format, the Warhammer Skulls Festival is a great way to get your hands on some amazing titles for cheapies. You have Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector at 70% off, Mechanicus at 61%, and Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters, at a historical low of 75% off.
Blacksmith Master Is A Great Management Game
I’ve been having the pleasure of playing Blacksmith Master, a strategy management by Untitled Studio and published by Hooded Horse and it has been quite a lovely experience of armor smithing, weapon crafting and tool casting. Making numbers go up just tingles my brain in the right way. I might have, however, scaled up my business way too fast, and by looking at images and trailer, there are a couple of blacksmiths here and there, expertly putting materials together. My shop looks like the image above, with 50 employees working to craft low-cost utensils. Truly, the actions of a capitalist like myself. In all seriousness, I’ll get a short review out, because the game is super fun and really cheap.
Wargame Design Studio Has a Lot Going On
Sponsors of the website and wargame designers extraordinaire, Wargame Design Studio has a lot of plates spinning at once, so we’ll need some time to go over what they have been cooking:
- The second entry in the Sword & Siege series has been announced and it’s called – Age of Longbow Volume I: Hundred Years War, coming right hot on the tail of Crusades: Book I, which has become a massive success for them. Age of Longbow will be mostly focused on open field battles, unlike the siege-concentrated Crusades. I have already let them know I’ll be expecting Portugal to make a show in Aljubarrota, otherwise we will have problems.
- Panzer Campaigns Poland ’39 has been released and it’s a game that covers the complete German and Soviet campaign between September 1 to October 3, 1940. There are a total of 77 scenarios, with the longest one being 348 turns in length.
- If, however, you’re a guy who would rather have a fight against the Soviets, then this week’s WDS Game of the Week, Panzer Campaigns: Kharkov ’42 might be better suited to your tastes. The game comes with 69 scenarios and covers the 2nd Battle of Kharkov, from May 12th to May 29th of 1942.
RuneQuest: Warlords Looks Like Turn-Based Fun
If my keen and watchful eyes don’t deceive me, the recently announced turn-based strategy game from Slitherine, RuneQuest: Warlords is built on the same engine as the excellent Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector. Players will play the role of Hahlgrim, a tribal champion from Talastar’s Bilings, and get together with his allies to push back the forces of Chaos. It looks fun, and I’m curious to see how this one turns out.
Critical Moves New Episode
The Critical Moves team got together in celebration of the Warhammer Skulls Festival to discuss which are our favourite games of the titular franchise and which ones are worth your time and money. Give them a listen, they are a great bunch, and even though their greatest talent – yours truly- is not on this episode, they somehow manage to make it work.
Civilization 7 Tone-Deaf Advert
Civilization 7 launched a live-action trailer, and I have to say that I cannot imagine who this is made for, I really don’t. By the looks of the comment section and the like-to-dislike ratio, everyone agrees that this is just out of touch and not that funny at all. I don’t know who greenlit this kind of stuff, but they need to rethink their branding strategy because there’s a disconnect between their marketing department and their audience. No wonder the game’s sitting at a 48% mixed rating on Steam.
Two Popular Strategy Warhammer Games Delisted
Warhammer 40,000: Sanctus Reach and Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon just left Steam, on May 20th. No reason was announced by Slitherine, the publisher, as to why these games have been delisted, but it’s safe to assume it’s probably because of licensing fees. These two games are still available for purchase on GoG.com, and if you bought the games before, they’re still in your library, so no need to worry about it.
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