Hello, dear readers! I hope you had an amazing Christmas and enter 2025 healthy and filled with hope for the year to come. With 2024 finally over, let’s do a quick news round-up of what happened in December.
Wargame Design Studios Goes Medieval
Of all the things I was expecting going into 2025, having Wargame Design Studios going medieval wasn’t on my mind, and not by a long shot. So imagine my surprise when they announced their new series called Sword & Siege. They’re also tackling one of gaming’s least-represented subjects: the Crusades. The game’s scale is going to be 10-minute turns with 40-meter hexes, and you’ll be able to play both as Crusaders and Muslim forces.
There’s going to be a wide range of units, with infantry armed with “swords, axes, maces, and bows, through cavalry with lances, swords and bows, to siege weapons such as the Mangonel, Trebuchet, Onager, Ballista, Battering Rams and Siege Towers”.
I’m very curious to see how well the engine is going to replicate the intricacies of medieval warfare, but one thing I love is that the scale, from the screenshots available, appears to be correct!
Game Labs Loses Its Leadership
With some great news also comes some bad ones, as Game-Labs, the developer behind the incredible Ultimate General: Gettysburg and Ultimate General: Civil War lost Nick (Darth), the co-developer and lead developer, as well as Aleksandr Petrov, the producer designer and developer for Ultimate General: American Revolution.
While no news has come out pertaining to the studio’s future, Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts got a rushed final update, and Ultimate General: American Revolution was unceremoniously released from Early Access into a final 1.0 version. Both games’ Steam user reviews fell to neutral, with most of the community being highly disappointed at the state of both titles.
Hooded Horse Takes Over Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew
After releasing their supposed magnum opus, Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew, Mimimi Games ceased operations at the end of 2023, citing high development costs and the increased pressure developing video games had on their team. Fortunately for us, one of the best strategy-focused publishers, Hooded Horse, decided to buy the rights to Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew. Not a lot of details were put forward, and Hooded Horse said that no updates are in the works. I’m still hoping this means that Mimimi’s last game gets a couple of expansions sometime down the line. At least we know that’s going to be available for many years to come.
Hollywood Animal Demo
A couple of weeks ago I wrote that Hollywood Animal was one of my most anticipated games of 2025, and the team decided to give us a late Christmas gift by releasing a demo that you can try right now.
Critical Moves Podcast Discuss Their Most Antecipated Games of 2025
Your favourite strategy gaming podcast is back with another episode, and this week we discuss the games that have us excited for 2025. Go ahead and give us a listen, leave a like, subscribe, and all that good stuff!
Age of Darkness: Final Stand Leaves Early Access
The really good real-time strategy Age of Darkness: Final Stand is coming out on January 15th, 3 years after constant development in Early Access. This 1.0 finalizes the campaign and brings co-op, allowing you to defeat the terrors of the night alongside other protectors of the light. I never reviewed the game, but I have played around 100 hours of it, and it’s quite good if you love turtling.
Chains of Freedom
I don’t recall this being announced, but I stumbled on it online, so here it is: Chains of a Freedom is a turn-based strategy game set in Eastern Europe, and you, the player, are going to lead an elite squad of soldiers to unravel a sinister conspiracy. I like its supernatural/fantastical elements, so I’ll be looking forward to this one. It’s set to come out in 2025, but no precise release date has been announced.
MENACE Delayed To Fall 2025
MENACE’s lack of updates during these last months had me realizing that the game was going to be postponed to 2025, more accurately, the fall of 2025. At least we got a new combat trailer that looks pretty hype.
Commando: Origins Release Date Shifted
Another title that saw its original release date of late 2024 moving forward to 2025 was Commandos: Origins. After a lacklustre showcase during the Steam Fest, the team decided they needed additional time to cook and moved the release date to March 2025. They’re planning on addressing “performance optimization, AI behaviour, and voice-overs”.
Having finished the demo mission, I have to say that I didn’t come out of it very impressed, and with Mimimi having set the stealth-strategy standards so high in the last decade, having Commandos not being on the same level just feels disappointing.
Broken Arrow New Gameplay
I was away from my home computer when the multiplayer open beta for Broken Arrow was underway, so I was pretty much unable to play it. To be honest with you, I’m more excited for its singleplayer than its multiplayer, so these huge missions against the AI are exactly what I’m looking forward to.
Open Wheel Manager Leaves Early Access
Microprose’s Open Wheel Manager 2 just left Early Access in December and it pretty much flew under everybody’s radar. If you’re a fan of Formula 1 and the idea of managing your own racing team is tantalizing, then Open Wheel Manager 2 might be the game for you. Give it a look, as the 74 reviews it has to evaluate it as “very positive”.
Band of Crusaders Reaches 30,000 Wishlists
One of my most anticipated games for 2025, Band of Crusaders, a real-time strategy where Europe’s Black Plague is a demonic incursion and you have to fight against it reached its milestone of 30,000 wishlists, prompting the developer to thank everyone for it, and promising exciting updates.
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