Edit: it sounds like they are actually delaying to ensure a more polished release. Given the massive scope of the game, this seems totally reasonable. I wish Paradox would push deadlines more often honestly, given the sorry state of their most recent titles on release day (CS2 and Vic3 in particular) Though I am still disappointed we won’t get LBY sooner.
Cassette Beasts is relatively short. You can beat the story in a couple of days. 100% and the DLC take longer, but it’s an absolute pleasure all the way through. Highly recommend you move it to the top of the backlog.
That’s really interesting. Do you have any insight on why Poland seemingly punches above its weight on software development? Is programming a heavy focus in public schools?
Why do so many games companies have offices in Poland? Is there some kind of government incentive for gamedev there? No offense to Poland, but for such an economically small country, I feel like I hear a disproportionate amount of games come from there.
No idea how well the controls will work, so faster-paced games like Star Wars Battlefront might be out the window. I got a lot of mileage out of Jeanne D’Arc back in the day with my PSP. It’s a fun JRPG tactics game, à la Final Fantasy Tactics.
PA is still fun if you can look past the bugs. It’s a really interesting twist on the colony sim formula to have basically an adversarial relationship with your pawns. It makes you think about security zones in much the same way as someone designing a secure facility like a bank vault or military base.
First game was relatively bug free before paradox bought it. Then once they started pushing them to add DLC content, the bugs started appearing rapidly. It’s so transparent exactly what was happening behind the scenes. PDX pushed them to add DLC to recoup their investment, and the deadlines they pushed didn’t let the studio implement them properly on top of the existing codebase (which they didn’t create with endless DLC in mind) without cutting corners like crazy.
It’s so sad when you go back to the early dev diaries on YouTube where the guys who made PA1 are clearly just creating a passion project. And now PDX has turned it into just another one of their DLC treadmill games and introduced a slew of game breaking bugs in the process.
Mount and Blade (Warband, WFAS, and Bannerlord) is another that I would say puts a unique spin on RTS. You are down on the ground with your troops and need to give orders like when to have certain troop groups attack, retreat, change formation, etc. You have the opportunity for your own skill as a fighter to matter, but once the battles reach a certain size, it becomes far more important to have a tactical advantage than to just be good at fighting yourself.
It definitely still feels like it’s in EA. There’s only one map and there are a ton of buttons that do nothing. But the game is aesthetic AF and the core gameplay is solid.
Gamers aren’t a monolith. I’m not going to blame the people who appreciate gaming as an art form when the problem is the people who will buy the latest Madden and Cod games every year