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Humble Weekly Sale showcases Paradox Interactive's catalog
Magicka and Europa Universalis 4 publisher Paradox Interactive headlines the latest Humble Weekly Sale, offering up a handful of the company's standout PC releases in a pay-what-you-want package. Featured games include War of the Roses: Kingmaker, Dungeonland, Warlock: Master of the Arcane, Leviathan: Warships, The Showdown Effect, and Europa Universalis 3 Complete, all of which are redeemable at Steam. Beat the average purchase price (currently just under $6) and you'll also get copies of Magicka and Crusader Kings II. If you'd prefer to go all-in on your love for all things Paradox, you might consider The Big Kahuna bundle, a $125 compilation that includes 48 Paradox-published games and 20 soundtracks.
Europa Universalis 4 review: God, gold and glory
Of all video game genres, strategy has historically been one of the least accessible. The most popular strategy games manage a delicate balance between complex, nuanced mechanics and keeping new players interested long enough to learn about everything the game has to offer. Europa Universalis 4, unlike most of its competitors, eschews hand-holding and focuses instead on letting its audience play with a ruthlessly accurate recreation of four centuries of European history. The real beauty of EU4 comes from the variety of options for play. There are a few basic rules. The Earth is divided into a few hundred "provinces," each holding resources and continually generating more cash and people for you to use for military, exploration, diplomatic influence, religious domination, etc. The complexity is a sort of emergent property of those restrictions, and their applications create a myriad of varied scenarios. It is entirely within your power, for example, to take the reins of Louis XIV, start a war with everyone, ride into battle with your foolishly out-of-touch leader as a general, get him killed in battle, convert your France into a more democratic society and avoid the French Revolution – or you could just take over the world. The possibilities aren't endless, but when you can play as a fledgling Ottoman Empire and conquer Britain by 1500, it can certainly seem like it.
War of the Vikings is 'historically inspired,' not historically accurate
War of the Vikings, a sequel to multiplayer melee combat game War of the Roses, is currently in development at FatShark, for launch on the PC sometime in 2014. It's a game that executive producer Gordon Van Dyke says will be "historically inspired," not necessarily entirely historically accurate. This choice gives FatShark some wiggle room when it comes to technology of the time and the types of weaponry the development team can put in the game. "We wanted to have a broader range of stuff. Even though there were a lot of places the vikings went, their technology stayed the same for 300, 400 years," Van Dyke said. "So we wanted to be able to use any style we wanted from those time periods, but we also wanted to make sure there is real evidence of these weapons so there's no fantasy, there's nothing made up. We're very factual but maybe not 100% accurate. We didn't want to paint ourselves in that corner."%Gallery-195410%
Teleglitch: Die More Edition review: Death and glory
My inventory is nearly empty. It always is, I don't know why I thought this time would be any different. My health is low and I haven't seen a can of rejuvenating meat in what seems like hours. Everything is completely silent. In front of me I see a pair of doors leading to the only area I have yet to explore. I take a breath and slowly walk forward. As the doors open, I hear the screams. A pack of things rush me and I only have a few shells left in my shotgun, not nearly enough to take down this frenzied mass. As I wait for them to get closer, I say my prayers and ready my last explosive. I place it at my feet and, at the last second, run back through the doors. The explosion echoes faintly and, with my gun raised, I wait to see what's going to come rushing through. This is Teleglitch: Die More Edition.%Gallery-194536%
MOBA is all the mage in Magicka: Wizard Wars
Magicka, a whimsical independent action adventure game released by Arrowhead Game Studios in 2011, took everyone by surprise with its excellent spell-crafting system and blend of satire and comedy. Using its original as a base, developer Paradox North has wrapped a MOBA framework around Magicka and created a Frankenstein's monster of pick-up-and-play fun. Magicka: Wizard Wars, a free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena game (MOBA) set in the Magicka universe, is currently in Alpha testing. The premise is simple: two teams of four mages do battle over three spawn beacons, with the entirety of combat being driven by the spell system and some rudimentary melee combat. As saturated as the MOBA genre is, Magicka: Wizard Wars surprisingly never felt like retreaded ground. Its delightful marriage of spell construction and tug-of-war gameplay ultimately left me wanting more.
Magicka: Wizard Wars conjures first gameplay footage
Magicka: Wizard Wars, the upcoming MOBA-like from Paradox North, has finally issued its first gameplay footage. A lot of common MOBA elements can be seen in this footage, married to Magicka's unique magic-crafting system, in which combinations of elements produce varying spells. Magicka: Wizard Wars will be Paradox North's first game, an outfit formed specifically to craft the competitive online game. Paradox North is headed up by John Hargelid and currently enlists former DICE and Avalanche Studios talent, among others.%Gallery-193878%
Paradox Interactive drops Salem; Seatribe to continue development
If a game has spent a year in beta with no launch in sight, good things are not generally around the corner. So it goes for Salem, the early-America-themed permadeath sandbox MMO. Paradox Interactive has decided to separate from the title altogether, leaving all costs and work associated with the game in the hands of the two-man development team at Seatribe. The split will be final on July 8th, with a slow phase-out in place until then. According to the official announcement, both Paradox Interactive and Seatribe feel that this decision is for the health of the game now and in the future, and there are no immediate plans for a shutdown or anything of the sort. Players will be given a discount coupon for Paradox Interactive's online store and a free bundle of Salem's microtransaction currency. What happens with the game after the handover is complete remains to be seen. [Thanks to Chrysillis for the tip!]
Knights of Pen and Paper +1 Edition rolls out for PC, Mac on June 18
Knights of Pen and Paper +1 Edition takes control of the PC and Mac realms on June 18 via Steam. Huzzah! It comes in a standard version for $10 or the Digital Deluxe Edition for $15. Standard pre-orders include 800 pieces of in-game gold and the original soundtrack, and the deluxe edition gets a special character, a farm location, a sci-fi bedroom pack and 800 gold pieces. From Behold Studios and published by Paradox Interactive, Knights of Pen and Paper +1 Edition is an RPG about playing an RPG, classic-style on a tabletop, with dice and surrounded by friends. It is, of course, actually on a screen, and you'll probably play by yourself, with a mouse and keyboard. At least you'll still have a tabletop.
The Showdown Effect adds pair of new maps, heroes in free update
Owners of The Showdown Effect can download some free DLC, adding a pair of new maps and playable heroes to Arrowhead Game Studios' latest. South Eastwood is an old west town, while Fort Fiesta follows a Mexican fort motif – both maps were heavily inspired by Spaghetti Westerns, Italian-produced films for Hollywood such as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The first new hero to fight her way onto The Showdown Effect's roster is Thelma Vaine, a pink-haired British spy armed with a cloaking device. The other new combatant is Dr. Johnny Bionic, whose robotic drill-saw-arm is plagued with a murderous lust. Sounds like that'd be a benefit, given the situation. Finally, this free update is rounded out by a "series of Reddit costume pieces." These can be purchased through the in-game store using unlocked currency.
Daily iPad App: Leviathan Warships features sweet, turn-based boat warfare
First of all, go enjoy the wonderful trailer for this game. If you're not sold on Leviathan Warships (US$4.99 on the App Store) after watching that, then I'm not exactly sure what else you want. Leviathan Warships is a turn-based naval strategy game. Your job is to guide a series of ships through watery battlegrounds, leading them turn by turn against your opponents. The game is similar to Bungie's Crimson: Steam Pirates, in that you guide ships around by dragging them, but it's much more complicated. You can aim each ship's guns separately, upgrade your ships as you see fit and take on co-op and multiplayer battles in addition to the main campaign. The whole package is impressively thorough, and in that sense, the trailer is dead on. In fact, there might be a little bit too much here to play with. Those looking for a casual title will find Leviathan Warships overwhelming. But the $4.99 price is fitting -- enough to signify the game is substantial, but still cheap enough for anyone interested to jump right in. Leviathan Warships is highly recommended for sure.
Rise and Shiny: Revisiting Salem
A few months ago, I dived into Salem, a hardcore sandbox MMO that promises actual permadeath. That means if your character is killed while in game, he or she stays dead and loses everything. Not of your possible scores of skills are passed on, all items are lost and your homestead -- similar to a deed in Wurm Online -- can be destroyed. Heck, your homestead can be destroyed even if you're not dead. People can literally block your path, call you names, and attack you over and over. It makes me cry! Nah, it's not as bad as it sounds. It never is. If there is one thing I have learned over the years, it's that you should really try a game for yourself before you believe everything you hear about it. Don't worry about trolls or griefers because the worst that can happen to you is that you end up leaving the game to find a better one. That's why we're called gamers. Salem is actually about 50% killer and 50% silliness. I don't want to describe the killer part as "bad" because there is something the game is offering that so many others are not, and that's real danger and actual permadeath.
PSA: Magicka Wizards of the Square Tablet out now on iOS, Android
Magicka: Wizards of the Square Tablet launched on iOS and Android this week for $1.99. The game features up to four-player cross-platform cooperative multiplayer action, as well as a campaign mode that's new to the series.Paradox Interactive recently announced Magicka: Wizard Wars, a PC game in development by Paradox's new Stockholm studio that is definitely not a MOBA.
PS4 project from Paradox won't attempt 'cheap PC port'
Speaking to Joystiq at GDC, Paradox Senior Producer Gordon Van Dyke offered a few hints as to what shape the company's PlayStation 4 project may take. "There's something in the works – I can't say yet, but we are looking into it."Van Dyke pointed to a recent addition in War of the Roses, an online medieval battle game that he oversees. "Obviously we've added controller support [to War of the Roses], there's a proof-of-concept that definitely works." Of course, this doesn't necessarily mean War of the Roses is coming to PS4 – in fact, Van Dyke said Paradox still isn't sure what exactly it wants to do on PS4 yet."We first need to make sure we can get the game running on the hardware, but the hardware is much more easier to work with than it was previously when I was at DICE on Battlefield, where there were struggles with Sony's hardware – especially the way they allocated memory. They've eliminated a lot of these hurdles [on PS4] and x86 makes it much more plausible that we can do it."For now, "it's definitely a realistic possibility and something we'd like to happen, but we're not entirely sure we can deliver on that." He said it's a bit of an inverse scenario for Paradox, where the developer wants to ensure its PS4 game isn't interpreted as "a cheap PC port on console."
Daily iPad App: Magicka arrives on iOS with Wizards of the Square Tablet
Magicka is a long-running game series from Swedish developer Paradox Interactive that the company has recently decided to go big on. In addition to an upcoming multiplayer spinoff, Paradox has released this version for iOS today, hoping to bring some of the PC game's magic to Apple's touchscreen platform. And in general, they're successful. While it's not perfect, Magicka for iOS does recreate some of the desktop series' wackiness and creativity. On the PC, Magicka is a top-down RPG of sorts, where players can control various wizards that run around blasting off spells. On iOS, that game has been translated to a side-scrolling beat-em-up, but the spell-combining mechanic from the original title is still included. Basically, you have a series of elemental icons across the bottom of the screen, and you can combine any four to create spells on the fly. Hit four fire icons or ice icons to cast spells of those types, or you can combine fire and water to cast a steam spell, or fire and electricity to cast a thunderstorm spell, or water and electricity to both wet down your enemies, and then light them up with current. You can attack any of the bad guys that are pestering you or your allies (the game offers local co-op, which can be a lot of fun). There's also a "life" spell to either heal yourself or others. The spells have some really fun effects, too. For example, casting life on the undead hurts them. You can also use a wall spell on your various elements. Extra weapons and robes provide stat bonuses, just like in the main game, but most of the fun involves sussing out which spells to use in any given situation. The game also carries a wacky tone -- Paradox's Swedish sense of humor shines in its weirdness. I don't think Magicka for iOS is quite as fun or original as the PC title. To a certain extent, Paradox is just trying to spread the brand more than creating an original iOS game. But it is a lot of fun. Whether you're a Magicka die-hard or just want to try the game's spell-creation system on your iPad, Wizards of the Square Tablet is a very good time for a price of US$1.99.
Magicka: Wizard Wars 'not a MOBA,' revenue model still up in the air
For Paradox North's Executive Vice President, John Hargelid, Magicka: Wizard Wars has been labeled improperly as a MOBA. It features themes seen in the genre, but for Hargelid the differentiator is the simple gameplay that provides a vehicle for high-level tactics."This is why we think we're not a MOBA," Hargelid said. "Magicka: Wizard Wars is much more skill-based, much more hardcore to be honest. At the same time, anyone who hasn't played this type of game before can simply be satisfied by gameplay. It's quite simple to get into it and it's not this 40-minute game mode you have to learn what the progression looks like and halfway through, you'll know if you lost or won."
Knights of Pen and Paper +1 Edition coming to Steam
Behold Studios' darling mobile meta-RPG Knights of Pen and Paper – where you control a dungeon master and players in a heated session as they embark on traditional roleplaying quests – is getting an upgrade. Knights of Pen and Paper +1 Edition is set to launch on Steam for PC, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android platforms in the early summer, published by Paradox Interactive.Knights of Pen and Paper +1 includes the original mobile hit, replete with new dungeons, monsters and loot. Behold Studios has also added a tavern to switch out characters, so players no longer need to start a new game when they unlock a new character type, an issue in the current version of the mobile game. %Gallery-183809%
Knights of Pen and Paper gets a +1 edition, courtesy of Paradox Interactive
I've written here about Knights of Pen and Paper before -- it's a really great little role-playing game that portrays not just a party of fantasy adventurers fighting monsters, but the actual tabletop players behind those characters. It turns out I'm not the only one that really enjoys Knights of Pen and Paper, because Swedish publisher Paradox Interactive has picked up the game (which is developed by a company from Brazil named Behold Studios), and re-publishing it as Knights of Pen and Paper: +1 Edition. The new version of the game will play essentially like the old version, though a rep from Behold told us at GDC this week that it will have lots more of everything: more monsters, more skills, more dungeons and towns, and more quests, encounters, and everything else. There will be some new systems in the game as well, including a dungeon system where you can delve into a series of rooms trying to find a key and reaching random encounters, and a tavern system, which will allow you to change out new characters at the table right in the middle of your adventure. There's also a new equipment system, which will allow for things like elemental damage, so you might be able to build a mage with fire damage, or protect against specific types of attacks. The new version of game looks great, and besides a release on iOS, Paradox is also helping Behold to bring the game to other platforms, too. It's releasing on iOS as the new version, but also the PC, Mac and Linux on Steam, and on the Android platform as well. Behold says that Paradox has been a great partner for them, and they've even got proof: When both the Behold and Paradox teams sat down separately to make lists of suggestions for the game's new version, it turned out that a lot of the ideas from both teams were exactly the same, so that shows they're very much on the same page. I think the partnership should be great for both parties -- this is a great game already, and Paradox is helping to make it even better. Knights of Pen and Paper: +1 Edition is due out sometime later on this summer.
Paradox North is a new Stockholm studio of former DICE and Avalanche vets
Following today's news of Magicka: Wizard Wars, we inquired with publisher Paradox Interactive about the news of a brand new development studio: Paradox North. The studio opened in February and will be headed up by executive vice president John Hargelid, who's had stints at DICE working on Battlefield: Bad Company 2 as a producer and EA's business side before making his way over to Paradox.Paradox North lead designer David Nisshager also spent time at DICE, while lead artist Staffan Norling and senior animator Patrick Kling both worked on Just Cause for Avalanche Studios. Right now Paradox North is about ten deep, with a mixture of new talent and old veterans, but a Paradox Interactive representative tells us plans to expand the team are in place.Magicka: Wizard Wars will be Paradox North's first game.
Magicka gets a touch of MOBA in 'Wizard Wars'
The mages of Magicka are headed to the online arena in a multiplayer-focused, four-on-four PVP battle game called Magicka: Wizard Wars. Paradox's announcement doesn't mention the genre explicitly, but the new game sounds like it falls under Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA).In Magicka: Wizard Wars, two teams of four wizards duel to the death using Magicka's established spell-crafting system as the foundation for combat. The game is differentiated by "short battles, persistent character progression, and plenty of laughter."Magicka: Wizard Wars is in development at Paradox North, a new studio in Stockholm under the banner of Paradox Interactive. The studio is composed of former DICE and Avalanche Studios talent, and led by executive vice president John Hargelid.
Paradox announces Magicka: Wizard Wars
Paradox Interactive has announced the development of Magicka: Wizard Wars, a "PvP-focused multiplayer game based on the celebrated slapstick sorcery franchise." The game pits two teams of four wizards against each other and features "short battles, persistent character progression, and plenty of laughter." No gameplay footage has been released as of yet, but Paradox has produced a teaser trailer that you can watch by clicking past the cut. [Source: Paradox press release]
