Yeah, a PC adaptation of World in Flames...with no AI (that might come later at additional cost), and with a multiplayer system that's currently broken. That game is a hot mess right now. they have a lot of good games available, but that really isn't one right now.

Wait a minute, did I get it right with Runemaster - procedural maps and quests in RPG? It works well in rougelikes but is a really bad idea in a real RPG. Especially if the developer has no experience in the field. This single piece of information made me from hurray! to boooooo.

Here I have you. From what I can see on their website they specialize in wargames. And wargames are definitely NOT strategy games. Wargames belong to board games category. Not saying some of them are not fun, quite the contrary (I fondly remember SSI's five star General series). But gazilion statistics and even more rules governing what you can do on phase 17 turn 11 adjacent to river after enemy does x don't make a game deep. Complexity is not a goal in itself. Take it away and all that remains is chess. Leave it and all that remains is complicated chess. No more no less.

The guys at Paradox practicly invented grand strategy genre. The basic premise of their games is Risk in real time (not a big fan of Risk either). So what makes them unique? All the complex mechanics actually make the game world believable. Yeah some are gamey, some are broken, some work implerfectly. But add all those layers on top of the basic idea and you get something completely different. My point stands - in their niche they have almost no competition.

To be honest I get the feeling Runemaster will end up like more of a King's Bounty/HoMM type game, a strategy game with RPG elements, rather than a fully-fledged RPG in it's own right.

Truth be told, I'm more excited about Hearts of Iron 4. It's my favourite game series in Paradox.

I've oddly never been able to get into that series. I like their grand strategy games, and I'm a WW2 history buff, so it should click. But it just doesn't for some reason.

Maybe this edition will feature something that grabs my attention.

I like grand strategy games and I'm very interested in WW2 history so it clicked with me :D I really love it for the weird scenarios it churns out. Playing as Australia, I managed to repel the Japs from South East Asia. Then I happened to station too many troops in Thailand and I'm about to launch an invasion into Jap-held China, but my troops ran into supply problems because of poor infrastructure, insufficient ports and my lack of supply planes brought the whole campaign to ruin.

Played several campaigns all involving the Allies, most of my successes involved the USA. The 2nd time I played as the Aussies, I liberated China with Nationalist China and liberated Korea while AI US destroyed the Jap home islands. I tried the Soviet Union once, since i play with no automation, things got real tedious during Barbarossa and I quit, not sure how to automate troops till today heh.

Hm...maybe that's what I need to try. Stick with a smaller nation that doesn't have seventy billion units to worry about. :)

You can always play as Canada. Then support the Allied front with your units. Just hope the UK don't screw things up for you, like lose Gibraltar to the Axis for example.

Well, the thing with Hearts of Iron games is that to really have "fun", you need to play as a major power (ie Britain, US, France, Soviet Union, Germany) it's not like other Paradox strat games that take place over centuries (like Crusader Kings), HoI takes place over just decades, so it's basically impossible to play as a minor power and change anything much in the grand scheme. Poland and Spain are semi-viable but pushing it, but even Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria (etc) aren't really possible to do much with (without mods or cheating), they just don't have the population or Industrial Capacity.

I don't see Paradox changing this much because they want their WWII games to be realistic.

Damn that Norse style/music had me watering at the mouth, looks awesome.
Thanks for sharing!

I would be much much more interested in an announcement concerning GOG and their older games.

I've seen AARs of people playing small countries like Communist China and taking over the world. Pretty fun to read and follow. It's possible for a small country to prosper, you just need to take big risks and gambles.

Runemaster is supposed to be procedural, so it could be a worthy successor to Darklands.

Thanks for the info

I used to be a great fan of Paradox, but I will not buy HoI IV. Didn't buy EU 4 either. And I only got HoI III once everything had been released. The reasons are simple : not found of Ikea business model for games. A few expansions ( as in EU III) were fine, but they can keep the constant customer milking they have implemented in their recent games for them. And then... Steam only. Fine by me, but the implication is I'm only willing to pay the renting price, not the full purchasing price.

I will need a 2nd mortgage if Paradox ever stops being entirely Steamsclusive and brings their library to GOG.