Mannor Lords Early Access Date Announced

The hopefully soon-to-be new entry on the “best medieval games of all time list”, Manor Lords just got a release date: 26th of April, 2024. The spring of next year doesn’t come soon enough.

Headquarters: World War II Coming Together Nicely

The Troop might be delightful, but it looks like the folks working at Headquarters: World War II will give them a run for their money in the “friendlest wargame” category. No release date is available right now.

The Troop Review – The Perfect Middle Ground Between Battle Academy and Second Front

Stronghold Devs Shed Light On Its Origins

In the Stronghold: Definitive Edition dev diary, the developers discuss the game’s origin and the changes made. Series veterans Simon and Paul share their insights into the game’s creation from their unique perspectives.

They delve into the goals of Stronghold: DE, covering everything from new single-player content to the smallest quality-of-life improvements. They take you through the initial project pitch, the scale of changes, and even discuss the difficulty of the new content, showing how much thought has gone into the road to release.

The video also confirms various changes and introduces some entirely new ones based on player feedback. Notably, they have increased troop and building limits in all game modes, allowing for up to 3000 units and 2000 buildings concurrently. By doubling these limits from the original game, everyone’s expecting larger and more epic sieges.

Thirty Years War Preview

Wargame Design Studios up and coming title in the Musket & Pike series, Thirty Years War is set to release in less than a month. The team said, in a recent blog post, that “As with all of our titles we aim to capture the essence and “flavor” of the conflict. While every battle that happened during this time span is not represented, a large portion is. Currently the game will ship with 80 stand alone scenarios covering a range of engagements from major actions such as 1st Breitenfeld, Lutzen & Rocroi to smaller battles such as Vlotho. There are an additional 45 scenarios included in two campaigns, one focused on 1622 and the other on 1632.”

Foxhole Naval Warfare

Foxhole‘s latest major update has expanded the persistent online war from land to sea, allowing thousands of concurrent players to participate in player-built fleets and engage in full-scale naval battles. This overhaul introduces several interesting features:

• Players can now take control of battleships, participate in beach landings, and conquer new island-based territories.
• You can build and deploy fleets of Gunboats, Destroyers, and massive Battleships, with dozens of players working together on deck.
• Coordination with crew members is essential for tasks like delivering and loading ammunition, launching depth charges, and deploying sea mines.
• Ship subsystems can be damaged individually, and compartments may flood. Players need to bail out water and make repairs to stay afloat during naval battles.
• In critical moments, players must decide whether to seal off flooded areas or risk losing the entire ship.

This update promises to deliver exciting and strategic naval warfare to the Foxhole experience. The game currently costs 24,99€ or your regional equivalent, but it goes on sale pretty often.

Age of Empires IV Expansion

The Sultans Ascend expansion for Age of Empires IV is just a week away, releasing on November 14th. Here’s what to expect:

• 2 top-requested civilizations – the Byzantines and the Japanese
• 4 variant civilizations
• 10 new maps
• 2 new biomes
• 8-mission single-player campaign

The expansion will cost 14,99£€, or your regional equivalent.

Cities: Skylines II Out Now – Trouble Abounds

Cities: Skylines II appears to be encountering significant performance issues, prompting the development team to address concerns. They’ve clarified that the in-game characters’ teeth are not causing these performance problems. While there is optimism regarding the potential of the game to be great, it’s evident that there is work to be done before it reaches that point, possibly taking several months or even years.

Hey, at least there’s the original Cities: Skylines, or Highrise City.

ICBM: Escalation Announced

The 2020 humanity-ender simulator is getting a new entry titled ICBM: Escalation. No release date was announced as of right now.

Stragate: Timekeepers – Episode 1 Out Now

Stargate: Timekeepers released a demo. This, however, was not well received, with players taking to the Steam forums to voice their displeasure at the game’s first missions: “Was this rushed?”, “Who made this?”, and “Waste of time and money” are just some of the posts found.

I can’t say I’m excited about this, but that’s mainly because SG was never my thing. Anyway, the game comes out on December 12th, 2023.

Open Wheel Manager 2 In Early Access

MicroProse Software made little to no fuss about Open Wheel Manager 2 entering Early Access. The F1 managerial title has been fairly well received by the community. Still slim in features, but filled with promise.

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