Remaking strategy games comes across as an odd decision, because strategy games are principally defined and remembered through their mechanics, and that is something that typically improves over time. Take Civilization 2 as an example. It’s my single favourite strategy game of all time, but it would be downright strange if Firaxis were to remake it. Sure, the art team…
Most 4X and empire-building strategy games are focused on building an empire up. Starting from humble roots and then carefully managing the economy, military, diplomacy and so on to become the most powerful nation of all. It’s a well-established formula, to the point that no one really questions it. Enter…
Shinto is one of those things that most people who know anything…
The pitch for Republic of Pirates is straightforward enough: It’s a very…
The “Golden Age of Piracy” will never cease to fascinate historians and amateur enthusiasts alike. While the caricatures of peg legs, eye patches, and parrots on the shoulder might not fascinate the imagination long past childhood, the political environment that allowed piracy to flourish, the role it played in the…
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Knights of Honor II: Sovereign fills a really useful niche that has been largely overlooked over the years. On the one hand, you’ve got the highly accessible 4X strategy titles, like Civilization or Romance of the Three Kingdoms. These titles streamline a lot of the strategy in order to be…
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I felt so terrible about making Fragment’s Note Plus the weekly stream (it really is that bad) that I decided to do a second stream this week, of a game that I knew was good. The Battle of Polytopia has been around on mobile (and then PC) since 2016, but…
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After a five-month break from streaming (how time flies!) I’ve finally got my act together and I’ve found some time in the week to stream. On Monday evenings (and possibly Saturday mornings), Australian time, I’ll be doing an hour or two stream again. You’ll be able to watch them live…
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We should be talking a lot more about The Dragoness: Command Of The Flame, because it taps into something that we don’t see nearly enough of anymore. It’s releasing in September, and from what I’ve been playing of it, it’s excellent. The lack of chatter about it leaves me worried…
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Spellforce III is one of those games that, even a generation ago, would have been inconceivable as a console release. The game’s blend of RTS and RPG mechanics would have been deemed too complex for a controller to bother with, and the developers and publishers alike would have assumed that…
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Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia, which had previously released on Nintendo Switch and PlayStation, is out now on PC. This fantasy strategy game was developed by an all-star team whose members had previously worked on Final Fantasy, Xenoblade Chronicles and Disgaea, and is a must-have if you haven’t played it…
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13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim did to me what all good science fiction does – it made me, just for a little bit, question my perception of reality. Vanillaware’s latest title deviates from its gorgeous 2D fantasy brawlers to deliver a visual-novel-RTS hybrid that’s heavily focused on character interaction. The strategy…
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I really like Dune: Spice Wars. I’ve been playing the Early Access build of the game for two weeks now, and the best way I can frame it is that it’s what I would have expected if the Lord of the Rings: Battle For Middle Earth games had continued being…
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Many years ago now (back in 2013), when DigitallyDownloaded.net was still just a startup website and really little more than a blog, I was fortunate to land an interview with the good people of Paradox Interactive. To this day I remember that interview, and a big part of the reason…
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