It’s always a happy day when an update for a much-loved mod appears. The Game of Thrones total conversion for Crusader Kings II [official site] is such a blindingly obvious combination of worlds and mechanics that it simply had to exist. That the team working on it continue to do such a good job is fantastic. The latest update brings in support for the latest expansion to the base game, The Reaper’s Due, which adds all sorts of epidemic modelling and hideous disease-related deaths. So, yes, you can watch your least favourite characters suffer and squirm as they try to sweat or bleed out the bubonic plague.

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The third season of guts ‘n’ conversation adventure game, The Walking Dead [official site], will be coming out this November, Telltale has telltold the people of PAX. As we heard at E3, Clementine is making a return older, wiser and probably much more killy. She’ll have another playable character alongside, the lesser-known Javier, who has “been through hell” and looks a bit like a knackered Zac Efron.

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I know what you all might be asking. “Game of Thrones in my> Gears of War?” Well, it’s more likely than you think. Game of Thrones composer Ramin Djawadi has joined up with The Coalition to create the score for Gears of War 4 [official site]. “I certainly wanted to stay in the direction fans know, but at the same time, I wanted to bring my own style to it,” Djawadi has said.

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Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.>

No, not that Game Of Thrones game. The other one. The one no-one talked about. The RPG one. The one that was, confusing, based mostly on the books but had some TV people making plastic-faced cameos in it. The one a whole mess of people said was rubbish, but, aha! It was not, I tell you, it was not. … [visit site to read more]

An entirely objective ranking of the 50 best PC strategy games ever made. From intricate wargames to soothing peacegames, the broad expanse of the genre contains something for everyone, and we’ve gathered the best of the best. The vast majority are available to buy digitally, a few are free to download and play forever. They’re all brilliant.

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Following the success of the Wargame series, Act of Aggression [official site] sees Eugen returning to a more traditional form of RTS. Retaining ideas from the studio’s previous Act of War titles, as well as the clever confusion of R.U.S.E., it’s a game that aims to fill the gap left by the disappearance of Commander & Conquer Generals 2. Based on the forty five minutes I’ve spent in its company, I reckon it might be more than capable of filling that gap.>

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There are oversights on RPS. I’d be the first to admit it. We didn’t review Wargame: Airland Battle, and we should have done. We still might! We should. I should>. In fact, here’s a capsule review from the few hours I spent with it: it’s a fine RTS. Better, I would say, that Eugen’s previous games, Act Of War, and RUSE, the latter of which we enjoyed so much, or its immediate predecessor, European Escalation. Anyway, Eugen Systems have sent word that the new DLC for Wargame is going to be free. It makes all of the campaign missions co-op, there’s a new multiplayer mode, there are new units, five new multiplayer maps, and there’s a great range of options in skirmish setups. Eugen explain: “the first free DLC from Wargame AirLand Battle, has been developed specifically to respond to the demands of the community.” If the demands were: “give us a load of cool extra stuff for free”, then I think the might have got it right. (more…)

Apologies to non-UK readers for the next few sentences. Here is some hold music to tide you over. The word “deck” is interesting. In the hands of Alan Titchmarsh, for example, it means “The bit of a garden that is not the grass”. In certain parts of northern England it means “He who is not Ant”, and it is spoken with reverence and awe by court jesters. It is a word that can even mean “The bit of a ship that is not the floaty bit”. In games, though, it means the collection of units you bring to battle. And in Wargame: Airland Battle, that means tanks, jets, and everything in war that is not a tank or jet. (more…)

Named in what appears to be a bid to play with search engine terms, Wargame Airland Battle is now available to those who pre-order. The sequel to the simply excellent European Escalation will appear on the 22nd of the marvelous month of May, and until then there’s a beta going on. Eugen explain: “The early access Beta gives an exclusive and immediate access to the ‘Destruction’ multiplayer mode, with the first 4 playable maps and pre-made army decks for all 12 nations of the game. Enough to plunge happily into the battle before everyone else, and participate in the last online tweaks before the official start of the conflict next month!”

Recent battle-zooming trailer below. It’s fancy. (more…)

Last time: One man. One farm. NO HOPE.>

This time: A demon payphone. An immortal lawn. Tractors that love too much.>

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