A sailor went to sea sea sea, wrote Samuel Taylor Coleridge. To see what he could see see see. / But all that he could see see see / was the bottom of the deep blue sea sea sea. Endless Legend [official site] is hoping to harness some of that terrifying tone in its latest expansion, Tempest, which is adding naval battles, a new watery faction and giant aquatic monsters. It has already washed up on the DLC shores today and if you come with me, you can see a short trailer for it all.

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Amplitude Studios may have just launched Endless Space 2 into early access, but they’re still not done with Endless Legend [official site] yet. Our favourite game of 2014 will receive a new paid DLC expansion, named Tempest, next week. It’ll introduce naval warfare to the 4X strategy game, along with an aquatic faction who are called the Morgawr and can raise leviathans. They sound like my kind of seapeople.

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Amplitude Studios has grown significantly since the Parisian developer, as a small team that you could count on one hand, first conceived Endless Space. Now they work out of two floors in a high-rise near the centre of the metropolis and are busy working on their fourth game, Endless Space 2. Recently, they announced a partnership with publisher Sega.

It s an evolution and escalation that s echoed in their games. Endless Space 2, then, is an opportunity to show everyone just how much they ve grown, combining the ideas that birthed their first game with the lessons they ve learned through the much lauded Endless Legend. I spoke to the company’s two founders to discuss why they’re making the game now, what the partnership with Sega means for the studio, and more.

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Endless Space 2 is the sequel to French studio Amplitude s cosmic 4X game, though it feels just as much a follow-up to their exceptional fantasy strategy affair, Endless Legend. Comfortably sitting next to all the numbers, resources and planetary management are lively stories, epic quests, and fascinating space-faring species, each with distinct hooks the ingredients that made the company s last game something special.

I traveled to Amplitude s offices to get my hands on the game, and thus far my goal is to try and get rich the noblest of pursuits.

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Sega have acquired Amplitude, creators of the Endless series of strategy games. Endless Legend was our game of the year in 2014 and its predecessor Endless Space is set to receive a direct sequel that will enter Early Access later this year. Sega will now publish that game, as well as assuming responsibility for the back catalogue of Endless games, which includes Dungeon of the Endless, a fantastic tower-defense/roguelike hybrid.

Amplitude are one of the smartest young strategy studios around and they join Creative Assembly, Relic and Sports Interactive (Football Manager is> a strategy game) in Sega’s stable of PC developers. That’s a mighty strong line-up for a company that old men like me still associate with ancient consoles and platform games rather than PC publishing.

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I would like to state, for the record, that our decision to declare Endless Legend [official site] our favourite game of 2014 was not at all influenced by our mascot/benevolent jailkeeper Horace the Endless Bear and his fondness for endlessness. It’s a cracking 4X turn-based strategy game, okay. You already know if you listened to us and played it, in which case you may be interested to know the latest Endless Legend expansion, named Shifters, launched today. If not, hey, the game’s on sale to celebrate the launch.

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When Civilization II came out, I spent an entire summer playing it for several hours a day. The only check on my binging was the fact that my parents would eventually come home and force me to pretend, for a few hours at least, that I cared about things other than Civilization II.

I was a senior in college when Civilization IV arrived. I’d barely played strategy games at all for the previous four years, and “senioritis” brought with it a case of intense nostalgia. I bought it in the spring before graduation. It was still consuming my days and nights when the leaves fell later that year.

That was probably the last time my enjoyment of a 4X game was pure and uncomplicated. Lately, I’ve been wondering where that joy has gone, and why so few games seem to add anything essential to those old experiences.

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Fine 4X strategy game Endless Legend [official] has another expansion coming, developers Amplitude Studios announced last night. More of the official RPS Bestest Best Game of 2014? Fab! Named Shifters, you say? It’ll add a new faction who “will be able to ‘shift’ during long winters”, you say? Aye, a bit of shifting will help pass a long winter all right. Warms you up nicely, getting the shift does.

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Perhaps Amplitude’s award-winning strategy game really is> endless. A large free update for Endless Legend [official site] is due to land sometime today and there will be two cash-money chunks of DLC arriving alongside. The free stuff comes under the heading Forges of Creation and brings AI improvements, new modding tools, including compatibility with free map editor Tiled and the ability to reskin 3D units. There will also be Steam Workshop integration. The two purchasable packs contain new music, items and minor faction quests. More details below.

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Adding a new faction to Endless Legend [official site] must have been a daunting task. Amplitude’s 4x masterpiece is built around the concept of highly individual playstyles and rulesets for each of its factions and if the newcomers didn’t live up to what had come before, they’d look terribly out of place. That’s why the just-released Shadows expansion doesn’t stop at adding a new faction, going by the name The Forgotten, it also adds a whole new layer of systems to flesh them out. Espionage, counterspying and stealth trickery. Early word is positive.

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