It’s been an eventful decade for PC games, and it would be hard for you to summarise everything that’s happened in the medium across the past ten years. Hard for you>, but a day’s work for us. Below you’ll find our picks for the 50 best games released on PC across the past decade.

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Building empires in Crusader Kings 3 is dirty work. You can’t just roll up with an army and start taking farmland willy-nilly – you need friends to fund your battles, lovers to keep your line in check, and even an occasional so-called ally may need to be taken out of the picture. Paradox’s latest Crusader Kings 3 dev diary is all about plotting and scheming, detailing how best to plot against your rivals by taking advantage of their most tantalising secrets.

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You’ll ocassionally find someone on the internet sounding off about how the strategy genre is dead. If you see such a person in the future, send them this list of the best strategy games ever made.

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The Crusader Kings franchise has always had a massive Game of Thrones vibe. Indeed, the first two games in the series got their own Westeros mods, and our own Adam Smith called CK2 s such a blindingly obvious combination of worlds and mechanics that it simply had to exist . Now, however, looking into the new dynasty mechanics for Crusader Kings 3, it s clear what Paradox are doing: they re basically putting that stuff in from day one.

OK, it s still a historical game, so there ll be work for modders in adding maps, character names and probably dragons. But in terms of feuding cadet houses, bastard offshoots and needlessly intense family mottos — not to mention the new Dread mechanic, wherein the more of a monster you are, the more your vassals are scared to disobey you — you can have it all. There s still plenty about CK3 to be revealed, but while we wait for flaying and seventy-seven course meals to be confirmed as features, here s everything we know about the new dynasty system.

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Although we won t be able to play Crusader Kings 3 until next year, last weekend I got to try the next best thing – a massive game of Crusader Kings 2 without a single PC involved. As part of the celebrations at PDXcon, Paradox turned the interior of the Nalepastrasse radio station (formerly the broadcast hub for communist East Germany) into a vast map of Europe, and gave 250 or so players the chance to swindle, excommunicate, marry and assassinate their way to the top of the feudal world.

I was curious to see what on earth would happen if you replaced CK2 s vast array of simulated bastards with real people, and how the sheer, breathtaking amorality of medieval power-grabbing would play out when you had to look people in the eye while doing it. As such, I enlisted the help of freelancer Rosh Kelly, and entered the melee for five hours of profound chaos. Here s how it went down.

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Crusader Kings 2 isn t the easiest game to define. It mixes Paradox s grand strategy formula with a big bucket of RPG flavour, creating something that s just as playable as an emergent storytelling toy as it is as a wargame. Crusader Kings 3, its freshly-announced sequel, has this same mix of ingredients. But from what we ve seen so far, it looks like it might> just have edged over the line from a strategy game with RPG elements to an RPG you play on a map .

Let s be clear: it s still very much a strategy game. Crusader Kings 3 is about exploiting a range of interlocking systems — from military power to succession law to church doctrine — to grab big metal gauntlets full of power, and rise to the top of the medieval world. That world is now bigger, too. Four times the size, in fact, which brings it to a par with the vast map of Imperator: Rome. And the mechanics used to manipulate it are as varied as they ever were. More than in CK2, however, all of them are affected by who your ruler is as a character>.

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Having permanently removed Crusader Kings II‘s price tag last week, making it free for keepsies, Paradox are giving an expansion away free to people who sign up for an account. The Old Gods is the giveaway, the 2013 expansion focused on marauding Vikings, pagans, and Zoroastrians. Turns out I already have a Paradox account from something or other so sure, gwan, wang me a Steam key. I’ll show Wessex what’s what.

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A few minutes ago, Crusader Kings 3 was announced at PDXCon in Berlin, with an actual choir of hooded figures>, and this splendidly grim trailer. Predecessor Crusader Kings 2 is still going strong after nearly eight years, with its last expansion launched last November, but now it’s time for that old warhorse to be put to pasture. Or perhaps become pope. Either way, it’s free to play now.

But what’s in store for budding Dukes, Caliphs, and Holy Roman Emperors in CK3? Luckily, I spent the start of the month with Paradox in Stockholm, where even a thematically appropriate run-in with blood poisoning couldn’t stop me soaking up all there was to know about the grand strategy behemoth under construction. I ll be posting some longer pieces getting into the meat of the game in the weeks to come, but for now, here s a summary of what we know so far:

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To start their annual fanfest PDXCON off with a bang (or at least an “Ooh!”), Paradox are now offering Crusader Kings 2 for free. It seems to be free forever? [Update: yes, it is.]> If you’ve not yet tried to form your own medieval dynasty and found yourself undone by intrigue, backstabbing, and your own damn foolishness, you’re missing out. Expansions are not included in the giveaway, unsurprisingly, though they are all half-price in a sale at the moment.

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Hey, you there, the reader who’s always fascinated to hear weird tales and unusual patch notes from Crusader Kings II but has never gotten into the wheeling-dealing empire strategy game because even just buying it is intimidating with the array of add-ons supplementing it. Yes, you. You can now grab CK2 and all fifteen expansions for just over 12 in a new Humble Bundle, which is one fine deal. Heck, it’s a good deal if you already have CK2 or even a few expansions, just to top it off.

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