This is The Mechanic, where Alex Wiltshire invites developers to discuss the difficult journeys they underwent to make the best bits of their games. This time, Total War: Warhammer s Mortal Empires campaign [official site].

Mortal Empires is the logical conclusion of Total War: Warhammer. It asks this: what happens if all the races, factions, legendary lords and terrain of both Total War: Warhammer and its sequel were folded together into a single giant campaign? The answer was released in October as a free addition to owners of the two games, and it is, as game director Ian Roxborough tells me, By far the biggest, most content-rich campaign that we ve ever done in Total War.

But how do you make games that are designed to be played both in discrete and distinctive smaller chunks, and also in huge and unified ones? How do you balance Warhammer s strongly asymmetric races against each other while continually adding more? And how do you make a game as big as Mortal Empires comprehensible and playable at all? (more…)

Endless Space 2, the 4X game about achieving galactic supremacy with unique and interesting factions, is having a free weekend. Just to confirm: your space will end on Sunday at 9pm GMT unless you buy the game. There’s a new update too, which expands the diplomatic options and adds a bunch of other new stuff.

If you only accept your space in truly infinite form, it’s half-price now too.

The devs have also launched the ‘Galactic Statecraft’ update, which adds more options to the diplomatic side of the game. In theory, you’ll be able to solve your conflicts via chatting rather than combating. It also pirate lairs to worry about, plot-related end-game bonuses, orbital stations, constellation control bonuses, weapon balancing and new events. It’s all detailed in the patch notes, as well as this here video. (more…)