Skylines 2, Plus Loads Of Other Stuff

Strategy specialists Paradox had a big day today, wrapping up a slew of new projects slated for release over the next two years, including new games and expansions to existing games.

CITIES: SKYLINES 2 ANNOUNCED

Biggest news first: Cities: Skylines, the world’s first city builder and a game that’s kind of eight years old now, gets a sequel. The first trailer is unfortunately entirely cinematic, so there’s not much to take from it, but the accompanying press release has a little more information:

A modern take on the city-building genre, Cities: Skylines II lets players create and maintain cities that come to life like never before, with fully realized transportation and economy systems, a wealth of options construction and customization and advanced modding capabilities. . Revealed during the Paradox Announce Show 2023Cities: Skylines II evolves the city-building genre, allowing players to build the cities of their dreams with the most open-ended city-building sandbox on the planet.

OK, so it’s not. It doesn’t really tell us anything either, especially what it’s going to do that we can’t already do in Cities: Skylines. Ah well, at least it will be prettier! Maybe!

Cities Skylines II | Trailer I

CRUSADER KINGS III: TOURS AND FILMING

Crusader Kings III is getting a new expansion called Tours and Tournaments, which, like the game’s latest major update, Royal Courtfocuses more on the character and the RPG side of the game than on its broader strategic content.

There’s a lot more info on it herebut basically:

By gathering an entourage, selecting options for your journey, and hiring a Caravan Master, you are ready to hit the road and travel to activities across the world. The travel system is integral to the activities, with the host and guests traveling to reach them – creating a stronger sense of place when you see your route mapped out and your character moving directly across the map.

The expansion will add three major events for you to travel: Grand Tournaments, Grand Weddings, and Grand Tours, each of which allows you to strut around your kingdom, meet people, and give the player even more menus that appear asking you to choose a dialogue/action choice.

It will come out at the end of spring.

Crusader Kings III: Towers and Tournaments – Trailer

THE LEAGUE OF LIGHTERS

It looks cool ! It’s a whole new thing, a “turn-based tactical strategy game set in an alternate 1933”, which is a longer way of describing what was surely its elevator pitch, which is “It’s Indiana Jones x XCOM”.

The League of Lamplighters – Trailer

Since this trailer contains no gameplay, here’s a second:

The Lamplighters League – First Look at Gameplay

The game is expected to release on “PC and Xbox Series X and S consoles in 2023”.

EUROPA UNIVERSALIS IV

The venerable strategy classic Europa Universalis IV gets its 2168th expansion with Domination, which “features new mission trees, new government reforms, new domain management, and new events for several of the game’s great powers.”

This means that powers like Britain, Spain and France have been given “new life and balance, with greater historical depth, more promising rewards and branching mission trees so that the choices of players can have a dramatic impact on the course of history”.

Europa Universalis IV: Domination | Trailer

Paradox also made a bunch of smaller announcements for smaller titles, like a Surviving the Aftermath expansion and “Mechabellum, a sci-fi auto-battling game where players take on ever-growing armies of mechs, robots, and heavy weapons”. which you can view here.