As a grand strategy title among Paradox’s packed roster, Victoria 3 takes place between 1836 and 1936. With technology rapidly evolving and society transforming, it’s a period ripe for different kinds of events. According to the publisher, players have researched 187 million technologies, built 39,982 Eiffel Towers, constructed the Trans-Continental Railway 45,614 times, and played about 14,623,631 hours. That’s about 1669 years of playtime.

Victoria 3 was also nominated for “Best Sim/Strategy Game” at The Game Awards 2022. Regarding this, director Martin Anward said, “Seeing Victoria 3 nominated for this year’s Game Awards is a career-defining moment, and we couldn’t be happier to share this achievement with our players. Our players made all of this possible, and it’s only the beginning. We are committed to supporting Victoria 3 and will continue to add more content to the game.”

Paradox Development Studio has revealed its roadmap for upcoming changes, which include increased visibility of navy units, AI tweaks, expanded Diplomacy options, late-game economy tweaks, and much more. Stay tuned for more details on these updates in the coming months.

Alongside the announcement for the release date, Paradox has also released a trailer that shows off a tiny bit of gameplay alongside giving us a glimpse at the game’s art style and setting.

Victoria 3 is set to be a socio-economic and political simulation game that, according to Paradox, hopes to “represent the needs and desires of every person on Earth across a century of dramatic technological and social upheaval.”

Features for Victoria 3 include infinite replayability, the aforementioned societal simulation, challenging gameplay revolving around the economics of the time, options for diplomacy, and political development.

Victoria 3 is set during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The game will be freeform in nature, allowing players to come up with their own ultimate objectives.

PDXCON 2019 has been underway for Paradox Interactive and it announced a number of big games coming soon. Stellaris, the publisher’s grand strategy sci-fi 4X, got a fair share of the limelight as well. It’s receiving a major new expansion with Federations and the Lithoid Species Pack on October 24th.

Federations aims to revamp one’s diplomatic relationships. Along with tapping rewards for joining Trade Leagues, Hegemonies and whatnot, you can also create a huge galactic senate with several empires. These empires can then vote on specific measures or oust someone for going against the grain.

If that wasn’t enough, Federations is also introducing new Origins for each empire. This allows players to further customize their empires’ backstories. New constructions like the Juggernaut and Mega Shipyard are also on the way. As for the Lithoid Species Pack, it provides more unique gameplay for Lithoids who favour production of minerals and colonization. The pack also provides new portraits for the Lithoids, a new voice pack and even new ship models that resembles Minerals.

Paradox Interactive’s Stellaris has seen its fair share of revamps and changes since it first launched in May 2016 for PC. However, due to the sheer size and scale of the game, it’s often felt restrained in terms of scale. With update 2.3, “Wolfe”, the development is looking to solve this by migrating to 64-bit.

The update will go live with the next DLC, Ancient Relics, and will ensure that Stellaris is no longer limited to just 4 GB of memory. Not much will change in terms of performance. As the developer notes, “Some things go faster because you handle more data at once, some things go slower because you have more data to handle. In the end, our measurements have shown no perceptible difference.”

That being said, those who play with large galaxies, numerous empires, and tons of mods will benefit tremendously. Shifting to 64-bit means that Stellaris will no longer run on 32-bit PCs or operating systems. Keep that in mind if you want to continue investing time into the 4X grand strategy title. Update 2.3 “Wolfe” and Ancient Relics currently don’t have a release date, but stay tuned for more information in the meantime.

Following its recent free to play weekend, Paradox Interactive has announced new story DLC for Stellaris. The Ancient Relics story pack will see players investigating Relic Worlds to eventually find out what caused the decline of certain civilizations. Check out the trailer below, with the first look video providing a more detailed explanation.

The story pack brings Relic Worlds with abundant archaeology sites for players to either analyze or loot. Each site offers a story that varies between one to six chapters and can provide different benefits. For instance, there are relics that provide “significant” benefits for one’s empire, and Minor Artifacts, which are a new resource type.

There are other secrets to discover as well. You’ll learn about the Baol and Zroni, two Precursor civilizations that went extinct, and what led to their downfall. No release date has been provided, but Ancient Relics is “coming soon” for PC. Stay tuned for more details in the meantime. Head here to learn more about the game’s last major expansion, MegaCorp.

In 2016, Paradox Development Studio released Stellaris, a grand strategy title set in space. Now, three years later, the title is celebrating its various changes, updates, and downloadable content with a free weekend on PC. You can download and play Stellaris on Steam for free right now, until May 12th, 1 PM PDT.

If that weren’t enough, the base game along with its DLC are currently discounted. You can get Stellaris for a whopping 75 percent off with DLC seeing discounts ranging from 50 percent off (Utopia, Apocalypse) and 20 percent off (MegaCorp). As with any Paradox Interactive title, there’s lots of additional DLC, but if you really like Stellaris, it’s advisable to pick up the Utopia DLC above all. Stellaris is also available for Xbox One and PS4.

Paradox Development Studio has been busy supporting Stellaris with updates, but also recently released Imperator: Rome. The grand strategy title sees players managing their nation during the establishment of the Roman Empire. You can read more about it in GamingBolt’s official review here.

Imperator: Rome is Paradox Development Studio’s latest grand strategy title and has been doing fairly well critically. The real journey starts now though, and in a recent Steam community post, game director Johan Anderson shared some of the team’s plans for what’s next. First up is patch 1.0.1, codenamed “Demetrius”, which will tackle many issues like crashes and performance, while improving the AI. Expect it to go live early this week.

The developer also has a major patch in development called “Pompey”, which will address the balancing of technology progress, mercenaries, truce breaking, and so on. It will also look to introduce new piracy mechanics, provide more character interactions, and add more modding support. The full range of topics can be seen below.

It’ll be a while until patch 1.1 or “Pompey” releases. The development team is currently aiming for a release in June. If any other major issues pop up before then, it will address those as well. Imperator: Rome is currently available for PC and follows the grand strategy formula set by titles like Europa Universalis: Rome, Europa Universalis 4, and Hearts of Iron 4.

• Balancing of Technology Progress, Mercenaries, Shattered Retreat, Truce Breaking, Assassinations, Governors, War Exhaustion, and Legitimacy.
• Improving the mechanics for Population Growth, Stability, and Barbarians.
• Tweaks to Civil War mechanics, with new power-base mechanics.
• Naval rework, with Naval Combat mechanics and multiple ship types, as well as navigable major rivers.
• Deeper Holding mechanics for characters, where you can give characters holdings and they can purchase new ones as they grow in wealth.
• More character interactions.
• New Piracy mechanics.
• Redesigning of functionality where instead of spending power for an instant result, you now spend power to nudge it towards that result over time.
• Better abilities to play tall, including centralising trade, impacting specific cities, etc.
• Tribes being able to decide what units their retinues should have.
• Dual Ruler mechanics for Roman Republic, and Consorts for Monarchies.
• Government Abilities for all government categories.
• ‘Quality of Life’ features like viewing all characters in a foreign country, new alerts, road building being a continuous action, and more.
• Adding of features from previous PDS games like moving capitals and regnal numbers on monarchs
• Much more modding support.

Paradox Development Studio has made its mark on the industry with grand strategy titles like Hearts of Iron 4, and Europa Universalis 4. Surprising absolutely no one, that tradition continues with Imperator: Rome, which is out now on PC. Check out the inner machinations of this sweeping strategy title now.

Imperator: Rome is pretty straight-forward with its approach. Choose a nation, build the population and do more or less everything to expand and survive. Various characters with different skills and traits will emerge and can be instilled as governors and army commanders. You’ll maintain a variety of different population types – from tribesmen to slaves – to keep things running.

Managing relations with other nations is important. But you can also declare war on them, teaching them the true meaning of diplomacy in the process. Just make sure the Senate is fine with it and try to nip any potential betrayals before they happen. Imperator: Rome can be purchased on GOG and Steam for $39.99.

Shovel Knight: Showdown

Fancy a Smash Bros. style showdown? Shovel Knight: Showdown is a competitive multiplayer fighting game which features beloved characters like Shovel Knight, Shield Knight, Specter Knight and even the Enchantress battling it out across different game modes. Up to four players will clash to either collect gems or eliminate each other in melee combat. Story Mode is also included with different rivals, minigames and encounters for each character. Shovel Knight: Showdown will release on April 10th for all supported platforms (except Nintendo 3DS and PS Vita) and will be free for those who own Treasure Trove.

Mortal Kombat 11

Don’t call it a comeback. NetherRealm Studios’ Mortal Kombat 11 boasts a more methodical yet bloodier fighting system where the past and future collide. Take control of series’ favourites like Raiden, Scorpion, Noob Saibot and many more while making use of devastating Fatal Blows and gory Fatalities. With a gear system, a brand-new story and stunning visuals, Mortal Kombat 11 is looking to dominate the competition when it releases on April 23rd for Xbox One, PS4, PC and Nintendo Switch.

Days Gone

SIE Bend Studio makes no bones about the gameplay for Days Gone. As an open world action adventure in a land full of zombies, players control Deacon St. John as he fights to survive. Keep that motorcycle fueled, upgrade your favourite weapons and battle hordes of zombies across a perilous map full of open roads and dense forests. Deacon will have clear out infected nests and deal with mutated forms of wildlife when he’s not fending off attacks from human adversaries. Even if it does nothing new, Days Gone still promises a gripping post-apocalyptic adventure with a gorgeous world to explore. It’s out on April 26th for PS4.

Super Meat Boy Forever

Team Meat’s beloved platformer is back and features heaps of changes to the traditional formula. More of an auto-runner, Super Meat Boy Forever features plenty of jumping, punching, sliding and dying like its predecessor. Using random generation for its levels and allowing players to control both Meat Boy and Bandage Girl, Super Meat Boy Forever promises a challenging experience for fans. It releases next month for Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, PC, iOS and Android.

World War Z

A co-operative zombie shooter with multiple classes, each with their own abilities and play-styles, that takes place in locations across the world. Sounds fairly typical but in keeping with its connection to the film, World War Z will see players swarmed by hundreds of zombies at once. No two scenarios will play out the same and there are PvP modes where the zombies can suddenly invade as well. It all looks mildly intriguing but we’re still curious how World War Z will play when it releases on April 16th for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Anno 1800

A return to the olden days of colonization and city-building, Anno 1800 takes place at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Players will construct elaborate cities with beautiful ornaments, introduce electricity to their citizens, maintain happiness (or suffer riots as a result) and manipulate the press when things aren’t going. Along with the sheer range of new and returning features like Blueprint Mode and Trade Routes, Anno 1800 will also feature a brand new session called The New World which players can explore and colonize. With several years worth of sequels to draw on, Anno 1800 should be the series’ best yet when it launches on April 16th for PC.

Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain

If you’ve played any of the Earth Defense Force titles, you know what to expect with Iron Rain. There are aliens. They must be shot over a number of missions. Rinse and repeat. Iron Rain includes four classes – the Trooper, Jet Lifter, Heavy Striker and Prowl Rider – each with their own unique abilities and playstyles. With a more serious tone, 50 campaign missions and co-op support for up to five players, Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain could be a good time-waster with its pick and play mechanics. It releases on April 11th for the PS4.

Imperator: Rome

Paradox Development Studio is at it again with another grand strategy title, this time focused on the Roman Empire’s creation. Much like its Europa Universalis series, Imperator: Rome is about nation-building and expanding one’s empire, incorporating different military tactics and trade practices while dealing with rebels and rival nations in the process. Even if it isn’t easy to get into, the era of treachery and war could be one that grand strategy fans will sink their teeth into for years to come. Imperator: Rome releases on April 25th for PC.

Fade to Silence

Developed by Black Forest Games, Fade to Silence is a survival title in a world overrun by ice. If that weren’t enough, you have various monstrosities roaming about, making life even tougher. Along with surviving and gathering resources, upgrading gear and battling against these monsters, players will have to deal with the frigid temperatures. Bringing on followers and building up one’s base to access better resources and gear is also a must. Though it’s currently in early access, Fade to Silence will release on April 30th for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Cuphead (Switch)

It seemed impossible but Studio MDHR’s tough-as-nails side-scrolling platformer Cuphead is coming to the Nintendo Switch. Releasing on April 18th, the lovingly animated title sees Cuphead and Mugman on a journey to reclaim their souls from The Devil. To do this, they’ll have to battle a range of difficult bosses with numerous phases and wacky attacks along with clearing some run and gun stages across Fleischer Studios-inspired worlds. Though it’s tough, Cuphead is still an excellent experience and a great addition to the Switch’s library.

Paradox Development Studio’s Stellaris finally brings its complex 4X space machinations to consoles. Boasting huge procedurally generated galaxies and numerous planets for players to discover with a vast space empire to build, Stellaris: Console Edition is out now for Xbox One and PS4. Check out the release trailer below.

To help console players manage all the complexity on consoles, the controls and user interface have been accordingly streamlined. Unfortunately, Stellaris: Console Edition doesn’t really represent the PC version in its current form. The PC version went through some major changes over the past year, especially with update 2.0 and the recently released Megacorp expansion.

Instesd, Stellaris: Console Edition is based off of update 1.7. It’ll probably take a while before console players can have features like better empire management. Still, the current iteration of Stellaris: Console Edition is worth checking out for those who want a good 4X title to sink dozens of hours into.