A Fortnight in News
- First up, we have news on the Interstellar Space: Genesis Graphics Overhaul, with a Dev Diary and an exclusive look through our very own eXplorminate Article. Needless to say, things are looking very bright for IS:G‘s future and we’re looking forward to seeing more.
- Next up, Chris Park and Arcen Games are still hard at work with AI War 2. Last week, they released AI War 2 V.1328 “Light and Shadow”, and they followed up with this week’s release of AI War 2 v1.332 “The Extragalactic War Nears”. Some strong hints as to what the first DLC will be about and its likely near-future release.
- In case you haven’t heard yet, Mecron, the lead developer of Sword of the Stars, stated that he’d remake SoTS 1 if the community could gather 30,000 signatures. As of now, the Sword of the Stars Remake/Redux Petition is dramatically short of that, but maybe it’ll get there one day?
- Paradox continues to discuss its upcoming “Federations” expansion for Stellaris, with Stellaris Dev Diary #169: Origins Q&A. This week, they also provided the long-awaited update on what they’re doing to improve the performance and AI issues with Stellaris Dev Diary #170: Performance and Other Technical Issues. Here’s hoping that Federations will be the expansion that finally sways some of us Stellaris non-believers.
- Triumph Studios launched an absolutely gigantic patch for Age of Wonders: Planetfall, appropriately titled “Tyrannosaurus Rex”, or Update v1.200. There are so many changes and improvements to the base game that it’d be difficult to summarize, so click the link and check for yourself!
- Starchart Interactive has updated its promising 4X game, Dominus Galaxia, with v0.7.1.7. Some changes to the fog of war and some under-the-hood improvements are in store for those that kickstarted it.
- With the update to Warhammer: 40K – Gladius, the AI now has faction-based AI names, changes to spectator mode, weapon UI changes, and more. We expect to see the Tau DLC soon!
- MuHa Games released the Thea 2 “Wrath of the Sea” FREE Update, which greatly expands the sea biome and adds a bunch of new content for it. Great stuff to see and it’s incredibly awesome to report that it’s free to all Thea 2 players.
- Though not 4X, Urtuk: The Desolation is Now on Steam Early Access, and that makes Rob a very happy guy. It’s a tactical turn-based RPG/strategy game hybrid, in the same vein as Battle Brothers. The developer is very responsive to feedback and there seems to be a lot of positivity surrounding it.
- Lastly, in case you missed it, Rob wasn’t having any of it in Rob’s Astra Exodus Review. Though short on words, Rob lambasted it for being yet another MoO2 clone. The review is a bit divisive on the 4X Gaming subreddit, but a lot of people seem to echo Rob’s utter lack of passion for the copy cats trying to emulate the success of Master of Orion 2. What do you think?
We now go to our Steel Division 2 and Close Combat: The Bloody First beat reporter, Benjamin:
Hey guys, Benjamin reporting!
Eugen just announced the release date for the next Steel Division 2 DLC, which will be released on the 3rd of March. This DLC will focus on the Soviet 1944 summer offensive against Finland, on the Karelian Isthmus, and is aptly named ‘The Fate of Finland’. The paid part of the DLC will bring six new divisions with several new units, two historical battles and a massive dynamic campaign. The free update promises to make the game significantly more approachable. There is an auto-deployment feature that speeds up the initial phase of a battle, and you will be able to set rules of engagement for your units, cutting down significantly on the micro. Combined with the ‘smart orders’ introduced with the previous DLC, this should make the game just much easier to enjoy. Steel Division 2 is one of the best tactical RTS games around, and if you haven’t checked it out, we can highly recommend it.
Find the link here!
Close Combat: The Bloody First has seen several beta updates since the most recent official 1.0.7 patch. Many smaller bug fixes, most notably to vehicle behavior and fixes for multiplayer. But most exciting: official modding support! Given the small but active community surrounding the close combat series, we have high expectations of this addition.
The patch notes are here.Now back to you guys!