Majesty 2: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim Review: In All Its Glory

Many moons ago, a small developer by the name of Cyberlore studios created an innovation to the RTS genre; instead of a game where you controlled units that will follow your order without question, you played a role of someone who would, sometimes, influence their actions. The original “Majesty” was set in a stereotypical fantasy setting, where you took on the role of a King, and your job was to make a prospectus kingdom by establishing hero guilds, guard towers, and other necessities to keep your heroes strong, your peasants happy, and your treasury full. Now comes “Majesty 2,” developed by 1C, and published by Paradox, which sticks to the same formula after so many years of “Majesty”’s absence. [Continue Reading]

East India Company Review: Trouble On The High Seas

Paradox Interactive is well-known for tackling the strategy genre with niche themes, so it comes no surprise that they decided to make a game based around the East India Companies. Like any other strategy game, you’ll need to deal with diplomacy, budget, and fleet and commander management. It’s similar to other strategy games you may have enjoyed, only with an extremely heavy emphasis on the high seas. While this might all sound all well and good, is it ready to conquer the strategy world? [Continue Reading]

Restaurant Empire II Review: Cooking Up A Storm

Trevor Chan is perhaps one of the lesser known designers in the PC industry, mostly because his strategy games are very dry, but ridiculously complex. One such example of this is “Capitalism 2,” a game where you start your own business in almost any field such as retail, manufacturing, real estate, advertising, or if you have the money, all of the above. “Restaurant Empire II” borrows many of the elements from Chan’s previous games; the depth, number crunching, and dry theme. And with all of these features added together, the resulting game will cause mixed feeling depending on what side of the fence you’re sitting on. [Continue Reading]

Dev Box Interview: Paradox Interactive’s Producer Johan Andersson

It usually takes a small army to create the video games that we play, and, most of the time, all of the focus gets put on the game itself, and not on the people that came together to make it. Our Dev Box interview series takes a look at some of the unsung heroes that have committed their lives to entertaining all of us. This week we are letting Paradox Interactive’s Johan Andersson take a break from working on “Hearts of Iron 3” and give him a chance to get on the Dev Box and tell us a bit about himself, and what he thinks about the games industry.

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