Recent reviews by monkspider

>Be Me, a fan of simulation games

>Have a hankering for some Zoo Tycoon but it doesn't run on modern operating systems

>See Planet Zoo on Steam, decide to give it shot. Get the Deluxe Edition because
completionist fetish

>Complete the tutorial scenarios

>Beautiful graphics, super abundance of content. Huge variety of animals with realistic behaviors and lots of choices for shops and themes and even a building creation system that lets you build almost anything you can imagine.

>Start first Zoo in franchise mode

>Build a huge flamingo exhibit but that uses up almost all my money

>OhGodImBroke.jpg

>Decide to just buy a pair of Lehman's Poison Frogs since they are cheap and don't take up much room.

>Wholesome little froggy bros, enjoy watching them climb around through the glass case

>Zoo slowly expands, but always come back to check on my little froggy bros

>Invest in research to get them a more enriching environment and better food

>Froggy bros become happier, I think I'm really creating a great home for them

>Froggy Bros have babies! Wait a second, one of the babies has a bronze medal next to its name

>Baby froggy bro Has amazing genes with good fertility and disease resistance, realize I could be on the verge of building a master race of froggy bros

>Decide to forgo building a huge sprawling Zoo or making exorbitant sums of money, from now on I decide to focus on becoming the world's best frog breeder

>10/10, would adopt little froogy bros again

Another excellent set of scenarios. I like that so much attention is given to lesser known conflicts like the Russo-Japanese border war and the Soviets's part in the invasion of Poland and the Winter War. You get an excellent chance to use early war Soviet equipment at time that it is not horrendously out of date and if you have a fondness for quirky T-26 tanks or I-16 fighters, this is your chance to shine! I look forward to the next parts of the planned trilogy.

So, I play Stellaris somewhat less than Paradox's other offerings, mostly because I prefer a historical setting to a scifi one. But man, every time I go back to it, I am reminded of how good the game is. Ancient Relics has convinced me I really need to move Stellaris up in my rotation.

My absolute favorite thing about Stellaris is the little stories you get when doing anomalies, and the new archaeology system gives you a LOT of interesting little stories and it is so satisfying to get these really cool relics in your inventory that you can admire and get cool effects from.

So, in short, if anyone is on the fence about the DLC, I give it a hearty recommendation. And if anyone hasn't played Stellaris for a while, I believe now is an excellent time to return.

Imperator Rome, although at the time of this writing, is at the beginning of its life cycle, has the potential to become Paradox's great magnum opus of Grand Strategy Games. It combines elements from several other Paradox games like characters from CK 2, a mana system like EU IV, POPs like Victoria or Stellaris, and even with all of these "greatest hits" of Paradox development, it does its own thing too with unique aspects like loyalty, civil wars, and lots of ways to finetune your empire, such as technologies unlocking a range of inventions to choose from, each of which offering unique bonuses and different Omens you can call down every five years that have different powers. My only real gripe so far is that I feel there could be more depth to the character interactions and if you are playing as a republic where your character frequently changes then there doesn't feel like there is much incentive to engage that side of things.

Imperator already feels like it is much further along than most Paradox releases are at launch, and it is going to only get better from here. I give it an enthusiastic thumbs up.

Paradox has delivered probably the best HOI IV expansion yet. The naval rework is amazing, and though it has a bit of a learning curve if you are used to the old system, naval combat feels more satisfying than ever. The new focus trees are a lot of fun too. Who knew playing as Mexico could be so compelling? The alt history paths for all of the countries seem to be extremely well done. I highly recommend this expansion to any HOI IV owners.

One of the best games in the turn-based Panzer General genre, only rivalled by Panzer Corps with its extensive Grand Campaign. The game includes a multitude of well-crafted DLC campaigns covering a huge range of historical battlegrounds, including some threatres of war that are very rarely covered in video games such as Finland, China, and Finland. My personal favorite is the Afrika Korps campaign, Sandstorm, but you can't go wrong with any of them. I love the aesthetic of the units, giving an impression of model miniatures and the naval battle system is second to none. The land battles are great too, and I think have achieved a goldilocks zone level of complexity, with a simplified supply and morale/disruption system, but more deep than Panzer Corps and other games in the genre. I greatly recommend this game to any history or strategy game buffs.

Intrigue represents another amazing expansion for Gal Civ III, and has really put it over the top as one of the all-time greats of the 4X genre. Crusade took Gal Civ III to a whole new level, and Intrigue is right up there in terms of quality. I won't go into great detail on the new features, but the new governments add a ton of fun new aspects to the game. They add a lot of strategic depth, and also some fun options from a role play perspective. Are you playing as a cruel Snathi warmonger bent on galactic domination? Then become a glorious God-King with the Stellar Monarchy government. Perhaps you are taking more peaceful diplomatic and trade focused game as the Terran Resistance? Then become a Stellar Republic and live out your dreams of playing as Space Venice, the ultimate merchant republic to the cosmos. It is all a lot of fun, and choosing the right governemtn for your situation can have profound consequences.

The new crisis system is great too, Gal Civ has always had exceptionally entertaining writing, and some of these crises have some of its best yet.

My only gripe is I wish it added an extra civ or two but with all the added content we get it is hard to complain. Intrigue is easily worth your money and is essential for even casual Gal Civ fans.

It seems like there is a lot of negativity on this one, which I find a little bit puzzling. Granted, it isn't the amazing gamechanger DLC like Art of War or The Old Gods that HOI IV needs, but I have been really happy with it.

I think all of the new focus trees are really well done, and far above the quality of modded trees (save for Kaiserreich). I think they do a good job of offering some interesting choices and creating some fun challenges to try for. Austria-Hungary is obviously going to be a fan favorite but I think some of the other options like creating a Balkans Pact and so forth will make for interesting games as well.

I also think the licensing thing is cooler than I expected it to be. Playing as Hungary, I was able to lease the plans for Panzer IVs from Germany which was fun from a flavor perspective, but also more useful than I thought it would be, gameplay-wise, since it let me ignore a whole tech tree, and instead focus on stuff i would normally have to put on the backburner like air doctrines.

I think DoD also made the Assault Guns more viable, since they were often neglected by players but historically they were a big deal. The STuG, for example, was the single armored vehicle that Germany produced the most of. So this new option of reusing old chassis gives you a strong incentive to build Assault Guns or self-propelled artillery/AA and it is actually incredibly satisfying to put these old antiquated vehicles to good use by recycling them into newer gen assault guns.

The three new music pieces are really nice too. They are probably my favorite of the symphonic HOI music tracks thus far.

So, there are valid criticisms about DoD, and we still need that huge 20 dollar expansion that adds a ton of stuff but I think it was a solid B+ expansion for me.

I was a fan of Koei's Samurai Warriors series as well as Paradox games like Crusader Kings II and Europa Universalis IV, so I thought this looked worth trying out. And, boy was it!

Nobunaga's Ambition is a grand strategy game set in feudal Japan's "warring states" period where Japan is divided into myriad little states ruled by various clans. In the game you choose one of the clans, and are responsible for internal development (building up your agriculture, building new city improvements, passing new government policies and so forth), diplomacy (building up strategic relationships with your neighbors, trying to schmooze up the Emperor, etc) and of course, leading your troops on a conquering spree across the Japanese plains, trying to unify the wartorn land. You can play as one of the more famous clans like the Oda or Takeda and have an easier time of things or you can try your hand at a tiny, one-province clan like the Shiba.

I would best describe Nobunaga's Ambition as a cross between Crusader Kings, a Total War game, and a JRPG. It has the conquest and dynasty building aspects of Crusader Kings and the real-time management of massive battles seen in a total war game. But unique to this game are cutscenes and quests, with the occassional melodrama worhy of a JRPG. These are great, and what really sets the game apart. I think Paradox would do well to have these little story moments in their games. And if you are a fan of Samurai Warriors, it is also awesome to see some familliar faces.

Overall, I highly, highly recommend the game. It is a bit expensive at the time of this writing, but I believe it is worth every cent. You will get hundreds of hours of enjoyment and an infinitely replayable game.

Mercenaries adds two new civilizations (The Arceans and Torians) and a galactic bazaar where you can purchase mercenary units as well as a new campaign scenario. The new civs are extremely well done and should be familliar to fans of previous entries in the series. They both have their own tech trees full of fun flavor and they have their own ships reflecting a certain unique aesthetic. The mercenary units are fun, and are the first attempt to have esentially hero units in the game. All of them have unique bonuses that you would not be able to get on a normal ship, and many of them also add bonuses to your entire fleet, or to a colony they are stationed at The new scenario was enjoyable, and you get a lot of fun interaction with the Terrans and Arceans. It is definitely worth a playthrough or two.

The price might seem a bit steep but it is worth every penny. The mercenary units really add more to the game than they might appear to at first glance. To acquire the services of the mercenaries, they requires both money and certain resources (a certain mercenary may require 1 durantium and 1 elerium for example). This totally changes the dynamic of the game. It is now more important to earn money and to build starbases to mine those resources. Previously, there weren't really all that many uses for them. So this makes the rush to lock down your share of the galaxy's resouces much more important. It also changes how you approach the question of focusing on science, production or money,

So, in short, this expansion is a great value for any Gal Civ III fan and I can easily recommend purchasing it even at full price.