Recent reviews by Stambo

Good DLC, maybe not worth the price tag though. Airports are a fun addition, albeit really a cosmetic update with the addition of more tourists in the city.

Fixed***: (Once you build a custom airport, you won't be able to fast forward time anymore. Halves performance. It's a shame because it's enjoyable building a new airport. If the performance is fixed then i'll change my review.)

For new players it gets a recommend, for veterans; wait a while the gameplay is just watered down CK2 with shiny graphics and more intuitive interface.

Great game, most polished and user friendly Paradox title yet. It builds more immersion on top of CK2 (it's predecessor).

BUT as usual with new releases Paradox has removed some of the depth so they have something to release at a later date with expansions. They've removed the ability to have items; no doubt there will be an expansion for items like weapons and armor you can accumulate while ruling your empire. The Viking DLC was meh, only really added some visuals and an ability to send your sons to go to war on their own adventure (honestly this was probably already in the base game and they just enabled it, it's a pretty basic mechanic).

I really hope they don't, but no doubt they will, go down this route of over priced expansions for things that were already in CK2, e.g. like Stellaris which costs > 300 EUR for the full game including its expansions now. It's a good business strategy, but not great for building loyalty.

I guess Paradox is big enough to not consider loyalty as as a core business value anymore. Regardless CK3 stands as a great title on it's own but does lack depth when comparing to it's predecessor. If you are new to Paradox Grand Strategy games I highly recommend this, but if you are a veteran.. maybe wait until it's on sale or until a few expansions come out to flesh out the depth a bit more - CK2 hits the same spots as CK3 albeit less polished.

Great game, can't think of many flaws. You can really get into a sense of narrative in this game, and every new game has a new story. You get attached to your characters, and their tragic stories can move you.

I love the game, except for one major flaw; the match engine's hard coded bad streak / good streak mechanic. No matter what you do after a good run there will be one match a season, veterans will know the match I am talking about, where all of your players become limp fish on the pitch and lose form at exactly the same time. And before the hardcore fans come out and say "oh it's complacency" no, it's not there is not a single player with a complacent body language and everything has been done to reduce potential complacency. Messi's dribbling turns into Peter Crouch, Kompany's defending becomes like Ozil, and world class players just watch the ball go past them, hit the woodwork all of the time, miss every 1o1, cross the ball into defenders more often, pass the ball long straight back to the other team even though you have defensive short passing on, injuries to the best players etc etc. It's pretty much the same as the FIFA scripted mechanic.

Then after this one match, the next 10 or so will become extremely difficult, and no change in tactic, roles, swapping in players, match talks, press talks... nothing will change this mechanic. The form is hard coded in the game and there's nothing you can do about it. Some people will say this is like real life; teams go through bad forms, and that is true, but the question is do we want to play a game which forces a bad form onto you which is completely out of your control, or would you prefer to have some influence over the bad form? This bad form will hit once a season on average, no matter what you do, consistent rotation or no rotation, changing tactics to adapt to the AI, or keeping them consistent it doesn't matter. Alot of people also respond to this criticism by saying, "the AI adapts to your tactics after a while if you are winning", and the AI does change their tactics, but them changing their tactics has nothing to do with why your team suddenly can't pass forwards without an interception, or they stand and watch the ball go past, or dribble straight into the opposition players, or hit the woodwork or get injured at 300% rate than normal, or suddenly can't make a first touch anymore, or their crosses hit the opposition and create a corner and you know all 1o1's will end badly during this form. Most of this has nothing to do with the opposition tactics, just because they went counter attack, shouldn't mean my players all lose 10 to their dribbling, passing, first touch, positioning stat for 10 games.

The next response to this I see often is "what incentive would SI have to put such a mechanic in the game?"
Because commercial incentives developers have in keeping their customers coming back every year. SI can't make the same game every year with an updated roster and a couple differences in the UI and match engine without generating an addiction in their customers. This bad/good form streak creates an actual dopamine psychological addiction, similar to loot boxes in other games or player cards in FIFA. The reward in this game is good form, and a feeling that you have overcome something which was prior out of your control. When you regain the good form streak, where now all your players dribble like Messi, and shoot like Lewandoswki, you feel like you are responsible.

The human condition of contrast effect (is the enhancement or diminishment, relative to normal, of perception, cognition or related performance as a result of successive (immediately previous) or simultaneous exposure to a stimulus of lesser or greater value in the same dimension) creates a much larger sense of achievement when we get into a good form relative to the out of control bad form. Doubly it has an additional contrast effect as we feel like the game is out of our control during the bad form (external locus of control), and in control (internal locus of control) during the good form creating a massively exaggerated sense of being in control during the good form and we experience a dopamine feedback loop for the good form as we, without cognitive awareness, compare it to the experience and external locus of control of the bad form.

SI used to have an addiction rating in the game based on the number of hours you played, they are well aware of how dopamine responds to this contrast effect of psychological states of external and internal locus of control. I worked in insurance gamification, so even more morally bankrupt than EA with FIFA, and they are very aware of mechanics for creating addictions in the customers. It's a business, it would be poor business management and product development if they didn't find a way to get customers coming back every year. SI would without a doubt have KPI's and OKR's and targets for customer retention every year, so the department responsible for hitting these targets would be probably the ones responsible for keeping these frustrating game mechanics in the game. Add to this that this bad form also creates an artificial difficulty spike which keeps the game engaging for veterans, who would stop buying the game if they found it too easy every iteration.

This mechanic is actually not as bad as in FM2020, but it is still there and I doubt they will be removing it any time soon. I probably wouldn't have played this one for so long without the sense of achievement I had in being better at this one than FM20 which had even more bad form/good form mechanics. But my skeptical mind tells me they make each iteration in a rotation of difficulty to keep that addiction fed. FM22 will probably be more difficult again, and FM23 will be easier, so they generate a long term meta contrast effect, and we feel more in control in this version relative to the last so we enjoy it again, then it's too easy so they make the next game more difficult and frustrating again. Cycle repeats. It's actually good game design if you don't notice it, but once you notice it, you can't really go back in good faith realizing you are just actually psychologically addicted to the cleverly crafted dopamine cycles.

And if you think it's not possible to be psychologically addicted to a game, gamblers on the slot machines have been shown to have actual similar dopamine responses to winning as people have to hard drugs. Think about that before you buy a game that intentionally gets you addicted. SI are no better than gambling companies, they just use a different psychological effect to get you addicted, just instead of money as the reward they give you a sense of inflated control relative to the bad streak.. which come to think of it is the same as a slot machine. To your brain there is no difference between winning money and winning a sense of control, they represent the same thing.

The problem is if they made this mechanic transparent, it wouldn't have the same addictive effect, the same way knowing that a slot machine will ALWAYS hard coded give you a return of 96% on your $1, most people who realized this don't gamble. This game does the same with their hard coding of streaks, and once it's become transparent it doesn't have appeal anymore. So they need to keep it intransparent to keep the game engaging, and we will forever be frustrated at that bad streak until we liberate ourselves with the knowledge that this bad streak is intentionally there to keep you interested, and spending more money.

Replayed the same relegation battle match 10 times to see if the ME was rigged. The first 5 matches 4 out of 5 the other team equalized in the last 2 minutes of the match, even when I had twice as many clear cut chances as the other team. The last 5 games I ran on holiday, and we won each one. The game is rigged for drama, like a slot machine it keeps you hooked. Feels like FIFA rubber banding. Avoid this game if you want a healthy mind.

There's only 2 hours of gameplay here, not really worth the price tag.

This is what I have been cracing since Roller Coaster Tycoon 3. All round what you'd expect from the genre and its predecessors, executed very well. The only downside is the sometimes clunky interface when laying down paths, but really in the whole scheme of things it's a very small issue. Love this game.

A little more simple than most other Paradox games, however it has made the Hearts of Iron series alot more accesible. The trade off is a little less depth than say the Europe Universalis or Crusader Kings franchises, but the streamlined feel gives this title a nice polish. It is also less sandbox than the other franchises and you will have less freedom than in the last Hearts of Iron entry, due to the focus tree concepts which direct the major nations down very specific paths. The variation is in the timing when nations will trigger events, but they will all end up playing a very structured and rigid way; something which goes against what I find the most appealing aspects of Paradox grand strategy games. Taking that into consideration I cannot give this title more than an 8/10, but the newfound accesibility of this franchising is very encouraging.

One of my favourite, if not the favourite, game. With mods and assets in the workshop, this game is an absolute masterpiece. I would recommend buying this even if it came with an AAA price tag.

It's just alright. Not a great game yet, but it could be eventually. In their attempt at making the game feel more organic with concepts such as tech boosts, Firaxis has somehow made this edition feel less organic and more 'gamey'. Now if I want to remain competitive I have to play a certain way to get the tech boosts, such as building a certain unit or building to keep my tech progress up. I am forced to play a certain way to compete, it no longer feels like a living world full of competing civilizations, it feels like I am playing a very long boardgame with really stupid opponents. The new boardgame cards for government policy just cements that sense of 'gameyness'. CIV 2-4 had a sense of immersion and they felt like games that represented reality; the new editions feel like games that represent boardgames. The last 2 entries seem to be going down a very rigid path away from the sandbox feel the series used to have and I regret buying into it.