Paradox Interactive Game Reviews
You're Phyred
Over its first couple of hours, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 does its best to convince you that it might actually be pretty good. Against all odds, this deeply troubled project could rise above expectations. But as the game's structure becomes more and more apparent, the real Bloodlines 2 shapes up to be a bit of a disaster...
Review Shadowrun Trilogy (PS5) - Great Value RPG Collection Is Rough and Ready
Let's run it
There's an awful lot to like about Shadowrun Trilogy — a chunky collection of three sci-fi-fantasy role-playing games available on PlayStation platforms for the first time. At its launch price of $39.99 / £34.99, you're getting good bang for your buck here, even if you'll have to endure some especially rough edges throughout all...
Mini Review Crusader Kings III: Console Edition (PS5) - Strategic Royalty Rewards Patient Players
King me
Crusader Kings III is the kind of game that you could quite easily lose days, weeks, or even months to once you've wrapped your head around its many, many systems. It's a ridiculously in-depth strategy title — the kind that you rarely see on consoles — but port studio Lab42 has done a solid job of making the whole thing manageable on...
Review Empire of Sin (PS4) - Gangster Strategy Game Is a Broken Mess
The Sopran-oh-noes
What do you know about multiverse theory? We Wikipedia'd it before writing this review and we played BioShock Infinite a few years ago so we're practically scientists now. From what we've learned there's a good chance that there's alternate universes out there much like ours only different choices made along the way have altered...
Review Cities: Skylines - A PS4 City Builder with Solid Foundations
Skyscraper
Republished on Wednesday 29th April 2020: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of May's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. In terms of city-building games, the PlayStation 4 – hell, every console in general – is pretty light. Simulation games as a whole seem to be married to...
Life on Mars
As entrepreneurial wunderkind Elon Musk reaches out to settle humans on Earth’s little red brother, mankind wonders what awaits us on that alien soil. How will we come to terms with our new existence as off-world colonists? What trials will we face? Well, if it turns out like our first forays onto crimson soil, we’ll scrap the first...
Review Pillars of Eternity: Complete Edition (PS4)
Pillar talk
In traditional role-playing game fashion, you begin Pillars of Eternity by creating a character and assigning them a class, and then seconds later your avatar is caught in some sort of dastardly plot that leaves him or her with a magical new power. In this case, you're a Watcher - somebody able to communicate with souls, both living and...
The perfect crime
Porting PC simulation games to consoles is fraught with danger, with systemic complexities and control issues abound. Thankfully, Prison Architect manages to avoid most of these pitfalls, and serves as an exemplar of how the genre should make the transition in future. In the game's main mode you'll be presented with a large plot...
Review Magicka 2 (PlayStation 4)
It's a co-op kinda magic
Magicka 2, much like the PC hit Magicka before it, is a magic-'em-up which plays out in cartoony environments from a Diablo-esque isometric viewpoint. As the name suggests, it's all about magic(ka) and it packs a fun, surprisingly deep spell casting system that will see you conjuring up all manner of devastation. Making the...
