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Gamescom: Paradox Interactive Press Conference
| Date Posted | Author |
|---|---|
| 20th August 2010 | Matt Bailey |
Away from the hubbub as Gamescom open its doors to the public for the first time this morning, was the Paradox Interactive press conference at the Hotel Cristall in Cologne. Armed with some developers from a bunch of their existing and upcoming games, Paradox were ready to show off their wares.
Before they went to the games, however, they made an important announcement; Paradox Connect. The Swedish publisher is now rather well known for its range of strategy titles, with a wide selection of settings and complexities, resulting in quite a community building up around Paradox Interactive and its games. It's easy to see why; the forums have been running for over 10 years and have acquired over 220,000 users all talking about Paradox's games with plenty of feedback directly to the developers. News from the press conference was going straight on to the forums while we were there showing just how important this user-base is to the company. So it's this community that Paradox Connect aims to build upon.
Paradox Connect is technically the publisher's brand for all their future online activities, but the primary focus is on what amounts to their own take on Steam and Xbox Live. This an in-game system designed to integrate each individual game with a larger Paradox Interactive picture. Titles will have their own Achievements which provide Paradox Points - an equivalent to the Xbox Live Gamerscore – for your profile. The profiles themselves are tied to the forums, with all current forum members automatically holding a login to Paradox Connect. The aim here to enhance the existing lively community on their forums, but at the same time they're reaching out to new players by tying the service to new media such as Facebook and Twitter. The first feature to come online will be the Achievements, but there are also plans to integrate the purchasing of downloadable content.
As part of these online efforts, Paradox Connect's first online title was also revealed. Dreamlords: Resurrection is the follow up to an existing massively-multiplayer game, a new area for Paradox. Dreamlords is part RPG and RTS, and we hope to bring you more on it soon.
The main reveal at the event, apart from Paradox Connect, was Crusader Kings II. Long-awaited by fans of the first game, who apparently always ask for a sequel whenever a new Paradox strategy game is announced; it's finally being made, but unfortunately for those fans, it's not due to arrive until at least early 2012. There wasn't anything to show off just yet, but we were informed that there will be the ability to have multiple barons in each province, and that each character will have their own ambitions, so you'll need to keep on your toes to avoid being overthrown, possibly by someone close to you. Quite importantly, the aim is for it to be the easiest Paradox game to get into, addressing concerns that Paradox have traditionally produced games which require reading manuals to understand; although tutorials in recent games have done well to counter this.
City in Motion was another reveal. This transport game covers 100 years and let's you build your own public transport infrastructure. You're challenged to build the perfect system using a whole variety of methods including trains, helicopters, subways, trams and more. It does look impressive in action and we'll have some footage of it on the site soon. It's due early next year. As is Supreme Ruler: Cold War, the last reveal of the press conference. It's a grand strategy game featuring your favourite pair of superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union.
Also demonstrated were new clips from a bunch of upcoming games including Sword of the Stars II, Magicka, Ship Simulator: Extremes (which curiously features missions involving Greenpeace's anti-whaling campaigns), Lionheart: King's Crusade and Pride of Nations. We'll be covering all of these more in the months ahead, with a preview of Magicka coming in the next few days.
Overall it was an interesting and relatively informal press conference, with a good variety shown in the event with some close-up time afterwards. The announcements from Paradox certainly show a company aiming to expand into the future, and we'll be interested to see how Paradox Connect pans out after it launches in beta later this year.
