Mm, I'm exhausted today and I'd love to play Stellaris. Too bad it doesn't exist any more.
Just a giant pile of "optional" DLC that randomly changes mechanics to be worse and breaks mods.
Sigh... I miss before Paradox turned to complete shit. It'd be nice to play games aimed at me that weren't also being destroyed by sleaze.
The only Paradox games that have survived their ritualistic cannibalism are the ones they bought and immediately forgot about.
None of the ones developed under their umbrella have been left alive. Crack the bones to make soup, who needs games that remain playable.
If you're wondering: Stellaris now costs $300.
OR $9.99 per month!
How exciting for them!
Elite: Dangerous is apparently $5 now. Must be about to vanish.
Not a Paradox game, but alas, dodging that landmine did not save them.
There are a variety of empire-builder space games, but the thing I liked about Stellaris is, as far as I know, still quite unique:
Factionalized populations.
I loved seeing my planets covered in tiles of people, not just people of different species, but of different cultural factions.
The space fighting was, as always, boring pathetic shit. But trying to manage your population and its culture was fascinating.
I wish there was a game just about that.
The problem is, the 4X genre is still obsessing over the fighting portion of the game. Everything is defenses and fleets and combat.
Just like in basebuilders, it's pathetic and boring.
There won't ever be a space-nation-manager game that isn't about pew pew space lasers unless I build it, because the genre is fully calcified. Completely.
I am actually impressed Paradox managed to destroy Stellaris, because the genre is so calcified I presumed nobody would be able to change anything.
it's a strange thing, to want to play a game that you remember so clearly, and to have it in your library ready to play - but knowing you can't play it.
The game in your library has the same face, but it is the hollow husk of what you used to enjoy, skinned and stuffed full of trojan horse upsells by desperate, shallow men unwilling to create anything new.
Fucking subscription for a single-player space game. Go out of business and throw yourself off your yacht into the sea, you scum.
I've had Paradox blacklisted for a long time, and every time I look back and think about unblacklisting them, it turns out they've proven my choice right and gotten worse.
Craig P