Even though it's mid-May and the days are growing warmer, you can pretend it's still winter and conquer snowy mountains in Steep, an extreme sports game that's 100% free to claim from the Ubisoft Store right now. The game normally sells for $30, but you can grab it for $0 and it'll be yours to keep as long as you claim the title before 6 PM (your local time) on Tuesday, May 21.
To claim the free game, just click the green text that says "Get it for free before 5/21," and you'll be prompted to either launch Uplay (Ubisoft's PC games platform) or download it for free if you don't have it already. Once in Uplay, you'll be able to claim the deal, and Steep will automatically be added to your Ubisoft account so you can play immediately.
In Steep, you'll take to the snowy Alps to ride, perform stunts, and compete with other players. There are four unique ways to travel around: skis, wingsuit, snowboard, and paraglider. You can create your own tricks and challenge friends to beat your records, or just ride around exploring the snowy mountain terrain, discovering secret spots and enjoying the spectacular view.
"Steep's reflective moments and the sheer joy of its exploration can outweigh some of its rougher points, and some of the most fun it offers comes from simply traveling to undiscovered locations--just you against the mountain," wrote critic Leif Johnson in GameSpot's Steep review.
Gotham City can't seem to catch a break from the villainy. That's the case once again for the CW's latest superhero series, Batwoman, which just launched its first full trailer and an extended clip from the pilot.
The female Caped Crusader is joining the Arrow-verse full time, and she has her sights set on cleaning up the streets along the way. In the three-minute trailer, Kate Kane (Ruby Rose) is introduced as coming home to Gotham and picking up where her cousin Bruce Wayne left off. She quickly integrates herself into the city, before suiting up and donning a cowl.
According to a synopsis for the show, what brings Kate back to Gotham is the Alice in Wonderland gang targeting her father. The crew is headed by Alice (Rachel Skarsten), who is one of Batwoman's biggest comic book villains, and maybe the nearest thing she's ever had to her own version of The Joker.
The synopsis continues, "With the help of her compassionate stepsister, Mary (Nicole Kang), and the crafty Luke Fox (Camrus Johnson), the son of Wayne Enterprises' tech guru Lucius Fox, Kate Kane continues the legacy of her missing cousin, Bruce Wayne, as Batwoman. Still holding a flame for her ex-girlfriend, Sophie, Kate uses everything in her power to combat the dark machinations of the psychotic Alice, who's always somewhere slipping between sane and insane. Armed with a passion for social justice and a flair for speaking her mind, Kate soars through the shadowed streets of Gotham as Batwoman. But don't call her a hero yet. In a city desperate for a savior, she must first overcome her own demons before embracing the call to be Gotham's symbol of hope."
While a premiere date has not been announced for the series, The CW has revealed it will air Sundays at 8 PM. Additionally, though it hasn't been confirmed, it's likely that the show will be featured in the upcoming Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover.
Microsoft and Sony have announced plans for a strategic partnership that will include technology and information sharing, as well as shared infrastuctures for some of their initiatives. While the announcement doesn't mention the Xbox or PlayStation brands specifically, it does suggest the partnership will focus on consumer entertainment platforms including gaming.
Specifically the agreement says that the two will jointly develop future cloud solutions within Microsoft Azure. It also says that Sony will use Microsoft Azure for its own game and content-streaming services, including a push to build better tools for content creators. The two are also committing to work together on semiconductors and artificial intelligence.
"PlayStation itself came about through the integration of creativity and technology," Sony president Kenichiro Yoshida said in the announcement. "Our mission is to seamlessly evolve this platform as one that continues to deliver the best and most immersive entertainment experiences, together with a cloud environment that ensures the best possible experience, anytime, anywhere. For many years, Microsoft has been a key business partner for us, though of course the two companies have also been competing in some areas. I believe that our joint development of future cloud solutions will contribute greatly to the advancement of interactive content."
"Sony has always been a leader in both entertainment and technology, and the collaboration we announced today builds on this history of innovation," added Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. "Our partnership brings the power of Azure and Azure AI to Sony to deliver new gaming and entertainment experiences for customers."
Xbox head Phil Spencer and Nadella also followed up with tweets that stressed the entertainment and gaming aspect of the partnership.
Excited about the opportunities ahead with @Sony for us to pursue our mutual gaming ambitions and delight players around the world. https://t.co/3vBuQiruiR
The partnership has only just been announced, so any results from it could take a while to manifest. The mention of Microsoft's cloud solutions in gaming comes just as Microsoft is planning its own streaming platform, xCloud., which will compete directly with Google Stadia. It's unclear how this could impact PlayStation's streaming platform, PlayStation Now.
Season 9 of Fortnite rolls on with a new set of challenges to complete across PS4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch, and mobile devices. Most of Week 2's challenges are fairly straightforward and should be easy enough to clear with a little persistence, but one that you may have trouble with--especially if you aren't very familiar with Fortnite's island--is to visit an oversized phone, big piano, and a dancing fish trophy. If none of that made sense to you, don't worry, we're here to show you exactly where you need to go.
As the challenge name says, all you need to do to complete this mission is to visit the three aforementioned landmarks. The tricky part is actually finding them, but to make this easier, we've marked their locations on the map below. There are two oversized phones around the island, either of which will suffice to complete the first step of the challenge: one in the forest to the east of The Block, and the other on the edge of the snow biome west of Fatal Fields.
The big piano--which is more accurately a big keyboard, but that's neither here nor there--can be found east of Lonely Lodge. Once you've visited those two landmarks, all that's left is the dancing fish trophy; that's located just southwest of the new Mega Mall area. Stop by all three objects and you'll net five Battle Stars for your troubles. If you still need more help finding them, we walk you through the whole challenge in the video at the top of this guide.
Oversized Phone, Big Piano, and Dancing Fish Trophy Locations
Oversized Phone 1 -- East of The Block
Oversized Phone 2 -- West of Fatal Fields
Big Piano -- East of Lonely Lodge
Dancing Fish Trophy -- Southwest of Mega Mall
On top of the standard weekly challenges, Epic has kicked off a special John Wick crossover event in Fortnite this week in honor of the movie's premiere in the US. Not only are there John Wick-themed cosmetics to buy from the Fortnite store, there's a new Wick's Bounty limited-time mode, which comes with its own challenges to complete and rewards to unlock. These won't be around for long, however, so if you're hoping to snag them, you'll need to act quickly.
Fortnite's Week 2 challenges arrive hot on the heels of the game's 9.01 update, which added a new weapon to the game: the tactical assault rifle, a fully automatic gun with a 30-round magazine. To make room for it, however, Epic has vaulted the combat SMG. You can see everything else that's new in the full patch notes on Epic's website. And if you need help completing any other challenges, you can find tips in our full Season 9 challenges guide.
The Epic Games Store launched its first storewide sale today, and to mark the occasion, Epic is converting its biweekly game giveaways to weekly now through June 13, the duration of the Mega Sale. Starting today, Stories Untold is the newest free game you can claim from the Epic Store, and while you'll still have two weeks to claim it as usual, another freebie will be available starting next Thursday, May 30. To claim Epic's game giveaways, all you need is a free Epic account.
Stories Untold is a genre-mixing anthology of four stories that bring in elements of psychological horror, sci-fi, suspense, and 80s retro nostalgia set to a synthwave soundtrack. Released in 2017, the game incorporates classic text adventure, point-and-click puzzle-solving, and other types of gameplay in each episode, which come together in a mysterious, yet cohesive package. Its unsettling commentary on technology is very Black Mirror-esque, if you're into that type of thing.
"This is a unique package with a strong sense of identity, one that finds a new, exciting way to weaponize nostalgia," wrote critic James O'Connor in GameSpot's Stories Untold review. "Just know that you might not look at the old Spectrum or Commodore 64 you've got packed away in the attic quite the same way again after playing."
Rime, a puzzle-adventure set on a mysterious island, is the next free game on Epic's docket and will become available to download and keep starting next Thursday, May 23. In the meantime, be sure to check out the rest of the deals going on in the Epic Store right now. Not only are many PC games discounted, but Epic is also offering an additional $10 off any game over $15, including pre-orders on games like Borderlands 3. If you've purchased from the Epic Store in the past two weeks, you'll receive a refund for the difference between what you paid and the sale price, and if you've pre-ordered a game from them over $15, you'll be refunded $10 sometime in the next two weeks.
During a video stream, Ubisoft explained why it hadn't used matchmaking for this raid, and said that it is still working on a solution--though it didn't go into detail about what exactly it is. Asked if there will eventually be a way for players who don't want to find a group outside the game to participate in the raid, associate creative director Chadi El Zibaoiui said "yes, we are working on it," but then pivoted to explaining the decision not to use a traditional matchmaking feature.
"You need to be sure that the team you are going to work with has microphones, speaks the same language, has the proper gear to support the team," he said. "It's not about a simple matchmaking as we do for the missions. A mission or any other content, you can eventually do with randoms, and you will manage to beat that content."
Previously in a statement, Ubisoft explained the communication required for a successful raid led to the decision. It also stressed that it was still working out a solution, and that there was no way for the company to simply "turn on" 8-player matchmaking. While Ubisoft stressed that all of the launch content had matchmaking as promised, some players have complained of feeling misled by the distinction.
The Saw series is one of the most successful horror franchises of all time, so it's not surprising that a reboot is in the works. What is more surprisingly is that the story for the new Saw movie has been developed by Chris Rock, who is better known for his stand-up and comedy films than for gory horror movies.
As reported by Deadline, Rock has written a new Saw storyline that is being adapted into a screenplay by Pete Goldfinger and Josh Stolberg. Goldfinger and Stolberg wrote the last movie in the series, 2017's Jigsaw, as well as movies such as Piranha 3D and Sorority Row. The Saw reboot will be directed by Darren Lynn Bousman, who previously helmed Saw 2, 3, and 4.
In turns out that Rock is a big fan of the franchise, which kicked off in 2004 with James Wan's classic Saw. In a statement he said: "I've been a fan of Saw since the first film in 2004. I am excited by the opportunity to take this to a really intense and twisted new place."
Long-time Saw producers Mark Burg and Oren Koules gave a few more details about the movie. "Chris wants to put his own spin on the Saw franchise in the way Eddie Murphy put a completely fresh perspective on buddy-cop films with 48 Hours," they said. "This new Saw is going to be an event film in the making for horror fans. It will have all of the twists and turns and hardcore layers that our fans expect directed by one of the masters of the craft, Darren Lynn Bousman. We can't wait to get started."
This isn't the first time a high-profile horror movie has been co-written by an actor best known for comedy roles. Eastbound and Down star Danny McBride worked on last year's Halloween reboot, which grossed more than $254 million worldwide.
Although Jigsaw wasn't as successful as some of the other entries, it still made $102 million worldwide, from an estimated production budget of $10 million. For more Saw coverage on GameSpot, check out the Saw movie series ranked from worst to best.
The grudge match between Miz and Shane McMahon, which we originally thought escalated at Wrestlemania, continues at Money in the Bank on Sunday, May 19. This time around, the two will meet in a steel cage, so the continuing trend of McMahon messing with Miz's father at ringside, may be off the table.
However, a recent stipulation from the May 14 episode of Smackdown may have changed things up. McMahon stated during the Tuesday night program that if the Miz interferes in the final match of the evening, their match was off. And, of course, the Miz interfered. However, the match is still listed as happening, so we do not know at this point as to whether or not that will come into play at the PPV.
McMahon has also been surrounding himself by other WWE superstars as protection, almost like a Mean Street Posse 2.0. From Elias to Eric Young to Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel, The Miz always has an army of superstars to get through in order to get to McMahon, but will this factor into the match? "They are more like the B Street Posse," Miz told GameSpot while promoting his reality show Miz And Mrs. on the USA Network. "So, with a steel cage match, hopefully I will be able to contain everything inside the steel cage. That's the idea of a steel cage. To make sure that nobody can get in, and basically only one guy gets out."
One constant in the war between the two men is Miz's father who has been at ringside for many moments and harassed and assaulted by McMahon. At this time, Miz isn't sure if his father will be there to cheer him on. "I haven't figured that out yet, actually," explained Miz. "I know Shane put out a tweet saying, 'I got your dad a front row seat.' I don't know if I want my dad there. The reason why I wanted a steel cage is because I didn't want Shane to have to run from me. I watched what he does to Roman Reigns, puts him in situations where he's got three or four people that he has to fight off. Shane is going to be stuck in a cage with me, and that is it. And if you watched our match at Wrestlemania, you saw what I did there. Just wait to see what I do at Money in the Bank in the steel cage."
Find out if Miz can come out on top on Sunday, May 19 at Money in the Bank, which GameSpot will cover and review live. Maryse and Miz's reality show, Miz And Mrs airs on Tuesdays at 10 PM ET on the USA Network. Season 1's mid-season finale airs on May 21.
The Xbox One May 2019 update is rolling out, bringing a variety of improvements mostly centered around organization. Your Friends List, Messages, and Games and Apps will all be a little easier to navigate after you download the update.
The Friends List update adds icons that will let you know at a glance what platform your friends are playing on--one for Xbox One, PC, or mobile. As Xbox eyes expanding its Live service to other platforms, this is likely to become increasingly important going forward. For the time being, it's nice to have a little more information about what your friends are up to.
Messages are getting tidier too. The Message Requests feature will more intelligently sort messages, prioritizing ones from your friends or anyone else you've communicated with, and sorting others from unknown contacts into a secondary tab. As part of the update, Microsoft warns, all previous group messages will be lost and will need to be manually archived through Xbox.com. You can review your messages here.
Finally, your Games and Apps are getting a little cleaner by cutting articles like "a," "an," and "the" from the alphabetical sorting. For example, that means The Witcher 3 will be sorted under "W" instead of "T." Microsoft notes that this change was prioritized by a community vote, and that you can participate in future similar votes through the Xbox Idea Hub.
Dubbed the Epic Mega Sale, the store is offering markdowns up to 75% off on some PC games. In addition, $10 is slashed off the price of any game over $15, including already discounted games and pre-orders, at no cost to the publisher or developer. That encompasses upcoming games like Borderlands 3, one of its biggest exclusives, which you can now pre-order for $50, and the recently announced John Wick game, John Wick Hex, which you can pre-order for $8 instead of $20.
Just purchased something from Epic and wish you'd waited? If you bought a game between May 2 and May 15 in the Epic Store, you'll be refunded the difference between what you paid and the sale price. And if you've pre-ordered a game from the Epic Store that cost more than $15, you'll receive a $10 refund within the next couple of weeks. The only exceptions to the $10 off deal are DLC, game add-ons, season passes, and in-game purchases, such as V-bucks in Fortnite.
In addition to all the store-wide discounts, Epic announced its free biweekly game deal is expanding during the Mega Sale, which runs now through June 13. In that time period, a free game will be given away every week, starting with today's offering, genre-bending anthology Stories Untold.
Dates for Steam's 2019 Summer Sale leaked (once again) yesterday--it'll start June 25 and last two weeks--so Epic's Mega Sale seems strategically timed to precede that one. While Steam's sale will no doubt have the greater volume of games, Epic's deals (particularly the $10 off one) are nothing to sneeze at, and it's a good chance to grab cheaper pre-orders on upcoming games and some free PC titles. Either way, June is gearing up to be a great month for PC gamers on a budget.
By Anonymous on May 16, 2019 08:30 pm In addition to making accessible modding a reality, The Sims also provided players with a much-needed space to explore gaming communities.
Join GameSpot as we celebrate gaming history and give recognition to the most influential games of the 21st century. These aren't the best games, and they aren't necessarily games that you need to rush out and play today, but there's no question that they left an indelible impact on game developers, players, and in some cases, society at large.
In 2000, PC gaming was largely a "serious" scene. Counter-Strike, Diablo II, and Deus Ex all launched that year, Valve's Half-Life had launched two years prior, and id Software's Quake still had legs four years after its release. They were joined by one very odd duck: The Sims. It was the evolution of developer Maxis' previous success in SimCity, but on a more personal scale. It was freeform, goofy, and much more "casual" than its contemporaries, and it was clearly something special.
The Sims blended the best of what simulation games could offer with lessons learned from none other than Quake, which laid the foundation for modern game modding and the communities that surround it. With accessible modding tools and a built-in sharing platform, The Sims brought community-made content to a broader audience. Through this platform, it fostered a space to explore games as a passionate and social experience. That had a greater impact on players than it did the development of other games, but it was an important one all the same. The Sims resonated especially with girls and women--for many of them, it was a gateway into a world that was otherwise incredibly hard to reach.
When The Sims arrived, there wasn't really anything like it. There were Maxis' own Sim games, the highlight of which was SimCity, and 3D home-design software was popular. But a virtual dollhouse, one in which you controlled the narrative, the relationships, the look and personality of a person and their home--that was novel. The Sims took simulation and scaled it down, not in complexity, but in scope. Rather than managing an entire city, you managed a life. And, unlike most other games at the time, there was no real way to fail. Whether something was a win or a loss was entirely up to you.
As it turns out, that appealed to a vast audience. The Sims was a near-instant best-seller, and critics adored it, too. Common praise included the game's infectious personality and charm, its great sound effects, and its hard-to-define "addictive" quality. It was even GameSpot's Game of the Year in 2000, and what we wrote then captures what made it stand out so much:
"Despite the game's basic strategic elements, one of the reasons The Sims is such a remarkable game is because its central conflict is essentially life itself. Most any other game gives you a concrete objective: You're pitted against powerful enemy armies, arch-rivals, deadly aliens, or fantasy creatures. The Sims offers a similar challenge, but in the unlikely form of your having to manage the mundane details of an average suburban life. This witty, ambitious premise actually turned out to be a truly impressive game as well."
In 2002, the Sims surpassed Myst to become the best-selling PC game of all time. More than half the players were female, which surprised people--including Maxis co-founder and Sims creator Will Wright, who had thought of The Sims as a game with broad appeal rather than a game specifically geared toward women. Even more so than in recent years, this was a time when gaming was very much considered a male hobby. But it was women that treated The Sims more like a hobby, and a popular hypothesis was that they gravitated toward its domesticity, lack of violence, and emphasis on interpersonal relationships. However, while the exact demographics were unexpected, the passion with which these women approached the game was, indeed, by design.
The Sims was built from the ground up to be a community-led experience. Maxis released modding tools months before the game itself came out, and player-made content was brought together by an official website called The Sims Exchange. There, players could upload buildings and Sims they'd created and download others' creations--and these sharing features were accessible right from the game's menu. That meant even a casual player would have no trouble finding, participating in, and becoming more and more involved in The Sims and its community.
The entire purpose of The Sims Exchange was to enable creativity and storytelling. Custom content uploaded there wouldn't fundamentally alter and/or build upon what The Sims was, as was the case with some popular mods for other games around that time (and to this day). Instead, you found carefully handcrafted parks and buildings that you could easily fit into your game as it already was. You followed that kind of customization as far as was possible and used your imagination to fill in the rest, and that, too, tied in with the community; The Sims Exchange was home to vast libraries of annotated screenshots that comprised player-created stories.
Even a casual player would have no trouble finding, participating in, and becoming more and more involved in The Sims and its community.
Even outside the proper channels, it was easy to connect with others through The Sims. Sims did a lot of crazy things, not the least of which was setting themselves on fire while trying to cook, and exchanging those stories was good for a laugh. We also can't overlook the importance of The Sims as an inclusive experience. It was one of the only games at the time to include homosexual relationships (though that part did and still does get overlooked), and you could, of course, make your Sims look how you wanted. Critically, and likely because of its broad appeal and comparatively normal themes, The Sims didn't carry as much of the stigma that other games did. For adults and especially for female players, playing and talking about The Sims wasn't met with the same kind of derision that playing something violent or "nerdier" often incited. If you felt isolated from or unwelcome in gaming before, The Sims was your ticket to freely explore it.
In 2003, one big competitor emerged: Second Life. The MMO-like life simulator allowed you to create and customize an avatar as well as virtual property, and much of the content was user-generated. Because of its online nature, however, Second Life was also at the center of a number of controversies, including gambling and pornography worries. It also suffered from technical problems and security concerns. Compared to the disappointing and short-lived Sims Online--which didn't have custom content, a key part of The Sims' popularity--Second Life was a far greater success. But Second Life emphasized role-playing with others over creativity or management aspects, which ultimately made it and The Sims very different games.
For the most part, The Sims cornered the market on itself. Maxis released seven expansion packs between the game's launch and the end of 2003, keeping interest high. And, of course, the community also gave it legs. The Sims stayed popular and active through the release of The Sims 2 in late 2004. Now, after four main installments, The Sims is one of the most successful video game franchises of all time, ranking among series like Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty.
There are other life-sim games out there, some of which most likely took inspiration from The Sims, but the full extent of The Sims' influence is seen in its players rather than in other games. The Sims 4 has an incredibly dedicated YouTube community, and custom content is still thriving. The Sims doesn't have many direct progeny in games, but it's a household name; it's still the game that even the gaming-averse can pick up and become absorbed in.
By Anonymous on May 16, 2019 07:30 pm Legendary leader Cao Cao takes on infamous warlord Lu Bu in the Siege of Xiapi in this new battle gameplay for Total War: Three Kingdoms.
You're facing down the scattered remnants of the last, great Han warlords, and your entire adult life so far has been building to this moment. Ever since you first took up arms at the age of eighteen against the corruption bleeding China dry, vengeance has been the one thing driving you forward. People call you the Bandit Queen, spitting the title at your feet in battle before your twin axes cleave their heads from their shoulders. As your forces pursue routed, scarlet-clad warriors, you feel the gaze of one of your lieutenants upon you, pivoting almost too late to meet their steel with your own. However, you're resigned to this by now, and he meets a gurgling end like so many before him who disagreed with your methods. No general suffers any threats to their rule, even when the peasantry starts to mutter about you and the old tyrant, Dong Zhou, in the same breath. There are no saints in Total War: Three Kingdoms, just a castell of death and destruction with its apex pointed squarely at the throne.
The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is essentially the Chinese version of The Iliad in construction. Larger-than-life characters, an at-times heady mix of romance and intrigue, and a hell of a lot of fighting are what define it. However, it's almost entirely unique as a text because of the fact that it is widely treated as a reasonable record of the events of the turbulent period of 169 AD to 280 AD in Chinese history, despite embellishment. The Total War franchise is no stranger to adapting the militaristic trials and tribulations of our world's past, but Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a work that has at times straddled the dual worlds of academia and fantasy.
While the popular Dynasty Warriors games have very successfully depicted the fantasy, it's not been as easy to capture the intricate, personal stories of now-recognisable figures like Cao Cao, or to capture how they played into the wider scheme of the world as we know it. Total War: Three Kingdoms focuses keenly on those key figures and their motivations, using the literature's extensive canon as fodder for your own strategic in-game actions. Thrown into the thick of the battles and diplomacy of 190 AD, you'll need guts, gore, and perseverance to either unite China or to break the chains of oppression that hold its people fast, and Creative Assembly has succeeded in translating the themes from a decades-long, larger-than-life epic into a form that will appeal to both Total War enthusiasts and rookies alike.
For the uninitiated, Total War is a mix of turn-based strategy and real-time battles where you take full control of squadrons of warriors and watch them duke it out against your foes on a picturesque patch of blood-stained grass. When you're not exerting military might on everyone else, entries in the series have historically focused on strategy elements akin to those that you would see in traditional 4X games like Civilzation. You have to balance expanding cities with diplomacy, manage population growth and happiness, and also deal with the very real concerns of keeping enemies off your tail. You do this by managing a series of complex, interconnected systems that influence everything from your inner circle to what a certain township might have to trade in winter. Give a town a governor with a green thumb and see trade flourish, or marry off a dissenter to an enemy and see previous peace treaties wither. As with every strategy title, the consequences of your choices are far-reaching, and Total War is an exercise in choosing wisely.
The first thing that will stand out with Three Kingdoms is how it puts its best foot forward on its production values. Dynamic weather, lighting, and beautiful watercolour environments--ranging from mountains to besieged cottages--paint a striking backdrop for the conflict and bloodshed to follow. Your generals themselves remain rendered larger than life and in great detail, and their idle chatter (fully voiced in Chinese, if you so choose) lend them a lot of personality when you're taking your time deciding on your next move. The UI is also clean and well-designed; Three Kingdoms is a return to the usual gamut of interactive windows providing the minute details and statistics seen in older Total War titles, but information can be pinned and dismissed at will so you aren't fighting a battlefield of clutter.
Detailed mechanics from previous titles return, which means a lot of information for more recent Total War fans to contend with. This is particularly noticeable when wrangling your allies, which is now essentially a full-time job. Managing relationships within your own coterie is no longer as easy as paying them to look the other way, nor are the effects almost instantaneous. It's now a long game of min-maxing retinues, victories, ideal reforms, and placation. While you're picking a general, faction identities are not as set in stone in practice as they may have been in previous titles. Playstyles ranging from expansionist and war-mongering to diplomatic can all be found in the same faction, and this translates nicely to create a dynamic inner circle.
Some of the streamlining done in recent Total War titles has been walked back, potentially to emphasize Three Kingdom's focus on cults of personality in adherence with the source material for the game; your advisors and family members are all fully-fledged characters of their own with personality traits that will conflict, sometimes fatally, with your ethos. Making concerted decisions over a long period of time that are in line with your vassals' beliefs are necessary to keep them keen, lest you cop a challenge and a sword in the back when you least expect it. The threat of defection from your wider allies is always on the horizon too; the factions fighting over China are as fractured as the land itself. Where Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia invited you to ruminate upon keeping your faction cohesive so as to ensure that your reformations would live on, diplomacy and faction politics in Three Kingdoms feel much more like putting pressure on a bleeding wound. Everyone starts at each other's throats, with the major balance of power being in favour of the Han Empire.
Whether you were part of the Yellow Turban rebellion, an independent warlord, or a former seneschal of the Empire, everyone at the time was clamoring for a piece of the pie, and having that reflected in Three Kingdom's mechanics is a nice touch. But you can sometimes feel pigeon-holed into conflict in a way that restricts your agency as a player. War declarations come hard and fast, with AIs as mercurial at decision-making as their portrayals in the source material. Sure, you can suggest marriage or pay a tithe, but taking the peaceful road often shakes out to be incredibly costly in negotiations. By the time you're staring down a line of cavalry encroaching on your territory, you can often feel like you only have one real option: to fight to the death.
Combat in Three Kingdoms' main campaign has two distinct strains depending on which mode you're playing in: Romance, or the more traditional Historical option, which is more reminiscent of how Total War usually operates. While you can delegate combat to a dice roll of AI-generated auto-battling odds, getting bogged down in the minutiae of the battlefield is incredibly thrilling. You'll marshal your forces and pit them against those of your foes' in the pseudo weapons triangle of cavalry, infantry, and assorted others, all in real time. Whether it be a relentless siege against a settlement, meeting the Han empire in open combat, or simply trying to hold it together as someone else knocks on your gates with axe-wielding bandits, Total War's depiction of battlefield conflict is where it has always excelled, and Three Kingdoms is no different.
However, the distinctive, much-trumpeted difference between Three Kingdoms and previous titles is the aforementioned Romance mode. This is where the fantastical merges with the historical in a way that offers you a new way to dominate opponents on the battlefield. In this mode, your generals stand head and shoulders above the rest, capable of single-handedly taking out entire squadrons on their own even as they yell out orders to the men rallying around them. In Romance mode, the strength of said generals grows in epic scale and scope over time, much in line with the fantastical deeds they perform in the source material. Generals also have the option to engage in duels with each other, which provides a spectacular, clash of the titans-style combative satisfaction. Three Kingdoms also lets you take these types of confrontations one step further in the new Battle mode, which lets you reenact famous skirmishes from Chinese history as these storied generals. It's both nicely educational and a refreshing change of pace.
The game's tutorial is decent at helping you parse the essential mechanics from the math soup, but it feels like a large expository information dump as Three Kingdoms attempts to get you up to speed on both the world's ingrained politics and what to do with all these damn menus and buttons. You're given a crash course in everything from how to wage war to how to manage the people under your rule within the first 20 turns, which is mechanically almost a lifetime in-game, but not very long at all for someone who isn't familiar with Total War or the Three Kingdoms story to get properly acclimatised. But to its credit, Three Kingdoms does provide plenty of helpful supplementary material and difficulty adjustments to help rookies learn what they need to know to succeed, given enough time--from instructional videos to the pace in which the game unravels its conflicts on Easy difficulty, as well as the ability to streamline processes like waging war and building prosperous townships (the latter mostly through a one-size fits all approach to reformation). With enough patience, it's easy to be infected with Total War once you finally get your mouth around that first, overly-large bite.
Three Kingdoms feels like a breath of fresh air. By harkening back to the intricacies of older titles and builds on some of the foundations laid by Thrones of Britannia, it offers a distinctly contemporary and thorough experience. This is the most ambitious that Total War has ever been, from the variety of different ways that you can enjoy the game to the sheer scope of the stories that they've weaved around each unique character's playable experience. Three Kingdoms feels like the rightful evolution of the series, pulling from its roots in historical military tactics to come up with an engrossing modern strategy game that is always a delight, even in its less well-oiled moments.
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