Crusader Kings Gold, Patch for U.S.
GONE GOLD posted on 30 AUG 2004 by Chris Abele
Paradox's latest strategy game is done and has also been patched to v1.04.
As we previously reported, Paradox's latest grand strategy game Crusader Kings (review) will be coming to North America this September. Today the Swedish developer announced the game had gone gold for the North American market, promising the game would officially ship to retail shelves on September 21st. Because Paradox's former publishing partner had originally planned to bring the game to this side of the Atlantic this past spring, there was significant confusion regarding its availability in the U.S. and Canada this summer. For the most part, the game never actually made it to store shelves (although it was pronounced gold), but today's announcement finally guarantees its arrival, albeit months later.
Crusader Kings is a real-time strategy game in which players play out family dynasties during the European Middle Ages, circa 1066 A.D. to 1453 A.D. Through taxes, vassals, acquisition of lands, the building of catedrals and castles, and warfare, the family dynasties grow to power against the backdrop of actual historical events. Although not as extravagantly detailed as Hearts of Iron or Victoria, The Wargamer's Jim Cobb found Crusader Kings to be a good step forward, but unable to shed Paradox's patchy history:
"Crusader Kings is a fine, in-depth game rich in historical detail. Patience, though, should be a function of game play, not waiting on patches. Paradox has six games under their belt. We can expect bugs from inexperienced developers and in games using totally new engines but Crusader Kings is an amalgam of several years’ experience. We are beginning not to excuse a game that has three major patches so far, regardless of how clever it is. Many of the fixes, tweaks and extra features in the patches should have been in the original release. We applaud Paradox’s newest game as original, entertaining and historical but Paradox must shed its “Don’t worry; we'll fix it eventually” image." [more]
In conjunction with today's gold announcement, Paradox also released the new v1.04 patch for all versions of the game. The 4 MB patch makes Paradox's usual sizeable changes (detailed in this forum posting) and tweaks of numerous game scenarios.
UPDATE: Paradox released on Monday a slight update to the v1.04 patch, bringing it to v1.04a. Consult the game's web site for more on the new download.
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