Christmas is coming; that special section of Winter where you don't go to work and are sometimes sat bloated, trapped in a family-packed room and dreaming of escape.* Maybe having an expanded grand strategy game of familial deceit and intrigue would help lessen the real-life frustrations of such an event. Lucky, then, that there's a Crusader Kings 2 expansion out next week.
It's called Way of Life, and it's a release I'm looking forward to. Rather than enlarge the map or extend the time period, it enhances the already fulsome role-playing aspects of the game. After all, CK2 is about people, and people, by and large, are traitorous, back-stabbing jerks. In the game, I mean.
A Paradox press release summarises the expansion's features:
"Dispatch foes by challenging them to duels, choose who to seduce, break up with lovers, spy on people, free prisonors from captivity, and more are now available to players."
In addition, a new Focus system will be introduced. It lets you set a specific "way of life" for that ruler—be it rulership, seduction, intrigue, war or numerous other paths.
Crusader Kings 2: Way of Life is due out on 16 December.
*If any of my family are reading this, that whole sentence was definitely a lie, and not a summary of last year's post-lunch seasonal TV marathon of endless tedium.
