Crusader Kings III

The king is dead! Long live the king!

- IAN EVENDEN

WE NEVER THOUGHT we’d say it, but for once we’re thankful for the massive, intrusive, just plain long tutorial that comes with a game. After years of not playing them, of diving into the first mission and decrying it as the game’s fault if we couldn’t work out what the controls did, both of this month’s games have stopped us in our tracks.

What Crusader Kings III and Flight Simulator have in common it that they’re not pick-up-and-play experiences. Flight Simulator is an unforgiving simulation of when a large piece of metal intersects with many natural systems. Crusader Kings is an unforgiving simulation of a natural system—your family—intersecting with more natural systems and, quite often, multiple large pieces of sharp metal.