Stellaris

Originally Posted by you
Is stellaris by itself a good game (humble bundle for $12) or does it require the $100000 of add on content that is not included ?

It's a good game by itself. I got it since release and enjoyed it. There are also some good mods you can add at your leisure.

Played it at release and would confirm that it's a good game though it lacked of content to keep it interesting after a couple of runs. No idea how much was added by free patches.

Originally Posted by you
Is stellaris by itself a good game (humble bundle for $12) or does it require the $100000 of add on content that is not included ?

I found it one of the better Paradox releases - but since I'm not a big fan of their games in general, I'm probably a bad person to ask.

I think their DLC scheme is tantamount to thievery and their release states largely unfinished.

Stellaris was really no different - as it had a TON of balance and gameplay issues, especially in the middle and latter part of the game.

I never bothered to play it after patches - so I would expect it to be somewhat fixed around now.

But it was decent for what it was upon release, aside from that.

I don't think the DLCs are required to have a bit of fun with it.

Originally Posted by Kordanor
Endless Space is not from Padarox though.

Oops, you're right, that's Sega. Substitute EU3 then.

Originally Posted by Zloth
Oops, you're right, that's Sega. Substitute EU3 then.

Well, it's Amplitude.
Current owner is Sega. But I think by that point amplitude already did their thing and pretty much fleshed out their games and universe.

Vanilla Stellaris starts off great, but midgame is awful. DLC does help quite a bit to even out the experience.

Originally Posted by Zloth
I wouldn't expect them to, Chien. You can actually predict that just from the trailer above. Does that look anything like the game? Has any 4X game ever featured more than a few flashes of gameplay? I swear, if they wanted to advertise chess, we would see the story of a couple of pawns - one of whom gets knocked off by a scantily dressed queen.

The simple fact is that these games are a lot more fun to play than to watch. (Except for Russians, who can somehow watch chess tournaments and get excited. Must be something in the Volga's water.

Paradox is one of the most committed to streamers' welfare. They give them tremendous support, quite often giving them press release versions, keys to distribute to their viewer base etc
Paradox also streamed themselves.
They understood that ensuring streamers'welfare ensures better sales.
For this product, they even flew a number of high profile streamers to their HQs to run a special operation for release.

It remains that other PX products (CK2,EU4, CS, or even HOI4) have dedicated streamers and a viewer base. Interest in streaming is renewed with each new DLC.

Stellaris is the one failing the pattern.

Streamers have received their press copy and are streaming. Nothing shaking so far.