Reviews by João Costa

Crusader Kings II: Jade Dragon
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Interesting DLC if you play on the far east

THere are 3 interesting features in this DLC:
1) china - you can interact with it in the east part of the map; it is interesting trying to make sure china doesn't see you ripe for conquering at the same time trying to gain soemthing from thr relationship
2) The new artifacts and portraits increase the immersion a lot. When playing as a western catholic power and during your crusade you steal some sort of artifact it makes you wonder how far it has travveled; it makes the world feel more alive.
3) The new casus belli are very useful to the early- mid game

IMO it is a DLC worth buying if you play at the far east like tibet and india. If you only play with western powers this DLC does very little that will affect you.

by João Costa, Portugal - Oct 7th 2018

Crusader Kings II: Horse Lords
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Horse Lords is only worth buying if you want to play nomadic hordes

The core of this DLC is playing a nomadic horde, which is also the main problem. If you don't want to be the next genghis khan then this DLC is almost pointless to you.
Do notice that without this DLC there are no nomadic tribes in the game to play against.
Playing as a nomadic is good but a tad to easy when compared to the base christian counrties.
IMO worth buying if you want to play as a horde, but useless for anyone else.

by João Costa, Portugal - Jun 2nd 2018

Stellaris: Humanoids Species Pack
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Interesting cosmetic DLC but not essential.

This DLC has 4 features:
- New portraits-> i feel this is the weakest part of the DLC, the new portraits feel bland to me. It adds orcs,dwarfs,etc. but no new portrait feels exotic
- new ship models -> These are great, they have lot of little animations that make these models come to life.
- 3 new voiceover sets for VIR -> these are always great of immersion
- 3 new music-> for me the music is ok

In short great ship models but filled with, imo, average features. I recommend this DLC on sale.

by João Costa, Portugal - May 26th 2018

Crusader Kings II: Horse Lords Content Pack
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Ok cosmetics but other packs are more interesting

The cuman portraits are good but the unit packs are, relatively speaking, very specific and as such this cosmetic pack is only worth buying if you want more immersion with the mongol hordes.
the music is very thematic for this time period.

by João Costa, Portugal - May 20th 2018

Hearts of Iron IV
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Interesting take on WWII

I feel there are 2 features this game has nailed very well. Alternate history and the production of WWII.
Alternate history makes the several playthroughs unpredictable which leads to a lot of replayability. From france going comunist to WWII starting because of a civil war in india, a lot of variety to it.
The way production is handled also makes the game very satisfying since your army will only have the resources you produced in the years towards the war.

While the game is very good it has 1 mechancs that need revamping. The naval part of the game currently doesn't work very well and it is extremely unclear if your fleet is winning or losing and if it is "helping" the war effort. Due to being a paradox game i ahve the hope that paradox will update this feature in the future.

While you can play with any country in the world, the base game offers a few countries with unique mechanics: France, UK, USA, Poland, Germany, USSR, Italy and Japan.
IMO those are the most fun countries to play with however if you feel you need more content you can always look at DLC which adds further countries that while small in nature are (relatively) relevant for the war, such as Yugoslavia, Romania, RAJ, china(s),etc.

IMO this game is worth buying for anyone that likes strategy games and WWII.

by João Costa, Portugal - May 6th 2018

Crusader Kings II: The Reaper's Due Collection
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This DLC makes diseases more dynamic making the game more unpredictable

I highly recomend this DLC.
In terms of gameplay content this pack adds 2 major features that i find fun: diseases and prosperity. What makes this DLC fun comes from the diseases making "curve" balls on the dificulty, you can be lucky and get the disease to take out the enemy king leading his realm into civil war or youc an be unlucky and have your children die of measles. Prosperity makes it worthwhile to not have your kingdom raided all the time
In terms of cosmetic DLC imo the east african portrait pack and the late byzantine clothing pack help make those zones much more unique.
IMO it is worth buying the collection pack because both the gameplay and the cosmetics are interesting.

by João Costa, Portugal - Apr 26th 2018

Hearts of Iron IV: Sabaton Soundtrack Vol. 2
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Worth buying if you like metal

The soundtrack here fits very well with hearts of iron gameplay. IMO these tracks help alleviate the "soundtrack fatigue" after playing dozens of hours.

by João Costa, Portugal - Apr 23rd 2018

Europa Universalis IV: Third Rome
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Worth buying IF you use russian factions

The changes of this DLC make playing russian factions much more unique.
These new mechanics make russia slightly stronger but they also make it much more engaging.
Do note that this DLC only adds new stuff for russian cultures and as such it is absolutely pointless if you don't want to play with russia

by João Costa, Portugal - Apr 22nd 2018

Surviving Mars: First Colony Edition
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A great "city/colony" management game

I highly recomend this game specially if you like city builders and/or strategy games.
This game is all about managing resources of your colony while trying to expand it while surviving the dangers of mars.

you should also know this game is published by paradox so it will probably be supported for a long time with both payed and free DLC.

by João Costa, Portugal - Apr 21st 2018

Crusader Kings II: Conclave
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Excellent DLC for expanding the council of your kingdom

IMO there are 2 major features for this DLC:
1) making the council more important in the early game
- this is done by using 2 mechanics, powerful vassals will want to be on the council (even if they suck at the job) and making the council have better skills. THis way you have to think on whether you want a good council member or cede tot he demands of your vassals

2)reworking the children growth so it is harder to make the "perfect" son

If you don't like some of the additions you can disable them in the rules section.

What i like the most is that it makes the early game much harder to expand without thinking because powerfull vassals will push for a council that has the authority above the king while if you can keep your vassals weak you can rule like the game before the DLC

by João Costa, Portugal - Apr 21st 2018

Crusader Kings II: Conclave Content Pack
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Cosmetic DLC only

Only buy this if you want to expand the portraits and other cosmetic stuff.
I like it and ,imo is worth the price for those that spend 100s of hours on CK2. For me the more portraits the easier it is to memorize people by face.

by João Costa, Portugal - Apr 21st 2018

Europa Universalis IV: El Dorado Collection
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Few interesting features for the price, i recomend on sale.

The coolest features in this DLC, IMO, are:
treaty of trodesilhas -> makes colonizing the new world pretty interesting
special gameplay features for new world factions
Land and naval exploration revamped-> it gives many more flavor and bonuses for exploring.

This DLC is for those that really care about the new world; if you don't either wait for a sale or ignore it. You can check all the features in the wiki page.

by João Costa, Portugal - Aug 23rd 2017

Europa Universalis IV: Common Sense Collection
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Good new mechanics but few in number

This DLC IMO gives quite a bit more depth into EU IV. The main feature that does this is the new provincial development system. This system allows you to invest your administrative, diplomatic and military power to improve your provinces; this system increases depth ebcause it allows you to improve your nation in a "tall way", in other words, with this DLC you don't need conquest to make your nation stronger.
this DLC revamps: english, theocracies, Protestantism and Buddhism .

I recomend this DLC if you want to play with smaller nations or just want to make the game more complex. This is one of the few "must" buy DLCs for EU IV, however If you don't play with smaller nations then wait for a sale.

by João Costa, Portugal - Aug 23rd 2017

Stellaris
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One of the best 4X games ever created

Paradox has made an amazing space 4X game by re-using every cliche ina single game.
This game has the star trek exploration, epic space battles from star wars, the reapers from mass effect ,etc.
Because of the DLC policy for this game expect free content for years.

by João Costa, Portugal - Aug 22nd 2017

Europa Universalis IV: Art of War
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One of the best DLC for EU IV

This DLC adds a lot of QoL changes to war in EU IV; from giving territory you occupy to your vassal/allies to more easily move your armies around with the fleets.

by João Costa, Portugal - Aug 22nd 2017

Europa Universalis IV: Conquest Collection
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The best pack to start with EU IV

If you are looking to get into EU IV this is the pack i recomend.
You might be wondering: hey this pack barely has any DLC why should i buy this?
In EU IV DLC adds mechanics which increase the dificulty curve meaning that if you buy a EU IV pack with lots of DLC you are making the game harder then it needs to be.
The base game has 100s of hours of content; buy this pack and if after a few dozen or hundred hours you want more content then you should look at the DLC

by João Costa, Portugal - Aug 22nd 2017

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