europa-universalis-rome posts

The folks at Paradox Interactive continue to stay busy. Last week they announced plans to release Hearts of Iron 3, the latest game in their WWII strategy series. Today the publisher announced plans for yet another downloadable expansion pack to a previous historical strategy game, Europa Universalis: Rome.

The expansion is titled Vae Victis and will be available for download via Gamersgate for $9.99 in late 2008. The expansion concentrates on the Roman Senate where you will have to deal with the many members and parties in order to have your goals as leader of the Roman Empire accomplished. You have to make sure the ruling party votes for issues in your favor and have them pass laws that you want to see past. The expansion will also have things like updated military AI and an overhauled interface.

Download the Europa Universalis: Rome v.1.3 Patch (7 MB)

Europa Universalis: Rome v1.3 Patch Notes:

- Three new intrigue options, giving the player more opportunities to interact with their characters in their own country and in foreign states.

- Barbarians are now a bigger threat. In addition to appearing from the borders of the map, they can now create their own kingdoms.

- Improved event interface clearly displaying which characters are involved in the different events.

- 3 new playable factions on the British Isles: Catuvellauni, Pictii and Siluri.

- AI improvements ensuring challenging gameplay in the long term.

Strategy fans looking for an updated experience in Rome are in luck. On Thursday, Paradox Interactive's Europa Universalis: Rome was patched to version 1.2 via the in-game auto-update system.

Patch 1.2 includes the original Day 1 patch as well as updates to the look and feel of the Roman environment and compatibility fixes on Vista and Intel graphic chip systems.

Europa Universalis: Rome was released on April 15 to mixed reviews and fan reaction. However, it appears some of the issues gamers found with the title are being addressed with automatic patches like the one released Thursday.

Major changes can be found after the jump.

Download the demo of Europa Universalis: Rome today!