Episode 16: Paradox's newest grand strategy title Imperator: Rome blends the best parts of Crusader Kings and Europa Universals, but the final product feels too heavily distilled to remain engaging over long gameplay sessions. We talk about how Paradox games generally launch feature lite, and what we're hoping to see added to Imperator: Rome in the future. Speaking of wanting new features, we also recap news stories about labor conditions in the games industry, against the backdrop of competitive multiplayer gamers' demands for constant balancing and new features, and how post-launch content now feels like a necessity rather than a bonus feature, even across the single player games market. In pop culture talk, we give our spoiler-lite impressions of Detective Pikachu, and look back on the controversial fifth episode of Season 8 of Game of Thrones. 

News discussed: 

Games discussed: Imperator: Rome, Ghost Recon: Wildlands, Spider-Man. 

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