I am not a smart man. I am not a man who possesses the kind of autism that makes staring at a map PNG absolutely riveting (sorry EUIV/HOI enjoyers). However, in spite of that I really enjoy Crusader Kings 3.

I have a combined total of maybe 20 hours across my several attempts through gamepass and Steam, which is an absolute blink of an eye compared to the time that could spent in this game but enough that I feel confident in my opinion of it.

It makes me feel very stupid, I still don't understand some of the gameplay mechanics, in some situations I don't understand why an outcome failed or what I could have done differently. I avoid playing a military-lifestyle as I can't entirely wrap my smooth brain around it, yet I still have a lot of fun with this game.

The highlights for me are the little character stories that pop up where you have to make a decision that may snowball into something greater. Oh, my letter to you was patronising? I sure hope I won't regret that when a war breaks out 10 years from now. I married my mutant daughter off to some neanderthal who kills their own children? What do you mean I now somehow control land in Britain due to his death? What do you mean my wife is plotting to murder my nephew?

I play this more as a complex "choose your own adventure" game and really that is how I enjoy it, I don't get bogged down in stats or building a lineage from 8 generations back, I am sure all of that is fun in its own right but this is basically trashy, medieval, reality-TV storytelling and I am all here for it.

Be warned, it is a Paradox game however so it's full of DLC packs, a buggy launcher and for some reason it takes ages to launch even though I've got it running on a M.2 SSD.