Following its content-devoid GDC unveil, Obsidian's new “Tyranny” RPG revitalizes the Pillars of Eternity engine, but slaps a new, eviler-than-thou visage on top. We were given a hands-off preview of Tyranny and its single-player, four-character approach to classic RPG progression. The unveil demonstrated Tyranny's unique take on the player's role within conflict, acting an arbiter to warring factions and issuing fate-binding edicts.

Coincidentally, the player's characters are “Fatebinders” – archetypes we'd traditionally see as “bad guys” in standard RPGs, but they're clearly working only in the best interests of Terratus' inhabitants. Where the Lawful Good types might facetiously ask, “who are we to judge the fate of these townsfolk?” the Fatebinders would answer, “uh, that'd be us. Over here, in the red-and-black and radiating evil.”

Obsidian today announced its maniacal “Tyranny” RPG, published in renewed partnership with Paradox Interactive. As was the situation with Epic Games’ Paragon upon first reveal, there’s not much information right now – but we’ve got the basics, and we’ll have a full preview live in a week’s time.

Tyranny runs on the Pillars of Eternity engine, so it’s fair to expect the same multi-character, single-player system as exists there. At least, that’s the probable foundation. As its name might suggest, Tyranny’s undertone is one of oppression and ulterior motives – the player’s actions are less aligned with “good” and tend to edge more on the realm of “possibly really evil” – a stark change from Pillars of Eternity.

Cities: Skylines is one of our favorite games from 2015, firmly re-establishing the City Builder genre with an enjoyable mix of strategy and playfulness. Gameplay expansion is spurred-on by easily obtained community mods and, now, an official "Theme Editor" for owners of the base game. Expansions "After Dark" (added night clubs, day/night cycle) and next week's Snowfall have built tremendously upon the game's existing content, but neither is required for players to use the new Theme Editor.

Old-school styled cRPG Pillars of Eternity has now sold over 500,000 copies worldwide.

Pillars of Eternity was developed by Obsidian Entertainment, the company that brought us Fallout: New Vegas, South Park: The Stick of Truth, and, if your memory’s really good, Alpha Protocol. Obsidian was joined by publishers Paradox Interactive for this project, announcing their collaboration at last year’s GDC event.

Cities: Skylines was briefly integrated into some of our 4K gaming tests, standing-in as a representation of more zoomed-out gameplay. Secretly, when not endlessly performing gaming benchmarks and testing, Cities: Skylines is one of our favorite games to actually – y'know – play.

Paradox Interactive, publisher of Cities: Skylines developer Colossal Order, recently announced the arrival of the game's first paid expansion, “After Dark.” This expansion is delivered following a slew of free content updates output by the developers, including a European Buildings aesthetics update.

GDC’s opening day saw a session with publisher Paradox Interactive and developer Pieces Interactive, the duo responsible for bringing Magicka 2 to the world. Magicka’s unique “competitive co-op” charm netted the first game a staggering 3 million units shipped, giving way to the forthcoming PvP “Wizard Wars” title and co-operative sequel, Magicka 2.

It's a word.

It's been a while since we've talked about Magicka -- one of the most chaotic, purely entertaining games I've ever reviewed -- and now's the time to talk about its successor. Magicka: Wizard Wars is due out for release shortly, as published by Paradox, and still focuses heavily on combinatory spell-slinging combat with heavy collateral, friend-killing damage. That's the fun part.