Good evening. You are listening to ThruMovs Ahead, and I'm your host, Rob Zakney. Join me today. We have a

packed house, starting with our friend, freelance writer, Fraser Brown. Hello. And we also welcome

back our friend Rowan Kaiser. Previously on 3a, a 7 Fraser?

Already, man.

This is the intro.

And we're also joined by Giant Bombs, Austin Walker.

Hey, how's it going?

And finally, we've got the Game King himself, Sean Sands.

Hello.

All right, so what could possibly bring us together in such numbers on an episode of three moves ahead?

Could it be a 4X space game, the most beloved of genres on three moves ahead?

Yes, this week we are going to be talking about Paradox development studios Stalaris, which is, as the name, as that introduction suggests, sort of the paradox take on the 4X space empire builder.

And Fraser was off for a few days in Windsor, playing and taking part in the Paradox multiplayer event around Stalrus,

while the rest of us plebeians have been playing at home with the AI.

So, you know, Fraser, let's start off with you because you just had this Stolaris immersion experience.

For people who are more interested in the space for X side of things, who maybe don't know

what paradox really means in the context of a strategy game, what, you know, what

does a paradox take on a space game mean in Stalaris's case?

So it's got all the sort of key pillars, the 4x pillars. They're all very much intact. It's very

much a 4x game. But it's expanded. So you've got these little moments of paradoxness where you get like events that it makes it feel like you're almost your role playing a galactic dictator rather than just being a sort of galactic administrator.

So there's there's a sort of a narrative working behind the scenes at all times where you're really you're creating the story of your empire rather than purely trying to create the best and biggest empire.

So there's that sort of you don't have to adhere to these sorts of objectives that you so often find in 4X games, where you might get a mission in Stolaris,

...