While most people will never have a family name that resonates through history like Tudor, Borgia, or Hapsburg, Paradox Interactive’s promotional contest for Crusader Kings II gives everyone a shot at the next best thing.

On October 3, 2011, the Hearts of Iron The Card Game collectible card game (CCG) officially went live online, to the joy, presumably, of serious wargame fans everywhere. The card game is loosely based on the Hearts of Iron series of grand strategy PC games that simulate World War II (WW2) in exceptional detail.

E3 just really can’t be captured in text, and going to Los Angeles just to see the madness with one’s own eyes just isn’t feasible for everyone. Here’s the next best thing, a collection of many of the videos taken by Gamertell staff over the near week of excitement. Watch them all, and it’ll be just like being there. I promise:

While many companies try to focus around a genre like role playing games or first person shooters, Paradox’s only focus is that their games require the use of strategy to win. This guideline gives them plenty of leeway as to what genre to use past that point, and their 2011 E3 lineup does a good job of covering all possible strategy angles.

It seems like nearly every Diablo clone is set in some version of fantasy pseudo-Europe. Thus it was when I saw there was a Magicka: Vietnam , a downloadable expansion to Magicka, coming out.

I first thought, “Neat, they’re going to put the clone in a different setting for a change.” Magicka: Vietnam is set in Vietnam, alright, but more like the Vietnam of the ’60s (i.e., of the US war era), with quests that require rescuing POWs while blasting away the Goblin-Cong and such.

Mount & Blade is a bit of a paradox with the way it is set up. It’s not a hardcore gamer’s game and it isn’t a casual gamer’s game. Halting somewhere in the middle, it’s a bit of an acquired taste with a simple story that mixes Elder Scrolls character building and the Medieval II: Total War game play.