Ugh. I really want to like paradox games, at least based on the description, most of the game they publish are right up my alley. But it also feels like they only make games to sell DLCs for them, which sort of kills my enjoyment. Like cities skylines, I should really really really like, hell I have 30 hours on it, I want to like it. But I just don't enjoy it. It feels like no matter how much I spend on it, there's always more that should've been in the base game but wasn't. Millenia and Victoria 3 I want to buy, but they seem like the same story.
Victoria 3 (a $70 game) has a $40 DLC releasing in a month that includes a bunch of stuff I just assumed would've been included in the base game, like you can nationalise your assets... In a country simulator... For an extra $40... I don't think I'm going to buy cities skylines 2, partly because of price, but also because it's probably going to cost like 2 grand to actually own all the different parts of the game, just like the first one.
I know that to continue receiving game updates, game studios need a way of continuos monetisation, and it's unfair to expect them to provide years of updates for a $40 upfront fee. But the way paradox does their DLC just feels tacky and like a cashgrab. Honestly, I wouldn't mind paying even $80 for a fully fledged, actually enjoyable, city builder if it included everything I'd need to play and enjoy the game in that price.
/Rant
Edit: Nacon seem dodgy too. They've published a lot of "life" games that seem to get abandoned after a few months when they move on to the next project. I want to buy Chef Life, which does have good reviews, but there's a train Sim they made called train life which was abandoned half finished 6 months in. Taxi life has mixed reviews. garden life has positive reviews overall, but mixed reviews recently. The Devs don't seem to be acknowledging or fixing critical bugs, so that's probably abandoned too, and that was literally released less than 2 months ago. I want to buy Chef Life, but I don't want to put 100 hours into a game just to have my save file wiped because the Devs can't be arsed to fix bugs