We've been waiting for the Crusader Kings 3 release day for a long, long while, but it's finally here! That's right: the game is coming out today, and we're here to summarize every single bit of info you need to be aware of! From the full and proper unlock times all the way to the game's pre-release review scores, we've got it all!

Really, the only thing you yourself need to do is to scroll on, and find the thing you're most interested in. You'll be playing the darned thing in basically no time anyway. We're just here to facilitate the process, and perhaps even convince some of the naysayers to take the plunge as well!

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Crusader Kings 3 Unlock Time: when does it go live?


The obvious first order of business is - naturally - the Crusader Kings 3 unlock time! Sure, the game might be coming out today, but when does that mean, exactly? We've translated the exact time window for the game's Steam release in several popular timezones, so knock yourself right out:

At the time of writing this, we are about 13 hours away from the Crusader Kings 3 launch, so just a short while longer, and we'll finally get to play the darned thing!

Would you like to get in on the hype? No worries! You can nab Crusader Kings 3 right here at 2Game, activate the Steam key, and rest easy, knowing that pre-load is all that's between you and your sweet, sweet medieval rule.

Play Crusader Kings 3 today! Available in the ultimate Royal Edition, too, featuring the Expansion Pass and more.

Crusader King 3 Review Scores


Now, we'll admit that there may have been some concern about the Crusader Kings 3 release day back when the game was first announced. It's the same old story, really: you really love the original, and you think nothing could ever top the fun it provided you with, but then again, you are aware of its glaring issues. It sure would be neat if a sequel came out and tackled them all in one fell swoop. Thing is, when a game has as much content as Crusader Kings 2 with DLC has, you can't really expect the devs to outdo it. Don't forget that CK2 launched way back in 2012! It had been receiving huge expansion packs since. It's a great game, really.

It's just that it got really outdated by now, almost a decade after its launch, and we were all hoping to get a worthy successor in Crusader Kings 3. Well, you'll be happy to hear that we seemingly have! The game's Metacritic score is now sitting at a healthy 91, based on no less than 33 reviews. That's... almost impossibly impressive. A game such as this to have such universal appeal? Paradox has knocked it right out of the park, we think.

"Not only Crusader Kings 3 is one of the best RPGs I’ve ever played," said Twinfinite's Giuseppe Nelva, "but it’s also one of the best world simulators I can think of. It’s basically the Sims without the gibberish and with swords, on a much, much grander scale."

That's glowing praise if we've ever seen it. And it's no fluke, either. Critics adore the friggin' thing, and we're happy to see the fruit of developers' labor be this good. Great work, guys!

What are the Crusader Kings 3 System Requirements? Will it run on my Pentium 3?


Well, alright, maybe Crusader Kings 3 won't run on Pentium 3 (or will it?), but its system requirements will hardly break the bank. In fact, we suspect that we might be adding it to our low-spec awesomeness list sometime in the near future! Here's the kind of rig you're expected to have to run CK3:

Minimum PC Specs

Recommended PC Specs

Don't let that 1650 requirement fool you. You'll hardly need to reach for our low-spec optimization guide if you want to run Crusader Kings 3. Having said that, the game does make ample use of its 3D rendering for various cutscenes and NPC interactions, and the overworld is a far cry from its predecessor, too. If you want to max it out and run CK3 the way it's supposed to be run, you will need a beefier PC than we may have expected. Crank all the settings to their lowest possible nub, though, and your 70-year old abacus will do just fine.

The developer confirmed as much in a recent Reddit thread, too: "On my machine, CK3 and CK2 early-game progress at pretty much the same rate, but CK3's frame rate is far better so it feels much smoother. And if you've got more than 4 cores, CK3 will likely go faster thanks to better threading."

How much Content is there in Crusader Kings 3?


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As we established before, there was never any chance for CK3 to outdo CK2 in the sheer volume of content available at launch. Just... no way in hell, forget about that. It is way more substantial than we first thought it would be, however. Rock Paper Shotgun's Nate Crowly put this in the simplest possible terms: "Will Paradox release more mechanics and systems as paid-for DLC? Of course. Does that mean the game isn’t “complete” on launch? I don’t think so at all."

According to Crowly, "the ‘core’ CK3 experience alone gives you more to do than CK2 did at launch," and it's far more user-friendly, too: "There’s the 867 AD start date, for literal starters, plus the dynasty mechanic, the skill-tree-growing lifestyle system, borrowed and augmented from CK2’s Way Of Life DLC, and of course customisable faiths, plus a long list of smaller new features."

Make no mistake, though, you'll still need to go through the process of acclimatization if you've never played a Paradox grand strategy title. This is a truly massive role-playing game, and you will definitely need to put aside hours and hours of your life if you really want to figure it out. This is a feature, mind: definitely not a bug! There's such a ridiculous amount of things to do in Crusader Kings 3 that it's almost scary. It will take many playthroughs for you to exhaust every possible gameplay option in the base CK3 experience, and by that time, Paradox will have launched numerous bonus expansions both free and paid. Not to mention the holy grail of PC gaming: mods.

Will there be mods for Crusader Kings 3?

You may or may not know, but one of CK2's most important features was mod support. Sure, Paradox is phenomenal when it comes to long-term support of their most popular games, but even that pales compared to the sheer breadth of stuff made by their community. Mods are an almost infinite supply of free, player-driven content, and this will not change in CK3, either.

On Crusader Kings 3 release day, mod support is already in a very favorable position! According to Paradox themselves, Crusader Kings 3 will have better mod support than Crusader Kings 2 did! Here's what they had to say a few weeks back: "We’ve aimed to make the game a lot more open in terms of what can be achieved in modding: we’ve got over 80 database object folders (some even with sub-folders), a very versatile event system structure, a GUI system that can be fully changed, history files, localization, sound, music, and more! So huge parts of the game can be changed to suit your needs!"

With just about every aspect of Crusader Kings 3 already moddable, it's only a matter of time before truly significant modifications start dropping. We cannot wait to see what the community comes up with, or how horrific the inevitable Game of Thrones CK3 mod will be!

Is Crusader Kings 3 Good for New Players?


This is the big question, we feel. Crusader Kings 2 was (and still is) an incredible game. Thing is, it was also way too obtuse for new players to easily get into. Yours truly has bounced off the game a few times already, and if it doesn't ring a familiar bell, chances are that you're basically the wrong player profile. To a significant extent, Crusader Kings 3 release day changes that completely.

Just about every review we've seen so far goes out of its way to mention that Crusader Kings 3 is easier for new players to get into. In fact, it does a really good job of presenting itself and keeping you aware of what's up and what's not as you play. Here's what PCGamesN had to say on that matter: "New players will find it much easier to get their bearings in Crusader Kings III. Almost every element of the game has an associated tooltip, and these can be frozen in place by hovering over them briefly (the length of time is even adjustable). Once that’s done, you can mouse over highlighted text within the tooltip to bring up another tooltip. This can be done indefinitely, allowing you to follow game elements from their most specific and arcane back to more generalised concepts."

Awesome stuff, right? But there's more: "There’s a brand new tutorial, this one set on the community-christened ‘Newbie Island’ of Ireland, which does a much improved job of introducing its core concepts."

It goes without saying that you'll still need a bit of patience and time if you want to truly immerse yourself in the incredible world of Crusader Kings 3. With the better tutorials and quality of life updates, though, we think the game will find a significantly larger audience, too. This is, after all, an RPG first and foremost.

Wrap-up!

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What's there left to say, then? It's almost surreal to us that the Crusader Kings 3 release day is finally here. It's been a long wait, and we're extremely excited to finally get a good bite of Paradox's latest and greatest. From everything we've seen so far, it's an incredible basis for what's to come in the Expansion Pass, and we're very much looking forward to what the future holds for this franchise.

If you'd like to get in on the excitement with us, you can grab Crusader Kings 3 right here:

Royal Edition has the added bonus of including the Expansion Pass. That will include two smaller "Flavour" DLCs, and a major unannounced expansion pack.  On top of that, you'll also get the 'Fashion of the Abbasid Court' cosmetics DLC. Good stuff all around, isn't it? Expect plenty more Crusader Kings 3 coverage right here at 2Game in the near future! Is it the greatest grand strategy of all time? We don't know, but boy does it seem true!

We’ve been waiting for the Crusader Kings 3 release day for a long, long while, but it’s finally here! That’s right: the game is coming out today, and we’re here to summarize every single bit of info you need to be aware of! From the full and proper unlock times all the way to the game’s pre-release review scores, […]