On the show floor at Gamescom, we've just finished playing one of the most pleasant surprises: Stellaris: Console Edition.

Stellaris, a very good space strategy game, was missing a few things at launch. One of them being *checks list of sci-fi tropes* um, galactic superweapons, which an upcoming expansion is sorting out.

If you thought Paradox's grand strategy game Stellaris sounded very Star Trekky with its big alien alliances and deep space exploration, you are not alone.

Stellaris didn't launch as a bad game, just a game that hadn't figured out what it was. While the new Heinlein patch helps Stellaris become more coherent, it still doesn't quite work.

Stellaris, a grand strategy game set in space, has characters who come in a variety of species and races. Naturally, someone made a mod to turn all the humans white.

Stellaris is a space opera, played out in three acts.

The grand strategy epics Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis are about as famous for the insane mods people create as they are for the tales of regicide and arranged marriages.

The default models in Stellaris, however, aren't as naturally attuned for a Game of Thrones or Star Trek total conversion. But that's OK, because Paradox has a solution.

Stellaris is supposedly Paradox's most accessible game to date, which is wonderful news for people like me who found Europa Universalis and Crusader Kings a little too convoluted. Hell, the idea of exploring the cosmos before marrying off my daughter to aliens 200 years from now is a pretty good way to sell a game.

But Paradox has got another neat hook they can use: the fact that you could potentially be responsible for unleashing Skynet on the universe.

Paradox announced earlier today that Stellaris is launching on May 9, but that still leaves the question: how the hell do all the different elements in the game come together?

That's where this video comes in.

Like so many other publishers and developers, Paradox Interactive was at the Game Developers Conference today showing off their upcoming projects. One of those is the much-awaited 4X grand space strategy Stellaris, a game they're advertising as Paradox's most accessible game ever.

But they're also promoting it in a novel fashion. With their hats.

Hayley took the limelight earlier this week and when he returns from self-inflicted baby duties, Mark will join in the fun. But in the interim, let's take a break from the open-world RPGs, the torturous punishment of Dark Souls and venture in the weird world of games in 2016 that I'm excited for.