Any Paradox Interactive game fans around here?
 

I was just wondering if there are any other fans of their games like 'Europa Universalis', and as of today 'Rome' around here?

if you don't know about them you should check them out. they are very hardcore strategy game, but if you are the kind of person who craves a more realistic 'Civilization' game, or (like me) are the person who plays total war games merely for the strategic map and autoresolves the battles, you should check them out.

There are. I'm one of the nutters who beta tested Victoria: Empire Under the Sun (I still say it's a great game) and the disaster that was Diplomacy.

They're kind of losing me lately though. EU3 is too mass-markety in design and the graphics are really rather badly done and quite inappropriate for the game type IMO. HoI 2 is still fantastic though. :)

Have you played Rome, by the way? How is it?

EU, EU2, HOI, HOI2 and Victoria was fantastic games, but the company have unfortunatly decided to rather simplify and mainstream their games than too evolve then in a way that gives player more decision-making. However, i do hope that they will once make a imperialism-esque Victoria2 with emphasis on an sirculating economy that is actually working and there both state capital (as in victoria and imperialism) or private capital (as done in the expansion of victoria) can be used to expand industrially, which could possibly make it an extremly difficult game to master. Well, i still did not play rome, could be good as well

Ah EU2, how I loved thee... Eventually I played it into the ground and never picked up EU3. The point being, of course, that it was all very enjoyable. Of course, the entire reason I went through learning how to play the game was for the strategic map and auto resolved battles. It seems that the maps were my favorite aspect of many RTS games. Even I have to step back and question this.

Well, you can hardly blame them for going in a more simple direction. Victoria, probably their most complex game to date, was an utter flop. It's surprising that they even bothered with an expansion (which I ought to get one of these days...).

Paradox does seem to be making some movies in the right direction. They've decided to open source ALL of their older games (EU all the way through to HoI2, I think) and will be releasing user made expansions on their site(s). Could be a very neat idea. I know one fellow (OHGamer, I think) in the Victoria forum is assembling a team and will be making an expansion to address a lot of issues. Hopefully, it'll all amount to something. :)