Anyone else have no idea that Hearts of Iron IV was out today (no doubt because today's D-Day)? They just put out Stellaris!

Oh what. I was looking at this in the past few weeks thinking 'this is out soon' but no idea today was the day. I guess they have multiple teams to have this and Sterlaris launched so close to each-other.

I wonder if Grand Strategy Editor @austin_walker has a a chance to look at this. Actually I doubt they have time right now to mess with another Paradox game but maybe in the future!

I've spent the last couple of weeks umming and ahhing about whether to actually buy it, and I did. Hearts of Iron 3 was one nut I couldn't crack, but Paradox have gotten better at tutorials since 2008 so I'm hoping I'll get into this one. Hopefully it'll scratch the same itch as Vic2 or EU3 did, cause no Paradox game has really done that since.

@alexw00d: Unless there's more tutorialing after they say the tutorial is finished, it's almost completely useless and expect to have to read through their wiki if you ever hope to figure things out.

Been watching Shenryyr all week. I'll probably start playing it in a few months but seems interesting enough, I might play HoI 3 in the meantime (upgrading comps). Was fun watching Arumba be incompetent just like at EUIV launch.

I was watching a friends private stream on Steam last night as well as the launch stream from Paradox, looked real fun. I could totally get into the idea of shenanigans as some of the minor powers. My computer is below the minimum specs though, so I'm holding off until a really nice sale or better parts falling into my lap.

Paradox games are a mixed bag for me but it seems like they have been getting better at making their games a little more user friendly, at least for people with a passing familiarity with their previous stuff. I picked this up on a whim having never played a HOI game before and after a couple of hours I'm starting to figure things out.

I'll agree that the tutorial could be a little bit better but it at least gives a start point into poking and prodding at the systems in place to see how they tick and the interface is actually pretty good about not looking like a pile of spreadsheets.

I'd rather have Crusader Kings III.

@sterling: They're really all the same game with different flavour.

I still can't figure anything out and the achievements seem to be broken. Maybe it's just because I picked Canada, but it doesn't seem I can really do anything and all construction takes forever. Why can you only build one factory at a time? Is it possible to get Newfoundland and Labrador back from the Brits? I can't even find a way to get troops over there even though it was no issue sending them to help Japan. War hasn't broken out yet and I've joined the Axis so maybe things pick up. The reviews say that they've eliminated a lot of the boring moments but up until this point I've mostly just put the speed to max and picked research when it pops up.

These games always sound amazing, but when I play them, I can never do anything I want and you really have to be good at creating stories for yourself if you want to get much out of them. It felt a little underwhelming that all it takes to make Canada fascist was put one dude in your government and in a few months the Liberals are overthrown.

I've spent thousands of hours playing their games like HoI2 and 3, Darkest Hour, Victoria 1 and 2. But I don't think I want to go through WW2 again. I've done almost everything, played as almost every country in previous games.

I have not played HoI4 but building usually takes a lot of time. Factories take roughly a year but you should be able to build more than one at a time unless they changed something for HoI4. If you joined the Axis then good luck dealing with the US when they join the war. Your only option is to blitz through before they build up their forces too much. If you want to create interesting stories then a country that is more in the middle of the war might be more interesting like Germany, Italy, UK or Japan (US and Russia are a bit too easy in previous games at least). As a fairly minor country you wont be able to make a huge impact unless you are really good.

@belegorm: They are very different games actually. Take Victoria and Hearts of Iron for example. One takes place over a period of roughly a century and the other a decade, one focus on industrialization and colonialism while the other focus on war. Hearts of Iron simplifies the production and has just a generic factory with a handful of different raw materials while Victoria has dozens of factories from furniture factories to canned food factories and everything in between. And often you need to produce in several steps like making cotton to fabric and make fabric to clothing and make clothing into luxury clothing. You need to worry about different kinds of people like craftsmen, farmers, clerks etc. while in HoI there is no population management to speak of. Meanwhile HoI has a lot more units and the units a lot more statistics to make combat more interesting.

I'd say they have as much in common as Euro Truck Simulator and Forza Motorsport. Hearts of Iron is relativly simple in comparison actually. Which is probalby why Victoria is the least popular of their franchises which is too bad.

@dagas: I disagree; calling them the same game might be hyperbole on my part, but mechanically they're all so alike that I think they're not much more different than different variations of A&A.

And I say that as someone who's put thousands of hours into EU3, EU4 and CK2 and have enjoyed them all. The differences are what have made me end up liking CK2 the most, but the games are built on the same framework; just seeing the same UI in Stellaris even with it not being set on Earth confirmed that for me.

This is a game i would love to play since i love WW2 history. Sadly don't think i can get through the dense Paradox game play. I have heard this one is easier but don't want to spend my money on it just to realize that i can't get through the tutorial without being frustrated.