VICTORIA III - Available now!

[al_infierno]

*sigh*

I got it. I settled a big case today and felt entitled to some new toys. I picked it up on CDKeys.com at a 36% discount. $30 even.

Congrats!  Looking forward to hearing what you think.

[Jarhead0331]

Well, one thing's for sure. The map is beautiful.

Just working my way through the tutorial. Pleasant thus far.

[CJReich46]

Ditto. I never got into Vicky I remember when the demo for Victoria II came about but that was it.

[al_infierno]

*sigh*

I got it. I settled a big case today and felt entitled to some new toys. I picked it up on CDKeys.com at a 36% discount. $30 even.

You know what...... Maybe it's the Thursday night beers talking, but for $30 how can I say no?

I generally enjoy Nu Paradox games despite all my complaints.  Except Hearts of Iron 4, since that's ostensibly a war game so having a crappy war system defeats the whole purpose.  But aside from that, I can dig my teeth into stuff like Stellaris and CK3 despite my grogginess.

Honestly if it were $30 base price it would have been no question in my mind.

EDIT - My first thought is that I really have to commend Paradox for making this game and CK3 so tooltip/documentation oriented.  As a tech writer myself, I really appreciate being able to hover over something and drill down to all these different terms and figure out what anything is on a whim.  It's extremely slick and well done.

[Sir Slash]

Now begins the Jar-Head Empire spanning multiple continents and oceans. All funded by cornering the market for pop-top beer cans.  :bd:

[al_infierno]

Now begins the Jar-Head Empire spanning multiple continents and oceans. All funded by cornering the market for pop-top beer cans.  :bd:

One thing I can say for sure is that this is not Drunk Me's definition of simple.  I can't state if it's "deep" or not, but it's definitely complex in that there are a lot of systems working together.  If you go around stabbing plus buttons like I did, you'll end up in debt and screwing yourself over.  It's not quite as simplistic as some of the negative reviews make it out to be.

EDIT - I will say that I'm disappointed by Paradox's doubling-down on the lack of start dates.  Part of my love for older Paradox games is being able to start at different points of time, but as far as I can tell you can only start at 1836 here.  I'm sure there will be an ACW DLC down the line, but egh.... I'm not a fan of the path Paradox is taking.

DRUNK EDIT 2 - I love 19th century strategy / war games because I just wanna play as fuggin AMERICA!   \m/  Yeah, yeah, you can play as America in EU4 but that's only for like the last 3 or 4 decades of game time. 

DRUNK EDIT 3 - Before I go pass out and feel like absolute crap tomorrow, my final note is that this doesn't seem like the kind of game you can accurately assess with less than a dozen hours of serious play time.  I like it enough so far that i don't regret spending $30 on it.  But, it definitely lacks much of the character and uniqueness of Vicky 2.

[Ian C]

Well, one thing's for sure. The map is beautiful.

Control + F9 to remove/restore GIU  and click hold mouse right button and move mouse to rotate the map.

[Jarhead0331]

Well, one thing's for sure. The map is beautiful.

Control + F9 to remove/restore GIU  and click hold mouse right button and move mouse to rotate the map.

God bless you, sir.

[FarAway Sooner]

I'll hold off on buying it for six months (or six years), as I've mostly learned to do with Paradox titles.  At first glance, the game seems to have pretty good bones but still needs some fleshing out.  I'll be curious to see what they can do with the combat system to keep it high level, but perhaps make it more challenging and a slightly more important part of the game.

Al_infierno, in terms of deep games, I've picked up Shadow Empires again after a six month hiatus, although I've definitely enjoyed the 100+ hours I'd spent playing it previously.  And once again, I find myself getting drilled seven ways but sideways for reasons I can't understand, even with the game set on "Regular" difficulty!   ;D

I'm not sure if I'm being too choosy about trying to get the right characters into the right roles, or if I'm not paying enough attention to how my culture choices are affecting my political parties, or if I just need to be spending more money on something that I'm missing.  But even before I get to the point in the game where I have to go back and figure out why I don't have enough logistics, I'm getting my ass kicked every time I play on a Medusa planet. 

I finally shifted to an ice world and am having a little luck at least getting out of the starting gate.  With any luck, I'll eventually reach the inevitable stage that I reach in every successful game of Shadow Empires:  My Empire gets big enough that I have to go back and figure out what I need to fiddle to get my logistical network running efficiently without spending 5,000 steel and 2,000 industry points!     :bd:

Sorry, didn't mean to hijack the Vicky 3 thread.  As you gents were!

[al_infierno]

Vicky 3 definitely doesn't compete with Shadow Empire, nor with Vicky 2.

My sober thoughts: If this were the start of a new franchise, it would be 80%+ Steam reviews.  The association with Vicky 2 drags it down 10-15%.

I have to say I'm liking it a lot so far (as a $30 game). On its own merits, it's a fun economic/political simulator that basically captures the spirit of the 19th century while still being a pretty streamlined experience. From what I understand, different nations don't really play all that differently aside from geographic location (similar to CK3).

It's fun for what it is, but the war system absolutely sucks and needs to be overhauled.

[fran]

Thanks for all your thoughts on it so far. I'm confident that Paradox will address the issues mentioned (combat system?) in future patches. It sounds playable at the moment and it has a lot of positive aspects to it. Maybe not a day-one buy for me, but definitely keep an eye out for Christmas sales. 

At the moment happy playing CK3, as my Paradox fix.

ps I think drunk-post reviews should be mandatory from now on.... ;D

Sober Edit: I don't have the baggage experience of past Victoria's, as I never played them. So would be a new experience for me. Would be a shame if the v1 and v2 fanboys' reviews stop new players from buying the game.

[SirAndrewD]

ps I think drunk-post reviews should be mandatory from now on.... ;D

They're not already?

[Gusington]

Not mandatory but certainly appreciated.

[FarAway Sooner]

More of a pastime, perhaps?

[Gusington]

For some around here much more than a pastime.