By Jim Rossignol on September 26th, 2012 at 7:00 pm.
Haha, I love it when trailers are just menus and maps. I mean all due respect to the intricate work of strategic cleverness that is Hearts of Iron III, obviously, but that image up there is their parting shot in the trailer. Really. Of all the menus or maps they could leave lingering in their mind at the end of the trailer, that’s the one for their latest expansion, Their Finest Hour.
Beautiful. Beautiful. I mean that.
Hearts of Iron III: Their Finest Hour is out today! It’s probably amazing.
26/09/2012 at 19:10 bob. says:
I don’t envy them having to make a trailer from that source material! That said, they aren’t very good either – not that I care as the game certainly is. I like that they have realized that they don’t have to concentrate on adding as many historical events and stuff as possible – mods take care of that way better – but instead add new game functions and improve the functions – something that the modders can’t do.
26/09/2012 at 19:17 SkittleDiddler says:
Sure, it’s probably amazing, but does it require one of the other expansion packs to run? I’ll bet dollars to donuts that you need Semper Fi or one of the other other silly expacs in order to play it.
26/09/2012 at 19:26 Meneth says:
You need Semper Fi and For The Motherland.
26/09/2012 at 19:43 SkittleDiddler says:
You need both of them? Jumping Jeezus.
26/09/2012 at 19:57 Ranger33 says:
Just wait for the inevitable sale in the next month or two and you can get them for next to nothing.
26/09/2012 at 20:16 SkittleDiddler says:
I’m actually saving up my Blue Points at Gamers Gate to get the remaining expacs when they’re on the cheap. That’s how I got HoI3 and two of the DLC packs to begin with, all without being aware of the subtly-advertised “you need even more paid content to play these DLC packs” rule that Paradox seems to have a boner for when it comes to selling this game.
I’m not going to spend real cash on a game that forces me to buy additional content in order to access additional additional content.
26/09/2012 at 23:27 TCM says:
You mean like a bunch of those games released in the past that have Expansion packs that require other expansion packs?
They existed!
26/09/2012 at 23:43 SkittleDiddler says:
@TCM: So? What’s your point? I didn’t buy those either.
27/09/2012 at 04:05 masodnab65165 says:
Paradox is pioneering pay-to-patch. Let’s give players the half-tested, poorly designed product they desire.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAVeUu25Pz8&feature=g-user-lik
27/09/2012 at 11:03 JiminyJickers says:
To be fair, they are stopping the pay to patch nonsense, just look at Crusader Kings 2. They are releasing patches even if you don’t upgrade. Still not fully there, but they are at least making progress and working on not having buggy releases.
26/09/2012 at 20:08 jetRink says:
I don’t know about elsewhere, but in the States, the game and its two expansions are on sale on Steam for $6.50. The bundle with all the sprite packs is $7.50.
26/09/2012 at 22:16 Bonedwarf says:
Best $7.50 you’ll ever spend.
26/09/2012 at 23:13 JiminyJickers says:
Yeah, on sale in UK too, just grabbed it. Will probably have to grab this expansion now too, haha.
28/09/2012 at 02:02 JakeDust says:
Just buy Hearts of Iron III Collection whenever you can, it includes the two expansions, that was what I did, even though I already had HoI III (but without expansions), just because it was cheaper during a sale.
26/09/2012 at 19:20 peschi says:
a trailer about buttons and menu’s!
26/09/2012 at 19:48 Velko says:
Beats live-action any day…
26/09/2012 at 19:59 Danny252 says:
To be honest, if your game is almost entirely buttons and menus…
26/09/2012 at 20:19 Cinek says:
Hm… I still don’t get what’s the point of playing Hears of Iron III with AI controlling your units. Not only it’s rather… subpair to manual management, but also it takes half of pleasure from playing the game. :)
28/09/2012 at 10:03 RegisteredUser says:
So is there a HOI 2 playmode yet or not(as in controlling units exactly like in HOI 2)?
Their whole theater approach was such terrible retarded shite on release that it put me off of playing HOI 3 at all.
26/09/2012 at 21:13 simmybear says:
They were obviously totally drained as they can’t spell AVAILABLE after all that excitement of the trailer LOL
simmybear
26/09/2012 at 21:18 Gasmask Hero says:
Articles like this serve to periodically remind me that, yes, I do own HOI3. Which in turn, periodically reminds me of my rampant hexphobia.
26/09/2012 at 23:08 PleasingFungus says:
Good thing it’s not hex-based…?
(Of all the inaccessibility complaints to level against HoI, I’m impressed that you managed to actually find a bad one.)
26/09/2012 at 23:25 TCM says:
I am one of the biggest Paradox suckers of all time, and I still find Hearts of Iron impenetrable.
…And yet, I keep buying every expansion for HoI3, plus I own Darkest Hour and HoI2…
27/09/2012 at 04:23 Oak says:
Same. I’ve played a lot of it, too; I just only understand about half of what’s going on at any given moment.
26/09/2012 at 21:56 Arathian says:
Yay!
I will never be as good in HoI3 as other paradox games, but I might as well try.
26/09/2012 at 22:09 razorramone says:
I bought darkest hour, spent about 2 hours trying to figure it out before giving up forever. This looks even more inaccessable. Strange because EU3 was a breeze to learn.
26/09/2012 at 22:17 Bonedwarf says:
It was?!?! Admittedly I was getting seriously into it and learning it when I got very sick two years ago (as in almost died) and promptly forgot everything, but I would never have called EU3 a “breeze”.
HOI3 is bloody inaccessible though, I will give you that. HOI2 was a better game IMO.
26/09/2012 at 22:49 Arathian says:
Honestly? DH is very very easy to learn :/
27/09/2012 at 02:16 mishala says:
Paradox is pioneering pay-to-patch. Let’s give players the half-tested, poorly designed product they desire.
And fix all the problems $50 and three years later.
27/09/2012 at 08:31 Arathian says:
Except for the original HoI3, I can’t really say any other paradox game had this problem.
You might argue that EU3 wasn’t very fleshed out at the begining, but come on, it WAS a complete game.
27/09/2012 at 11:04 JiminyJickers says:
To be fair, they are stopping the pay to patch nonsense, just look at Crusader Kings 2. They are releasing patches even if you don’t upgrade. Still not fully there, but they are at least making progress and working on not having buggy releases.
28/09/2012 at 22:36 mishala says:
They aren’t stopping it for the games that I do buy.
Keep in mind that some of the patches you buy, include rebalancing. I should not have to pay more to have a balanced game…
or rather a game where Germany is inable to overrun the soviet union quickly. Which wasn’t fixed until for the motherland came out. And when FTM came out, the partisan system was mostly useless.
Let’s not forget the reason why germany was able to overrun the soviet union quickly: a mistyped setting that made defence values useless.
27/09/2012 at 09:42 Gloam says:
Hearts of Iron is my favourite XML skinner.
27/09/2012 at 19:34 GreatUncleBaal says:
Trailers for strategy games (certainly ones of this type) are always difficult things to judge. They’re not really meant for mainstream audiences though, in my opinion, and those who seek this type of game are going to get a good inkling of what’s offered.
I love HOI3 even though I am spectacularly bad at it, and the map is a major part of the appeal; it’s related, in a way, to Jim’s recent bit on terrain – for me a well-designed (especially 2D) map is enough to risk a purchase. I’ve bought games like EU3 and several AGEOD titles that I’ve struggled to play (as opposed to tinkering with) but not regretted a single one.
28/09/2012 at 16:35 veer4598 says:
See this thread for hearts of iron iii: their finest hour serial key or activation code http://www.techhotfix.com/forum/showthread.php/31846-Hearts-of-iron-iii-their-finest-hour-serial-key-or-activation-code?p=39784&posted=1