By Jim Rossignol on November 27th, 2012 at 3:00 pm.
Paradox’s next Hearts Of Iron game is going to be called East vs. West. As the name suggests, it takes a long hard look at that point in history when East and West peered at each other through expensive binoculars and fondled both over-engineered tanks and over-proliferated nuclear weapons. The game allows players to players to take control of a nation and guide them through that tricky period, with the inevitable counter-factual possibilities of starting World War III when you actually just wanted to store your missiles on a lovely hot tropical Caribbean island.
This is the first developer diary in a new series, with the devs talking about the scope of the new game, and how the Hearts Of Iron model fits a Cold War scenario.
27/11/2012 at 15:24 Renfield says:
A historical war game where you bring your own war! Quite clever, and promising.
27/11/2012 at 15:52 Iridic says:
I demand save file conversions from Crusader Kings 2! Dukes with nukes!
27/11/2012 at 16:06 Chandos says:
And plotting to murder the first lady!
27/11/2012 at 16:36 Surlywombat says:
You just made a light go on at Langley!
27/11/2012 at 16:39 Iridic says:
Count Henry “Priest-Hater” of Litchfield (House of Kissinger)
Chancellor of American Empire
Diplomacy 19, Martial 4, Stewardship 7, Intrigue 11, Learning 12
Intricate Webweaver; Impaler, Deceitful, Cynical, Diligent, Shy
27/11/2012 at 18:08 Captain Joyless says:
And Ambitious, certainly?!
27/11/2012 at 16:19 Dana says:
Hopefully it will be more noob friendly. Even though I’m EU vet, HoI still scares the fuck out of me.
27/11/2012 at 19:39 Maltose says:
Same here. I’ve played the stuffing out of EU3, CK, CK2, Vicky 2, and even some HoI2, but I just can’t wrap my head around HoI3. I’ve always wanted to play out the Spanish Civil War. :/
27/11/2012 at 16:54 Mr-Link says:
Technically speaking, doesn’t HoI III already goes into the cold war? If I am not mistaken it goes at least until the mid 60s. They will have to do a lot more than a few UI changes and adding the “UN” for this to be appealing, but I will reserve judgment until further information is available.
Also I am just getting into HOI III (whats with all the expansions?) so I am still a total noob, but I suppose the combat could use just a little bit more refinement for it to work in cold war scenarios (just my noobish opinion here)
27/11/2012 at 18:53 CKScientist says:
HoI3 ends in 1948. HoI2 continued into the 60s, but under the assumption that Operation Unthinkable happened – that is, that the Allies and the USSR went to war as soon as Germany was defeated.
This game promises to simulate the ‘cold’ bit of the cold war – proxy wars in asia, heated diplomacy, espionage and so on, rather than only covering an all-out war between NATO and the Warsaw pact.
I am a little skeptical how well the HoI3 model will manage this. Firstly, I can’t see it doing proxy wars very well. It’s hard to see how the engine would simulate the failures of the USA in Vietnam, or the USSR in Afganistan. Right now the Winter War, which is kind of similar, is very badly simulated.
Secondly, the Cold War period doesn’t suit Paradox’s model so well. There are only two relevant countries – the USA and the USSR. France, the UK, Japan, Germany, Italy: they are important in HoI3, but are declining secondary powers or client states in the early Cold War period. The various non-aligned nations – China, India, etc – are not relevant. Paradox games are more boring if there are less interesting sides to play, so this is a problem.
28/11/2012 at 00:31 wodin says:
I think China was relevant both in Korea and Vietnam..
28/11/2012 at 16:40 Captain Joyless says:
Weird, I thought HOI3 went until 1950 at least, or 1960.
27/11/2012 at 17:26 Zwebbie says:
I like how that chap sits in front of a fake library with perspective issues. It’s a very shabby kind of classy.
27/11/2012 at 20:17 Ross Angus says:
Wait, if the books aren’t real, perhaps the war isn’t too.