Its Midnight Friday going into Saturday morning. I woke up fairly early yesterday and bought the game from EB at the mall around 4:00 pm and pretty much was into the tutorial within two hours of the purchase.
I also bought a brand new computer lounge chair from Big Lots for $60.00
I had to put it together to sit on, or I might have started sooner. It is a good thing I did as you will read why shortly.
Truth be told I did not plan on getting it yesterday. I went to the store to get my Bi-Monthly "Lineage Two" Game Card and while looking at the other computer games I saw this.
I recall when HOM-1 first came out a lopng time ago. I had to choose between it and another games. I remember thinking that this game might not be what I had hoped it was upon examining the box. That being something that would blow Axis and Allies and Third Reich away. (The Computer Versions; not the boxed ones.) I chose the other game that I had already sampled and was in the mood for.
A bad choice in retrospect.
I pretty much forgot about it till I saw HOI-2 come out, but alas I am on social security and I only had enough to afford my game card and Lineage Two has taken up all my game time for going on two years now anyway. So I just kept saying maybe I will get it next month. (month after month to myself) I had Lineage II consuming my interest anyway, so passing it over was easy back then.
Gurss what? I am severely burnt out on Lineage II right now.
Well; yesterday I saw it just as I was about to walk out the door with my Lineage Game Card.
In fact I did walk out and got half way to the mall exit and then turned around and went back for it.
$20.00 was too good to pass up I thought to myself even if I have to go without cigarettes for the last week of the month;-)
Well I sat down around 6:00 pm last night and I have not had any sleep in over 30 hours.
18 hours of pretty much straight play. A few hours for food and breaks split up in that time.
Heart Of Iron-2 blows "Third Reich" and "Axis and Allies" away in exactly the context I was hoping for.
It puts Gary Grigsby's "Pacific War" to Shame in scope, depth, graphics, programming and interface, but to be fair that was a game from another era.
It would take someone like Grigsby to out-do this classic.
The only other time I ever played a single game straight through for 18 hours in one sitting was in what I consider my all time favorite.
Arguably it was a bit harder to learn the interface of "Star Wars Rebellion" than to learn HOI-2, but it was well worth the effort just as it most definately is to learn "Heart Of Iron"; that is to any die hard fan of this genre of computer game.
It took me months to master a level of play with "Star Wars Rebellion" and "Axis and Allies" in order to compete online against the masters, but I eventually did.
It occurred to me that there are many similarities in the game mechanics between HOI and Star Wars Rebellion. There is also the obvious similarities in concept to Pacific War from all those years ago.
It puts all the componants of those games together and adds the flash and flair of all the fine tuning of the technical advances we have had in computer programing and hardware advances over the last decade.
I can honestly say that if I had not had that prior experience with "Rebellion" I would likely have had triple the trouble grasping HOI-2's interface. Rebellion was a great game, but there ever was only a small hardcore community that reached mastery of game. It was tough and was at the time regarded as having the hardest learning curve of any game ever to hit mainstream.
I pretty well was able to pick up the HOI-2 interface and the game as I have up to now played without ever reading the manual. (The Tutorial was helpful). Short and Sweet I would say and right to the point. Just enough to get you started so your not clueless.
It was not until I got the flow down many hours into a serious play that I began to look at the play book for details.
Finding this forum was also just as helpful as I did spend a good 2 hours referencing game play concepts from the many fine threads I have come across.
This particular sub forum is a cool favorite of mine already.
My greatest Compliments to the designers if HOI.
Had I known what I know now I would have slept outside the mall to get this game on the first day of its release just like I did with Rebellion years ago.
I would call it a masterpiece of thought provoking art.
Years from now someone will out-do HOI-2 just as Paradox Games outdid Gary Grigsby's "Pacific War" and Lucas Arts Star Wars Rebellion, but look how long it took. I won’t be holding my breath for anything thing better to come along.
Now I think I will go to sleep and continue later to give all the AAR on my first game.
I also bought a brand new computer lounge chair from Big Lots for $60.00
I had to put it together to sit on, or I might have started sooner. It is a good thing I did as you will read why shortly.
Truth be told I did not plan on getting it yesterday. I went to the store to get my Bi-Monthly "Lineage Two" Game Card and while looking at the other computer games I saw this.
I recall when HOM-1 first came out a lopng time ago. I had to choose between it and another games. I remember thinking that this game might not be what I had hoped it was upon examining the box. That being something that would blow Axis and Allies and Third Reich away. (The Computer Versions; not the boxed ones.) I chose the other game that I had already sampled and was in the mood for.
A bad choice in retrospect.
I pretty much forgot about it till I saw HOI-2 come out, but alas I am on social security and I only had enough to afford my game card and Lineage Two has taken up all my game time for going on two years now anyway. So I just kept saying maybe I will get it next month. (month after month to myself) I had Lineage II consuming my interest anyway, so passing it over was easy back then.
Gurss what? I am severely burnt out on Lineage II right now.
Well; yesterday I saw it just as I was about to walk out the door with my Lineage Game Card.
In fact I did walk out and got half way to the mall exit and then turned around and went back for it.
$20.00 was too good to pass up I thought to myself even if I have to go without cigarettes for the last week of the month;-)
Well I sat down around 6:00 pm last night and I have not had any sleep in over 30 hours.
18 hours of pretty much straight play. A few hours for food and breaks split up in that time.
Heart Of Iron-2 blows "Third Reich" and "Axis and Allies" away in exactly the context I was hoping for.
It puts Gary Grigsby's "Pacific War" to Shame in scope, depth, graphics, programming and interface, but to be fair that was a game from another era.
It would take someone like Grigsby to out-do this classic.
The only other time I ever played a single game straight through for 18 hours in one sitting was in what I consider my all time favorite.
Arguably it was a bit harder to learn the interface of "Star Wars Rebellion" than to learn HOI-2, but it was well worth the effort just as it most definately is to learn "Heart Of Iron"; that is to any die hard fan of this genre of computer game.
It took me months to master a level of play with "Star Wars Rebellion" and "Axis and Allies" in order to compete online against the masters, but I eventually did.
It occurred to me that there are many similarities in the game mechanics between HOI and Star Wars Rebellion. There is also the obvious similarities in concept to Pacific War from all those years ago.
It puts all the componants of those games together and adds the flash and flair of all the fine tuning of the technical advances we have had in computer programing and hardware advances over the last decade.
I can honestly say that if I had not had that prior experience with "Rebellion" I would likely have had triple the trouble grasping HOI-2's interface. Rebellion was a great game, but there ever was only a small hardcore community that reached mastery of game. It was tough and was at the time regarded as having the hardest learning curve of any game ever to hit mainstream.
I pretty well was able to pick up the HOI-2 interface and the game as I have up to now played without ever reading the manual. (The Tutorial was helpful). Short and Sweet I would say and right to the point. Just enough to get you started so your not clueless.
It was not until I got the flow down many hours into a serious play that I began to look at the play book for details.
Finding this forum was also just as helpful as I did spend a good 2 hours referencing game play concepts from the many fine threads I have come across.
This particular sub forum is a cool favorite of mine already.
My greatest Compliments to the designers if HOI.
Had I known what I know now I would have slept outside the mall to get this game on the first day of its release just like I did with Rebellion years ago.
I would call it a masterpiece of thought provoking art.
Years from now someone will out-do HOI-2 just as Paradox Games outdid Gary Grigsby's "Pacific War" and Lucas Arts Star Wars Rebellion, but look how long it took. I won’t be holding my breath for anything thing better to come along.
Now I think I will go to sleep and continue later to give all the AAR on my first game.
