Europa Universalis V confirmed

[crazy canuck]

I'm going to buy this game, no doubt about it. But I think after 25 years of Paradox gaming, this will be the defining one for me. I didn't like CK3, don't like Vicky 3 and haven't enjoyed HOI in years. There are various reasons for all those games I won't get into but primarily they've removed the fun factor for me.
So if I find I'm not getting into EU5 then obviously they're not making games for me anymore as the were in their early days.

I thought IV would be the last one for me.  But this seems like the Magnum Opus of the series, so I feel compelled to complete the set. It was EU I that first really got me into playing games on a computer so I think I need to see it through.

[Josephus]

I'm going to buy this game, no doubt about it. But I think after 25 years of Paradox gaming, this will be the defining one for me. I didn't like CK3, don't like Vicky 3 and haven't enjoyed HOI in years. There are various reasons for all those games I won't get into but primarily they've removed the fun factor for me.
So if I find I'm not getting into EU5 then obviously they're not making games for me anymore as the were in their early days.

I thought IV would be the last one for me.  But this seems like the Magnum Opus of the series, so I feel compelled to complete the set. It was EU I that first really got me into playing games on a computer so I think I need to see it through.

Yeah, CC, same here. Sometime in early 2001 I walked into an Electronics Boutique (EB) store and saw this game that just screamed out at me...it was called Europa Universalis. The rest is history.

[Valmy]

I never really got into IV so I guess I will give V a chance. It has been a long time now for me, time for some new EU.

[mongers]

Maybe for some it's a physical media thing? As with EU1/2 and HOI 1/2 I played the hell out of those disks.

Now with steam dominance, I have to boot-up a more powerful PC than this to play, and do the steam login etc.

So not so immediate for me if I just want to play for the occasional half-hour. 

Didn't even know what of the more modern paradox games I owned!


Steam tells me this:
Europa Universalis III
5.1 hours
LAST PLAYED
30 Mar 2018

Europa Universalis IV
2.6 hours
1 Feb
Achievements
0/373

Hearts of Iron III
7.1 hours
14 Aug 2019

Stellaris
2.5 hours
14 Oct 2022
0/204

Victoria II
5.9 hours
31 Jan

Victoria: Revolutions
76 minutes
28 Dec 2016

Arsenal of Democracy
67.8 hours
29 Nov 2016

Darkest Hour: A Hearts of Iron Game
27.8 hours
26 Feb 2019

Crusader Kings II
5.9 hours
1 Feb
0/161
 

[Josquius]

Most of the older games weren't on steam for me so I don't know my hour count.... I fear I would have caused an integer overrun if they were.

[mongers]

Most of the older games weren't on steam for me so I don't know my hour count.... I fear I would have caused an integer overrun if they were.

Life is a rounding error?

[Zanza]

I played EU IV for 1000+ hours (same for Stellaris) and never finished a game. Whatever, I will buy this and hope it is not a disappointment like Civ 7.

[Norgy]

I'm going to buy this game, no doubt about it. But I think after 25 years of Paradox gaming, this will be the defining one for me. I didn't like CK3, don't like Vicky 3 and haven't enjoyed HOI in years. There are various reasons for all those games I won't get into but primarily they've removed the fun factor for me.
So if I find I'm not getting into EU5 then obviously they're not making games for me anymore as the were in their early days.

I thought IV would be the last one for me.  But this seems like the Magnum Opus of the series, so I feel compelled to complete the set. It was EU I that first really got me into playing games on a computer so I think I need to see it through.

Yeah, CC, same here. Sometime in early 2001 I walked into an Electronics Boutique (EB) store and saw this game that just screamed out at me...it was called Europa Universalis. The rest is history.

Strange. I picked it up the same year at a discount rack at a bookstore/gamestore.
And immediately I started complaining about where Norway was on the forums of Paradox, hence the nick Norgesvenn.

It was a good game, and ran relatively smoothly on my rather under-powered IBM.

I have hundreds of hours in EUIV, restoring Byzantium, making Norway a colonial power, keeping the Kalmar Union intact as Denmark and uniting France and Great Britain, or taking the Timurids into India. All have been fun, but usually there is a point when you either see that this is not going to work or it is working too well and you are over-powered and it gets to be a chore to continue.

HoI4 was enjoyable for a long time, but recent updates and DLC has made it needlessly complicated. Why should I be the one to design airplanes and decide how many machine guns it should have? It gets a bit tiresome when you are at your fourth Spitfire model and still get blown out of the air by the Luftwaffe.

I like Paradox games, I have played every single one except "Tre Kronor". There is, however, a tendency to have very complicated game mechanics based on RNG, so that you as a player either just give up or lose. Victoria III is a good example of that, despite it being very good at most times.

Even in my job, I use spreadsheets most days for keeping tabs on various stuff locally, and I don't want my games to be just spreadsheets from Excel.

[Syt]

Lemon Cake's appraisal of the game so far:

[Syt]

For Tamas

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/tinto-talks-84-15th-of-october-2025-onboarding-systems.1863138/post-30803167

Hungary getting picked as an economy tutorial feels weird. I mean, it was a rather rich kingdom, don't get me wrong. It's just that the other two picks feel even more fitting, especially in this time period. A dynastic deal about to happen with Poland, dynastic claims *cough* ties to Naples, domineering the Balkans, staking a claim on the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, the anti-Habsburg alliance at Visegrad, a little bit later the first Hungarian-Ottoman War. The most well-known major achievements and developments of Hungary at this specific time just ooze politics, with a dash of expansionism.

Something that is not very well known is that, around these years, Hungary was the third richest country in Europe in tax revenues, just behind France and England. And the reign of Charles Robert was probably the apogee of royal power in the kingdom, leaving behind a wealthy country and a healthy treasury to his son and successor, Louis 'the Great'.

In EUV, it's a really cozy country to learn about the economy, as there's plenty of cash in hand to kick off the economic development, in several fronts: RGOs, buildings, roads, etc.

[Josquius]

Lemon Cake's appraisal of the game so far:

So good but you need a thousand free hours.
Yes. Probably not for me

[Syt]

It's still funny to me that EU5 and FM26, both series known for having players sink 1000s of hours into, release (officially) the same day (yes, FM has the Advance Access from 23rd Oct or so, but official date is 4th November).

It's a bit of a Barbenheimer thing.

[Tamas]

For Tamas

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/tinto-talks-84-15th-of-october-2025-onboarding-systems.1863138/post-30803167

Hungary getting picked as an economy tutorial feels weird. I mean, it was a rather rich kingdom, don't get me wrong. It's just that the other two picks feel even more fitting, especially in this time period. A dynastic deal about to happen with Poland, dynastic claims *cough* ties to Naples, domineering the Balkans, staking a claim on the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, the anti-Habsburg alliance at Visegrad, a little bit later the first Hungarian-Ottoman War. The most well-known major achievements and developments of Hungary at this specific time just ooze politics, with a dash of expansionism.

Something that is not very well known is that, around these years, Hungary was the third richest country in Europe in tax revenues, just behind France and England. And the reign of Charles Robert was probably the apogee of royal power in the kingdom, leaving behind a wealthy country and a healthy treasury to his son and successor, Louis 'the Great'.

In EUV, it's a really cozy country to learn about the economy, as there's plenty of cash in hand to kick off the economic development, in several fronts: RGOs, buildings, roads, etc.

Noice.

[Josephus]

There's an interview on pcgamer.com with old Languish alumni Johan. It's mostly about the history of the EU series

[The Brain]

There's an interview on pcgamer.com with old Languish alumni Johan. It's mostly about the history of the EU series

Nothing on the exodus?