I think paradox is using goo for drm on all their new games.  Just so you know goo is stardocks version of drm, that they liscence to 3rd parties (as their games do not have drm).  Goo is basically impulse in a file.

I loved the 2nd one.  Best simulation series ever, but I think I lack the time to invest in this right now.  School is keeping me too busy.

Actually they've said they will continue going DRM free for the games they develop...including HoI 3. Now, when it's sold on Impulse it might use Goo...not sure about that...but of GG or physical copy it won't be using it.

Tried out the demo...yikes, they took away AI management of pretty much EVERY domestic production slider. I'm not digging more micromanagement, especially when it looked like they were striving for more ability to hand tasks off to the AI. I'm gonna have to do a wait and see with this one.

Paradox developed games use no DRM.  Even back in the EUII days, their publisher made them use a disk-check DRM, their first patch (may have even been day 0) removed it I think.  Paradox and Stardock do think a lot alike.

One warning: 3rd party games on GG can have nasty stuff, and they're not good about telling you what it is.  They have some unusual stuff you won't find other spots- like Suguri (dojin shooter game like the Touhou series)  You won't find that on Impulse probably ever.

On Impulse it also doesn't use any DRM, but I'd rather by it on GG, since Paradox gets more of the money that way.  (I wouldn't buy Elemental on GG, I'd buy it on Impulse)

To access their mod forums you have to enter a reg code (or did for EUIII)

My friend keeps talking about HOI3... so i gave the demo a try.

Long loading times... tutorial is funny but doesn't give any real info and absolutely gives no idea how to actually play the game.

So i start the demo scenario and... 19 frames per second. The game has absolutely no graphics, and even with water and trees turned off, no multisampling and low resolution, the maximun fps is 30 (minus empty water when 100% zoom where i get 60) and thats not even consistent, mostly its 10-20... AND i wasn't even doing anything, it was the starting zoom, location and that on pause right after starting the scenario.

My laptop is not highend system (Turion 64x2, mobile; ATI Mobility Radeon 2600 HD, 3gigs of memory, Vista) and I don't normally care about graphics (as long as the FPS is consistent 30+ and i can run the game above "low", which is the case with all the games i have) but considering the graphcis of the game, less than 30 fps that is inconsistent, is ABSOLUTELY unacceptable. Now i didn't bother playing any further, so i'm not sure if its some startup initialization but with already long loading times, i don't think its the case.

Its a demo, but demo is supposed to be a taste of the final game...  but with this thing, i won't be bothering.

Too bad. I sort of liked the idea...

Looks pretty complicated, even for a strategy buff like me. I'll wait a bit and see what the reviews say. The demo certainly did a god job of showing how massive the game is.

Grassmaster, I think they fixed the slider problems in patch 1.1 which is supposed to be in the download versions by now. I can't find the patch notes again. There is a huge amount of changes in the patch notes for 1.1 if you can find them.

Edit: (Oops. They did not fix the slider problems in 1.1. Many other problems are emerging as players now begin to comment on the full released game. I think this game will need several patch levels, perhaps some expansions and user mods too.)

HoI 3 puts all the graphics work onto the GPU, leaving the CPU to handle all the calculations. Thus, your GPU will get a major workout and you need a hefty GPU with 512. Think the recommended is an 8800. That being said, even those with the best available systems are finding it slow compared to HoI 2. Optimizations are promised but will probably take some time.

I do not understand why they made the graphics 3D. The only reason you want 3D is so you can look at 3D sprites, tiny little tanks and such. But to get framerate and game speed, you will probably switch to the standard strategy map counters, just little stacks of postage stamp squares. Why do you need 3D to look at little flat squares? The map as a whole does not look good to me. There are a lot of colorings you can do for various categories, but in normal mode it just looks drab and sort of depressing.

The demo really is strange. The tutorial just shows you where things are. Then you get a choice of four scenarios, each one dropping you into a war with more complications to deal with than a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. Good way to scare off potential players who are not too bright, such as I'm. I suspect that they designed the demo to appeal to the beta testers, all of whom felt that allowing a prospective customer to start with a small out of the line of fire country and build things up from scratch would be too boring. No, let them find themselves suddenly thrown into the proverbial stinking waterway without a means of locomotion! har har har

On the positive side, it does look like once it has its rough edges worn off by patches and perhaps some mods it will be a great game, if you like moving little postage stamps around. Meanwhile I would suggest to anyone considering it that you spend some time on the forums reading threads including the technical ones to make sure it will work on your equipment.

Paradox really does care about this game. Johan and the devs are up there along with some really sharp moderators. The threads are interesting to say the least.

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=415

I concur totally!

I had the first HOI. But it wasn't good. (And I play computer wargames since the heroic days of 1984, when they cost from 120 to 240$. Yeah, those imported games were expensive in those days!).

I have Europe Universalis (excellent) and EU2 (excellent too).

But I didn't buy neither EU3 nor EU:Rome because...I waited and forums told me it was the good thing to do. Now, I tried this demo because a goud HOI would be cool. But... I totally agree with you:

- the tutorial is useless. They tried to put some humour while saying that "the button Democracy opens the Democracy panel". Wow! It tells you nothing about how to play, the mechanisms of armies and such...

- it is a hell of micromanagement. Unless if you let the AI run it. But Paradox is well-known for their crappy AI.

- it takes a lot of power from the processor. My laptop fan is working non-stop: not good for the hardware.

- I REALLY don't like to read on the official Paradox forum something like "these days, it's normal a game is released so bugged that the buyers are beta-testers and if you don't like it, it won't change!"

The game is not complex, it's complicated. It's not ready, it needs patching and modding, and usually thex charge their customers for add-ons... It's perhaps only a video-game but corporation reputation and customer respect is something for me.

They won't get my money with this one.