Hearts of Iron II Becomes Teaching Tool

[headshotcatcher]

That's awesome. Next, they should start using Medieval 2: Total War to teach medieval history.

HA-ha-ha

You're kidding right?

Entire europe wasn't made up of 12 countries, ever -.-

Nor can you just send 800 men and 10 priests for a trip through russia and keep a stable empire..

 

[The Amazing Tea Alligator]

Is HoI 3 any good?

No. It's overcomplicated (all the slider automation that was gradually added by Doomsday and Armageddon is gone, so it's all back to micromanagement hell), broken (ever seen Operation Overlord performed solo by Mexico? You can in HoI3 because the AI gets to ignore transport distance limits), inaccurate (Stalingrad is about 100 miles south of it's real location), and dull.

Get Arsenal of Democracy instead, it's Hearts of Iron 2 still, but with significant improvements to, well, just about everything.

The only thing HoI3 really does better is lines of supply.

Oh, and all the things that Hearts of Iron 3 really needs to fix it are being released in a paid for expansion. Joy.

Ah. I alos saw Europa Universalis 3 and like the setting of that game and the idea of that game more. Is it good?

Europa Universalis 3 is... ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL!

Seriously, Hearts Of Iron 3 (1936-1948), Europa Universalis 3 (1399-1821) AND Victoria (1836-1920 something) taught me a lot about the world, granted, I had very little knowledge of the world before I played the games but still!

Alrighty. Well if nobody has anything else to say then I'll probably be getting that

 

[The Amazing Tea Alligator]

Alrighty. Well if nobody has anything else to say then I'll probably be getting that

Hell, get them all, they're cheap, all the Paradox interactive games.

Actually, if you get Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis 2, Victoria and Hearts of Iron II, you can play straight all the way from 1066 to 1964, because you can transfer the save games between them.

1. HOLY SHIT THAT IS BADASS!
2. Will this work with multiplayer as well? If I buy a game, is usually for the joy of LAN.
3. Is Europa Univeralis 3 better than 2?

 

[Jared]

Hehe, well there are worse games to teach with I suppose. It does have alot of content and alot of stuff in it which does feel very period...

B ut hey, whatever works!

 

[headshotcatcher]

Is HoI 3 any good?

No. It's overcomplicated (all the slider automation that was gradually added by Doomsday and Armageddon is gone, so it's all back to micromanagement hell), broken (ever seen Operation Overlord performed solo by Mexico? You can in HoI3 because the AI gets to ignore transport distance limits), inaccurate (Stalingrad is about 100 miles south of it's real location), and dull.

Get Arsenal of Democracy instead, it's Hearts of Iron 2 still, but with significant improvements to, well, just about everything.

The only thing HoI3 really does better is lines of supply.

Oh, and all the things that Hearts of Iron 3 really needs to fix it are being released in a paid for expansion. Joy.

Ah. I alos saw Europa Universalis 3 and like the setting of that game and the idea of that game more. Is it good?

Europa Universalis 3 is... ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL!

Seriously, Hearts Of Iron 3 (1936-1948), Europa Universalis 3 (1399-1821) AND Victoria (1836-1920 something) taught me a lot about the world, granted, I had very little knowledge of the world before I played the games but still!

Alrighty. Well if nobody has anything else to say then I'll probably be getting that

Do it, I've sunk well over 1000 hours in it I think.. Highest other one is probably like 400 in tf2

 

[The Amazing Tea Alligator]

1. HOLY SHIT THAT IS BADASS!
2. Will this work with multiplayer as well? If I buy a game, is usually for the joy of LAN.
3. Is Europa Univeralis 3 better than 2?

1. Yes it is. And it gets so messed up by the end. The first time I did it, it took me three months to play through all the games, and it ended up that America was founded in India by the Byzantines, then conquered by Russians. America currently comprises Southern India, Sri Lanka, and Yemen, and is 100% Russian ethnicity. Plus, the Danes rule all of Africa, and Britain is a hardcore communist state with the biggest and most advanced army in the world. They managed to get attack helicopters in 1937, and invented jet fighters in 1941.

2. I don't know, actually. You can save Multiplayer games, so I'm going to assume yes, but you'd do well to check that.

3. In my opinion, yes. It's got much better combat, a lot more provinces, and is generally a huge improvement. However, that doesn't mean that EU2 is at all bad, even after playing 3.

I'm not sure if you can do that thing with the exporting games for EU3 or HOI3 though. I don't think so.

1. is hilarious. I'll probably be getting EU 3 though if it's that muich better. Thank you very much.

 

[Erana]

Wow, that's coincidental, because Hearts of Iron II was basically the game that taught me political geography. I can point out where any country on earth is on a map, name every country, and name their capitals because of this game.

Well, that's good for them. It's a great game, regardless. I spent literally the entire summer of 2007 playing nothing else but this game. The disk never left my drive.

I guess I need this, then; I'm absolutely dreadful at geography....

 

[Soviet Steve]

1. is hilarious. I'll probably be getting EU 3 though if it's that muich better. Thank you very much.

From an EU2 player - There is one problem with EU3, and that is that all nations behave a-historically - So there is very little to learn from EU3. I'd recommend EU2 with this mod:

http://www.agceep.net/introduction.htm

Things are much closer to history that way - Though that's not the important thing for most gamers.

Unrelated that - Using medieval 2 as a teaching tool about the middle ages makes as much sense as using oblivion to teach about the industrial revolution.

 

[The Amazing Tea Alligator]

1. is hilarious. I'll probably be getting EU 3 though if it's that muich better. Thank you very much.

From an EU2 player - There is one problem with EU3, and that is that all nations behave a-historically - So there is very little to learn from EU3. I'd recommend EU2 with this mod:

http://www.agceep.net/introduction.htm

Things are much closer to history that way - Though that's not the important thing for most gamers.

Unrelated that - Using medieval 2 as a teaching tool about the middle ages makes as much sense as using oblivion to teach about the industrial revolution.

Thanks!

 

[Sneaklemming]

I wonder if he thought them how to play the game first, since being player skill would effect the "resources" of the nation, and hence the geo-politic.

 

[viranimus]

I have thought this type of educational use of gaming has been a good idea for years. Honestly in this digital ADD fueled age, what better method can you think of to teach kids than some degree of interactivity.

I mean honestly, I managed to jump my typing speed from 80wpm to 100 thanks to typing of the dead.

I would like to see more of this, kthxbai

 

[Asehujiko]

So poland blitzes europe and brazil>argentinia? Didn't we establish that in the first week after the game was released? The only thing missing here is the US going completely berserk in 1942, annexing mexico and canada before performing operation overlord on the completely neutral portugal and then conquering all of europe except mega-poland.

 

[Tom Phoenix]

Hearts of Iron II is one of the best strategy games I ever played. The great thing about it is that even though it's very intricate, the interface is intuitive and the tutorials are helpful enough that even a beginner can pick it up.

Paradox really topped themselves with HoI II and I warmly recommend it to anyone. It is just a shame HoI III didn't do so well.

 

[Stormwaltz]

(leaving)

 

[JSDodd]

To anyone that anyone who missed the earlier comments: IF YOU ARE EVEN REMOTELY CURIOUS ABOUT STRATEGY GAMES THEN PURCHASE HOI2 AND EU3. THEY FUCKING ROCK

OT: It's about time they did this, my knowledge of 1399-> is largely based on learning interesting bits of info from Paradox games and then researching them in further detail.