Paradox has announced Hearts of Iron 3!  I'm cautiously excited about this... the Hearts of Iron series (and particularly HOI2) is probably one of the strategy game series I've logged the most hours of over the years, right up there with Civilization.  Heck, I keep being tempted to post AARs of my ongoing HOI2 games here -- I still play fairly regularly. 

However, I'm pretty worried about it.  Paradox hasn't exactly had a stellar track record lately -- their great stuff has typically been in expansions -- Doomsday / Armageddon were great, and In Nomine really turned the mediocre EU3 into a decent game IMO.  But their big new first releases, not so much.  EU3 is just a worse game in almost every way than EU2 I feel, particularly without the expansions.  EU: Rome just didn't grab me, though at least I did like some of the concepts they were trying for.

But the worst is their insistence on using a 3D engine for a game genre which is clearly better suited for 2D in m opinion.  None of their 3D games look as good as their 2D games, and they get very few of the traditional advantages of 3D, such as good animation support, fancy particle effects, lighting models, camera movement, and polygonal throughput.  Those things are all just irrelevant.  I'm not getting my hopes up for a return to 2D in HOI3, really... I guess I'm just lamenting what seems to be technological "progress" that really isn't an improvement at all.

Nevertheless, I'm sure I'll buy HOI3 from them as a Day One purchase.  Paradox may no longer be at the top of their game, but they are still easily the biggest fish in this particular pond.