Empire Earth 3 vs Europa Universalis IV
Empire Earth 3
Empire Earth 3 is unfortunately the final stopper to what had been a pretty solid real-time strategy game. What happened? Well, the game seemed to have went on a completely wrong route and ended up stripping itself of all the best parts in an attempt to borrow from other game franchises. Not to mention, their implementation, be it borrowed ideas or pretty good ideas of their own, is simply horrendous. However, all of these might not be apparent to players who have not played any of the Empire Earth games before so if you've seen good reviews of the game... well, this is probably the reason behind it.Empire Earth 3 has hammered in the final nail in the franchise's coffin and it's truly a pity. The series itself has plenty of potential and could have been as great as some of the classic real-time strategy games that are still very well-known today, but due to whatever reason, things happened, a poor game was rolled out, and everything just fell apart. Empire Earth 3 may not be worth buying for fans of the previous two Empire Earth games, but if you're a collector or if you're new to the series, you might still want to give it a try.
Europa Universalis IV
Europa Universalis IV is the fourth game in the award-winning Europa Universalis franchise. Similar to its predecessors, the game has everything you'd need to build your own nation from the ground up and guide it through the ages. The freedom in which you get to customize your giverning style, your nation and even your game is simply ridiculous (in a good way) and of course, the best selling point of this series is that almost everything is based on accurate historical references, be it a historical figure or an event. This time around you'll get to grow your nation over a much wider span of history, arrange royal marriages, form coalitions, support rebels in proxy wars and more. You can even cooperate with up to 32 different players to govern a single nation. The multiplayer mode apparently now has an improved chat and a new matchmaking system.Unfortunately, the major downside about this game is that the developers, Paradox Interactive, have apparently "sold-out" by adding in features that should have been in the original game into DLCs that players actually have to pay extra for, ending up spending over $200 for just a single game. Not to mention, many players have complained that the DLCs they release are priced at the same price point despite having progressively lower amount of content.
That said, the game is still an epic masterpiece and a worthy sequel to the Europa Universalis series, but the game's hardcore player base is admittedly not happy, and honestly, we wouldn't recommend getting this game unless you can get all of the DLCs dirt cheap... maybe like in a bundle.