Events are likely, but not certain, to take a course similar to that of history. Hearts of Iron 4 is all about guiding a nation of your choice through the period of the Second World War. I don't feel particularly warlike and so I'm at a disadvantage. This time, it feels at least a little easier, but there's still a tremendous amount of information to digest. Once a helpful developer tells me how the industry interface works, I build another trade convoy and start research on the radio, navigating clumsily through the many options-within-options in front of me. I've tried to play previous Hearts of Iron games and I've bounced off them like bullets off a panzer. For all their complexity, they insist, these games really aren't so hard to understand, they've just been opaque. Paradox attribute much of their success to better presentation and improved interfaces. The medieval, Machiavellian Crusader Kings 2 was considerably more successful than the studio expected, and last year's Europa Universalis 4 received widespread critical acclaim. Nevertheless, their popularity has grown. Depending upon your personal taste, Paradox's grand strategy games are somewhere between engrossing, intimidating and borderline unmanageable. There's a lot going in in a game that models a world's worth of nations, their politicians, armies and economies.

Like its sister series, the Victoria, Europa Universalis and Crusader Kings games, Hearts of Iron has always been broad in scope and detailed in both mechanics and moving parts. This niche series of real-time, grand strategy games has long been popular with its dedicated and necessarily diligent fans. I can distract myself with the thought that Paradox itself is also in a historically interesting position. My name is Hitler and I like long walks on the beach. It makes sense for a preview build, as it puts players in a position that is, shall we say, historically interesting, though in saying that I feel like I'm coughing up the most uncomfortable of euphemisms. The early build of Hearts of Iron 4 that Paradox Development Studio present at its annual convention has journalists playing through the mid 1930s as an emboldened and ambitious Germany. With them, I'm a better leader, the head of a more productive economy and also a happier, smarter army.

My attitude is tempered somewhat by my cabinet, a slowly-growing circle of advisors whose skills fill the cracks in my fractured personality. A quick look at my stats tells me I'm a rather grumpy person, a sore loser, bitter about the First World War, and this has a negative impact on my behaviour. I've never been Hitler before and I've never had a particular desire to be Hitler.

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