You need to give it some time. Let it sink all in. Start up with some small nation (like Milan) and ally with a great power (like France) and just let the world go in whatever direction it choose. When I started out with Europa Universalis 3 I played as the Teutonic Order in my first game, and through some backstabbery and sheer luck I managed to turn into Prussia and had almost all land from eastern Germany to China. No cheats. Needless to say I'm stuck with it ever since. Europa Universalis IV has a much more streamlined UI and easier to get into. I really recommend it, especially if you also got Crusader Kings II from which you can transfer your kingdom into EUIV. Playing as a Pagan based in Sweden at the moment in CK that I plan to move over to EU. Since I also have the 'Sunset Invasion' DLC the Aztecs will become a superpower (getting Latin tech and such) in EU..... Will be chaos.
Do it! If you have any questions about it just send them to me. I can even start a game with you if you'd prefer that.
RPG's... hands down. From the first moment I found PnP RPG's I knew I like it... and the big breakthrough with console gaming (computer gaming as well, just 5-6 years later) came for me in 1997 when I found Final Fantasy VII. FFVII completely changed my console/computer gaming habits. I went from a casual console gamer, only playing an hour or two at the most every to every 3rd day, playing a little bit of this and that... into being probably a "hardcore gamer" (not sure if it fits me really), being able to spend ALL my free time playing them, and mostly playing RPG's with a sprinkle of other genres here and there. Since I found FFVII I have no problems with spending 12-16+ hours a day playing games... or a game... of course I do have breaks in there, for food and bathroom, etc, and all that stuff. In fact, these days I have a problem with playing games if I am only able to get in an hour or two... I usually need some 2+ hours each time I play to feel like something happened, or I got something out of it, or what ever. Some of this is due to my habits in games, especially with RPG's or RPG-like games. I have for example no problems with spending an hour or two alone on gathering up everything I find in an area (and I mean EVERYTHING), going back and forth haul it all back to some gathering point, and then selling each item where I get the most money out of the item... and then redo that with every single area I encounter. Games like Fallout, Dragon Age and Skyrim amongst others, are prime examples of games where this happens. It is not uncommon for me spending an hour on just rearranging my inventory either, so that each item is exactly where I want it in my inventory. I use calculators a lot when playing games like that to. Heck... I am even one of those guys who will create Excel sheets for games. Where I write up every item, it's weight, sell price, most value vs weight, and what ever else is important, just so I can keep track on which items I should bring back with me if I am unable to come back to an area later. It does not have to be items either though, it can also be every single recruitable character in a game. Like for example only a week ago I spent 5-6 hours on creating an Excel sheet for the starting stats for almost every single recruitable Mercenary (71 out of 89, as far as I know) in a game called "Brigade 7.62: High Calibre" (also known as "Brigade E6"), and a mod I have for the game (which amongst other things adds a huge amount of recruitable characters). Just so I don't have to go through every single recruitable character in the game, to find the ones with the skill I want, every single time I want to recruit someone. I am only missing the merc's that are classed as "Slaves" (18 of them) at this moment, will add them eventually. I really like creating things like that in Excel. I have made character sheets for PnP's in the past, or team rosters for Blood Bowl (including one which is basically fully functional and will calculate things like SPP Team Value and statistics etc, as long as one fills it in correctly), and other things as well.
A bit of strategy, action and shooters but mostly strategy. Because you know Homeworld 1 and 2, Master of Orion 2, Total Annihilation, Sword of The Stars, Supreme Commander, DoW and Galactic Civilizations 2 (To name a few) where amazing games.
I went with strategy as they are really my love... Galactic Civilizations 2, Dawn of War, Battle for Wesnoth (open-source), and so on. But I am a gamer of many genres. For example at the moment I play the crap out of Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny (known as Rune Factory: Oceans in EU and Japan) it's like Harvest Moon but with fighting elements, it is really amazing. To my knowledge recently Rune Factory 4 for the 2/3DS released. I love simulation games like Rune Factory which take stuff like Sims or Harvest Moon and put them in an awesome coat. Sims or Harvest Moon itself is too boring for me on long-term because there is no real... advance or ending. In Rune Factory you got a simple but fun and interesting storyline (can only talk for Tides of Destiny of course as it is the only game I own of the Series). Besides that I also play some Ego-Shooters here and there (Killzone was a good series, Battlefield with friends is never wrong, CoD I never will touch again after having tried CoD4, the 1st was the best) RPG's obviously like the Final Fantasy Series, Xenoblade, etc. I play like everything except Casual games, I play even Racing games like Need for Speed, Gran Turismo and such from time to time so I am very open in variety of gaming. I prefer to look at individual games than the genre of what could be fun. What I hope to see one day: Warhammer 40k Table-Top on different devices ranging from PC to PS3/4 to Tablets. I don't understand why there is no table-top online & offline game yet. And I don't mean a game that has Table-Top mechanics but sets you into real fights. I mean a game where you actually collect Table-Top Figures like in real life and battle them on battlefields just like in RL. The offline story could be about you trying to become the best Table-Top player and win all tournaments. But it would be so fantastic! You would have all figures you could collect just like in Real Life, you can customize and paint with a few easy clicks (like Color Painter of Dawn of War), you could change your army colors any time, make your own Chapters, Craftworlds, etc. add custom features as necessary (rocket launcher on a Rhino or a heavy bolter), etc. The rules 1:1 to the Codex and the Rulebooks of the Table-Top. Figure unlocking with in-game currency you unlock by playing optional: buy currency with real money (just as you would for regular table-top figures in real life, but cheaper for the virtual ones of course) There would be no pay to win as every unit is still bound to the rules. Most likely you will get better units just faster, but even there will be the point restriction of every army and perhaps even special conditions for each fight. (sorry for long text but I really would love a table-top virtual game, especially because my painting skills are really really bad and because in Real Life they are so expensive, lol)
