This is the only game that has ever given me chills down my spine. The inability to fight back is a rush after years of being conditioned by games that the point of the bad guys is to be stomped down by you.

Europa Universalis 3 is slow paced and complex, and throws a daunting amount of data and possible actions at the player. Wait - that sounds like a bad thing... It is fortunate, then, that the game can be played in almost any way you wish. Military conquest is not the only game in town - it can be just as fascinating to try and turn a small state into a trade empire o,r as a New World Civilization, see how long you can hold out against the advancing tide of colonists as it is to be own the world. That's what makes it different from just about every other strategy game out there and puts this in my recommend list.