If you wish to compare them, load up the demos of each. Then you can make the decision based on your own experience.
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Darkest Hour is the closest to HOI. It is actually built on HOI. It covers the WW1 years and offers a different take on WW2.
I never played VIC2 but have played lots of EU3 including the expansions. (Some day I should register those games LOL). EU3 was and still is fun. But like playing Germany in HOI3 if you play France in EU3 it's pretty easy to dominate and control everything you want to. But playing as say Poland is a nice challenge. The real hard parts are playing as one of the HRE countries in Germany and trying to grow from there, or the backward (tech wise) countries.
There is one thing in common. Europe is at the center for HOI, VIC2, EU3, and DH.
I never played VIC2 but have played lots of EU3 including the expansions. (Some day I should register those games LOL). EU3 was and still is fun. But like playing Germany in HOI3 if you play France in EU3 it's pretty easy to dominate and control everything you want to. But playing as say Poland is a nice challenge. The real hard parts are playing as one of the HRE countries in Germany and trying to grow from there, or the backward (tech wise) countries.
There is one thing in common. Europe is at the center for HOI, VIC2, EU3, and DH.
I have made my choice, its gonna be EUIII. Gonna get it after this weekend as soon as I am back from a weekend in Amsterdam with my mates from England. 
Hopefully i still remember my decison
Again: Thanks everybody for your advice and recommendations!!!
Hopefully i still remember my decison Again: Thanks everybody for your advice and recommendations!!!
One of the great questions of science is how does a civilization survive long enough not to destroy itself. My question to all your guys (and girls, but I assume mostly guys), is not what game should I try next, but how on earth do you play any of these games and not destroy your marriage/lose a girlfriend/etc? So far I've found it to be a great boon when 'The Voice' or 'American Idol' comes on TV, but then I get carried away and minutes turn into hours.
I have made my choice, its gonna be EUIII. Gonna get it after this weekend as soon as I am back from a weekend in Amsterdam with my mates from England.
You won't regret it. Paradox games all have different flavors, but they're all fun.
BTW, make sure you get EU3 Chronicles, the one with all four expansions.
I already saw on GG that there are several versions and expasions. Gonna get the one with the most expasions, so yes EUIII Chronicles
So the real answer to the original question is buy all three!!! seems an idea for me. Now all I have to do is persuade my wife to up my pocket money! LOL
Here's a possible plan. When you are with your wife/girlfriend always try to get frisky to get some. Since they are women they eventually get tired of this. So what happens is you can try to get frisky and if they reject you you can leave and act like they hurt your feelings and go play the game to get over it. This has the added benefit of actually getting more of 'it' in the time you do spend with them.
So thats how you do it?
After years of conditioning I either get 'it' or play computer games.
I did actually proposed that to my girl, but she only laugh and said something mean about "only kids playing games". As mentioned earlier, al the bad entertaining on the TV is the best excuse to fire of an hour there and here on the titles.
Show her that:
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?536947-How-old-are-HOI3-players
and if this is not 'triggering', say her that watching how Victoria get married is also only for small princesses
If she gets tired of it, that just means you're not doing it right.
Anyway, sounds like you guys needs girlfriends/wives who share more of your interests, lol. My friend's wife griped about him playing WoW, until he got her into it. Now she's more into it than he is.
The biggest difference, if you have never played any other Paradox series but HoI is that movement is not combat. It's like EU in that you must first move into a province, then defeat any enemy present, then siege the province for a time before it becomes occupied.
The second major difference, as many others have mentioned, is that Vicky II is not a war game, but a socio-economic simulator set in the Victorian era. Your primary focus is your population, the political systems in place to manage it, and the industries to employ it.
The second major difference, as many others have mentioned, is that Vicky II is not a war game, but a socio-economic simulator set in the Victorian era. Your primary focus is your population, the political systems in place to manage it, and the industries to employ it.
I do like Vicky 2, I think perhaps its my favourite Paradox game, combat can be a little annoying, especially as the AI seems to cheat its dice rolls, but the sheer joy of having a Communist revolution and building endless heavy goods factories whilst humming along to the USSR national anthem is worth the flaws in the game, most of which have been fixed now it would seem.
Another big difference is that you can demolish armies using nothing but attrition in EU3. Had a lot of fun as Russia when Ming attacked me through Siberia. Took a 100 strong stack down to a strength of like 8 without even engaging the enemy. Can do similar thing in Vic2, but attrition is much less of a killer in that game.
Admittedly this was in Victoria 1, but a friend was playing as Persia and I as the Ming. Anyways, somehow he got tangled up in a war with Germany who had also bitten pretty deep into Russia. So I got military access from Russia and marched a doom stack of like 1,000,000 men through Siberia all the way to Poland, the attrition was HUGE, but as soon as the thing hit German stacks in battle it obliterated them right through to Berlin. Good times!
Rebels don't rise every five seconds during a war, that's the biggest difference. :/