First of all, let me say that i've always preferred homm2 to 3. Ok, the third one plays better and is better balanced, but it lacked the spirit of the second game, the cartoony looks that were fun and overall i really enjoy the second game more even to this day. So what does this have to do with 5, will you ask? Well to me, HoMM V is the spiritual successor to the 2nd game. It managed to get that spirit right AND use innovations from the other games in the series to make a truly unique game. The art is great, the graphics are still pretty good even now in 2012 and the game plays even better than HoMM 3 ever did. The gameplay revolves around your starting race choice as they each play differently. For instance necropolis relies heavily on raising dead troops after the fights, orcs are using rage, dwarves can spend gold to get boosts from runes and are very magic resistant, etc. The hero evolution/personnalization system is also insanely good and depending on your choices you'll end up playing totally differently. The 2 expansion packs are great and add races with unique concepts and gameplays (orcs / dwarves). Overall, i think this is the best game in the series and it's only natural that it's Nival Interactive, the guys that made Etherlords, that made it. Grab it as fast as you can if you ever played and liked any HoMM game.
I played this game a lot but while it has fun features and plays well, it's boring after a while. I love Bullfrog's game from back in the day but Theme Park is probably the one i would least enjoy now. I still play theme hospital from time to time because it's a blast but theme park feels bland compared to it.
First, let me say that i am a big fan of speedball 2:brutal deluxe. I played it extensively and eventually burned out on it. Speedball 2 HD is doing a great job of feeling like the original WITH some innovations. The gameplay is a bit different but just enough not to be weird in my opinion. The graphics are pretty good, sure they could be better and some faces are downright ugly (mustaches are terrible) but overall the great players (3, 4, 5 stars) look great (some old guys came back for this new game ^^). Overall it's really fun and provides good speedball games. My only concerns so far are some ugly faces sometimes and the lack of the original music... If you like speedball, you have to try this one, it's much better than any other game in the series that came out after the first 2.
