dividing a funny job in subtasks doesnt necessarily make it any funnier. in this case its quite the opposite.
When i decided to finally uninstal the game and re-read gamespot's review, i realised that the reviewer didnt spend much time on the game, not enough to get to the actual moment the war sparks.
Supplies are bugged, but they can be fixed with a patch, i suppose. Provinces and cities are messed up, but again i think a fix can solve the problem. But what cannot be fixed, because this is the way the game was meant to be, is the way micromanagement completely spoils the fun of it.
Production is unmanageable: needs on supplies and production change hourly, and the only setting you can do is to max out the current need, and re-set it again after a few as divisions clash against each other, so the only thing you can do is letting the AI do it itself.
Research is too lenghty and fragmented. you have to research the same 4 things several times before getting the only thing you really want, that damn medium tank; and instead of making research times a little longer but on the whole goal (i.e. the tank), you have to research 1/4th of it for say 7 research slots available, several times. And yet you cant let the Ai do it itself because it hasnt the same priorities as you. In a campaing with italy i joined allies and my only theater was central europe, and yet the pc insisted on researching ship related tech, so even if i would have liked to automatize research, i could not.
diplomacy: what for? WWII time is a historical period where you had matter-of-fact invasions: why should i waste a whole year (still as italy) to convince homefront that albania is evil. NO, its not evil, it just has some resources im interested in and it is close and loosely guarded, im a fascist country and invade what i damn well please, Lebensraum, vital space, you name it. But no, because after a couple of years wasting time and resources to press the public opinion, and im about to declare war on Albania, an event triggers: do you want to automatically annex albania? Uhm, yes? Oky doky, thats yours, italian flag on tirana. Uh? Why? Why should i automatically and effortless get something i should play for, and why should i sweat and swear onto something i should easily do? Thats a symbol case on why HoI is a bad game: too easy and damn too difficult.
And now the most painful part of it all: combat. still as Italy, you start with an ongoing war on ethiopia. You have something like... what... 20 units, among HQs and actual fighting divisions. Even if supply doesnt work, piece of cake with a few moves i conquer Ethiopia. Then i start the buildup against albania, which as i already said ends with an automatic victory. I decide not to waste the opportunity and declare war on Yugoslavia as well. At the time i have something around 60 units, and im starting to lose control of them and i just limited myself to tell the AI: go and take belgrade. As Germany started the war, i joined allies, and even if i got just with just one theater to look after (i joined allies and thus germany was all surrounded by enemies) i had something like 225 divisions to manage, without a clear, graphical organization diagram that told me which damn HQ was controlling the other, and how the overall war effort was going. Cant be done. The only thing you can do is ask the top tier HQ "please take berlin", and they answer "give me 20 armoured divisions", in the while of being flooded by popups that informs you of a battle involving 22000 people and having 20 killed. I wont even consider the absolute mess the regiment subdivision is. I dont wanna play a game where i have to assemble divisions by chosing from 20-30-like regiments, modified by your own research, guessing the best combination.
After a few hours playing at HoI III it becomes clear what clerks and ultimately computers are for. The are needed to keep up with the necessary but dull stuff. Someone like Hitler or Mussolini wouldnt be bothered to waste time asking "hey you, adjust our supply! did you check our production? is there any IC waste? im going to check you know?" each hour. Someone like them wouldnt be bothered to know that a hundred-like battles/skirmishes involving thousand of soldiers ended with some side losing 22 men and retreating (stupid pop-up floods). Someone like a supreme commander should be told stuff like "we are advancing" "we are retreating" "we are going short on supplies" "we just got a breakthrough on this tech" and so on.
In the end, there is a serious misunderstanding that led to a huge game design failure. It is the assumption that dividing a funny task in a thousand subtasks, the ultimate task becomes a thousand funnier. No, it does not. any eintertainig FPS does not become an entertaining simulation just including a left leg/right leg key to alternatively be pressed in order to walk, instead of the UP arrow. Im repeating myself. It has nothing to do with all the present and bothersome glitches. It has to do with a game design fatal flaw.