[Damn, I made a long and nice reply, but all of it was lost because of slow net connection
]
Well, I have Victoria and I like it a lot. I have only played 2 games though - one as Brazil, on easiest difficulty and AI, to learn. Managed to conquer all South America except Argentina, Chile (my allies) and the British/French/Dutch provinces; all central America except British Belize; California; colonized half of Africa; annexed most of Arabic world. Then the game crashed in 1895.
Another game - as Bavaria. By 1905, I controlled all of Germany except Hannover (1 prov.) and Prussia (1 prov.); also Denmark, Switzerland, Belgium and Netherlands. Krakow too. Had an alliance with Russia and France. And I was the world's leading industrial power.
The problems I see with this game are that the AI never industrializes and never colonizes. In both games, the only nations that have made any new colonies were Britain, Netherlands and Prussia. And only 1 colony each. Otherwise it is nice. Very nice