Day 25: Game I Plan on Playing

There are obviously many games I would like to play: Sonic the Hedgehog 4, Dragon Age 2, and I've already mentioned Starcraft 2. However, if there's one game that is more of an inevitaility rather than just a desire, it would be Civilization V.

Sid Meier's Civilization series has been a part of my life for years now. I grew up on Civ 2, and though I have always appreciated its faults, I still play it and love it. I've already talked about how awesome the Civ series is in general, creating and ruling an empire throughout history, but I think to understand Civ 5 its worth looking at how the series has grown.

Graphical evolution aside, because of course the graphics improved over 15 years, there are plenty of other improvements and innovations Sid has made. The diplomacy you can employ in the game has improved drastically. Whereas before you would have to give away all of your technology just to keep the world happy with you, only to have them nuke you the moment they are able, now there is a quite sophisticated system of negotiations which is far more realistic. The cultural system as well was a nice addition, where over time the borders of your city would expand to take into account your expanding influence. Compared to Civ 2 where your capitol city with millions of inhabitands would forever be the same size as the smallest village in your empire, this was a welcome change. Also, overwhelming a nearby foreign city with the pure force of culture could cause them to turn to your side. I love cultural warfare.

The addition in Civ 4 of the system of civics and religion made government much more flexible, which I appreciated. It feels more like a continuous evolution of your kingdom to change between being a police state or having universal suffrage, between slavery and serfdom, or having mercantilism and a free economy. Also, being able to have a state religion is hilarious. The number of times you see situations like the Americans founding Islam is fantastically ironic.

Basically, I have to find out how Civ 5 has taken all of these elements further. I have high hopes for it on the day that I get a more capable computer. Every game so far has been increasingly excellent, and I want to see how this trend continues.