Civilization IV (because today isn’t Tuesday)

I forgot to write today’s blog post last night. I had the vague impression that despite yesterday being Tuesday, today was also Tuesday. (I’m pretty sure I learned the days of the week by first grade, but it hasn’t seemed to stick.)

Since I have no post, let’s talk about Civilization IV. A friend told me that it was only $4.99 in the Mac App store over the weekend (still is, if you want to be tempted). I had actually been planning on buying The Sims 3 soon, but Civilization is one of my all-time favorite games, so.

I did resist until I got a short story revised and sent off, but last night I decided I’d write for 5 minutes and then play Civ. After thus tricking myself into getting a lot more writing done than that, I played Civ until bedtime.

I haven’t played since Civ II, plus Revolution on the iPod (and a brief fling with the Facebook version, which I didn’t like at all). Things have changed since II. (Civ V, I think, is the latest version, and even that’s a couple years old. I bought IV because it was cheaper and good enough–the nice thing about not being into games is even the older ones are new to me.)

Graphics, of course, are much nicer, though since I’m not familiar with them yet I have to mouse over everything to see what it is instead of recognizing the pictures. The music is nice–probably the first game I haven’t immediately muted. The main theme won a Grammy last year.

They’ve added more ways to win (also included in Revolution to some extent) – it’s no longer a choice of taking over the world vs launching a spaceship, which I appreciate. Financial and cultural victories are more appealing to me than war. They’ve added a religious system that seems rather complicated but intriguing.

(Speaking of war, I wish it were optional. I’d love to be able to pursue my technological, cultural, and financial victories without worrying about being attacked. Racing other nations to build wonders is fine, but having to build armies just to defend myself from incessant attacks is tedious and boring.)

I haven’t gotten very far into it, just through the tutorial and the beginning of a game. I’ve already screwed up a ton of stuff due to not being familiar with the game any more, I’m being beaten up by barbarians (who are a lot more troublesome than they used to be) and the two nearest civs are both starting to pester me, so I might be giving up on this game soon and starting a new one. After I revise some chapters.

Anyone played Civ IV or V? What did you think?

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