Due to a strange quirk of my gaming history, I never played a numbered Civilization game beyond the original Civ (also known as Sid Meier’s Civilization: Build an Empire to Stand the Test of Time). That game I utterly consumed back in the early 90s when it was released, probably completing the game with every possible combination of civilization and victory condition.

Civ II, for example, wasn’t released until 1996, five years after its predecessor (I had spent much of that intervening period playing Civ), and at that point Quake, and then the mod Quake 40K/Chapter Honour (boy, there’s a site I haven’t seen in ages), become my time-sucking game of choice.

During most periods of my life, I’ve tried to consistently play games in a variety of genres—in the 90s, I was mainly into adventure games, shooters, and strategy games—but I’ve also generally had one game that lurks in the background, filling the cracks in my gaming time between this title or that title. Civ was probably the first game to hold that honor. (more…)

I’ve gotten every Civilization: Revolution achievement, and I can destroy its AI six ways from Sunday on every difficulty level—except Deity, which remains almost a total crap shoot. I’m not sure from which “deity” that designation draws its name—perhaps a nightmarish American McGee-esque take on the Flying Spaghetti Monster, one that sees the carbohydrate-fueled god reimagined as some kind of many-tentacled rapist.

In addition to AI civilizations being able to apparently construct unlimited Legion armies while simultaneously erecting numerous Wonders of the World, Deity opponents seem able to actually influence the laws of probability. Perhaps my perception is colored by that hazy tint of blame-redirecting irrationality that comes along with unfettered video game rage, but I would swear to God FSM that combat encounters in Deity games adjust the odds.

None of this would really be that bad if it weren’t for the fact that AI opponents are without exception irritable prima donnas who can’t go more than a few turns without demanding tribute. (I’ve heard it’s an internal Firaxis joke that Ghandi is often the biggest bastard of them all.) There is in fact no way to maintain positive relationships with your enemies without simply forking over most of your money and technology on a regular basis—and if, like me, you find it too much of an affront to your pointless sense of video game honor to do so, you are under constant siege for the duration of the game. There is no practical method by which to continually exact similar demands on your opponents, which gives the AI an inherent mechanical advantage.

What does all this mean? It means that when I play Civ: Rev on Deity, I become a paranoid lunatic, a save game-abusing freak who lives in a time-bending state of parallel timelines. It’s like an inelegant, turn-based, alternate history version of Braid. (more…)

In a rare moment of scheduling success, my co-hosts and I at the Played Podcast have lived up to our ostensible weekly format, releasing our latest episode in the week following the previous episode.  Anyone who follows the show will recognize this as something of an achievement for us.

This week’s episode is number 43, and includes Comic-Con talk as well as residual E3 affairs (The Conduit, Fallout 3, Fable 2), and discussion of currently-played games including Siren: Blood Curse, Space Invaders Extreme, Civilization Revolution, Ticket to Ride, Catan, and Everyday Shooter.  Go check it out.

Last month, I wrote up my initial reactions to Spore, based on some hands-on at Will Wright’s Emeryville studio and following a long interview with Soren Johnson, Spore designer and former Firaxis designer on Civilization III and IV.  That full interview has finally been posted.  It was conducted with my coworker Brandon Sheffield in hot tag-team style.

The interview starts out very much about Spore (obviously), but towards the end it actually starts to angle more towards a discussion about strategy games in general—why they’ve become successful, why they’ve faced challenges, and what their future may hold.  Johnson obviously has a lot of perspective on the matter, and it’s particularly interesting since he was the designer on Spore charged with ensuring the game will be of interest to hardcore gamers, not just the more casual crowd that has typified Wright’s audience with The Sims.

He also speaks a lot about the Civilization series, and the pressures to satisfy an increasingly hardcore and competent audience by the fourth game in the series, at the potential expense of the broader audience that made the series big in the first place.

And did you know the original Civ was conceived as an RTS?  Sid Meier changed his mind.  I didn’t know that!  Maybe you did.

2K Games has a pretty rad promotion going on for its upcoming Civilization Revolution, a console take on the long-running game series. Shepard Fairey (you know, the guy behind the now-ubiquitous “OBEY” street art campaign) designed a badass poster featuring series standby Napoleon. Check it out at the official site in the “download” section. Credit at 2K should go to community manager extraordinaire Elizabeth Tobey.

I played Civilization Revolution a few months ago. It seems very promising to me. Civilization–the first one–was one of the games that really turned me into a hardcore gamer. I had played PC games before then (didn’t have any consoles until the mid-90s), mainly adventure games, but Civilization was the kind of consuming addiction that set off what has since become a lifetime hobby. (more…)