Computer Games

I saw on Amazon that Sid Meier's Pirates! is now out. I never really played the original version of Pirates much, although I played plenty of other games Sid Meier created, and other computer games as well.

In fact, one of the first computer games I ever played was Civlization. The computer game was based on the popular board game of the same name. As in the board game, one selects a particular civilisation which one will build from the Stone Age to Space Age. One competed with other civilisations, played by the computer (unless one had the multiplayer version of the game...), with whom one could even go to war. It was essentially a game of strategy, very fun but not particuarly easy.

As much as I loved Civilization, I loved Civlization II even more. Civ II was essentially a more advanced version of the game, which even allowed one to play different scenarios (such as the Crusades or World War I). It was even harder than Civilization, but even more fun. A few years ago a Civlization III was produced, but I never did care for it. It didn't seem nearly as fun as either Civilization or Civ II.

Sid Meier also created a game called Colonization. It was like Civlization in many ways, only instead of creating a civilisation, one was trying to colonise the Americas. Complicating this task were the Natives and other countries attempting colonisation. It was also a fun game and considerably easier than any of the Civilization games.

I also enjoyed SimCity, a game which is still quite popular. In Sim City, one essentially built and ran a city. It could be a difficult game, especially when it came to polution down and the population happy. I also enjoyed the other "Sim" games. SimEarth allowed one to build a planet. Perhaps becuase of this, it was a lot harder than SimCity. It seems like my worlds always overheated or blew up. SimFarm was fun as well--one basically just ran a farm. It was also not that difficult. I never played The Sims, which seems to be the most popular of the games that Maxis has produced. It just doesn't look that interesting to me.

One of my favourite games was Cuthroats!. Unfortunately, it is no longer in production. In Cuthroats!, one was essentially the captain of a pirate ship. It involved a good deal of strategy and even a bit of micromanagement. One had to keep his or her crew happy, which meant getting as much booty as possible while keeping plenty of rum and food in stock. It is a shame that this game is out of print, as it was probably the most enjoyable game I ever played short of Civlization II.

Of course, I played plenty of role playing games, but I have yet to play EverQuest. Quite simply, my computer won't handle it. I have heard from a very reliable and lovely source, however, that it is a very enjoyable game. Indeed, there are times I wonder that she isn't addicted to it...

At the moment I have no games on my computer. With its tiny hard drive and its advanced age (the machine is six years old), it doesn't seem the wise thing to do. But I rather suspect that when I get a new computer, I probably will put some games on it--Sid Meier's Pirates!, EverQuest, SimCity, and one of the Civ games at least...