Civilization IV is brilliant.
Today I played as Catherine the Great of Russia. Currently I’m leading due to my overwhelming cultural superiority, but I don’t stand a chance of a diplomatic victory due to China’s, well, numbers. How they hell did they get so big? I got squashed onto one tiny little continent with Japan and Spain, then I find out that China’s been all by its lonesome on this huge continent the whole time while Spain and I catfight over a frackin forest.
Anyway.
I haven’t played in a while, but I saw the commercial on television today for Civilization: Revolution and I was like whaaaaaaaa? Is that what I think it is? But it is not what I thought it was, because it is only for game consoles. As in, not for PC. I think I died a little inside.
One of my favorite Civ IV features has to be the ability to nuke people*. (The Civ Fanatics forum has an awesome gallery with lots of screenshots and animations of big in-game kabooms). I haven’t reached that milestone yet playing as Russia, but I have achieved it several times playing as England. And let me tell you, the military advantage it gives you is enormous. In other words, it turns you into a raving maniac. I have dropped nukes twice? Three times? Once because I was in an unending war with the Americans (oh the irony) and they were on the verge of capturing my capital city, another time to end a three way war that was causing me to hemorrhage money, and a third time because I was bored. Yes. I was bored. I had nothing else left to build except future tech and I figured Rome could use a makeover.
Be very, very careful with this game, people. Anything that can turn a ridiculously scary technology into addictive game play is to be feared.
Anyhow, thank you Civ IV, for keeping my afternoons lazy and my future career in politics bright.
*Please be advised that nuking people too often can plunge the world into either a global war (or global warming) and cause all the other civs to hate you, thus making diplomatic victory impossible. Now if only George Bush everyone else realized this, the world would be a better place.
