It may come as a bit of a surprise but there are a few non-MMO games out there that I really enjoy playing. A lot of them stem around creation or building in some way – like Civilization 5, Banished, or any sort of city creator. This week I decided to re-visit civ. 5, it has been ages since I last played. I don’t think I own all of the expansion packs for it but that hasn’t stopped me from enjoying the game. I started out with three cities of my own along the coast on the left hand side, and then quickly decided to become a warmonger and took over three more cities, wiping Spain from the game. Not my fault they fell so easily. I’m ally with Monaco on the right hand side and they also hold a little city down South. I’ll leave them there for now.
No one has come along to invade me yet, so I’ve had lots of time to work on reinforcing my cities. Having gunpowder helps a lot, and I think a majority of my citizens are happy, minus the annexed ones.
I’m not sure why games like this appeal to me aside from the fact that I find them very calming. Turn based means I’m not rushing around trying to get things done, and I have lots of time to go AFK if I’d like, or to ponder my next move. Civ is also one of those games that’s deeper than it looks. There are lots of political mechanics at work besides the simple ‘running a country’ image.
Next I’ll be wandering over to the right hand side of the map and slowly making a name for myself. There’s plenty of map left to uncover and I’m eager to explore.
As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!
I’ve been playing a lot of Civ5 and Endless Legend lately myself. I’ve found that I have to run Civ5 in compatibility mode for Win8 to get it to run anymore though. Kinda weird. I’ve got something like 1500 hours in Civ5 according to Steam, but I also know i’ve let it sit AFK for up to 3 days at a time sometimes, so I doubt that’s all real play time.
Endless Legend is a lot of fun also. Also a 4X game, but each faction is *very* different from the others. I also like how you can expand your cities to take advantage of resources and open up new buildings and such as the game progresses. It takes some getting used to, as it’s not really like any other 4X game I’ve played, but once it “clicks” it’s …. tbh, I think I’m actually preferring it to Civ5 right now.
I spent most of my high school years and beyond playing Civ. Once I got my hands on Civ 2: Test of Time I found it hard to go back to regular historical units. Fantasy games all the way! Must use dragons to conquer all the things!