Great Games: Alpha Centauri
If I had made my “great games” list before I tried Alpha Centauri, one of Sid Meier’s Civilization games would have made the list instead. The Civilization games have you taking a human civilization from the stone age through the present day, in the process warring with other nations, trading, discovering new science and exploring the world. They blend combat strategy, resource management, diplomacy and a whole lot of thinking ahead.
And everything that the Civ games do, Meier’s Alpha Centauri does even better. Alpha Centauri is Civ on an alien world, with humans struggling to colonize a strange planet and uncover its secrets. The brilliance of Alpha Centauri that really makes it stand out from the Civ games is the factions. Instead of interchangable (or nearly so) nationalities, the factions in Alpha Centauri are based on differing outlooks about how a society should be run: you have the theocrats (”The Believers”), the militarists (”The Spartans”), the technocrats (”The University”), the capitalists, the humanitarians and so on. So each faction plays differently, whether you’re playing as them or against them. This lets you choose the faction that best suits the way you play these games–me, I like the University, since my strategy in Civ was always to develop better technologies faster than everyone else as a primary goal. Not only that, but when you’re negotiating with opposing factions, you really have to keep their desires in mind–the Spartans really respect military might, while the capitalist faction are always open to a bribe.
The other great difference that sets apart Alpha Centauri from the Civs is the uncoupling of governmental systems. In previous Civ games, you chose your system of government–democracy, monarchy, theocracy or whatever–and got all of the advantages and disadvantages of that system. Alpha Centauri separates out different aspects of governmental systems and lets you mix and match, so that you can have a democratic government with a command economy, or a theocratic government with a free market, or whatever. These choices, once again, really let you play the game you want to play it.
The science-fiction aspect of the game is kinda cool, too. For instance, you can launch satellites into orbit, which is really advantageous late in the game. But ultimately, a lot of the sci-fi stuff is a skin on old Civ concepts–you develop military units that are functionally identical to the old phalanxes, chariots and musketeers from Civ, for instance. But there’s nothing wrong with that; Alpha Centauri is a great game built on older great games.
Ultimately, Alpha Centauri is a game that I bought back in college and still play regularly–what more needs to be said?
Games | Comment (0)Enhancing Profitability
From a New York Times article about Blockbuster:
The company said in the filing that it planned to modify its popular Total Access plan before the end of the year to “strike the appropriate balance between continued subscriber growth and enhanced profitability.”
That may be the best phrasing of “we’re jacking up our prices” that I’ve ever seen.
News | Comment (0)Inflation in Zimbabwe
Okay, now for real news: Zimbabwe’s economy continues to be a disaster, thanks to Mugabe and his people. I found this illustration of inflation, from a recent New York Times article, particularly interesting:
Prices change daily, if not hourly; one news report last week noted that golfers at a Harare country club were paying for their 19th-hole drinks before teeing off after discovering that prices were rising while they were on the course.News | Comment (0)
Paris Hilton Babble
The only thing more annoying than all of the news about Paris Hilton is all of the people bitching about all of the news about Paris Hilton. You’re only contributing to the problem, folks. (And yes, I’m fully aware that, by bitching about the people bitching about all of the news about Paris Hilton, I’m contributing to the problem too, so this will be my last word on the subject.)
News, Rant | Comment (0)Greatest Video Games of All Time
I just installed a copy of ScummVM on my PSP, which lets me play wonderful old LucasArts games like “Sam and Max” and “Day of the Tentacle” in the subway. As I said to Christmas, these are some of the greatest video games of all time, and it’ll be wonderful to have a chance to play them again.
Which got me thinking: what would my personal list of the greatest video games of all time be? So here it is. In parentheses after each game is the system I played the game on. The games are in no particular order. In the future, I’ll write a little blurb about each game and link ‘em back to this list.
- Alpha Centauri (Mac)
- The Fool’s Errand (Mac)
- Chrono Trigger (SNES)
- The Lurking Horror (Mac)
- Metal Gear Solid (PSX)
- Day of the Tentacle (Mac)
- Final Fantasy VIII (PSX)
- Deus Ex (Mac)
- The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (GB)
- Amber: Journeys Beyond (Mac)
People who know video games will notice that these games are all old–nothing more recent than the turn of the millennium, I believe. It’s not that I believe video games used to be better than they are today, not at all. But I think “greatness” for video games, like for any other medium, can only be judged with a bit of a historical vantage point. These are all games I still want to play again, even 10 or more years after their release. If I drew up another list in 10 years, I think a bunch of recent games (Beyond Good & Evil, possibly God of War, possibly Oblivion) would probably be on it.
Games, Geek | Comment (0)Link: Optical Illusion
Over on Kisrael there’s a truly amazing optical illusion. It’s a dancing woman, who can spin either clockwise or counterclockwise depending on how you look at it. It took me a lot of work to get her to go from clockwise to counterclockwise (hint: focus on the feet), but once you do, it’s amazingly convincing.
Links | Comment (0)Link: Everyone Hates Flanders
David Byrne and Homer Simpson singing “Everyone Hates Ned Flanders”. Funny stuff.
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