That would be Civilization V.  It was on sale for crazy cheap on Steam.  I basically don’t buy any games anymore unless they’re below $10 on Steam.  As I don’t feel as much like gaming as I did when I was younger, there are usually good games to be had from a few years ago cheap.

I just finished my first game; Romans, chieftain, huge map, continents, max opponents, normal speed.  Needless to say, I whooped some civilized ass and ended up with a science victory.  It took 16 hours.  The victory conditions seem pretty balanced.  I was only a few turns away from a culture victory and I had the UN already built even though I was too busy steamrolling over everyone to get the diplomacy victory.  My only regret is I didn’t get to attack with my giant death robot before the victory.

As with other Civilization games, this one is a giant time suck.  You will start playing only to realize that it is suddenly six hours later and past midnight and you still just want to do one more turn.  Ok, maybe another.  This is the last one, I swear.  Somebody take this computer away from me!

It’s been so long since I’ve played a Civ game that I don’t know what’s new and what’s not.  There are no stacking of military units anymore.  That seemed new to me.  There is also the ability to befriend a bunch of City-States which are computer players that don’t grow beyond the original city but can give you some cool bonuses if you’re nice to them.  There are no transport units anymore nor are there traders or diplomats.  Everything is done through diplomacy which seems a little too simplistic.  Cities now have built in defenses.  It actually takes some planning to conquer a city if you’re evenly matched scientifically.  The research tree seems more slimmed down than I remember it with far fewer dead end techs.

All in all, it’s a very entertaining game.  I’m sure I will waste days of my time playing it.  Not bad for $10.