Sunday, February 10, 2008

These Settlers Own Me

Back in 2006, I wrote about Caesar IV, the computer game that had temporarily taken over my life at the time. Since that time, I've barely gamed at all. Until I got this new laptop, that it. SodaBoy pressured me into installing Caesar IV pretty much instantly after receiving the new computer, because his old system had only met the minimum system requirements, and we'd never seen all the bells and whistles. Curiosity and all. Inevitably, we both got into playing the game again.

Then, SodaBoy took it up a notch: he bought me a new game. I didn't even know Settlers existed, but apparently various more primitive versions have been available since the early 90s. And it is definitely my kind of game: build a city, gather resources, produce goods, trade with other cities, and protect the settlers. So many possible scenarios, so little time...


Not that I haven't dedicated some serious play time to this game. I played for hours both Friday and Saturday nights, even dreaming about the game in the wee hours this morning. That's always my cue that it's time to back off from a game and reclaim my mental space. But there is also the little voice telling me I should go ahead and play tonight, too: it's still the weekend, after all. Which little voice will win? To some extent it depends on SodaBoy's selection of crappy television programming tonight. Because playing a computer game can't be worse than staring vacantly at telly swill. Right?

3 comments:

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

This is something I have utterly no comprehension of, but you may have to take on PB!

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

Nice buildings! Do you get to choose them?

BerryBird said...

Mary, I don't think of this game as especially competitive. I also don't know if Piano Boy would care for the game--it's not like any of the other games I've seen him play. He might find it too slow. Or he might love it. Who knows?

The buildings are very nice, as are the landscape and climactic effects. Each type of building looks different, but all of the same type look alike. You lay out the buildings, and then Settlers move in.