In part 1 of this series, I covered games I played on a Commodore 64, Amiga and at the arcade. Part 2 is devoted to those games I have played on the PC.
By and large, the games I have played the most on the PC have been strategy games, but there is one, huge exception—the final entry in my list below:
Outpost – This game involved loading a spaceship, picking a star system to which to flee, and building a colony on a planet there. You gathered resources, did scientific research, and hoped you didn’t run out of resources before reaching the ability to travel to another planet to start all over. Sure the game had some bugs, but it was still fun to play, and I’m always looking for another game just like it.
Master of Orion – A turn based strategy game with space ships and building colonies, taking over worlds and fighting aliens. I don’t remember which version of this I used to play, but it was a great game for chewing up a Saturday afternoon.
Command and Conquer – This game introduced me to the concept of real-time strategy games. I probably bought the first five versions of it (I see there are now 17 (Wow!)). Again, you gathered resources and built bases, but this time, you had to worry about getting attacked from up to 7 different directions and things were always moving. I never got into playing this game on-line, but I do miss playing it from time to time. I noticed that they are offering the complete 17 game series for $49 on line now, and now they’re all Windows 7 compatible. I’m very tempted.
Medieval Total War – This turn based strategy game is my current fall back when I want to play a strategy game. I have both version 1 and version 2, but I prefer version 1. I also prefer staying in the strategic view, and almost never play the individual battles. Probably because I prefer strategy over tactics, and got tired of the computer always kicking my ass in the battles.
Civ 3 – This turn based-strategy game is the game both I and my wife would fall into for days when we played it, and would actually elbow each other off the computer so we could have our turns. I can’t get Civ 3 to install on Windows 7, and I’ve tried Civ 4, but it just isn’t as good as Civ 3. It is one I truly miss.
World of WarCraft – For 21 months, from Christmas 2004 until October 2006, I was obsessed with World of WarCraft. I played it a ridiculous number of hours. I ran 9 separate characters up to level 60 (which was the top level at the time): 8 Ally and 1 Horde. For a while, I led a guild with 200+ members. I mapped my character progress on a spreadsheet so I could track what day I leveled each one up, and knew exactly how much rest each one had at any given time, so I could level more quickly. Only when I got all my characters to 60 did I try to run bigger dungeons. It turned out that I was a pretty horrible player in the dungeons. I rarely knew my characters well enough to use their skill properly, and I pulled aggro when I shouldn’t. I had crappy gear, and people got really pissed at me every time I said ‘Need’ on a roll because I wasn’t serious about getting better. In the end, I gave this up because my wife was pregnant with the twins, and I just didn’t enjoy getting yelled at all the time on-line. There are definitely times I miss it, but I do not have near enough time or energy to get back into it, and I’m afraid if I did, I’d lose focus on my writing.
In the next part, I’ll talk about the console games I’ve played, and what I think I’ll be playing in the future.
