Neptune's Pride

The almost-final frontier.

It may not look like much, but Neptune's Pride has already been awarded one of the highest achievements a game can have on a PC. No, it hasn't been installed on the C Drive, it's a web-based game, and it has gotten its tab pinned. Can you believe it?

Well, it would probably help if I explained what Neptune's Pride was. In short, it's a 4X game set in a randomly generated galaxy, full of aliens with one goal: own the majority of stars.

Who, if anyone, will work together and remain at peace until the inevitable backstabbing must occur? How will your galactic empire develop? What aspect will it flourish in? Wealth? Science? Huge numbers of warships?

I don't have a clue, but I'm looking forward to finding out.

Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords

"We have discovered a new type of energy pattern that will benefit our economy by +1 percent."

I should have known. Why didn't I think about the title just a little bit harder? Why did it take so long for me to realise that Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords was Civilization in space? Well, Alpha Centauri is Civilization in space, but you get the point.

GalCiv II is the next frontier. We've conquered the lands, now we need to conquer the galaxy. Ignore that I've failed in every attempt to win any Civ game, even those not on the 1001 list. We're in space now. More freedom to move around without bumping into a single other alien race, right? Should be a doddle.

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

The future of mankind?

Civilization... but in space.

I don't 'like' but don't 'don't like' Civilization. I like space. Does that mean Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is finally the 4X title that I can sink my teeth into, allowing me to soar through the skies like a SpaceX rocket? Or will my time be more like a flat-earther in a steamship?

The last, best hope for mankind has gotten all 'human-y' and have fallen out with each other, their colony ship exploding and sending the survivors to seven separate parts of the Planet, which is a bit of a weird way to explain how there are seven factions vying for control over an alien planet, but that's what we've got to work with, so run with it.

Oh, also, the Planet is alive and teeming with alien natives. Got that? Good.

Civilization

London has fallen.

The joy of going through a list like this is that I've essentially forced myself into playing games that I would usually avoid, and if not 'avoid like the plague' then 'avoid because I just don't have time'. Or, at least, that what I keep telling myself...

I don't have time to get into Civilization. Properly, certainly. I don't have time to master its tech tree or to learn the best strategy for a given situation or to advance my civilization to the stars via all kinds of routes through some 6 thousand years of history.

But I do have time to see how far I can fumble my way through it. I do have time to see what it's about. I may not finish it successfully, if at all, but I can see how it develops from turn one to turn one thousand and one.

And so, the story of my civilization begins...