Sid Meier to light the way?

I’ve never been optimistic for strategy gaming on consoles. Having grown up playing them soley on PC, it pretty much has my mind set that RTS’s, TBS’s or sim-building stuff only work with mouse and keyboards. The thought of this particular genre and how it’s gaming evolves with complexity as well as new themes, their common features of economic management, diplomacy, law, population demands, technology advancement, yaddah yaddah yaddah… Things get more refined with upcoming titles. Seeing as you’ve got about 104 keys on a PC keyboard there’s always room for hundreds more mapped keys/inventories… growth for variety gaming elements.

One of the few that I’ve often enjoyed playing is Sid Meier’s Civ series. Quite frankly I’m surprised they dared to put strategy onto the less buttoned peripherals. So perhaps it’s going to be a dumbed down strategy? Am I going to find myself frowning upon it? Never the less I downloaded it with no high expectations.

First impressions? A bear hugged, minimal version of strategy gaming with reminisce to the chunky appearance of Warcraft III. This one was definitely structured for the 360, I know it’s the first time I’ve played this but the game play on a game pad feels naturally great! As usual we see the return of historic leaders whom we feel wonderful to meet or willing to crush asap. It’s always been amusing to see what Cleopatra, Chairman Mao or Napoleon would look like in our modern day. I WAS TOTALLY HOOKED!!!

Sid Meier’s Civilization games are reputed for turn base. In my opinion it could go down well for consoles.  Carcossone turned out alright. As for RTS? Personally I don’t know when I’ll ever accept one unless it’s PC, Command and Conquer 3 : Tiberium Sun just makes me frustrated and want to scratch my eyes out! *Stamps on the game box* I truly think Civilization Revolution may spark some new tastes for the console crowd or those who have been missing some GOOD STRATEGY (me included!). It had been too long that strategy gaming was out of my reach because of PC hardware advancement. Perhaps Sid Meier has lit the way for future developers to put more strategy gaming onto consoles.

Definitely getting this next after I’ve finished GTA IV and Lost Planet. Watch out people, Shaz will one day become ruler of the world! Bwah ha ha! “All your base are belong to me!“