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I'm afraid that this post is going be to embarrassingly nostalgic.
Anyway, when I was on my way home from work today thinking about nothing particular, it suddenly struck me: Tonight could mark the end of an era.
Although I play and enjoy a variety of computer games, I believe - and I suppose a few people on this forum might agree - that Alpha Centauri is the best strategy game around. When it was released in early 1999, it took me quite a few weeks until I realised that I really liked it better than Civilization II. Since then, I have not come across any game that could compete. Given the promising previews and the adoption of several SMAC elements, tomorrow's release of Civilization IV might change that, although I probably won't be making up my mind about it for several weeks.
If Civilization IV should turn out to be the new champion of turn-based strategy, Alpha Centauri will have ruled the genre for more than six years. That's a long reign in this kind of industry and whether it's coming to an end or not, I feel like celebrating.
And what better way to celebrate than to play an all-night game of SMAC? I haven't done this for some time (certainly not on a weeknight), but I think I'm sentimental enough to do it tonight and I just passed by here to tempt a few of you to do the same. For me, it won't be anything like a farewell game (heck, I still play the original Railroad Tycoon now and then), but I do hope it will be something special. I don't know whether there will be a better game tomorrow, but tonight, October 24th, 2005, Alpha Centauri is still the best game to play!
Anyway, when I was on my way home from work today thinking about nothing particular, it suddenly struck me: Tonight could mark the end of an era.
Although I play and enjoy a variety of computer games, I believe - and I suppose a few people on this forum might agree - that Alpha Centauri is the best strategy game around. When it was released in early 1999, it took me quite a few weeks until I realised that I really liked it better than Civilization II. Since then, I have not come across any game that could compete. Given the promising previews and the adoption of several SMAC elements, tomorrow's release of Civilization IV might change that, although I probably won't be making up my mind about it for several weeks.
If Civilization IV should turn out to be the new champion of turn-based strategy, Alpha Centauri will have ruled the genre for more than six years. That's a long reign in this kind of industry and whether it's coming to an end or not, I feel like celebrating.
And what better way to celebrate than to play an all-night game of SMAC? I haven't done this for some time (certainly not on a weeknight), but I think I'm sentimental enough to do it tonight and I just passed by here to tempt a few of you to do the same. For me, it won't be anything like a farewell game (heck, I still play the original Railroad Tycoon now and then), but I do hope it will be something special. I don't know whether there will be a better game tomorrow, but tonight, October 24th, 2005, Alpha Centauri is still the best game to play!
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. As someone who, like many of us, have left SMAC and come back several times, I won't hang up my terraforming boots just yet. And who knows, maybe there will be a SMAC2 after all? But even if it is the END (weeps bitterly), just remember the words of Sister Miriam Godwinson: "The Righteous need not fear the Drumbeat of human progress". If Civ4 is really good enough to make us all forget about SMAC, then that's exactly what'll happen: We'll forget because we're so happy to have something even better. Human nature has its plus sides, and nostalgia, like boredom, is only an anticipation of blissful forgetfulness later.....
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