Blame Casey

Yesterday evening my Sims 2 crashed to the desktop. After an hour of trying to resurrect all my fake people, I pretty much said “screw it. This is a game. It’s supposed to be fun and I are not having fun.”

Then I saw my Civilization IV game just teetering on the stack of crap on the corner of my desk. I didn’t like it back in December when I got it for Christmas, and so I lent it to Casey. He loved it, bought it for himself, and sent my copy back to me. (See how law-abiding we are! ::pats self on back for not pirating software::)

So there it was, right where I “put it away”.  Because in the world of my desk “putting it away” actually means “finding a place to set it where it won’t cause the whole stack to topple.”  It’s as though I work in the middle of a giant monkey-infested software Jenga game.

Thus I broke it out and started playing.   It’s a very good game–as long as you don’t come into it hard and fast on the heels of another turn-based strategy game.   Which is what I tried to do in December, which is what frustrated me.   I still have problems with the AI being frustratingly limited, but whatever.  I can get over that.

The best thing, though, and the thing I’m here to actually tell you about once I’m done sidetracking myself with ponderances of my messy workspace, is that the soundtrack to Civ IV is off the charts phenomenal.   There are EIGHT HOURS of some of the best, most relaxing and atmospheric pieces I’ve ever heard.   Much of it is classical, some of it is composed directly for the game.   All of it was spectacular enough to motivate me.   I spent 20 minutes last night copying the music files into iTunes.  It’s that great.

Playing this game is like playing a pavilion at Epcot.