C'mon, someone say yes to this, make me happy...
Anyway, I'm terribly addicted to Civilization 3 which came out a couple of months ago, and is the most fun you can have with your pants on.
Hehe, I got that one from a radio station...
It's a turn-based strategy game - kinda like Age of Empires, Command and Conquer etc. but instead of the game constantly moving, you take your turn, then the computer etc. (you don't have to wait long). And it's just unbelievably good fun to guide your tiny little village from 4000 B.C. to 2050 A.D. into a world superpower.
It's all quite realistic too, yet at the same time good fun, and you even learn plenty about history too.
14 different civilizations you can be, each with different strategies and you have to deal with other civilizations as well, and decide whether to stay at peace with them and trade etc. form alliancies with them, or just blow the hell out of em!
I could go on forever about the features - like you can even capture enemy cities with a cultural takeover - ie a city from a rival civilaztion is so impressed with your scientific and cultural achievements they switch sides to you... kinda like how the US is infiltrating the world through TV.
Brilliant fun anyway - one of those games you can spend 7 hours on and not realize where the time went...
The series actually started in 1990 which I still rate as one of the best games of all time, number 2 was released in 96 and that was superb as well, and number 3 is so addictive it should come with a warning label!
I read somewhere it was described as 'like playing multiple games of chess with multiple opponents on multiple levels' - gets the brain going anyway that's for sure.
Anyway if I've got you interested the official site is
www.civ3.com and a great fan site is
www.civfanatics.com ... anyway I'm going off to play it some more!