We all know what music I’m referring to here – the marvellous and uplifting Baba Yetu choral music that greets you in Civilization 4. I don’t know how much it cost Firaxis to commission and record that music, but it gave Civ 4 a priceless sense of grandeur.
Civilization has always had an odd soundtrack. 4000BC [...]
Entries Tagged as 'games'
The Music of Civilization
August 25th, 2010 · 1 Comment
Tags: civilization · games · music
A Civilized Education
August 21st, 2010 · 3 Comments
I’ll say it: I don’t think Civilization is all that educational. It’s more educational than most videogames, certainly, but that’s not saying a lot.
There are four arguments made by the pro-educational camp:
Firstly, that Civilization teaches people about technologies, cultures, buildings, leaders, and of course, civilizations, from all over the world and across the sweep of history. [...]
Tags: adrian · civilization · edu · games
Democracy Games
August 18th, 2010 · 1 Comment
Here’s an article I wrote in late 2003 an epic ‘Democracy Game’ in Civilization 3 I was part of. If you’re already familiar with Civilization, you can skip most of the Just One More Turn… section – the good stuff begins again at All Talk.
A Clash in Civilization
It’s a busy time in this nation’s government. [...]
Tags: civilization · games
One More Turn
August 16th, 2010 · 3 Comments
It’s the mantra of any Civilization player – just one more turn. Whether you’re exploring uncharted territory, or researching a new technology, or anticipating a Wonder of the World that’s about to complete, there’s always a reason to play one more turn. And once you’ve played that turn, there’ll be another, and another, and before [...]
Tags: adrian · civilization · games · psych
Civilization and Storytelling
August 12th, 2010 · 6 Comments
I’ve only ever written fan fiction twice in my life, and both times it’s been for Sid Meier games.
Nurturing a civilization from a band of illiterate settlers to an empire that’s trading goods and blows across the world tends to make you feel rather attached to your people, and it’s hard not to be personally [...]
Tags: adrian · civilization · games · writing
Mssv gets Civilized
August 10th, 2010 · 7 Comments
Over the next couple of weeks, I’m dedicating Mssv to the strategy game series Civilization, in anticipation of Civilization V’s coming out in September. Civilization’s sheer depth and replayability has made it one of the most beloved strategy games in the world, and its longevity means that I’ve literally grown up with it.
Each game of Civilization [...]
Tags: adrian · civilization · games
Total Fail at the Kinect Galleries
August 8th, 2010 · 7 Comments
Apple
Yesterday, I went down to Covent Garden to check out the new Apple Store there (the largest in the world). About 300 people were queuing to pick up the iPhone 4, which is pretty astonishing given that it’s been out for a month now, but non-iPhone buyers could bypass the queue and go straight inside.
As [...]
Tags: adrian · apple · games · london · science
Educational games from 3500 years ago
June 13th, 2010 · 5 Comments
Freeborn children [of Greece] should learn as much of these things as the vast throngs of young in Egypt do with their alphabet. First as regards arithmetic, lessons have been devised there for absolute beginners based on enjoyment and games, distributing apples and garlands so that the same numbers are divided among larger and smaller [...]
Tags: edu · games · history · science
Reading on the iPad is fantastic
June 10th, 2010 · 5 Comments
Reading on the iPad is fantastic. I don’t care what other people have said, I just know that after using it for a fortnight, I can tell that it’s changed the way I’ll read forever.
I used to spend several hours a day in front of my iMac at home, using a combination of Google Reader [...]
Tags: adrian · apple · book · games · science · tech
Meaning and Magic on a Disney Cruise: Part 2
June 6th, 2010 · 1 Comment
Read Part 1 here…
Day 3: Valletta (Malta)
Malta isn’t a place that I would go out of my way to visit. Its capital, Valletta, has plenty of charm and interesting architecture – a legacy from the incessant invasions and occupations by Greeks, Romans, Sicilians, French, British, and a bunch of other people you haven’t heard of [...]