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IntvGene
04-09-2004, 05:10 PM
One of the genres that never saw such a great success on the consoles had to be the "God" games. Most of this had to do with the controls on the consoles, but also the nature of the computers (and computer users). In these games you could set up experiments, study the cause/effect, etc. Although broad, it really incorporates everything from SimCity, Populous, Little Computer People, etc. Some people would limit it only to the true god games where you control a diety. Anyway, let's keep the discussion broad. Any favorites?

I must admit, I've always been a SimCity fan. And, that single "FUND" money cheat really wrecked my experience. Still a great series, but haven't played the newer ones too much. I've always had an itch for urban planning, I guess.

Populous was something that I never really got into. I just found it so tedious... lowering land everywhere... I can admire the game for its vision, just not it's execution, but it's a problem that has plagued Peter Molyneux for years.

Little Computer People was a game that I stumbled across much later, and not during my old computing days. Quite impressive though. I liked how each disk had a different personality or "digital DNA", given by the varying serial numbers on the disks.... amazing.. in 1985!

Funkenstein
04-12-2004, 06:20 PM
I was somewhat fond of Black & White. It's not really as in-depth as the sim games, but it's fun to be able to smash things willy nilly. The idea of being a benevolent or malevolent god was tempting because the worst you could do in Sim-City was burn things or set the spider robot loose. Also, in any Sim-City type game you always hit the wall where your civilization has grown TOO much and you don't spend any time improving it because there's no more space or even improvements to be made. You just sit there and wait for an earthquake or something and then fix the damage. It loses it's fun when you evolve from creation to just maintainance.

On an unrelated note, I always thought the A.I. on the beasts in B&W was questionable. You could teach it things through negative or positive reinforcement and it would behave accordingly. I don't know how I managed to do it, but for some reason my beast was partial to barreling into the middle of town, picking up villagers, farting on them, then whipping them into the ocean or a mountain.

Daria
04-12-2004, 06:39 PM
I've always enjoyed Sim City games, I can't say I'm very good at them. But I enjoy creating little cities and vainly trying to make the flourish.

Afterlife was a fun Sim CIty clone but it lacked some of the depth. Caesar 3 was cool too, just playing Sim City in a Roman setting was awesome.

I played Black and White, but really didn't get into it. Not to say I wasn't impressed, it's one of the reasons I'm looking so forward to Fable.
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tom
04-12-2004, 07:17 PM
I still like the first one the best: M.U.L.E.

calthaer
04-12-2004, 07:51 PM
Being "good" at SimCity really is sort of relative. Having the goal of loosing Godzilla on the city is certainly a valid way to play the game :evil:

Black & White sort of didn't do it for me, either. I actually thought that the creature was a bit more of a nuisance than anything else. Getting neutral is fairly difficult, too. You normally had only two options in any given quest...either shower love and flowers on people, or destroy them mercilessly. If you just hurt people who don't worship you and love those who do, you end up more good than evil.

I like Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri or the Master of Orion series when it comes to those sort of build / strategy type games.

§ Gideon §
04-13-2004, 01:39 AM
Do you consider Lemmings to be a "god game"? If so, it's one of my favorites.

Daria
04-13-2004, 01:59 AM
Do you consider Lemmings to be a "god game"? If so, it's one of my favorites.

I consider Lemmings a puzzle game but it's still a lot of fun either way. (:
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Funkenstein
04-14-2004, 02:01 AM
Lemmings is awesome, but I'm not sure if you could categorize it as a "god" game, purely because then you'd kind of have to include Warcraft and it's ilk in as well.

Has anyone else played "The Humans?" It's a lemmings-style game except you're working with little cavemen instead of little green dudes. I remember liking it better than Lemmings, but can't seem to remember why.

TheSmirk
04-15-2004, 10:18 AM
Has anyone else played "The Humans?" It's a lemmings-style game except you're working with little cavemen instead of little green dudes. I remember liking it better than Lemmings, but can't seem to remember why.

Yes I've played the Humans (http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?gameid=525) it is a pretty cool game, it just has a different style, I also like Black and White, and the ol' Sim Cities.....anyone else remember LucasArts' Afterlife (http://www.technofile.com/articles/afterlife.html) ??? That was a cool one as well

Daria
04-16-2004, 05:10 PM
anyone else remember LucasArts' Afterlife (http://www.technofile.com/articles/afterlife.html) ??? That was a cool one as well

Yup. Pretty sure I mentioned it a few posts up. :P
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