I can't believe it. Histroy repeats itself again. My life has again been disrupted by this little game called Civilization. 4 years ago, a friend (possibily an enemy, since he was the one who introduced me to this life-sucking game) introduced me to this turn-based game called Civilization III. What's the big deal? Well, I pretty much hate turn-based games. In fact, other than Civ III, I still hold true to my dislike for turn-based games. So, I really couldn't believe it when I got so hooked on Civ III. The addiction was so bad that at that time, I remember once when I played it all the way till about 5am in the morning... and I had to go to school at 7.20am! I don't know whether it's something I should be proud of...

4 years later, Civ IV is released. I've been waiting for it, checking the shops frequently, and finally, three days ago, it was released on 7 Nov. Since then, it has begun sucking away my time & life again. I really dunno what is it about that game. It's not particularly exciting. But yet so silently addicting. There's always this 'let's just build one more Wonder', or 'let's try to discover Fusion' before I stop playing. And before you know it, the hours have gone by. I'm so very very very very glad that this time, Civ IV is released during the holidays. Phew. If it had been released during term time, I cannot imagine the massive disruption it would have caused again.

For the uninitiated, Civ IV is basically a god-sim. You play god in developing and growing a Civilization. The main rival to Civ IV is Microsoft's Age of Empires series. I've tried AoE but never found it to be very fun. In Civ IV, you start off with the barbarian age and slowly expand your civilization from the one city to two to four to.. you get the picture. You decide what to research, what kind of government you want, which other civlizations to ally with or attack... and slowly, you grow your civilization to the future age. Along the way, you have to defend your borders, keep your people happy, develop new weapons.. it's all very fun (to me anyway!).

Last night, I destroyed France. Heh heh. It was quite satisfying. I'm playing Japan by the way. Tonight, I shall decide if Genghis Khan has lived long enough.... Stay tuned....