It seems no matter how hard I try I cannot finish an rpg! I get into the stories and start to get attached to the characters and then out of nowhere I'm done with it! I'll try to pick up the controller and continue the quest but it just won't happen. Like an old man trying to get it up, the interest is there but no matter how hard I try it just won't happen.

For the longest time I thought it was just that I didn't want to spend my off time from work playing something that would not come to a conclusion any time soon. That was shot down however when I got laid off from my job and while soaking up EI i bought rouge galaxy. So I get about 20 or so hours in and then it happened. My hands went limp my mind went blank and I havent played with it since...

It makes me feel like less of a gamer.

Anywho! Anyone else have this problem? It's ok to talk about it. It's better to get this kind of thing out in the open.

On my way out the door to work this morning I realized I didn't have my pass. After searching the house it was nowhere to be found. In order to get a new one I had to call my supervisor...which is easier said then done. He's (my supervisor) is over seventy years old and can't hear or remember anything. It's also very likely that he has alzheimer's. During
the two hours it took me to get in touch with him I decided to play one of the games from the genesis era. Warrior of Rome 2 baby! This will also be the first in a series that I call "Then
and now". You know how you would play a game as a kid and think it was the best thing ever, then one day when your older you decide to play it again and it's not quite as good as you remember? Well that's what I wanna cover here! What my impressions where then and what they are now. I think it will be interesting to see the differences. So here we go! Warrior of rome 2 baby!



Then

It all dropped on a day that my cousin, aunt and I went down to the local video rental store called "Balls". Yes, it was called "Balls" I shit you not. Anyway, after entering "balls" my cousin and I went straight for the video game section. On route we were distracted by a large bin with genesis games for sale. It wasn't long before we were standing in the the bin digging with collapsable shovels looking for the gem that had to be there. When I was close to giving up I found it "Warrior of rome 2" It's gleaming plastic case with muscular roman man riding muscular roman steed. To my suprise when I flipped it over it was a strategy game and not a cheap zelda rip off. At this time I loved strategy games because they were the most in depth gaming experience you could have. So without any hesitation I took it the counter and never looked back.

After getting back to my cousins place the dart for the bedroom and pop it in. The title screen goes trough it's phases as we tap every button possible to try and bypass this torturous waiting game...Then finally we come to the menu and we are confronted with so many options it makes our heads spin...not your measely start new game or continue...but real options! Of course being as impatient as we were we blindly started a new game. The screen lights up with our new playground and we're amazed by the technical look of the whole thing. After a few minutes we realized we had no idea what in the hell to do. For god sakes we didn't even know how to move a unit!



Also who would of knew that A unit was represented by a tent with a bicycle flag! Looking trough the instuction manual was like looking trough an encyclopedia (funny considering civs has one lol) but eventually we learned enough to get by. Not really knowing our true cause we would just send units randomly across the screen looking for enemies. Sometimes we would kick ass and other times we would sit scour the ends of the map not really knowing our heads from our asses. In all truth we just loved the fact we had this much control and this whole world even if we really didn't understand it. We loved the game but not really for what it had to offer in terms of fun and gameplay.

A friend and I have been playing alot of lan beyond the sword. It's pretty damn cool with all the units, features, etc. Thinking back on all the civs before this one I find that 2 is easily the best of the series. One of course was not that in depth but fun for the time because it was innovative. If they tired for too much detail that early on they would of just ended up making another romance of the three kingdoms. In other words a boring ass game. If I wanted that much strategy I would take over a third world country and try to run that. Now we come to the greatest of them all!

Civs 2 seems to have just enough content to be a deep strategy experience without being to overwhelming. Everything flowed at just the right pace, some kickass units that have since been left out, It all just seemed right! Plus, there's nothing like melting the ice caps and watching your enemies drown in radioactive waste. Why did that take that feature away? Why does nuclear waste go away in only a few turns? Granted that time goes by pretty quickly! It's just not that satisfying to blow your foes to dust anymore! If they added glowing radioactive children units then I would be satisfied all over again.

Alot of people may disagree with what I'm about to say but what the hell! I also think that the PS1 version is the best. The menu navigation was pefectly fluid. The overall quality seems better as well. After playing that version and then buying the pc version I felt like I was playing a watered down version of the game. Suprising since it's usually the other way around. This makes me really excited to see what Sid and the gang can do with the new console Civs. If it's anything like 2 then I Think we're all in for a kickass time.

PLEASE NOTE : I could talk about civs 3 but why waste your time? The game was boring enough to play so you don't need to read about it.