It all began with Ardania...

Majesty, then Majesty: Northern Expansion and then Majesty Gold - I bought all of them new in early 2000 and onwards as each became available. I played with my nephew, Zack. He was a little boy then. Majesty was a game I didn't have to explain or apologize for. It was kid friendly without being one of those games Zack came to call "educational" as a code for Mother approved.

Now Majesty 2 is out. Has been out a few years actually. I'd love to see what they have done as an encore to a game I already rate as one of the best for fun and ease of play. A simple game which does not need an entire day to play a round or complete a few missions. Most games the downfall is length and finding a good place to stop. Majesty comes in a series of missions with definite beginnings and endings. Connected to a central story but not turn based where a game can be unending.

Majesty is the fantasy simulation game where you build your own kingdom. The problem is... your citizens don't just co-operate the way they do in other strategy, simulation and city building games. In Majesty they can decide not to help you at all.

The little characters in Majesty won't work unless you pay them

You may find Majesty is a bit more real than you like. The game play is pretty simple. You won't need to struggle to understand how the game works or what you need to do.

But, monsters will attack. They come from outside your kingdom, wandering in. However, they also come from right under your nose, the sewers inside your kingdom. At any time a big rat will step out right into your village and start destroying something. You aren't usually as prepared as you thought you were. Plus, your people may not be helping you when you need them.

In that way, the game of Majesty is not the light weight it seems.

From Caesar's Rome you can travel in time and space to China, Egypt or Greece.

Caesar IV (4) didn't live up to the greatness of Caesar III. My only real problem is just the way the game moves with the keyboard and mouse. It feels awkward. It looks great, it has fresh challenges and overall it is a good upgrade to Caesar games past. I just didn't enjoy it as much as other games in the Caesar series.

There are other games in the series which are not extensions of Caesar IV but individual games which can be played on their own. Each is based in a different time period. So, give them a try, become a time and place traveler while building cities and not getting picked off by armies, locusts and other problems.

I have played:

• Caesar II (I found it as a free download and was curious to see how the old version played)
• Caesar III
• Caesar IV
• Pharaoh (with the Queen of the Nile expansion)
• Emperor
• Master of Olympus

Of them all Caesar III is still my favourite for just the simple, easy game play. There was a strategy to figure out and the balance is tipped easily enough that you do have to adjust your strategy when you try to do things a slightly different way. I've yet to complete all the levels - which is a good thing because I don't want a game which doesn't give a challenge and is all over in a week.

I am the Extreme City Planner

What do you most enjoy about city building games? For me it is the time to play god, to arrange a city just the way I want it. I am the city planner. I design my city while the game tries to kill me off with advancing armies, sneak attacks, crime waves, poverty, lack of water or other resources, tributes to Caesar and Rome, a demand for frivolous things like entertainment and decorations and the mood of my workers.

Second to city planning I try to find the balance of conditions and resources which will create a thriving village, city or town. Caesar is a good game for changing the conditions and limiting or switching resources. This makes the game challenging just on the city building level.

However, city building is not enough. You can't neglect or take your military for granted. In the early levels you can manage but as the game progresses you really need to find the best way to quickly build up your city and your ability to protect your city too. All while not going bankrupt. Caesar doesn't like it when you run out of money and can't send him gifts and resources which he demands. If you fail... he sends his armies to attack you. Your city is destroyed and you - start the level over.

Aren't you glad it's just a game sometimes?

Stronghold is one of the most under rated games.

Stronghold has it all: city building, fighting and defence campaigns and it's a simulation of the Middle Ages.

Being great at city buildings, gathering resources and timing the growth of your cities will not be enough. If you've been a great war machine, fighting off armies on land, air and sea, that won't be enough either. Stronghold pushes you to become both a builder and a fighter.

To win at Stronghold you need to build, fight and thrive all at the same time. The early levels are there to show you how the game controls work and give you a mild taste of the challenge to come. I enjoyed the city building, it's my favourite part.

I'm not a great fighter

The trouble playing Stronghold (for me) were the military campaigns. I was happy getting my village set up but just as it began to thrive I'd need the fighting force which I had not given much attention to. Stronghold is more realistic that way. The battles don't wait for you to be ready.

I do have a mild god complex

One feature of Stronghold which I especially have fun with is the ability to choose to be a nice ruler or a mean and heartless rulers. In your kingdom you are the woman (or man) in charge. Do you build nice things, make the village and kingdom pretty and keep everyone happy or ... Do you build devices to discipline and torture your people and keep them working for you out of fear?

Don't think you have to be nice. These are not real people, just game characters created from code and pixels. No one is watching over your shoulder to tell about your mistreatment of your village. At any time you can change your ways and offer them some pretty flowers. At least for a little while. Just a tease or a little misdirection to get keep them from leaving the village, dying or other minor but annoying things which would inconvenience you.

Of course, just as you have your villagers in line there is an army camped outside your boundaries just lining up to attack your castle and destroy everything you have built up.

There are women gamers who play DnD too. (People sometimes shorten the name, Dungeons and Dragons, to DnD).

There is so much to a game I can’t begin to describe and explain all of it. But, I do think this is a great game for women and families especially. It may have a reputation as a geeky game for a bunch of college boys. That is so limiting.

I played Dungeons & Dragons with my family in the 1980′s. My nephew played with young men and a few young women in high school too. I know there are women players out there. I would love to be part of a regular group of all women DnD players.

Essentially a role playing board game.

To play the game you need a group of people, at least three. One is the Dungeon Master and the other two are players.

The players create a character by choosing some elements and rolling a dice for others. This way no character is ever just like another character. The random chance of rolling the dice brings some unpredictability to the game. Not everything is in your control and levelling up becomes more important as your characters advances in the game. You will find yourself learning new skills as well. Map making and orientation are two great things I learned more about as I played DnD.

Then there is the Dungeon Master. It may sound sinister or creepy but the Dungeon Master (shortened to the DM at times) is the one who plans the route of the game, literally. The Dungeon Master creates a world, a campaign or a map (depending on how much time is available for the game) and the players venture into it.

Players explore the map one virtual step at a time. The DM has set up traps, treasure and monster for them to find along the way. Each step of the game can be a surprise, a puzzle to solve or players could muck up their map making and become very lost and confused. This is why you can’t just step into a game of DnD without setting things up ahead and learning at least something about map making.

I haven’t bought a new video game in several years. I used to love picking up a new game, struggling with the packaging and then… loading up the game for the first time. Magic on screen.

My nephew was visiting this week. He prefers using a mouse when he plays games on his laptop. When the mouse wore out on Thursday I took him to the computer store Friday. I decided I would treat the cash poor university student to a new mouse.

Walking up to pay for the mouse, he stopped to look at the software – games just out. I kept walking and then, on impulse, I turned back and asked him if the store still carried PC games. So off we trekked. They were just a few aisles over. That’s where I found Civilization V, the gold edition. All shiny new and just waiting for me to buy it.

Civilization V is Like Finding an Old Friend

I have played Civ (the short form) since version III. I still have the older games (II and IV). Of them all, I had the most game play out of Civ III. It was simple to get into the game, easy to understand and it didn’t have any trouble loading and not crashing. Civ IV was good but the game play was awkward, to me. I tried it a few times, went back to try it a few times over the years. But, the game has mainly taken up space on my shelves.

Civilization V is much better. It has flow, it has far more detailed graphics and there are more details to building your city, growing it and evolving technologies than the old Civilization III game. Yet, it has that simple game play. I was able to load the game, spend a few minutes in the tutorial to find what was where and then start a real game. It has been easy to catch up. There is a game guide on the screen if I need to get extra details about finding followers for the religion I invent or how to get my cities trading good and so on.

I’m really glad Civilization V has brought back many of the best things of Civ III while being a nice upgrade to the look and strategy of the game overall. I’m glad I went mouse shopping with my nephew that day. He got the hardware he needed and I found an old friend in a new, updated package.