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.