What I Want In A Video Game

[omorka]

Okay. Let's lay this out on the table:

1) Games that require aim are right out. I can't shoot straight for crap. My physical aim with an air rifle is significantly better than my aim with either a game controller or a mouse.

2) I like games that require long-term planning and slow build-up.

3) I'm really not all that into combat. I understand it needing to occur occasionally, but the ability to avoid it through diplomacy or stealth is really a good thing for me. But turn-based combat is infinitely preferable to real-time.

4) Character development is great, although I can handle a game without it if the strategy element is compelling enough and the world is interesting.

5) Puzzle games rarely work for me for more than a few hours total. Either I've figured it out by then, or I get bored., or I get frustrated and abandon it.


My idea of the Best Game Ever is StarCon II, but I like playing it with a college-aged boy to do the impossible combat bits, at least until the mothership is kitted out and I can blow Ur-Quan out of the sky in three volleys. I am also very, very fond of Civs III and IV. Majesty was a lot of fun, if kind of trivial. Age of Empires II had its irksome aspects, but overall I liked it. Warcraft I and II and Starcraft, ditto. (Warcraft III has never done much for me, although I'm not sure why.)

My favorite game, as opposed to the one I think is the best, is still Masters of Orion II. MOO I was also a lot of fun, if kind of primitive by current standards.

Which bings me to the question: I'm looking for a new favorite waste of time to keep in the iPod Touch. Has anyone seen anything MOO-like, or, failing that, either StarCon-like or Civ-like, out there in the wacky mishmash of iPhone apps?

Comments

[shefsatyr.livejournal.com]

I guess It's closer to MOO than Star Con but have you played Sins of a Solar Empire?

[cifarelli]

Sadly I know nothing about apps on the iPods so can not help with the primary question (though can also give sins of a solar empire a good thumbs up for a non-ipod recommendation).

Warcraft III relative to previous warcrafts and starcraft shifted the gameplay focus from a mix of macro and micro management to heavy on the micro management. In the previous games you could ignore the special units that required the extreme micromanagement to get the most of. Macro managing to create a large force with good unit selection and telling them all 'attack anything that moves' would do just fine. In warcraft III even the basic units had special abilites that had to be activated and micro managed. It compensated by giving fewer tougher troops to make it easier, but it still was totally a micromanagement game. Will wait and see where starcraft II ends up on that design element.

[princejvstin.livejournal.com]

Sins of a Solar Empire is much more MOO than Star Con--but its lots of fun.