This Week: Civ V: Gods & Kings and KSP
I've been on a turn-based strategy kick this week, mostly started off by all of the buzz around A Brave New World. I remembered that I'd bought a copy of Gods & Kings months ago and never fired it up.
Civilization V: Gods & Kings
Now that I have, I love it! The changes are subtle but clever - units' hit points are now percentages out of a hundred, leading to more nuanced battles and longer-lasting armies. The addition of religion is also very clever, with strategic
I'm also noticing small touches that I hadn't before. They may have been in the original Civ V, but if they were I missed them. Whilst at war with Austria, I spoke with their leader to suss out peace options and see what they had to offer. I was winning, I knew that, but I didn't expect the game to know it!
I know it's only a small thing, but it gave the moment a lot of heart for me*.
KSP
I've also dived dipped a toe back into Kerbal Space Program. I say dipped a toe - they've added some new features in a recent update; the first components of a career mode, improved stabilisation, some optimisation.
• Crew Management: Select your Kerbal astronauts from a list of applicants, and track the status of the ones you have in the new Astronaut Complex Facility. Also, pick and choose the crew for new missions before launch with the new crew assignment panels.
• Updated Construction Facility Scenes: Admire the view with completely rehauled and updated Vehicle Assembly and Space Planes Hangar buildings
• New Flight Control System: Re-built from scratch, the new Stability Augmentation System (or more popularly known as Sickness Avoidance Solution) should be a drastic improvement for new and old players
• Terrain Additions: Many planets and moons around the Kerbal Solar System have been updated to feature beautiful new landscapes, featuring procedurally-generated craters and little hills and valleys, which are even more fun to land (or crash) on than before
You can read about it in full here.
I love this game, though it's a bit of a rabbit-hole, much like Minecraft. I'm looking forward to getting to Minmus and Mun to check out their new landscapes.
* Though not enough for me to spare their wretched "empire".
In The Index: Civilization V: Gods & Kings | Civilization V: A Brave New World | Kerbal Space Program | Minecraft