master of puppets!

Been a break week for me. Finally had the time to lock myself at home and just do my own stuff. I managed to land my hands on two games recently thanks to Zijian. They are both updated versions of my all-time fav classics! Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Sid Meier's Colonization!

I first played Colonization way back in 1994 when my Godpa got me the game from the States. I think not much people in Singapore play this game. The common one people play is the more popular Civilization (yes, they are different games). Unlike Civilization, Colonization takes place from the year 1492, when Christopher Columbus discovered the New World (modern day North and South America) and sparked off the Age of Discovery, to the American War of Independence. You're basically in charge of the expedition and the aim is the win the war. But somehow or another, I always skew towards accumulating wealth instead. The updated version uses the Civ4 game engine which is freakin slow on my lappy because of the graphics. Nevertheless, it is GREAT to be playing the game again after such a long time!

For RTK, the last one I played was RTK4: Wall of Fire, the Sega Saturn version. The one I'm playing now is RTK11. 7 versions difference, around 10 years apart and thousands of changes to adapt to. It took me more than 72 hours of clocked gaming time to complete a single scenario at beginner level. I'm imagining how long it will take me to complete the advanced level. RTK is based on the classic Chinese novel. It is through this game that I started to read more on Chinese history. Previously, I read a lot on American history because of playing Colonization. I think I should visit the important sites of the Three Kingdoms at least once in my life. Places to visit: Cheng Du (capital of Shu), the Stone Sentinel Maze near Baidicheng (created by Zhuge Liang around 200+AD but rumour has it that the maze still trapped the soldiers of Kuomintang when they were fleeing the People's Liberation Army in 1949), the site of the Battle of Chi Bi, and many more but I need to do research on before coming up with the itinery.

Hm.. I don't know why but I've always been more interested in playing empire building games. I'm not so much the CS or Dota playing type. Heck, I've played C&C, WarCraft and StarCraft but nothing, and I mean nothing, comes close to the enjoyment of RTK or Colonization (or even Civilization for that matter). Even business simulation games like Capitalism are more interesting to me.

Ah well, time to get out of my hermit life again soon. Lots of friends to catch up with over the holidays. Not to mention I got the Union Trip coming up in Jan. We'll be visiting 4 cities in Australia (Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Brisbane) from 2 Jan to 11 Jan.

But first, it's that time of the year again. Yup! Christmas and New Year is here (again.. and so fast too). Happy holidays everyone!