You complete me

I’ve never gotten further than a few screens into the tutorial.

Just hitting the main menu fills me with a physical – tight stomach, tight jaw – wave of ennui and disgust, and it doesn’t abate. The races seem twee, the numbers bare and complicated, the scale disjointed, the art lifeless. Last time, when Plan B started up, I found that I was literally averting my eyes from the screen – peeking out sideways at whatever toothpaste production slider I was supposed to be fiddling. This all comes despite eating up the much shallower and more flawed Star Control 3 and Sword of the Stars, and the much more forbidding Armageddon Empires.

This cycle has been ongoing for years, in combination with periodic temptations to just buy the game to ‘support the devs’ and never ever play it. I think it would be fair to say that GalCiv II has caused me more suffering than any other game. I love everything GalCiv II and Stardock stand for but hate the game for no good reason – and in some perverse way, I won’t let myself settle the matter one way or the other until I love it.

My only problem is a bit of cognitive dissonance: I downloaded the GC2 demo and was totally unimpressed. Others who tried the demo, help! Did I dislike it because I was railroaded into playing as the lame-o diplomatic Terrans? Was it the caps on all the galaxy options? Does disappointment with the demo mean I’ll be disappointed with the game, or is the full version different enough that I’ll get my fourecks fix?

Also, the plan for increasing speed was the greatest idea ever.

Let the record show that I was banned for “Extreme Language/ Racial comment”. Apparently “Holy shit!” is extreme. These guys need to try skydiving.

Of course, they might be referring to the time I commented on a flying Sonic The Hedgehog with “This is great, unlike the Jews.”

what have I done *cries*

And sometimes, you just gotta nuke a few suns.

…

This is seriously Crowning Moment of Awesome stuff. Especially the “Nonagressive Space Treaty Catapult” ploy. Mr. Francis, you had me glued to my seat and actually cheering for the villain. That is, you, apparently.

He won a tech victory.

Man, you’d think somebody would remember not to tick off the descendants of the most psychotic race in the history of the galaxy.

One word that sticks in my mind – STARFUCKER!

I cant imagine what your like when you decide to be a warmongerer. I can see the death toll rising a lot higher.