September wrap-up – Amnesia, Civ V and hermetic lit 101

So ends another week. Yes, I am aware I have not posted in more than a month. However, I have been terribly busy with work and other such worthy activities. Food and shelter and all that.

In fact, I write this now sitting one our fair city's filthy light-rail lines, making my two-hour trek back home, ending another week of toil. While public transit has lost the luster of cheapness and eco-friendliness that made it my favorite choice of transportation options, the great thing about spending so much time commuting is that, while I have gotten relatively little gaming in, I have been reading like a fucking mad man.

I have gone utterly overboard on a Gene Wolfe binge, having now capped off the whole Urth of a New Sun saga, and very nearly ending the equally great Soldier in the Mist series - pure crack for a wannabe classicist like yours truly. And while I have become such an ardent Wolfe-ophile, I have decided to take a short break and I am currently enjoying a little jaunt through the Elysian fields of Romanticism with some Friedrich Holderlin and his epic, Hyperion. Because I have the time. Because I spend four hours a day, five days a week sandwiched between the scum of our fair city and I have to block them out somehow. But I do not wish to be unkind, so I will lose this topic.

I would not imagine to leave out how good a month September has been to me in terms of nerdeo gaming: this month has seen the release of both Amnesia: Dark Descent and the much-anticipated release of Civilization V.

If you are in the slightest way a fan of gothic horror along the lines of Mary Shelley, you must immediately purchase a copy of Amnesia. In fact, if you are at all a fan of excellence in the craft of creating video games, you must immediately purchase a copy of Amnesia.

I do not have enough good things to say about this game. This is the sort of game that I wish defined the Survival Horror genre – no guns at all to speak of, but containing the sort of spooky ghost story moments that will literally have you jumping out of your chair to find the light switch. I understand some people even have a hard time playing through this game in broad daylight.

Amnesia has all the ingenious puzzles of a good adventure game, and all the piss-your-pants moments of a great horror story. You must get this now.

Despite my adoration of Amnesia, Civilization V has been occupying the bulk of my time since it's release on the 21^st. Despite that, I am not entirely sure what to say about it, other than I am very pleased where the franchise has been taken.

I like the hex maps ... I like the abolishment of unit-stacking ... I like that navies actually mean something in any game with more than a puddle on the map. War is far more interesting to me in Civ V, which I will heretofore refer to as ciV, like any other feckless hack this age is ripe with. But I digress.

I actually like how wars have been playing out in ciV, yet so far it also the game design seems to have been created in a way that coddles the inner builder in me. It seems to me like making a Civ game that simultaneously appeals to war-mongers and their carebear cousins, the builders, quite a feat. But it is one that ciV has managed.

I would be remiss, if I did not mention I have completely fallen in love with the City States mechanic in the game. In my current game, I am playing as Alexander (Greece) and taking advantage of that civ's city state bonus to let the AI create both my massive army and my massive culture. All I have to do is run around and beat people up who step out of line. Napoleon, I am looking at you!

I will try to write more in coming weeks about ciV, but considering I haven't made a post in a month, I would advise you to not hold your breath.