10. Culdcept
Monopoly: the Gathering
Tom: The Japanese have taken everything you love about Magic
the Gathering and grafted it onto an elaborate Monopoly style board
game, complete with a stock market subgame. Displaying their penchant
for trans-Pacific linguistic blunders, they've given it a name that
you will confuse with something you buy when you get one of those
blisters on your lip. You can play alone against a surprisingly
competent AI to collect cards and build decks. You can also break
it out as an excellent multiplayer game. Although it's annoying
that Culdcept can't quite decide whether the players are supposed
to have an open or closed hand of cards, this is an almost flawless
game system. If you're a board gamer or a CCGer, or better yet if
you're a board gamer and a CCGer, Culdcept has your name
written all over it. And, no, I have no idea what the title means
because -- thankfully -- you can skip the stupid cutscenes that
presumably tell the story of what a Culdcept is.
Mark: I give up. I can't even understand the names
of these crazy console games - Culdcept? Wait till you see the names
of numbers 7 and 6. Will someone please come over and explain them
to me, and then program my VCR for me so I don't miss any more episodes
of Matlock? Thanks.
9. Rise of Nations
Build a civilization to stand the test of time...for
about an hour
Tom: Although it can be a bit dry compared to stuff like
Warcraft's Frozen Throne and even Stainless Steel's Empires: Dawn
of the Modern World, it's as playable and slick as an RTS could
ever hope to be. It also manages to work in some Civ-style elements
like borders, strategic resources, and technological advantages
that aren't just units with more hit points (although that's in
there, too). The combat has some of the tactical nuances we've seen
in Creative Assembly's Shogun/Medieval games. The resource management
is both streamlined and complex. And it's all tied into a tight
unified package that you can play through in under an hour. Like
Brian Reynolds' work on the Civilization games, this is what you
get when an accomplished designer tackles a potentially stagnant
genre.
Mark: Interesting RTS, but way, way, way too much
stuff to manage when you get to the advanced ages. I can't imagine
the upcoming expansion doing anything besides adding to the complication.
8. Space Colony
In space, everyone can hear Tammy bitching
Tom: You know those movies where a rag tag group of people
has to run a spaceship or an outpost on some remote planet? They're
in the middle of nowhere, wearing cool jumpsuits, and flipping switches
on complicated consoles. You got Keir Dullea running laps in a rotating
ring (2001), Harry Dean Stanton and Yaphet Kotto complaining about
having to split a share (Alien), and a buck-nekkid Kirk Douglas
grappling with Harvey Keitel (Saturn 3). Put that vibe into a sci-fi
city builder, let the developers of Stronghold give it some resource
management in a funky alien ecology, and then tie it together with
some Sims style personnel management sans the preoccupation with
bodily functions. Voila! It's Space Colony! It looks great, with
sharp and informative 2D artwork that keeps the interface annoyances
to a minimum. Space Colony shouldn't be as good as it is, but it
is. No joke.
Mark: Space Colony is a fine example of how you ape
a successful game like The Sims in such a way as to ensure that
only nine people buy your game. Take the dollhouse, dress-up, soap
opera game loved by pre-teen girls everywhere and set it in space
in a science-fiction setting. Oh yeah, they had their Brainiac caps
on when they came up with this idea.
Seven, Six, and
Five
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