Tag: Bethesda

Civilization III: China shoots down ICBMs in the 2nd Nuclear War.

Civilization III is proving to be a truly amazing game. Persia attempted to attack me once again, this time with ICBMs. My previous war with them had put so much pollution onto the planet that the sun image was red and my environmental efforts were going nowhere. Recently planted forests were becoming grassland as the planet became filled with nuclear radiation. However, peace was far away and the war had to continue.

I had a peace treaty with the Persians while the Koreans barely managed to hang on with their own treaty. The Persians simply had too many tanks and I lacked oil and aluminum to have an armored army to counter the Persians. As a result, I relied heavily on TOW infantry and huge amounts of artillery located across the mountain passes to slow them. I then used tactical nukes onto the capital of Persepolis and other major cities multiple times to cut the empire from resources and luxuries. However, they kept sending tanks and mechanized infantry into the area around Tokyo and Osaka; I had to make peace as I was basically in a stalemate and move to peacetime economy so that my cities could get new infrastructure in order to compete with the Persians.

However, I didn’t have all the time I needed to prepare for war with Persia. I was building ICBMs to counter their military. I also ordered my city governors to build a huge air force, a part of our military which wasn’t a factor in the previous war. The main issue was always the tanks and infantry fighting vehicles. Persia had tons of such machines. I had only recently built a city on top of an oil deposit in order to start building huge amounts of bombers and jet airplanes to counter this huge, mechanized army. However, no matter how well bulit ones plans are, only experience manages to tell us the truth or show the durability of our ideas.

The attack began without warning on China.

In Civilization III, the AI is very aggressive in comparison to the later versions. Some of this is what it has to work with. The game is simpler in a sense than the games that came out later. It is not a game that the AI has a hard time understanding the rules. Under the hood, however, the game is similar to Civ 7 except in the Hexes and some of the rules. The hexes in my opinion messed up the Civilization series. Squares were just easier for the AI to handle.

The result is that the AI is competent in a war and is an actual threat. In strategic thinking, the AI in this 2001 game is still behind the human but it is clear that they were planning to attack me with nukes for some time. I was in their way for domination of the globe and I was ready for their attacks.

Beijing, once again, was hit but my SDI system was able to defend the nation from attacks. As a result, my workers would not have as many duties at repairing the radiation and damage that was caused by the ICBMs.

This is actually the only time I have seen the SDI small wonder in action.

This is why I love Civilization III. You get to run a nation in the late game, and it is truly wonderous. This why Civilization VII was able to reach its heights.

The Original Oblivion still looks beautiful in 2025

The Imperial City in The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion
The Original Oblivion still looks incredible.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion got a remastered version in April of this year. It was quite a treat as the game has given what I consider to be my favorite version of the Elder Scrolls a boost in visibility. A game that was in the shadows of the massive titan of Skyrim, was now getting in its place in the sun

After I played the Oblivion Remastered, I went back to original Oblivion and I was impressed still with the graphics. They have aged in some areas but I think what is most important is that the game has is the style of the graphics. This is an area that many groundbreaking games tend to have issues with having a timeless style as they are so focused on impressing people who want to benchmark their computers not think about the artistic style.

The Imperial City vantage point is from Bleaker's Way.
The Imperial City vantage point is from Bleaker’s Way.

The village of Bleaker’s Way is larger than most of the equivalent villages in Skyrim. Its location is quite angelic in a sense. It is nestled in the hills, hidden away from any major buildings. However, you get great views of the imperial City from these screenshots that I have taken. This is just a great place to take screenshots. This is what the game is great at here. Skyrim seems to have improved upon it but I love Oblivion’s vistas more. I think it’s because Skyrim is more in line with browns and its greenery is closer to Riften which is much further to the South. Skyrim does not have a great variety of greenery within its snowy and cold climate. However, it’s just too earthy for me, probably because it just doesn’t look as good in a game.

Oblivion has the right style to me.

The Heartlands were always the best looking part of the game in my opinion. While all the other regions have their charm, it is in the center of Cyrodil where the game really shines here. It makes sense as this where the player would first see the incredible environments of Oblivion after leaving the dark areas of the sewers. This is what makes Oblivion so unique in the sense of games at this time. Many games were becoming brownish in the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 generation era. Oblivion stood as a symbol of Arthurian color in a sea of browns and grays.

The village of Bleaker’s Way, even in the original version is so beautiful to glance at. You want to take time just to glance the rustic beauty of the houses and colors of the flowers. It is truly a place that one can touch grass and enjoy the roses.

Even closer up, the Imperial City and water gives off such majesty.

Even with its rustic simplicity in some of the villages, Oblivion has a style that is timeless and makes cherish it every time I keep playing the game even if Skyrim is technically more sophisticated than it.

There is just something about the style that keeps it interesting to players in our age.

Battlefield 2042 Breakaway Map: Adventure and War in the Antarctic

Battlefield 2042 has some truly interesting maps to play on. One of those maps is Breakaway, which is a map that takes place in Antarctica. I have always enjoyed playing on snowy and arctic maps since the Delta Force games.

There is something unique about snowy maps. The color in it is particularly amazing to see in these modern games. The full textures and the shapes can be full revealed in these engines.

This is a map that reminds heavily of Battlefield 2142 with its heavy emphasis on snow in the European theatre. Battlefield 2142 in many ways had some of my favorite maps in the Battlefield series. It’s bold willingness to embrace its setting in its map design gave it a unique style which I cannot see in the newer games.

One of the main issues with Battlefield 6 when I was playing the beta was that too many of the maps looked similar to each other. One of the reasons why Liberation Peak was on top for me was because it was able to combine a small town, hilltop fortifications and lots of mountainous terrain. Empire State was too interior oriented for me to enjoy. Siege of Cairo is better as it is more exotic being an Egyptian setting and I think that it seems better designed than what we see with Empire State.

That is why when Battlefield 6 comes out, I am sure to enjoy Liberation Peak as my favorite map. It is big enough and has some of my favorite geographical features of mountains and snowy peaks. That is what makes it so beautiful and enjoyable to play.

There are still some maps out there that have not been released but I believe that they will play to their own strengths.