Video Game Countdown: #20 Civilization I, II, III

No one has ever come close to matching Sid Meieir's vision of global domination in his Civilization series. The amount of depth the games offer is astounding. Perhaps the one aspect of the Civilization series that has made it so appealing is that it lets the player be creative. The player is allowed total freedom in their choices with varying routes that lead to success. There is no 'intended path' that the creators force upon the player, or in other words, the player gets to do what they want to do instead of trying to decipher what the designer had in mind. While most strategy games only offer glory through conflict, the Civilization series offers victory through economics, diplomacy, research and productivity in addition to combat. With all the options and strategies that the games makes available you will find yourself glued to the computer screen far past the break of dawn trying to figure out the best way to f-over those French bastards. I know I did on more than a few occasions. I mean, come on, where else can you have the communist U.S of A be defeated by their technologically superior Persian nemesis in an all out nuclear war?