For those who dreamed of legally playing old games, it turns out they’re sold quite cheaply.
https://web.archive.org/web/20101204124034/https://www.gog.com/en/frontpage/
I also downloaded Civilization V yesterday. I hadn’t played anything for six months except Portal, and my graphics card isn’t really up to it.
Civilization is cool, but
1. The interface is odd in places—the status of units and their intentions aren’t obvious. I accidentally sent a catapult out to sea, which caused me to lose a couple of valuable units while besieging a city.
2. The automatic AI for cities and the “advisors” work well, but in some areas they don’t work at all—for example, you have to buy tiles manually, otherwise there’s unemployment.
3. The “luxury” resources aren’t entirely clear—when do they enter your trade network? Do you have to build a road to a city-state or what?
4. Time passes quickly compared with the number of turns. I still haven’t figured out how to get things done faster.
5. Because the game is three-dimensional, it runs a little slowly on my graphics card. Alas, I can’t afford to buy a graphics card even for $150—there are too many other important things I need. I don’t even have a washing machine yet.
Games are evil, of course. But sometimes it’s okay; my brain isn’t capable of anything reasonable, good, or eternal right now anyway, while I’m sick. (Yes, my throat still hurts; I’m taking pills now—what can you do.)