Video Game Update February 2017

Well, I totally forgot about Civilization V this month.  It's weird, because I even said that exact same thing at the end of last month.  Oh, well.  Also, while I didn't really touch Minecraft all of this month, but I did add the Twilight Forest mod to my world, since there's a version of it for the version of Minecraft that I've been using for Thaumcraft.  I'm hoping to play enough to make a full Minecraft post in March. 
Otherwise, I've just spent the occasional evening time playing Overwatch, Hearthstone, or Heroes of the Storm. 

Video Game Update January 2017

Well, I totally forgot about Civilization V this month.  I started doing a little bit of Minecraft again last week.  I do like doing the stuff on my SSP world, but it's less of a fun thing and more of a relaxing thing, which is what I've needed.  I'm hoping to make a Minecraft post early in February, probably next week some time. 
I've been playing Heroes of the Storm lately, since there's a special event for the Year of the Rooster, and doing a bit of Overwatch still, but there are only so many hours in the day, so Minecraft took a bit from that. 

Video Game Update December 2016

Well, video games have been a little weird for me this month.  I ended up playing Heroes of the Storm again, primarily to unlock the Oni skin for Genji in Overwatch, but with the nice side effect of also unlocking Zarya in Heroes of the Storm.  I see that they're in a new competitive season, so I might go get ranked in that. 
I think that I'll be finishing my Civ 5 game in the 1st 2 weeks of January. 

Video Game Update November 2016

So, in an odd turn, I felt compelled to play my copy of Civilization V.  I never did finish a proper game of it.  (I'm not counting my training-wheels game from when I first got it.)  I'm pretty far along in my current game.  My biggest opponent for any victory conditions is England, who's currently oppressing 2 other countries. 
This, unfortunately, means that I haven't played much Minecraft this month.  December is looking to be less busy, but still pretty busy, so I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to just Minecraft out again. 

An Initial Review of Civilization V

Recently, there was a free weekend on Steam for Sid Meier's Civilization:  Beyond Earth, and I took a crack at it.  I enjoyed it, even though I didn't finish it.  However, it occurred to me that I'd never actually played a game in the Civilization series.  All of the Civilization titles were 75% off on Steam that weekend, so I went ahead and picked up Sid Meier's Civilization V. 
I've finally finished my first game of it. 
I really quite enjoyed the game.  There's a lot to it, but because of the way that civilizations progress, it's not all dumped out at once.  Also, it's turn-based, so I'm not rushed while trying to learn it.  I did play it on the easy difficulty, but that gave me a chance to make some mistakes during my first play-through. 
I can't wait to play on the normal setting, and probably on a bigger map. 
One thing that I noticed in the design of the game is that, even if one isn't going for a given type of victory, it still behooves one to progress that area, so nothing gets abandoned.  For instance, even if one isn't going for domination victory, it's still a good idea to have a strong enough standing army to defend against invaders.  Likewise, Culture is useful both to make someone else's Culture Victory harder and because it unlocks special abilities. 
It's a short review, I know, but if you want an in-depth look at the mechanics - well, it's been out since 2010, so I'm sure that you can find reviews and wikis on it.