God game recs?

Dungeons is another Dungeon Keeper spinoff. Your dark lord takes a much more active role with an actual avatar.

If you're looking for vintage, Evil Genius is a fun little game where you play a Bond villain building your evil lair. It's a hoot, especially if you're a Bond fan.

-edit: I should add that Dungeons is NOT Dungeon Keeper, but it certainly could have been.

Have you tried casual strategy/time management games? There are some like an RTS but no combat, instead you are usually building, gathering, and removing obstacles. They are usually under $10!

Time Builders: Caveman's Prophecy, Vampires vs. Zombies, Ranch Rush, Gardens Inc.: From Rakes To Riches, and Coconut Queen are all ones I liked a lot.

If you like ones that are more sims-esque worker placement, I recommend Artist Colony or Gemini Lost.

HappyVille: Quest For Utopia is a SimCity imitation, though I wasn't super impressed with it.


This site sells all the games I listed here (they all have 1-hour free trials) plus more:
http://www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/genres/29/strategy.html

In my opinion the best of the casual god games are the Virtual Villagers games. They are cute and getting more interesting with each version.

From Dust looks pretty fantastic, but I haven't played it so can't officially recommend it.

Aww, really? I assumed there would be more interaction with the people.

Gnomeria isn't a god game, as much as it is a simulation--but it's essentially a far more accessible version of Dwarf Fortress.

I know a lot of people are wary of Peter Molyneux's promises after being let down with Spore and Fable, but I am keeping an eye on Project Godus.

Fulk said:

I know a lot of people are wary of Peter Molyneux's promises after being let down with Spore and Fable, but I am keeping an eye on Project Godus.

Click to expand...

Molyneux wasn't involved with Spore. You're thinking of Will Wright.

As a Populous fan, I'm definitely on board for Godus. I love that Molyneux was so inspired by Minecraft that he just up and quit Lionhead so he could work on a small indie team.

I don't suppose you'd be interested in the city-building classics? You're not a god, but you do get to build an empire from the ground up, managing natural and human resources, and there are specific goals for each level of play.

Zeus/Poseidon, Pharaoh/Cleopatra, and Emperor (based on classical/mythological Greece, Egypt, and China respectively) can be highly addictive and fun to play. Plus they're older games, so you don't have any pesky anti-piracy malware to deal with...

Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile was an update of Pharaoh - recommended if you want something more in-depth, and with 3D graphics.

CivCity: Rome was inspired by the classic Civilization, but more of a city-builder; I found it less tedious than the original. (There is, however, a SecuROM issue with the game...)

The Cultures series was sadly overlooked in the 'States, but was fairly fun, especially the later ones.

And as for Sims, I hear from a reliable source (an addicted sibling) that there's still a fairly active Sims 2 fan community online, generating new content.

ETA - On that Big Fish link upthread... a word of caution. I have only ever had two virus issues on my computer. Both came from downloading trial versions of games from so-called "virus-free" sites. Plus, I had more than one trial crash out my computer or simply freeze up. Again, this may just be a personal bad experience, but just a word of caution... make sure your antivirus/malware software's up to date and running.

Big fish games should be OK. I hesitate to recommend anything like this, because I'm not much of an expert, but I've been downloading games from them for a couple of years without a problem (unfortunately, I don't have a computer that can deal with anything except casual games right now).
They tend to have the cheapest prices and they carry games like Plants vs Zombies, as well as make their own games.

ETA: of course YMMV. I don't think they are malicious, but there's always a chance that there could be a problem anyway.

I also would not recommend downloading games from random sites, but I've bought at least 20 games from big fish and haven't had any problems with malware or viruses. Did have one problem where the game's ability to load saves was somehow broken by their additions to the game that make it compatible with their game manager and free trial system - that would be Fish Tycoon. But I'm the one who was lazy and didn't report this problem to their customer service - they might have fixed it or given me a refund or something.

Big Fish also sells boxed versions of games in the Half Prices around here too, so it's possible to buy them as non-downloads, though you miss out on sales that way.

It occurs to me that I've had Anno 2070 on my Steam account for quite a while now. I picked it up in a bundle or Steam sale at some point and have yet to get around to playing it. I've heard good things about it though, and it has a good metacritic score.

I've also considered trying out the Cities XL series, a city manager of the SimCity vein that a lot of people like.

A new game just came out called Skyward Collapse. It's got an interesting take. You're the Creator, and it's your task to keep the red and blue civilizations from destroying each other. You're there to maintain a balance.

Trouble is, you can only control resources and place mythological units. You can't control the people, their gods, or the mythological units once they're placed. And, let me tell you, these people are insane.

It's also 5 bucks on steam right now, so that's nice too.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/238890/

There's a similar one to that called Reus: http://store.steampowered.com/app/222730/