{"id":7314,"date":"2012-05-19T13:53:16","date_gmt":"2012-05-19T18:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/?p=7314"},"modified":"2012-05-19T13:55:48","modified_gmt":"2012-05-19T18:55:48","slug":"sid-meiers-alpha-centauri-aka-the-best-4x-strategy-game-of-all-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/sid-meiers-alpha-centauri-aka-the-best-4x-strategy-game-of-all-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Sid Meier&#8217;s Alpha Centauri, aka the best 4x strategy game of ALL TIME"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sid_Meier%27s_Alpha_Centauri\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/en\/0\/01\/Alpha_Centauri_cover.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"256\" height=\"324\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Sid Meier&#8217;s Alpha Centauri is, without a doubt, the best strategy game I have ever played. \u00a0I have many fond memories playing it into the early morning hours while I was in college.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gog.com\/en\/gamecard\/sid_meiers_alpha_centauri?=sale\" target=\"_blank\">I just bought it for $2.99<\/a>. \u00a0What have I done??<\/p>\n<p>The last time I played this game, it quite literally consumed my life. \u00a0I eventually had to delete it from my computer just to keep up with my schoolwork.<\/p>\n<p>But <em>wow,<\/em>\u00a0it&#8217;s so good. \u00a0And the best part, in my opinion, is the story. \u00a0Unlike other 4x strategy games, where everything is basically up in the air, Alpha Centauri has a very distinct storyline full of interesting twists and turns.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/035cpHEowS4\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"500\" height=\"284\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>It starts out with a colony mission to (where else?) Alpha Centauri that fractures into seven factions, based not on ethnicity or nationality, but on ideology. \u00a0These are: the scientists, the religious fundamentalists, the communists, the free-market capitalists, the diplomatists, the militarists, and the environmentalists.<\/p>\n<p>The last faction is my favorite, because <em>the planet itself<\/em>\u00a0is a character in this story. \u00a0As you settle and explore new territory, you come across giant patches of fungus and swarms of hostile mind-worms. \u00a0The more the game progresses, however, the more you realize that the fungus is part of a giant neural network, and that it&#8217;s trying to communicate with you. \u00a0When you finally learn to communicate back&#8211;THAT&#8217;S when things get interesting.<\/p>\n<p>Oh man, I love this game. \u00a0It&#8217;s a science fiction classic, reminiscent of Orson Scott Card and Arthur C. Clarke. \u00a0I just hope I can exercise some self-restraint this time&#8211;but hey, if I can moderate how much time I spend on Minecraft, surely I can do the same with Alpha Centauri.<\/p>\n<p>Famous last words&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sid Meier&#8217;s Alpha Centauri is, without a doubt, the best strategy game I have ever played. \u00a0I have many fond memories playing it into the early morning hours while I was in college. I just bought it for $2.99. \u00a0What have I done?? The last time I played this game, it quite literally consumed my&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/sid-meiers-alpha-centauri-aka-the-best-4x-strategy-game-of-all-time\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Sid Meier&#8217;s Alpha Centauri, aka the best 4x strategy game of ALL TIME<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[327,34,259,324,402,271],"class_list":["post-7314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-arthur-c-clarke","tag-college-life","tag-just-for-fun","tag-orson-scott-card","tag-procrastination","tag-video-games","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iXK-1TY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7314"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7316,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7314\/revisions\/7316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}