Civilization 5
I enjoy playing video games but I will be the first person to admit I am terrible at them. Occasionally I come across a game that I adore for various reasons and will play all the time. My most recent discovery was Civilization 5, kind of an odd choice for me since it is a Turn-Based Strategy game and I am usually very bad at any strategy games.
Civilization 5 is the fifth installment to a very popular empire building game franchise. I have never played any of them in my life and only vaguely knew about the franchise until I tried 5 for the first time yesterday.
In the game you can play as one of many different leaders through history like Elizabeth or Alexander. There are a variety of map styles, sizes and length of play as well as single player and multi-player options. When you begin play you start with one unit of settlers and a warrior unit from there you build your empire by training new units, producing buildings and researching new technologies. There are a couple of methods of winning a game, you can set a turn limit or a time limit or you can win through force by defeating the empires around you. My favourite method by far is winning through Culture. After five full sets of Policies are unlocked your empire will win by being superior in culture to the other empires, no fighting necessary. In multi-player this a lot harder then it sounds.
Another thing I love about this game is that it describes each empire and teaches you the history behind them. I was never much of a history buff but in this format its ten times more interesting.
If you are a fan of the franchise or strategy games I would certainly recommend giving this one a try but the game is terribly addictive and games can run for an extremely long time so be prepared to lose a large chunk of your free time.