Pause and Select's Daniel Horowitz discusses determinism, great man interpretation, and the philosophy of design in historical simulators.
"When games use history as a form of simulation, their underlying intent is to construct a computable model of history, which is really a form of historiography. This occurs because games are created with a tangible philosophy in mind; you have rules and goals that guide player actions and force players to make value judgments about which actions create effective strategies while playing the game."
Civilization V continues to be one of the most popular grand-strategy games you can play on Steam, for about three years.
Love strategy but your processor and graphics card doesn't love you? The best strategy games for low-end PCs have you covered.
Philip Boyes:
When I was a kid, I played a lot of Civilization 2. I played a lot of strategy games in general, but having a deep love of both history and sci-fi, the epic sweep of Civ 2 from prehistory to the stars held a particular appeal. I loved taking my little people from their huts and ziggurats to the world of science and advanced space-flight.
