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Well, the tagline is "Everybody Dies"

To be honest, I've never played Sim City 4. I found it pretty hard to justify giving EA any of my money after the disaster that was Sim City 3000 (combined with their questionable business/employment practices). I have heard some good things about Sim City 4 but I still think the franchise was largely ruined with all the focus on 'The Sims' and the bloatware/disaster that was Sim City 3000.

Perhaps part of that is nostalgia -- I grew up playing the original Sim City on SNES and Sim City 2000 was my first introduction to computers as a kid -- used to spend hours upon hours playing it at the local library before we got a computer. Nothing that has come since has seemed anywhere near as good. FWIW I feel the same way about Civilization -- I still think the best one was Civ2, though at least with that franchise they never sold out to the likes of EA and the new titles are actually playable and well made.

I'll have to give that a look. I've been somewhat bored lately and haven't really found any decent (modern) game titles that remotely interest me. The last game title that interested me enough to actually pay for and play was an independent homage to Wargames called DEFCON.

If you're old enough to remember "Global Thermonuclear War" from WarGames and thought it looked like it would make for a fun game to play, I suggest you check out Introversion's DEFCON at http://everybody-dies.com/ . "It's Global Thermonuclear War, and nobody wins. But maybe - just maybe - you can lose the least." - from the site.

It's a great mix of Risk style strategy with real-time play and can support up to 6 players simultaneously on-line. Initially you layout your radars, silos, ships, etc, during a setup phase. As the clock ticks you move through the DEFCON stages allowing for ever more hostile play until DEFCON5 when you can launch your nukes. You can make/break alliances and try to get other players to blow each-other up before you unleash hellfire on those left alive.

There's actually a lot of strategy to timing your attacks so that your missiles can fly in from different silos, submarines, bombers, etc, and hit a target all at once. You need a heavy storm of missiles all coming in at once or local defense has an easy time of shooting them all down. But, when attacking, you become vulnerable - so you don't want to set too many resources to attack either.

Anyhow, one of my favorite games for any platform. And you can download a demo or buy it directly from their site for Windows/MacOSX/Linux, bypassing Steam and it's ilk.

Though DEFCON does look pretty close.

Anyone care for a game of thermonuclear war?

The most recent 2d game that I actually played for a while, that IS a real release and that ISN'T a flash based game would be Introversion's "Defcon".

It's only a year old guys.. surely you haven't forgotten about it!

The entire premise of the game is you looking at 'the big board' and nuking the other guys. It's totally a 2d interface.. they don't even mock 3d with things like 'shadows' on the units or anything.

Wargames movie and DEFCON game.

Will this suffice?

http://www.everybody-dies.com/

Thermonuclear war? Here ya go

http://www.everybody-dies.com/

And don't forget about Defcon

Did I miss the press release or isn't Defcon still Windows-only?

You missed the press release. Download the beta (direct link) or place an order with TuxGames.

Cheers,
Toby Haynes

Try it for yourself! ;)

Side note: Fun game (DEFCON).

It would be like Domino's pizza objecting to a movie that glorified the two kids who went on a rampage at that school.

Have you played the Columbine RPG? I have, and it doesn't glorify them at all. If anything it's an attempt to help you to understand them, but it doesn't really succeed at that, except perhaps by asserting that to the two shooters, the massacre held the same unreality as a video game does to us.

What if I decide to make a game where the player is a rapist? The player earns experience by going around raping women and children. Or worse, how about a game where the player works at a Nazi concentration camp massacring innocents?

It probably wouldn't be that enjoyable to most of us, but rape and genocide have been addressed in literature and film--I don't see why video games wouldn't be an appropriate medium. The game Defcon simulates mass murder by nuclear exchange, and from what I've gathered from those who play it, it communicates the chilling and almost unreal nature of nuclear war as effectively as any other artistic expression of that topic. I could easily imagine a Holocaust simulator where the player manages a slave labor camp to optimize efficiency, balancing extermination demand with production quotas and food costs. It wouldn't be that fun, but it would illustrate the banality of evil and help us to gain some understanding of the people who did such things in life. You are right in one thing--such a game would completely abandon entertainment in favor of artistic expression--but it would be a worthwhile exercise.

Where's Defcon?
If there's a game that deserves to be on that list, it's definitely Defcon.
Or perhaps they are not indie enough? If that is the case, I really wonder what those Game Tunnel guys are thinking about.

Seriously, they put some lame-looking thing called "Gumboy Crazy Adventures" at #1 but they don't have Defcon anywhere on their list? I'm pretty sure Introversion counts as "Independent", and Defcon is fantastic, so what gives?

For my "Game of the Year," I choose DEFCON. It's the only game that I've found interesting enough to actually buy all year. Yes, it's a bit of a buggy mess, but also an addictive buggy mess. You can get a demo off of Steam or Introversion's website http://www.everybody-dies.com/. I'd recommend purchasing it off of Steam, as it's cheaper. Don't bother posting in the Introversion DEFCON forums, though, it's run by a small clique of anti-social types.

Overlooked (mind you I didn't look too hard) in both of these articles is one of this year's great strategy games: Defcon. Everybody dies!

Or Defcon. Assuming they don't sue Introversion Software for infringing on their Teenage Mutant Ninja Hotdog Stand Guy Movie Which Actually Has No Correlation With The Original But For The Name, henceforth referred to as TMNHSTGWAHNCWTOBFTN.

Defcon. $17.50. Fun. Disturbing. Needs more players.

To answer the question: No. In the end, it comes down to having fun, which is mainly influenced by the gameplay. Of course, an ugly graphics is bad for gameplay, but even simple 2D-Interfaces can look good. Example: DEFCON (http://www.everybody-dies.com/)

I don't think Introversion has had that problem, and DEFCON is more fun than a lot of EA games out there.

Galactic Civilization 2 does not compete with the sorts of games EA puts out. The graphics are relatively simplistic and sparse. And the game is extremely technical. Now if you can handle GC2 then it is a fantastically fun game, but it's not a mainstream game by any means.

other high quality and innovated indy games:
Uplink
Darwinia
DEFCON

I hope the US is brushing up their skills at Defcon...

Assuming a plutonium device and fusion boosting, Kim farked up. Nothing close to the 400kt claimed goal. Still a purty nice fizzle. (Or a purty sucky fizzle if you're downwind of it.) Hope Kim's playing on the computer before he plays with the real thing.

Download the full version (it's freely distributed on defcons website).
http://www.everybody-dies.com/

When it asks you for a CD-Key hit cancel. The game then starts in the playable demo mode.

If you want to play at Global Thermonuclear war yourself, you might want to have a look at DEFCON from Introversion. I've been waiting for this game since April - it looks like it's going to a lot of fun.

Do you have any idea when the demo is supposed to be released?

Just got done shelling out $10USD for Defcon on the PC. I would not have paid $50-30 for it, which is usually what the going rate is for shelf space. Also an indie as far as I know. If it goes well, may buy more games that way.

Apparently not.