Do Ghosts Exist?

I just recommended Ghost Master a few days ago and I had this crazy idea, why not write a related post from a theological angle? This is, afterall, what I had originally intended to do with the blog.

So here's the question, do ghosts exist?

I am of the conviction that they do not exist, at least not in the way we usually think of them.


When people talk about ghosts I'm assuming that they refer to the spirits of the deceased. A wandering child who runs out in front of cars on rainy nights and then suddenly vanishes right where he was run over some 30 years back. An ill tempered store manager who still haunts his old establishment, knocking things off the wall and moving furniture late at night. Even a well meaning parent or grandparent who chooses to stay after death and watch over their loved ones, speaking and appearing every so often. I don't believe in these 'ghosts', but I am sometimes inclined to believe the stories of people who say they've encountered what they think are ghosts.

The reason for my disbelief is the way that God has ordered the world. In the book of Hebrews 9:27 it says "man has been appointed to die once and after that to face judgement." That judgment being either with Christ in heaven or apart from Christ in hell. How to choose one destination and avoid the other is fully explained but the logistics of precisely how and when this takes place aren't. Even so there is no 'in between' phase or cracks for lost souls to slip through. Every time someone dies their soul is taken out of the world and will not return until the end of time when Jesus returns and everyone who ever died gets resurrected back to life, the righteous to a new heaven and a new earth and the unrighteous to damnation. This is foundational to Christian belief and has always been a part of our earliest creeds and confessions.

So if the souls of the deceased are being held for judgement and are no longer a part of our world then how does one explain 'paranormal' phenomena like what is described above? I would argue that most 'ghostly' experiences are our minds playing tricks on us. We hear scary stories or invent our own and in the right situation, when we are tense and naturally hovering on the fight or flight reaction our minds are racing to make sense of the sounds and sights and all it takes is our sub-conscience to say "ghost" and suddenly we're hearing footsteps where there are none and seeing faces in every corner where you can't quite make out what's there. There are also a lot of conditions, medications, and drugs which put the user in an altered state of mind where seeing and hearing things that don't exist is normal.

A small amount of stories can also be explained by other people playing tricks on us, setting up the illusion of a haunting like a practical joke. This is how 'paranormal investigators' make there living, by convincing people with illusions and acting the part.

To a materialist (one who only believes in physical things) these are the only explanations that one can have for ghosts. The Bible, however, also testifies to the existence of other spiritual beings aside from human souls and God himself, namely angels and demons. The angels were created to be God's servants, they act as his agents in the world and very rarely draw attention to themselves. The demons are fallen angels who chose to rebel and now roam the earth trying to undo God's work and destroy as many people as possible be leading them into spiritual snares and trying to keep them away from Christ.

From a Biblical perspective it is natural to attribute otherwise unexplainable 'ghosts' to demons who are masquerading as the souls of deceased. Why would a demon pretend to be a ghost? Because they want to be worshiped and feared, because it is their nature to deceive, because they revel in death and corruption, because once they have permission they will try to distract, torment, and destroy anyone they can. (Deut 32:17; 1 Cor 10:20; John 8:44; 2 Cor 4:4; 11:14; Rev 12:9; 2; Thess 2:9-10; Jude 1:6; 2 Peter 2:4; ) The boot fits the foot rather well.

In my personal experience I've encountered enough evidence to convince me that The Bible isn't speaking metaphorically about demons but that they are an actual reality, albeit one that we needn't focus on too much.


Q - Why couldn't God send a spirit back into the world to make amends for its sins?
A - Because the method God has chosen to make amends for sins is to put faith in his one and only Son, Jesus, who took all the sins of the world upon himself and paid their price in full. Even in life there is nothing we can do to make amends before God except to accept the grace and forgiveness offered in Jesus Christ. (John 3:16; Acts 4:12; Rom 3:23-24; 6:23)

Q - Could angels be confused for ghosts?
A - No. Every time an angel appears in Scripture it makes its presence and intentions known immediately. There is no mistaking an angel for a ghost. (Ex 3:2-4; Judges 2:1-2; Luke 1:11-19; 1:26-38; Gen 16:7-13; Acts 12:7; Num 22:22-24; Mat 1:20, 2:13)

Q - What about mediums, Ouija boards, seances, necromancy, etc?
A - Attempts to communicate with the dead are forbidden in Scripture because all such attempts are first of all futile (the dead do not talk back) and secondly open one's self up to the demonic.

Greg Recommends Ghost Master

Price : $4.99
Website : STEAM / GOG

Originally released in 2003 (with special re-releases in 2006 and 2011) Ghost Master is a niche puzzle / strategy game with a small but loyal following. Basically imagine The Sims except instead of controlling the people you control the ghosts who mess with the people. The more afraid of you they are the more powerful your ghosts become and the more they can affect the physical world. You have to decide which ghosts to take with you on new missions, where to place them, and which abilities they should use. Watch out though, if a ghost is located by paranormal investigators or a coven of witches then they will try to banish it from the level. The controls and the graphics are definitely of an older generation, but if you can look past that and relish the idea of scaring the living daylights out of some Sim-like persons then this is right up your alley.

You begin each level with a description of the place you'll be haunting and why your haunting it. The reasons can range from "because we can," to solving a mystery, to stopping certain persons from interfering in the matters of the deceased. You also unlock new ghosts in every level so there's that as well. You get to pick a 'squad' of ghosts, each one with its own unique set of powers and sphere of influence. When you enter the level you'll see a layout similar to The Sims where you can see inside the building(s) one floor at a time with people walking, talking, reading, sleeping, and otherwise moving about their business. You place your squad members at different places throughout the map and then either manually execute their powers or tell them which powers to auto-use. The mortals can't see the ghosts but they can see the affects of their powers (some do make a ghost visible). Each power requires that you have a certain amount of energy stored up which you gain from scaring the mortals. Thankfully using abilities does not drain energy which means that if you have 100e then all of your ghosts can use all of their powers that cost up to 100e indefinitely. Your power (very) slowly decreases to keep your ghosts attached to the physical world but for all except a few levels this will not affect how you play.

A gremlin causes a power surge to zap sorority girls around the TV.
If this happens a few more times they might think that it's possessed...

Your ghosts can only be placed according to their type. Gremlins, for example, can be attached to electronic items and all of their abilities have to do with the item they are attached to. They can make it malfunction, act 'creepily', zap nearby people, etc. A water spirit, by contrast, can be attached to a body of water or a piece of equipment / furniture to do with water and they would have water-like abilities from fog to flood to turning water to blood. A wraith, by another contrast, can only be placed on things associated with death and while its abilities are more fear inspiring than malfunctioning electronics and mysterious fog you won't have as much opportunity to use them without being creative. Creative in this case means luring mortals to where your heavy hitter ghosts can scare them. Strange sights and sounds may make mortals curious to investigate while scary things can make them flee in a certain direction. You can re-locate ghosts to another valid position on the map with ease but for some of the stronger types there may only be one or two spots on the map where they can go. Using ghosts also grants them experience which can be used to unlock further abilities.

A 'spook' ghost can be attached to any room and is by far the most maneuverable ghost. With so many mortals gathered here it would be a perfect time to turn visible or start moving the furniture around.

Each mortal has a number of stats for you to take into consideration. The first is their amount of fear. If it gets high enough the mortal will flee the map. The second is there insanity. If you get it high enough they will go bonkers and run around the map disturbing the other mortals. The third is their belief in ghosts, their susceptibility to being scared. Each mortal also has a secret consciousness fear and subconsciousness fear that can be used to your advantage. If a mortal simply does not believe in ghosts then their otherworldly powers will rationalized as a strange occurrence and you will have a hard time scaring them, although providing enough evidence of the existence of ghosts will increase their belief and start making them susceptible. Chaining scares on a group of mortals that is already scared is a good way to create an avalanche of fear and belief which should give you enough energy to use the higher tier abilities on that level. Exposing a mortal to their conscience and subconscious fears will eventually make them go insane with hilarious results.

Don't worry it's not real fire... but try telling that to the mortals who are running for their lives!

More than puzzles and strategy this is a game about messing with things and this is where I had the most fun. It may not be quite as efficient to toy with the mortals but it's the only ghost simulator in existence where you get to be the ghosts so who cares!? This is a game where you can zap unsuspecting people, turn the lights off on them, and make them run screaming with a thunderclap! This is a game where your goal is to create chaos and confusion and you have an arsenal of very capable ghosts at your disposal who specialize at doing just that. The setting and the theme are amazing and even though the execution was a bit clunky (still quite good by 2003 standards) I can not for the life of me figure out why this game never caught on and why nobody made a sequel. You get to set people on (illusory) fire and watch panic ensue as spiders and ghosts and hurricane force winds and falling fish (and more) appear out of nowhere... who wouldn't want that? Granted there are some levels where you need to be strategic and not scare the mortals and while most of these levels are very particular about what will and will not work, the game as a whole is sweet candy.

Greg Recommends The Kerbal Space Program

Price : $40
Store : STEAM

Take a rocket physics simulator and replace humans with little green men and you have The Kerbal Space Program. This is as accurate a rocket simulator that you will find outside of NASA, and while it is awesome it is not for everyone. The physics engine is unforgiving and bad design or incorrect timing can quickly turn into a fiery mess. This game is lots of fun to mess around with, but to actually do well you will have to learn some rocket science, and not everyone wants to do that. For those who do have the interest, patience, and sticktoitiveness this is definitely a game worth playing.

There are three modes you can play in, sandbox which gives you unlimited money and access to all rocket pieces, science mode which gives you unlimited money but restricts rocket pieces according to your research, and campaign mode which lets you earn money by doing missions and restricts rocket pieces the same way as science mode. You're objective is to explore the Kerbal System (Solar System). Why? For Science!

Every time you test out new equipment, land in a new area, or run science tests under new situations you earn science points which you can use to unlock more rocket pieces which will (theoretically) take you further into space to find more science! The game comes with a few 'pre-loaded' rockets and vehicles but the vast majority of what you will be using are things you put together yourself. Even though the first few rockets don't break through the atmosphere it isn't too long before you find yourself in space, high above the surface of Kerban with 0 Gs and lots of science to uncover. Getting that science (and your Kerbalnaughts) back down to Kerban is a bit harder than actually getting it in the first place though. Like I said, this is a realistic physics engine, and things tend to burn up upon re-entering the atmosphere. You'll want to make sure that your re-entry capsule isn't too heavy and that you have heat deflectors to keep the vital (and sciency) parts from getting damaged. You'll also want to make sure that you pack enough parachutes and that your angle of entry burns up enough velocity that said parachutes don't just rip off when they need to be deployed. I consider myself moderately competent at this game and my Kerbals still tend to die a lot in horrible horrible ways. Thankfully there's a reset button on the less punishing difficulties which allows you to start a given rocket flight over again from the beginning.

As you can imagine the game has a steep learning curve. The tutorials, while indeed useful and informative, don't hold you hand either. This game requires skill and patience to learn. But this is part of the fun, not just learning actual rocket science but also getting an incredible sense of accomplishment when you finally make a stable orbit or safely land on the Mun or any other celestial body and breathe a long sigh of relief when your intrepid Kerbalnaughts safely return back to Kerban with all their science. This game makes you work for your achievements, every launch, orbit, and landing is a potential nail biting experience, especially if something goes wrong or you're not sure if you have enough fuel to make it home...

Jebedia Kerman probably wishes the architects had gone with 4 landing legs instead of 3...
It will be at least 2 years before a rescue craft finds him on the surface of Duna.

Something you'll need to get used to very quickly is how to use your instruments. 'Eyeballing' your directions can be fun to do when your messing around but if you actually want to achieve orbit or land on the Mun then using your instruments is critical. The one I use the most is the spherical direction ball which has markings already in place for which direction you need to go to increase, decrease, or 'move' your obit as well as which direction to go to move towards or away from a marked heading. If you use these to guide you then you stand a much greater chance of success. If you don't then you will most certainly fail.

The other instrument that I use constantly is the nav computer which shows you where you are in relation to, well, everything, and what your orbit will be if you remain at your current velocity. This is especially helpful to gain a stable orbit around Kerban so you don't dip back into the atmosphere and even more important for when you want to travel to another celestial body. Since orbits are defined by the gravitational force of a planet, moon, or sun you are essentially expanding your orbit around Kerban to the point where where you will be at the height of your orbit is where the Mun will be so that you can enter into its gravitational field and adjust your velocity in relation to it instead of Kerban (doing this is what finally made Einstein's theory of relativity make sense to me). This is hard to communicate if you've never played the game before but you're essentially hopping out of one gravitational field into another. Thankfully the game lets you manually 'set a course' in the nav computer which creates an image of what your orbit would look like if that course was followed and an estimated time you would need to burn your thrusters to achieve said course. This is the rocket science I was talking about earlier.

Every rocket, space plane, and buggy can be created from scratch using the rather intuitive and fully customizable options of the rocket hanger. Pieces can be snapped or slid into place, rotated in 3 dimensions, or mirrored to be placed at equidistant intervals around another piece. You'll want to construct your spacecrafts in stages so that fuel tanks and engines can be jettisoned once they run out of fuel so as to not weigh you down and that parachutes can be deployed if you are planning on a return trip. You can create as many stages as you like using as many pieces as you like (once you unlock the final hanger upgrade) but the best rockets are (understandably) streamlined with multiple takeoff boosters arranged in 'asparagus formation' where all the engines draw from only two tanks at a time so that they can be jettisoned quickly and reduce weight evenly and most efficiently. (Once again, kind of difficult to describe if you haven't played the game).

You can also construct 'space planes' and shuttles that can fly with or without atmosphere, but I have not had very good luck with these for some reason and you need to spend lots of science to make them a feasible replacement for rockets.

For extra dangerous missions, or for missions where you can not make a return trip you can use a remote control system powered by batteries. This is where solar panels come into play, to keep unmanned explorers and satellites running. You don't get as much science broadcasting your findings back to Kerban as making a safe return, but the difference will be made up should you ever repeat the experiment / discovery and make the return trip some time in the future.

You can also 'build' space stations with crew quarters, science generating laboratories, and docking ports for space-faring vessels to latch on. I put 'build' in quotations because you will need to launch each piece into space and dock them together manually which is, without a doubt, the most difficult and patience wracking maneuver you can pull off in this game. Matching another object's orbit requires careful and precise piloting, but lining up to a docking port and actually making the connection in 0 Gs is an incredible feat. I will take this opportunity to boast that I have done it a few times.

For anyone looking for a realistic space exploration simulator this is as real as you will ever find for $40. For anyone else who is remotely interested in flying rockets to the moon this game will teach you so much about how actual rocketry works and you will (hopefully) have a blast while learning. What really makes this game for me is the challenge and the mechanics. In other space adventure games traveling to another planet is mindlessly easy (No Man's Sky) but in The Kerbal Space Program traveling to another planet is the game itself, you have to get there and get back in one piece and its hard, but doable. Once you make your first successful mission to the Mun you will feel like you've conquered the world and accomplished something impressive. The Mun is just the start though, there is a whole solar system ready to explore... for science!

Greg Avoids No Man's Sky

Earlier this week the highly anticipated 'No Man's Sky' was released. I followed this game in development, a few reviews have popped up from gamers and critics, and I think I have enough information to recommend that people avoid this game. It feels strange recommending that people avoid a game that I have never personally played, but listen to my argument and decide for yourself.

No Man's Sky is a mind mindbogglingly enormous survival space exploration game. Trillions of procedurally generated planets, each one unique with its own plants, animals, rock formations, and ruins. You, a single wanderer with a spaceship in an unfathomably huge galaxy with your goal to get to the centre. Here's my issue: the game is a gazillion miles wide but only an inch deep. Under the vast and colorful sci-fi aesthetics there are only very simple and rather annoying mechanics.

So what do you do in No Man's Sky? You start out having crash landed on a strange planet and you need to locate and harvest the necessary elements to repair your ship and keep yourself alive. The planet is big (of course) and colorful and full of plants and animals and rocks that can be scanned to reveal what sort of elements the contain, and harvested. None of the elements are very difficult to find and every planet seems to have plenty of each. You can also scan and record the exotic fauna and flora to earn credits which can be used to purchase new tools, weapons, and ships. You can also find ruins that will teach you an alien word so that when you run into aliens you can piece together what they are saying to you. Once you repair your ship you can travel to other planets which you will need to do often as your life support / weapons / thrusters / tools will require constant refills to keep you going.

But here's the thing, all of the worlds you travel to are procedurally generated. They are all 'unique' but there are also, underwhelmingly, exactly the same. Sure they will have different amounts and types of fauna and flora but after playing a few hours you will have seen and experienced all that you will ever see and experience. One planet is just like the next, a place to visit, to walk around, scan, harvest, and leave. There is no story, no adventure, no impact, your actions mean nothing, and whatever tiny mark you make will never be seen again. It's the same elements, the same ruins, and the same alien structures with the same aliens selling the same things. You can upgrade your inventory / ship / tools / components to be more efficient and let you go through the game faster.

The combat is very simple and barely worth noting.

What I see in No Man's Sky is a technological breakthrough with being able to travel an entire galaxy of procedurally generated planets without any loading time whatsoever. This is an impressive feat that will not go overlooked by anyone. I don't think they made a game worth playing with this new technology though. There's just no point to it. Sure, exploration can be a fun and exciting thing in and of itself but never procedurally generated exploration and never when traveling to planets is so incredibly quick and easy. Once you see the selection of possible ruins and structures you will have seen them all. Every planet in No Man's Sky is just a more visually pleasing planet from SPORE, a pretty but vapid place to waste time. The only interesting things worth doing are seeking out new plants and animals (which will also become samey just not quite as fast) and making your way to the centre of the galaxy for whatever procedurally generated thing waits for you there but are these things actually worth doing and is doing them worth $79.99 and dozens of hours of your time?


If you have a first person space exploration itch that needs scratching go take a look at the X3 series or The Kerbal Space Program; these are quality titles with more value and at a lower cost.

At the very least read more reviews to make sure this is what you want to spend your money on and maybe wait for the price to go down.

Greg Recommends Sid Meier's Civilization V : A Brave New World

Price : $32.99 for base game + $32.99 for Brave New World
Website : STEAM

I'm not sure how I could possibly do justice to a game as big and as in depth as Civ 5 without writing far more than most would venture to read. The Civilization series, if you've never played it before, is one of those rare video game gems that was foundational to all PC games way back in the stone ages of computer gaming (1991) that people still talk about and play. Even more rare is that the many remakes of the original Sid Meier's Civilization have been excellent games in their own right that the fan base fully endorses and celebrates, building on and improving the already excellent titles that came before. If you're totally new to Civ then Each edition of Civilization is essentially an enormous electronic turn based board game where you must lead your chosen civilization from humble stone age wanderers to a sprawling modern superpower (hopefully) head and shoulders higher than all other nations in the world. Placing cities, moving units, building improvements and wonders, it is essentially placing and moving pieces in a complex (and absolutely gorgeous looking) board game. As the turns go by your nation grows, your technology improves, and the game becomes increasingly complex but in all the good ways that make you crave to play just one more turn... Is Civ 5 worth playing if you already have and love Civ 4? Yes it is. Is the A Brave New World expansion really worth it? Yes it is. More on that later.

For anyone who has never played a Civilization game before here's how it basically goes. You begin by choosing from among a dizzying number of nations to play as, each with its own special perks. You start off with a settler and a warrior with a handful of tiles revealed around you and a huge map to explore. Once you build your first city with the settler you can work the tiles around that city to gain resources which affect how quickly that city grows, can build things, as well as your national gold / culture / faith / science / happiness points. If you want to build things quickly you can assign your city to work production heavy tiles like forests or mines. If you want them to grow quickly you can assign them to work grasslands, fishing tiles, and farms. Every building you construct adds a bonus to that city, a granary produces an extra +2 food per turn, a monument +1 culture per turn, a barracks for slightly stronger military units, etc. Everything takes time to build and gold to maintain and it is up to you to figure out what you need the most and what you will need to set up now so that you can gain greater returns in the future. Thankfully the user interface is friendly and useful, able to display a lot of information without becoming overwhelming.

The first turns are very quick as everyone only has one city and one or two units. You have a lot of encouragement to explore the map at this early phase. Being the first to uncover ancient ruins can net you free technologies, extra population, and free units. Locating city states (neutral one city AI controlled nations) will also net you a reward which is doubled if you were the first nation to find them. You'll want to be on the look out for good spots to build future cities so that you can claim special resource tiles (cattle, iron, spices, horses, cotton, etc) and strategic locations (rivers, bays, bottlenecks, etc). You'll also spend time avoiding barbarians who are roving the map looking for things to kill.

Strategy takes off in other ways as even just a few turns in you will be able to pick your first cultural tenant, start building the first wonders, found the first religions, and choose which direction your technological advancement will take.

Once you are ready to expand you'll find yourself pushing against those filthy barbarians and while it is unlikely that they will be able to take one of your cities, they will still capture workers / settlers, and lay waste to tile improvements (farms, mines, pastures, etc). You'll need a small squad to clear them out but if you are unlucky enough to be neighbors with a leader that wants to expand quickly (George Washington), or an overly aggressive leader (Gangis Khan), then you may want to adjust your expansion plans to accommodate for their competitiveness.

Two cocoa resources side by side in city view.

Once you've got your borders more or less established and those nasty barbarians have been beaten back it will be time for foreign relations. If you are of the 'conquer the world' mentality then this will mean building an army and taking over cities. If you want to be friendly or if war just isn't the best option yet then you can trade resources with other civilizations or try to impress city states by fulfilling quests or giving them gifts. If they view you as a friend they will give you a small bonus (extra food, culture, faith, or happiness) and if prove yourself as an ally they will give you a larger bonus plus all of the resources in their territory. Acquiring new types of luxury resources (even if they are only on loan) is the quickest and easiest way to boost national happiness which takes a hit every time you build a new city or grow in size.

You will constantly be competing with the other nations on various levels. Militarily, if you are at war, politically to keep city states as allies, racing to build world wonders, getting ahead technologically, culturally, and geographically. The amount of points required to unlock new technologies and cultural tenants scales according to the size of your empire so depending on your strategy you may want a sprawling empire of many cities or a small empire with large cities. By the middle of the game (Renaissance era) a whole new level of diplomatic opportunities becomes available through the use of spies (God's and Kings Expansion) and the convening of world congress (A Brave New World expansion) where every nation gets to vote on global proposals that will help some and hinder others. Every turn is full of choices where you can get to choose one of several possible bonuses and need to weigh the pros and cons of each. This is where Civilization-addiction starts. A city has finished building something, do you want to build a university in 13 turns (+2 science per turn +17% science for the city as a whole) or is it better to get the artist guild in 5 turns (begin generating Great Artists) or maybe you should try to build the Hanging Gardens in 22 turns (+6 food per turn, 25% bonus to generate Great Persons but if someone else builds it before you do then all that production is wasted...) Your laborer unit has finished constructing a farm on the wheat tile outside a city, is it better to chop down the forest in the next tile for more food or should you build a lumber camp for more production? Oh, now you can choose another cultural tenant and you get to pick from a large number of possible bonuses. Research is finished, what new buildings / units / abilities will you work to unlock now? All those little bonuses and decisions stack up together and by the industrial age it will be apparent which victory condition each nation is striving towards (military, cultural, diplomatic, or scientific) as the turn by turn decisions have evolved into distinct and substantial advantages.

By the end game you'll be working with some very impressive units, buildings, cultural and diplomatic options. Even if you were not able to rise above the pack of competing nations Civ 5 (with A Brave New World) allows for the underdog to still have options to be influential and win which is a welcome change from previous titles. Eventually someone will take over everyone else's capitals, build a space ship to colonize Alpha Centari, or pull off a cultural or diplomatic victory (see below) which ultimately ends the game.

Sometimes the border can get a little tense...

For everyone who has played Civilization before Civ 5 took a few departures from previous titles and I am among the many who are glad for this.

Combat has had a complete revamp. For starters, the square tiles were replaced by hexes but more importantly units can no longer be stacked on the same tile and much more emphasis has been given to the advantages and penalties for how you are attacking. In past titles players could just pile their army into a single doom tile and just roll over all but similar sized doom tiles but now positioning your troops is vital to a successful military campaign. A well placed pikeman unit fortified in a castle on a hill across a river can hold against many foes (even early gunpowder units) while your archers rain damage down upon them. Cities are now formidable combat 'units' in their own right able to take and dish out a lot of damage. It will require multiple turns of constant attacks from multiple tiles to capture cities. Over all combat now feels 'Chess-like', which adds a welcome depth of interest and complexity to what was a rather simple 'Risk-like' system.

Culture was also completely revamped. While it still causes your national boarders to grow it will now also unlock a plethora of 'cultural tenants' which will give you specific advantages and in the A Brave New World expansion, allow access to even more powerful ideology tenants which have a drastic affect on how the late game is played. The cultural victory condition is another innovation in Civ 5 wherein you generate 'tourism' (the amount by which other nations are envious of your culture) by displaying great works and historical artifacts in your cities, building world wonders, and choosing certain cultural tenants. You can multiply your tourism output through trade, espionage, open border agreements, technology, religion, and ideology. As your tourism rating starts to over take other nations' cumulative culture you will receive bonuses when when attacking, trading, or spying on them. If they follow a different ideology than you do then your tourism rating will start creating unhappiness in that nation as the people want to adopt your way of life. If you're tourism rating overtakes every other nation's cumulative culture totals then you win.

At the beginning of the game you only have a few trees to choose from.
I usually choose liberty because the free laborer and setter really fit with my play style.

Religion also got an overhaul in the Gods and Kings expansion. Similar to culture points you can acquire faith points through a variety of means. If you can get enough you will be able to start a Pantheon, a pre-religion, which can grant you one out of a dizzying number of small bonuses that you will take with you throughout the game. Later, once you have enough faith points a great prophet will spawn in your capital and you can use him to create a formal religion. Similar to a pantheon you will be able to choose two bonuses from a dizzying number of options, one bonus for the religion founder (you) and another bonus for every city that follows that religion (you + others). The next Great Prophet allows you to pick two more 'reformation tenants', one for the founder, another for every city that follows that religion. While religions benefit every city they spread to it is almost always in your best interest to spread your religion as much as possible as your founder benefits are often dependent on how many cities follow it and you get a tourism bonus with nations who share a common belief. Choosing which religion to create or embrace is a very strategic option. Extra culture for specific tiles worked, or extra gold per 4 followers, or being able to purchase military units with faith points (maybe a religion you would rather not spread) are just a few examples of what religion can do. These subtle benefits can change the outcome of the game over time, especially if your play style or other bonuses can be used to multiply or leverage those benefits.

The dynamics of the middle and late game were the target of the A Brave New World expansion. The option to create trade routes with AI controlled caravan / cargo ship units opens up gold based strategy like never before but also affects the spread of religion, tourism, and science. The amount of gold generated by trade routes is substantial and, just like every other aspect of the game, can be improved upon depending on how your cities are structured, which wonders you've built, your religion, technology, and cultural tenants. Trade routes can be raided though, and the AI caravans / cargo ships will stick to their shortest route regardless of danger. Hunting down enemy caravans and trade ships is an excellent way to hurt your foe while also netting yourself a substantial gold boost.

A Brave New World also adds the world congress which is founded when a civilization has met every other nation and has discovered The Printing Press. The host nation and the nation who has the most representatives both put forth a global proposal that everyone gets to vote on. The resolutions passed affect everyone and range from military tax to trade rules to naming a world wide religion / ideology to influencing the rate at which specific 'Great Persons' (Artists, Generals, Prophets, Architects, Scientists, etc) are generated. The number of delegates you get primarily depends on the world era, and how many city state allies you have. This means that city states become a resource in and of themselves and a savvy political player can win the game with a world leader vote if he has enough support (or close to enough support with good espionage). The addition of the world congress makes the middle and end game more interesting and can shake up an otherwise inevitable outcome. Higher military taxes, a trade embargo, and being unable to use specific luxury resources will create all sorts of problems warmongering players while resolutions that boost tourism can make pacifist players a serious threat.

Take away everyone's whales or make it so that artists are more common and scientists / generals / engineers are not. Hmm...

There are other features and tweaks made in Civ 5 that I just don't have time to cover. Over all, compared to previews titles, the game pacing is better, there are more interesting and deeper features, and all of the features intertwine with each other allowing for a multitude of diverse strategies and approaches. The classic strategies of rushing certain techs / wonders / unit types are greatly augmented by the new cultural / religious / diplomatic options giving way to a multitude of new strategies. The improvement of the middle and late game in A Brave New World are especially pronounced and even though I thought Civ 5 was amazing before the expansion now that I have it I can barely imagine how game didn't feel incomplete or broken with out it.

As for Gods and Kings my personal recommendation is to skip it or wait for a really good sale as all of the features added in God's and Kings also carried over to A Brave New World with the only exception being following nations: Austria, Byzantine, Carthage, Netherlands, Celts, Maya, Holland, Ethiopia, Huns, and Sweden. Given A Brave New World's inclusion of Gods and Kings' features and the large improvements game I highly recommend A Brave New World for the definitive Civ 5 experience, it really isn't the same game without it.

Civ 5, even without any expansions, is without a doubt a quality game both deep and wide. It will consume your time by the hour and playing a round of Civ can take days if not weeks or months. Here is to the 5th edition of the quintessential grand strategy PC game. 

Greg Recommends Viridi

Price : Free
Website : STEAM

So here's an unusual game. Viridi is a plant simulator where you can arrange, water, and admire a virtual pot of plants. You start out by picking a 'starter' pot which comes with a handful of seedlings and a snail who slowly cruises along the side of your pot. You water your plants when they are thirsty and zooming up close to any one of them allows you to sing to your plants which may or may not make them grow faster and bigger. The game is real time so you can check in once every few days (you get a time-lapse viewing from since you last logged in) to pluck weeds and water thirsty plants. Once a week you can collect a free seedling to plant or save at your leisure. You can also buy virtual seedlings via micro-transactions.

It's a surprisingly calming and beautiful little game with gentle music that you can check in on every once and a while to keep your plants happy and healthy and maybe linger a bit for stress relief. It may not be for everyone but it is free and as far as plant simulators go, it's a quality product.