Money has been tight lately, as most of you can probably understand in our current economic climate.  Having always been a TBS fan, I had to make a decision as to which game I would buy this fall.  I've been anticipating Civilization 5 and Elemental for quite some time, but I had to go with the latter, and I still don't regret it.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm getting pretty tired of the Civilization series.  It's starting to remind me of Madden: Release the same game, add a few features, and call it the best thing since sliced bread.  I've played every one of them, and every spin off since Civ 1 and the whole tour through history bit is getting a bit long in the tooth for me.

So I'm left with Elemental, which kind of feels like the old pick-up truck your dad gave you.  It doesn't exactly run all that great, needs a new set of...well, everything, and doesn't impress your friends all that much.  So would I rather take the old pick-up truck that can potentially take me to places I've never been before, or do I stick with Civilization, my shiny ten-speed that's always been safe and reliable my whole life?

I've read all the reviews, seen all the crap hit the fan, and even felt a bit of disappointment in the past few weeks.  However, there's something about this game that just gets me excited, something unique, and something I don't feel very often with games.  Even with all of the bugs and problems this game has, it has something special that I can't quite explain.  With Stardock's commitment to improve things, I am giddy with anticipation as to where we will be led in the next few months and years.  It's expecting the unexpected with Elemental that is holding my interest.  It's hoping that perhaps one day Elemental will defy it's launch in a way that we have never seen before.

I'm sure that Civilization 5 will get reviewed really well, I'm sure it will be everything that everyone has hoped it would be.  I'm sure it will be polished, stable, and relatively bug-free.  I'm sure, at the core of it all, it will still feel like the Civilization we've grown to love.  Unfortunately, this is where I become bored.  I'll take the old pickup-truck, but I'm not sure why.

Perhaps Trinity had the answer: Because you have been down there Neo, you know that road, you know exactly where it ends. And I know that's not where you want to be.