Game #12 - Victoria II
There is just something so satisfying about being an all controlling immortal God. Some games like Civilization have you playing through all of human history while Victoria 2 is just restricted to the Victorian Era. You take control of any country that is on the map and really from there you can pretty much do anything you want. Want to recreate the French Empire? Go for it. Want to become communist Spain and spread the ideas of Marx around the world? You can do that too. There's much more to do in this game than just conquering the world. You can an economy and country to manage. You need resources and factories to produce goods and to be mindful of rebels which might try to overthrow your government. You can create your own country and customise your own flags as you wish the game is pretty mod friendly. Along with that there is multiplayer which is a ton of fun (assuming your checksums are correct!). Victoria 2 is not a game for everybody, it has a massive learning curve and the whole idea might not sound that exciting. But once you get into it, I guarantee you that won't even notice how many hunderds of hours have gone by managing your country.
Essay Pro