[0 angst] Hannibal Crosses the Screen
I have a copy of a computer game called Caesar III. I've had this game since...oh, 2000? I know I bought it in high school, but I can't remember during which of the two years I attended. It's a city-building game, and when you reach the goals of each level, you're given a promotion to the next level of difficulty. Eventually, you achieve the rank of Caesar.

I don't know how long that takes, however, or what one must do to achieve it, for I have never beaten this game. I'm not exactly a serious gamer, but damn, can I pick them. Caesar III is hard.

I have independent evidence to back this up, btw. A patch was put out for the game after its initial release. That patch gave the user control over the difficulty, renaming the original difficulty "hard" and creating three levels of difficulty, including "normal," below that.

Of course, being me, I must beat the game at its original difficulty. MUST. Yes, I'm crazy. I'm crazy because I play this game for an hour every few weeks now, as I have been for a month or two (after keeping it in a box of CD-ROMs for years), and I've just hit the Mediolanum level again. The Mediolanum level in which one is attacked by waves of Hannibal's armies over and over in addition to having to manage a city on lousy geography with little starting money. The Mediolanum level I've only beaten once before.

I think I was planning to say something more, but all I can add right now is WOE.