This game has slowly eaten up the past couple days of my life (spent sitting in recluse trying to shake a week's worth of hangover's). It's pretty damn addictive.

 

Essentially, its a sandbox game, where you get a bunch of dwarves, pick a location out of a rather large world map, and go and mine out a fortress. Sounds simple enough, but this game has one of the steepest learning curves I have ever found. Yes, its far harder than PR. This fact isn't really helped by the way it is entirely in ASCII. WAIT! Don't stop reading here! Once you get past the fact that you're trying to excavate a bunch of golden british pound symbols (dont have one on my keyboard and cbf looking up the code ), and the seriously intense diffuculty, this game is actually damn good. Personally, it makes me think of making my own version of Moria or Misty Mountain, and despite the fact that I've never really gotten into the LOTR series, it still feels damn cool.

 

Despite the fact that it doesn't have 3d graphics, let alone the graphics of BF3, it still chews up a ****load of processing. My 2.5 GHz (not the best, I know, but still) dual core processor still lags like a little female dog on some of the larger areas. This probably gives a bit of an insight into just how complex this game is.

 

And yes, strange things lurk in the deep darkness.

 

This review says it a little better than I do

 

Download mirrors are here, and the game's wikipedia page is right here.

 

Another thing worth noting is the game's own fan created wiki, http://df.magmawiki.com. It's invaluable to anyone playing the game who hasnt played constantly for the last 6 months of their lives, and even then, maybe not.

 

http://dwarffortressw.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/01_titlescreen3.png

 

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0yeT--9fCgY/TlpSXE-2qiI/AAAAAAAABng/XRj-rPNWhS8/s1600/Dwarf_Fortress_Ascii.png

 

http://manvshorse.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/dwarf-fortress-1.jpg

 

http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/gamelife/2010/04/dwarffortress-660x990.jpg

Has an incredible depth to it, the ascii presentation of it can be a headache to get used to though.

I tried to get into this, even got all the texture packs and stuff. I got seriously confused when i started mining about which metals to bother with etc etc and gave up.

DF is awesome. Steep learning curve, but well worth the effort.

 

I play this game with the May Green graphics overhaul to make it purrtier on my poor eyes. http://mayday.w.staszic.waw.pl/df.php