Populous was a wonderful game. Populous II was a wonderful game that took the basic concept of the original - you're a god, battling other gods via believers and disasters - and added incredibly destructive global cataclysms.
The basic game goes like this: You raise and lower land to make it all nice and flat and your believers will settle on the flat land, and then produce more followers. They worship you, and their belief gives you power - The power to do evil things to your rival's mindless drone-slaves.
What sort of wrathful torments were available in Populous II? You could summon volcanoes! You could level the storied heights of the mountains with tidal waves! Great chasms would open at your whim, swallowing entire cities! Fire rained from the sky! Tornadoes! Trees! Lightning bolts! Helen of Troy wiggling her naughty hips!
What a game. While the sequel lacked the subtlety of the original, it featured exactly the sort of spectacle that would make a good film. But where is the movie adaptation? Well, worry not; Populous: The Movie is due to be released on November 13, 2009.
This long-awaited film will feature a cast of billions, who you won't care about at all - because every single one of them is going to be crushed, burnt, drowned, or pulverized by all your favourite disasters from the game. Of course, I mean volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis - Who gave a damn about plagues, swamps, and subtlety when they could drop a huge earthquake under the enemy's papal magnet? Now you can see it topple and crush all the misguided fools, too!
Unfortunately, people in some countries might not have heard of this excellent computer game, so Populous: The Movie will instead be released under the title "2012".
See the trailer for Populous: The Movie here.