Happened on this 1998 game by sheer chance and I'm really digging it! As far as I can tell it was never popular. It's a mixture of an RTS and a "god game" where one unit (your shaman) is very powerful & special (chess analogy: sort of like mixing the central role of the king & with the power of the queen). Strong "tribal" vibes that were popular in the '90s (think Deep Forest music, the game Riven, etc). Very nostalgic for me as I was a kid at the time. I'm playing the PSX version, looks like the PC version was even better! Has anyone ever heard of this "Populous" series? I'm curious to try other titles, and to try more in the "god game" genre (a genre I never even knew existed!). Any other "god games" worth checking out?

Super Metroid's color palette and lanky sprite were always a turn off for me. But I'm finally giving it a chance on SNES (MSU-1 version) & I'm really enjoying it! Vibes are: Quake + the movie Alien + Nine Inch Nails' album The Downward Spiral. Pretty cool aesthetic after all!

In many games there are a lot of stupid filler items that you don't know what they do and they don't matter. (i.e. crafting ingredients). They are so ubiquitous across games that there ought to be a word for them. Sort of like a ["MacGuffin"](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/MacGuffin) (except a MacGuffin moves the plot along, and these filler items don't). Is there a name for these filler items? If not, got any ideas?