oh shi--pandemic!

found via left4dead_fans:

there's this neat flash game, Pandemic II. you create a disease and try to infect & kill the world's population with it.

there is a lot of interesting strategy that goes into the disease development. you can choose 1 of 3 different disease classes - bacteria, virus or parasite - and then you 'buy' (through evolution) different symptoms that affect how well your disease spreads, how noticeable it is to governments (which increase actions taken to curb the infection) and how lethal it is.

there's lots of other factors at play too, it's pretty deep for a flash game! also long, though you can speed up in-game time to shorten play time. but, it becomes harder to react to developments taken against your disease and thus, a lot harder to win - even if you wipe out lots of countries, if there are any people left without the disease (and can't be infected because of vaccines or quarantines) then you lose.

you do get a high score, though, based on how many countries' populations are destroyed. i haven't been able to DESTROY ALL HUMANITY yet, but i *have* taken out Japan, the US, all of western Europe, North Africa, Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, and Greenland in one game.

don't know if that's a common outcome, though. XD

give it a spin if you have some time you need to waste. it's pretty good for that!