The Populous series is a series of video games developed by Bullfrog Productions and published by Electronic Arts.
The first game in the series – Populous was released in 1989. At the time, it was hailed as revolutionary, and it coined the term god game (although previous games such as SimCity can also be said to be god-games).
The games involved you taking on the role of a deity and you had to lead your followers into battle against your opponents, and intervene by using a variety of "divine intervention" effects.
The first two games were similar. In Populous and Populous II, much emphasis was spent on flattening the terrain. The view of the game-world was isometric. Populous: The Beginning was more like a conventional war-game than a god-game and uses true 3D instead of isometric 3D. In Populous: The Beginning, you played the role of a shaman instead of a god (although, depending on your point of view, you might be a god who controls a shaman).