Civilization IV

Anyone else picking this up? They really dropped the ball with Civ3,
but let's forget about that. I'm pre-ordering a copy tomorrow against
my better judgement. College and work will become distant memories.

Civilization is one of those games that had the unfortunate luck
of being pretty much perfect the first time around. Unfortunate because
it means that the developers didn?t really have much else to do for any
of the sequels. Not until number three anyway, at which point they
almost ruined everything by overcomplicating it.
In a nod to the
graphical ability of modern day PCs the graphics have been upgraded all
the way from rubbish to okay-ish. Actually, the 3D effect as you zoom
out to a view of the whole globe is quite nice but otherwise this is
not going to be giving Doom 3 any sleepless nights.

The far more important changes are to the gameplay which has had all the overcomplicated elements from Civ III
ripped out and, most interestingly, many of the features from the
original that had been considered sacrosanct. City riots and rebellions
are now extremely rare and other tedious elements such as pollution
have been removed. This all adds up to a tighter, faster paced game
that doesn?t get bogged down once you get a lot of cities up and
running.

A new team-based online modes attempts to add a similar
injection of speed to the multiplayer ? although whether that will
prove as successful remains to be seen. More promising is a greater
emphasis on religion in the game, as well as great people from history
that can help morale, combat or research and sometimes all three. With
strategy games becoming ever rarer Civ IV looks like it could finally make them, if not fashionable, at least popular again. -- Harrison Dent

[i] [/i]

Nice! I'll go for it if I ever have time... I love RTS games, but there are so few good ones!

---

Some people are like slinkys...

They aren?t really good for anything, but you can't help but laugh when one tumbles down the stairs.

I love RTS games too unfortunately Civ4 is not an RTS game...

I wanted to get this but I'm too worried that its going to be a waste of money... Civ3 was just so painful.

---

Every time something happens that gives me additional cause to hate humanity I add another room to my Half-Life level.

Normally I would have rushed out to place a preorder, but Civ3 left me
cautious. I'm waiting for more reviews. But man, it looks pretty tasty.
(No more city riots and pollution?! NOOOOOO!!)

I didn't mind Civ 3 myself, but yeah, still prefer the first...

---

One day you'll know what you're talking about, I can hardly imagine

Maps! - Audio blog!

Not getting because I dont like RTS.

The only reason I don't like RTS's are my friends wail on me and kick my ass in them when we play LAN (2 of them are in the top 20 in the world for Archer Wars in AOE). Plus the games can go on for hours.

---

Reckless disregard for childrens well being, women and nothing but utter contempt for other cultures.

Civ isn't an RTS, it's turn based. Which basically means it takes even longer :biggrin:

---

[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

indeed it's TBS. that's my favourite strategy game mode, really allows for think ahead strategy. Most RTS can be won by being ultra fast and rushing out a big army. Ideal is a mix of both so that you can lay out your srategy in TBS and fight battles in RTS (games like: Lords of the Realm, the Total War series, etc).

i didnt dislike Civ3 either. I'm glad they're taking care of polution now though. I'm really getting Civ4.

---

These words are my diaries screaming out loud

What i think is cool about Civ 4 is the multiplayer support that makes
it possible for every player to make their move at the same time.

Instead of forcing everyone to wait for one of the players to make his move before the next one can do his, and so on.

The other thing that i think is great about Civ 4 is that this is my
real chance to look into the deep of the game since i was too young to
understand CIV 1-3.

I really like playing "slow" strategy games at LAN as long as everyone
is enthusiastic about it. Since its turn based, everyone has time to
consider their moves and the social game is alot more fun. People
create alliances, stab eachothers back, terrorbalance is created and so
on.

Me and my friends have played age of mythology alot and despite its a TBS it usually takes no more than a few hours to complete.

Civilisation 2
Gold was quite cool. I spent WAAAAY too much time playing that a
while back. Might give it another download. Second only to Tetris for
addictiveness. :biggrin:

Wasn't AoM a RTS??

---

http://maze5.net

All I can say is, they will have one hell of a time beating Civ II IMO.

I have been a HL fan since it came out but I actually "played" Civ II for almost 3 years. I mean, I actually played it for that long. No other game captured my attention for so long.

I nearly cried when I played Civ III the first time. It wasn't horrible in all honesty but, It had none of the allure of its predecessor.

I trust you guys... (mostly) ...and I am short of cash this time of year so I think I will await your reviews before I buy.

---

There is no history until something happens, then there is.

All I can say is, they will have one hell of a time beating Civ II IMO.

I've been playing it again today... (I'm focusing my attentions kicking Greece's ass)

Wasn't AoM a RTS??

Age Of Mythology was RTS, yes.

---

:: Forceflow.be :: Nuclear Dawn developer

_
_
_
____________Alpha Centauri pwns you all.
_
_
_

City riots and rebellions are now extremely rare and other tedious elements such as pollution have been removed. This all adds up to a tighter, faster paced game that doesn?t get bogged down once you get a lot of cities up and running.

I actually liked this feature. It was a great indicator that you were doing well or poorly. Once you had upward of 20-30 cities it got hard to micro manage them and some cites slipped by me. If one popped up with pollution, I knew that I had neglected it for to long.

I hope they left enough of these tediums in to keep my interest.

---

There is no history until something happens, then there is.

Biological Component said:
_
_
_
____________Alpha Centauri pwns you all.
_
_
_

never heard of it

Basically AC picks up where Civ II leaves off if you go the "Space Ship" ending.

AC was OK, but nothing to brag about. It was over hyped IMO. About like "Brood Wars" was. :rolleyes:

---

There is no history until something happens, then there is.

ahh i see

meh i found brood war to be quite fun, for a while

? quote:? quoting Biological Component_
_
_
____________Alpha Centauri pwns you all.
_
_
_
never heard of it

How- What! Im at a loss...

You've never heard of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri?!!!

What are you doing on a Civilization thread if you don't know Alpha Centauri...

Just for grins I am re-installing Civ III Conquests. Perhaps I can loosen myself up for Civ IV's arrival.

I pray that you guys give a great report on this one.

I cannot seem to locate my copy of AC right now so, its Civ III.

---

There is no history until something happens, then there is.

Well, Civ4 is getting pretty good ratings across the board.

http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/919352.asp

While I think IGN generally inflates their review scores, it seems the
general consensus (for now) is 91%, still waiting for more though
(Gamespot specifically).

I'm sorry but AC was hilariously broken. Any time you can play on the hardest difficulty and outright buy the last 5 or so wonders there's a serious problem. It was fun, but it wasn't hard :razz:

Speaking of AC I might play it as a nice warmup before I give in and get this...

---

Every time something happens that gives me additional cause to hate humanity I add another room to my Half-Life level.

<A HREF="http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/civilizationiv/review.html" TARGET="_blank">The
worst part of Civilization 4: The highly addictive gameplay will make
you lose sleep.</a>

Yowza.

Oh,
and personally, I really disliked AC. I can see why people might like
it, but it really just isn't for me. Although I loved my Mindworm
armies...

AC succeeded in giving you the feeling of being quite alone in a depressingly strange world. I liked how you had a diary describing your feelings in relation to the alien lifeforms. that was great but could give you a depressed feeling when you played it too long. in the end i produced so many planetbusters that i could start a war with everybody + win the game, all in 1 turn.

---

These words are my diaries screaming out loud

(Dances and dances and dances)

I BOUGHT CIV IV.

(reality check)

f**k, I'm leaving town in about an hour and won't be able to play for a week.

(Cries)

Look for it guys, its in the stores. $49.84 at wal-mart

Pretty high machine requirements on this one. About 4 times the Civ III requirements. They must have really changed the game.

[edit] Seems to have direct IP connection play as well. Would any Civ players be interested in a game sometime? Assuming of course it will play 56k?

---

There is no history until something happens, then there is.

I got this a little bit ago and I'm enjoying it up to a point. Every game I've played starts off fun until about the beginnings of the industrial era when it slows to a crawl and computer turns take 20 min to finish. This game is a terrible resource hog and its entirely inexcusable. It'll be a cold day in hell before I upgrade my computer to play a game that would be just as good using 2d sprites from 1998.

Maybe if they ever patch it so it runs it would be great, as the changes from what I can see have been by and large wonderful, and the AI doesn't suck (although there's always been an extreme lack of fighting between the computer civs). Religion is cool, resources are handled much better than they were in Civ3, and the changes in the tech tree are a godsend.

The only really aggrivating change I've seen is how incredibly difficult barbarians make the early game. If you encounter a barbarian town before you can secure any iron you are f**ked and might as well start a new game. I've resorted to turning them off :/

---

Every time something happens that gives me additional cause to hate humanity I add another room to my Half-Life level.

May I ask what your machines stats are. I want to know how mine will fair compared.

---

There is no history until something happens, then there is.

X-Com will eat you all.

Getting Leonard Nimoy to do the dialog must have cost a pretty penny.

---

There is no history until something happens, then there is.

He's not exactly an A-list celeb or something these days Underdog :razz:
Serves him right too for bringing
this into the
world

---

[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

ReNo said:
He's not exactly an A-list celeb or something these days Underdog :razz: Serves him right too for bringing this into the world

And, you might slide off of my A-list if you persist in reminding me of my dial-up. :heee:

Is this movie worth an hour+ download?

---

There is no history until something happens, then there is.

Hell no, it's barely worth watching if you have a connection fast
enough to stream it from the get go! It's Leonard Nimoy singing a song
about the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins. If that sounds like it's worth your
time, go right ahead :biggrin:

---

[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

I read your post and 2 things popped into my head. First, was Nimoy ever an A-list actor? And second, Dumbledores words "..and yet, accidental rudeness happens all to frequently"

I know you didn't intend to be mean but, my connection is a sore spot for my at the moment.

No, his voice alone would preclude my will to download his song.

---

There is no history until something happens, then there is.

Ergh, I love Simulators, but Ive never had the likes for civilisation. I find the game unplayable.

---

I would love to change the world, But they would'nt give me the source code.

• Mephs np: Leonard Nimoy - Ballad Of Bilbo Baggins [02:21m/192Kbps/44KHz]

#Bilbo (Bilbo) Bilbo Baggins, hes only three feet tall!

Bilbo (Bilbo) Bilbo Baggins, bravest little hobbit of them all!#

Tis classic music. I was actually going to flash my own music video for it not so long ago, as you do...

I've all the images ready, but I just can't be arsed now. Thank God. :biggrin:

Back to Civilisation: I'm not putting the game on too much of a
pedestel, but I think it should be played by anyone studying geography
or poiltics at least once. It really helped me grasp the strengths and
weaknesses of various things, such as the differences between labour
and conservative, perversely I play the game like a Tory concerning
taxes, it seems to be a good strategy, but of course I wouldn't vote
for them (even if I could, which we can't here).