what is best buy right now?

Soooo....I've had the vanilla version of Civ V for a while, but now that the holidays are here, I want to get back to the game; I have several questions that you folks probably could help with though

Do I need to have G&K to run BNW? It seems that most stuff that was introduced in G&K (namely religion) are already in the base BNW xpac, so the only things I would be missing are the civs that were introduced along with G&K, right? Is there a cheaper way to get just those?

Considering everything, what would be the most economic way for me to get all DLC civs, maps, and scenarios? (basically just become perfectly up-to-date)

Also, would it be a wiser choice to wait for potential sales during the holiday season?

Thanks for your help!

Gold Edition upgrade from Steam (all pre-BNW DLC plus Gods and Kings) and then buy BNW separately. That saves you a significant amount of money over buying all the DLC piecemeal.

I understand it is a great way for the developers to make money, having you pay a little more money every time they add a little "something extra" to the game and even more money with every expansion, but I, as a consumer, HATE IT. Imagine if they sold cars that way: <<yes, the standard version only comes with the driver's seat, but when the "Passengers" expansion pack comes out it will include three additional seats! (and for only an extra 50% of what you paid for the original car), and those who pre-order will recieve the exclusive "glove compartment" and "rear-view mirrior" DLCs!...>>
I bought CIV5 the week it came out, but was greatly dissapointed by it after a few days, and haven't played it since. I know they've been improving it with every expansion pack, but I'm not going to play the game until I buy the FULL game in a COMPLETE pack, that includes every piece they've been selling you separately... maybe in one of those "weekend specials", a month before CIV6 comes out...
I'm sorry, I know nothing of what I said really answers your question, but I just wanted to get this out of my chest!
Cheers!

Just buy BNW, it comes with all GnK features (not 9 GnK civs though). Then wait for holiday to grab the Gold edition.

Two weeks ago or so, I bought gold edition upgrade for a friend of mine. ~5&#8364;. BNW is only slightly more expensive. I suggest not to buy on Steam unless it's on a huge sale. Steam is quite expensive, especially for newer and more popular titles, which includes civ. Go for a retailer who sells serial numbers they bought during one of sales.

I buy all the games I'm waiting for 1-2 months before they are released, but when I need an older game or a second copy, I always go for resellers.

There's a catch, though. You MUST make sure that the key is meant for your region, i.e. European Union, Northern America etc. For example, Russian edition of Civ does not work with any other languages than Russian if you try to activate it outside of Russia. There are usually no such issues in civilized parts of the world, but it's really important that the key was meant for your region.

One of my trusted sites is http://inexus.us/ (hope it's ok to de facto advertise someone here). There are far better and cheaper ones, but they do not have english versions of their websites.

1. I am residing in South Korea; does this mean that I need to find a retailer that offers product keys specifically for South Korea? or is it dependant on my desired game language, in which case would be English(US)?

2. Does anyone know what retailers are out there? The only game retailer I know is Steam

thankxsx!!!

1) Not sure if this will help you dude but I stay in Singapore and in general, i have no problems with these 3rd Party Keys distributors: Greenmangaming.com and GetGamesGo.com. These sites are reliable though GMG did caused quite a stir here for releasing the BNW keys a day late. They are also cheaper then Steam in general.

Though if you are in doubt, greenmangaming does have a forum so you can ask about that

Steam is not region-bound generally, so you should be fine buying it from any website.

Tinker said:

Steam is not region-bound generally, so you should be fine buying it from any website.

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Steam is not, but some games are.

buy the Gold Edition plus BNW, that's it!

One more thing, Some other websites still offer you the Steam version of the game with a much better price though it takes time searching

Tinker said:

Steam is not region-bound generally, so you should be fine buying it from any website.

Click to expand...

This isn't entirely true. Some sites are selling Russian product keys (which are much cheaper compared to e.g. European or North American software prices), but sometimes they forget to mention that these key are working only in Russia and several other countries, the only way you can use it properly is by accessing Steam from a Russian, Ukrainian... etc. IP range. Otherwise the systen will block your product. So keep that in mind, and however the cheap price is tempting, but I suggest avoiding these keys if you're not from the area, since the masking techniques aren't as reliable as they often advertise it, you can find a lot of complaints on related forums because Steam keeps blocking these users from using their copy on steam.

So if the deal sounds too good, keep an eye open.

p.s. since the forum policy forbids advertising, i'm not gonna share any links or name any sites, but just to understand what i'm talking about, here's an example. When i was helping a friend o' mine in getting a copy of BNW, i saw that anybody would be able to buy a copy from 8-9 euros, but the cheapest possibly(!!!) non-russian copy of the game costs at least double, ~16 euros at least, during occasional sales or discounts.

why are codes from Russia, Ukraine, etc cheaper? Are they fakes or something like that?

pthieu1986 said:

why are codes from Russia, Ukraine, etc cheaper? Are they fakes or something like that?

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No no no, they are perfectly working, legal copies of the game!
But you probably aware of the fact that the average working man earns less money by doing the same job in Eastern Europe or Russia than somewhere in Western Europe for example. I'm from Hungary, and it's an issue here as well.

So my theory is that to make Steam games accessible for the average gamer living in the East, Steam or (whoever sells these games) lowered the price of product keys in these countries. But there were probably a few who realized that the same product costs double in Western countries, so if he buys a bunch of keys in Russia, he can sell it on 150% cost easily outside of Russia. This region-lock was probably introduced to lower the number of keys "exported" from the Russian region (I assume).

The exact opposite is the reason why Aussies pay the equivalent of US$100 for games.

Not sure if you, or anyone else, is still looking, but here's a good pack that has all but the latest map dlcs:

http://www.greenmangaming.com/s/us/en/pc/games/strategy/civilization-pack/

DWilson said:

Not sure if you, or anyone else, is still looking, but here's a good pack that has all but the latest map dlcs:

Click to expand...

Ouch! $80

I would like to find that kind of bundle, but at about half that price. I can wait until after Christmas!