Recent content by CoffeeMonster

Satellites didn't do it for me. Talk about a load of *!

There's a lot of top flight developers besides Blizzard. Bioware, Bethesda, Obsidian, Square (and until recently, Infinity Ward), etc. You may disagree, and your personal list may differ, but my point is the same. Most of these companies release high quality, high polish products, because they...

Gandhi is a freaking warmonger juggernaut. I've noticed that he tends to dominate and eliminate everyone else on the continent through his message of peace and hope and unstoppable legions of troops. He's dangerous if left alone. Napolean is also bad news if left alone. I tend to go to resort...

#1 Happiness / Gold scarcity seems to be how they're balancing the game (as opposed to food/health for the previous iteration). It's an annoyance but not that hard to adapt to once you figure out the rules. #2 Diplo is Firaxis' attempt to make players seem more human-like. This ends up being...

You're actually starting to sound reasonable. :p Yeah, it wasn't a slight.. just pointing out that casual gamers like this iteration far more than a lot of the vets do. I think the more you play Civ 5, the more we'll be in agreement. Those little things that annoy will start to become more and...

I'd give it a C. 3/5. It's an average game made by what I consider a top notch developer. I'd give it a higher score if it was released by a small / indie developer, but I expected a more polished product from Firaxis.

It's only an insult if you take it as one. No one called you dumb. You just interpret and equate casual gamer with "dumb". The fact is that Firaxis repurposed Civ specifically for it to appeal more to casual gamers. This means less complexity and a "streamlined" interface, with less...

I think you're very right. A lot of the "new" Civ 5 players seem to be those that disliked Civ 1-4 (for complexity / tediousness or whatever you want to call it). I showed Civ 5 to my younger sister, and she actually likes it because of the pretty colors and animations (and apparently...

I REX pretty hard in the early / midgame, and it's fine as long as you: 1) expand at +5 or +10 happiness locations (two diff luxuries) 2) take over all the closest iron/horse locations for denial purposes 3) have a viable military to defend said expansions Three is harder to keep up if you...

I go either warrior or scout (particularly if you are Washington). Then I'll go settler, warrior, settler etc. Put those settlers on luxury spots, buy a worker (or ideally capture one or two from a city-state / civ) and you're off. Abuse city states for food, luxuries, (and free workers!) and...

I've found the move from Prince to Emperor to still be pretty easy. I played Emp level for RevDCM Civ 4, so the Civ 5 happiness mechanics are familiar. The key (for me, at least) was to expand early and aggressively on all the luxury resources (and strategic). Don't be afraid to extend to...

I agree. It's like Ford pointing to their new line of crappy cars, and saying, "hey, at least it isn't as bad as the Pinto", or BP saying of their next oil leak, "hey at least it isn't as bad as the Gulf oil spill." Past mistakes shouldn't justify future ones- if anything, they should...

My gripe is that I'm playing against 12 Monty Montezumas in each game. A little predictability and consistency would make the leaders seem more like who they are. Right now their supposed personalities don't seem to matter much, because they are all so random. Gandhi might actually want...

You're almost certainly going to lose those top two cities. You can probably gain enough time to get a couple units up to save the rest, though. The suggestions above are good ideas: the AI seems to be very generous with money trades. Try to get a mix of units if possible, as resources and $...