As of today what do you think is the BEST Civilization game to play?

[Artifex1]

Maybe I should have put Alpha Centauri in there but in technically wasn't a "Civilization" game.

 

[Skulbow]

Maybe Civ VI isn't the sharpest tool in the box but very much enjoying the game after 800 hrs of CivV. I was ready for a change even though the community balance patch did breath a lot of good into CivV.

 

[Karoq]

the districts have been catching a lot of flack on the message boards, but I like them. The districts add a new layer of strategy to the game. I like that we can extend out cities bombardment range with encampments, for example. Civ VI has reinvigorated my civ game. I've not been this excited about a civ game since I played one for the first time on my playstation.

 

[Zenstrive]

I still enjoy Civ V more.
Sue me, it's my opinion.

 

[TomKQT]

It's not really a fair comparison, but at this point it's my only real chance, so I must say that CivV at its final state is much better than CivVI right now. More features, more civs, better polished, almost (or completely?) no bugs etc.
But CivVI has a very good chance to beat CivV after some months of polish and updates.

 

[kaspergm]

Not a fair competition at all, but Civ5 + expansions + mods is still a lot better than Civ6. That does not mean I don't enjoy Civ6, just that there's still a long way to go in terms of balancing and polishing. However, Civ6 looks much better now a month after release than Civ5 did at the same time iirc.

 

[TomKQT]

Not a fair competition at all, but Civ5 + expansions + mods is still a lot better than Civ6. That does not mean I don't enjoy Civ6, just that there's still a long way to go in terms of balancing and polishing. However, Civ6 looks much better now a month after release than Civ5 did at the same time iirc.

Yea, the last sentence is so true - CivV at release was extremely simplified, it was just the basic core. There were even things like 10 healt of units (instead of 100 which was added in a later datadisc), so 10 warriors could kill a modern armor. Eh, even worse, they could kill an airplane attacking them from the sky

 

[topresch]

Can't really vote yet, as the comments above are mostly all on point. Too early, come back in a year.

 

[Veriaqa]

I'm not the type of someone who stuck in the past, so I choose Civ VI. The reason besides the improvement in graphic is the addition of districs.

 

[RealAntithesis]

I was really getting into Civ5 with the community balance patch, but could never get past it crashing at a certain number of turns (different for each game). I eventually just gave up after to many corrupted games.

 

[CaiusDrewart]

For me, it's Civ IV. I think V had plenty of interesting ideas and made a few significant improvements, but IV still plays much better overall for me. It's also just a much harder game than V (which in turn is much harder than VI).

 

[Amrunril]

At the moment, I'd say VI, but it's difficult to say how much that preference (with V as the closest competitor) is due to the novelty. I do find it very amusing that Civ II has more votes than BE (and also kind of a shame, as the latter really would be a good game with a few well done balance patches).

 

[fishlore]

Civ 3 is my favorite by many orders of magnitude. Every release after that has turned me away from the franchise more and more. After 6, the Civ franchise is officially no longer a no-brainer, day 1 purchase anymore for me.

 

[Sbordj]

Civ 1 because of all the fond memories and because of which I fell in love with the "Civx" games

 

[DutchJob]

C4 is my high school/college sweetheart, got married with C5, cheated with BE and finally divorced from C5 when I met C6.

Know what I mean?

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

fall from heaven 2 is still the king

 

[Buni0ns]

What is best? (Obligatory)

Pretty subjective imho. I think they all have aspects that are good and all lack in other areas.

The thing I find disappointing is how little quality elements seem to fall away with each iteration. Remember colonies? Camps from 4? How about Forts claiming tiles around them in 5 ? I cant remember much from when I played 3 really but that's ok as I stunk then anyhow, but I bet there were things I would miss. (Corporations?)

I need to get past my qualms and learn how to mod. I just am waiting to see what the sdk & mod tools brings before I hop into the arena.

What it really feels like is civ is moving more and more to multiplayer as opposed to single. I think that it might be a function of despairing of AI ever being good enough. I don't know, perhaps that's a function of my improvement as a player. I know being a lurker / member of this community since 4 turned me from Prince level type to Deity capable.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

4 has the most depth by far still, and the least overtly terrible UI/turn times of the modern ones. If I didn't have thousands of hours in it I might still play it over 6.

 

[georgjorge]

As of right now? Definitely IV for me. It kept me playing for so long that I completely passed V by without missing it because I still hadn't played enough of IV by that time.

VI has the potential to be the best in the series so far, and I like a lot of the things they put in there, but the AI is broken (not merely bad) and that ruins a lot of the game for me. Only Firaxis and modders know if that can be fixed to seriously challenge IV as a great Civ game.

 

[TimTurry]

I have always been a fan of ICS, so C6