Bought Civ 5 a couple days after release and have played it 8+ hours a day since. Wanted to get past the changes so my initial dislike might go away after I understood the game mechanics more. All that happened is that the new car smell went away and all the dislikes became too much to put up with. That time is now (waited for the big patch).
Steam It is nothing but a spam bot and adds zero value to my game experience while consuming resources. I bought the box version just so I did not have to deal with required Internet connection/setup crap. Pop the game in and what does it install? Some 3rd party spam software that is REQUIRED to install the game that I just bought at a retail store JUST TO AVOID this kind of garbage.
I actually uninstalled Steam while looking for the Civ 5 game that (I assumed) was just installed. I am so used to new programs stealth installing crapware that I just assumed this Steam was more of the same. Nope, its required. Well, it will be someone elses problem now as soon as I can sell it.
Hardware O M G The hardware requirements for this game are, simply put stupid.
I have a four core 3.2 GHz system with 8 GM RAM and a SATA 3 drive. This game runs like oatmeal. I can see the latest First Person Shooter wanting hardware like mine to run at a decent rate but a turn/tile based game? Where did they get the coders for this thing?
Gameplay I have been playing Civ 2 since release. I gave versions 3&4 a look but, frankly, they stank. I should have played a broken copy for a while and saved the $50 but I wanted to show support for Sid. Stupid me.
<sigh> The only improvement worth putting on a tile will add miniscule amount of gold to my income. Why did they not simply automate this? When a city population starts working a tile a trade stall simply shows up? The only thing workers are good for is building roads. Everything else is brainless.
<sigh> The ability to buy buildings and units has been around forever. However, in Civ 5 you cant just throw cash at something being built to finish it off early. You have to pay the entire price and hope you get a small amount back from wasted production. Game killer.
<sigh> Unit selection. This game (even with the patch) hops from unit to unit like it has Attention Deficit Disorder. I ended up looking away as it jerked around like a drug addled grass hopper. Not a game killer by itself but certainly negative points for poor design.
It is also VERY easy to not see what unit the game has selected for you and give instructions to the wrong unit. I saw a game once where a colored cone appeared over the unit that was currently selected leaving no doubt about what was selected. Such a easy solution to such a glaring problem. Programmers cant be bothered. Negative points.
<sigh> Terrain The inability to actually CHANGE the terrain is a game killer (IMO). Not being able to take worthless/marginal land and DO SOMETHING with it was the last straw. Having to spam trade stalls on every available space made this missing ability actually work. What does it matter what the terrain is when all you are doing is slamming down cash income machines?
I also did not like that there was only one Production improving building. All the other methods of improving hammers were from indirect sources like roads and culture.
It was next to impossible to make a city into a mega producer of hammers/beakers/culture.
On the other hand is was very easy to make some cities into bread baskets that could pretty much supply all the food needed for your entire empire all by themselves. Oops, guess I could just never figure out how to throw a loaf of bread into a truck and drive it to another city. How stupid of me. I can see now how protecting my supply lines is just too trivial to be bothered with.
I cant say that I even (even once) ENJOYED playing this game. It was all about trying to get the game to do something the way I wanted to do it, and finally realizing that the mechanics in Civ 5 just are not going to let it happen.
I was hoping that Civ 5 would hold my attention (at least) till the WoW expansion Cataclysm (coming out Dec 7th), but its not to be. Peace and out.
Steam It is nothing but a spam bot and adds zero value to my game experience while consuming resources. I bought the box version just so I did not have to deal with required Internet connection/setup crap. Pop the game in and what does it install? Some 3rd party spam software that is REQUIRED to install the game that I just bought at a retail store JUST TO AVOID this kind of garbage.
I actually uninstalled Steam while looking for the Civ 5 game that (I assumed) was just installed. I am so used to new programs stealth installing crapware that I just assumed this Steam was more of the same. Nope, its required. Well, it will be someone elses problem now as soon as I can sell it.
Hardware O M G The hardware requirements for this game are, simply put stupid.
I have a four core 3.2 GHz system with 8 GM RAM and a SATA 3 drive. This game runs like oatmeal. I can see the latest First Person Shooter wanting hardware like mine to run at a decent rate but a turn/tile based game? Where did they get the coders for this thing?
Gameplay I have been playing Civ 2 since release. I gave versions 3&4 a look but, frankly, they stank. I should have played a broken copy for a while and saved the $50 but I wanted to show support for Sid. Stupid me.
<sigh> The only improvement worth putting on a tile will add miniscule amount of gold to my income. Why did they not simply automate this? When a city population starts working a tile a trade stall simply shows up? The only thing workers are good for is building roads. Everything else is brainless.
<sigh> The ability to buy buildings and units has been around forever. However, in Civ 5 you cant just throw cash at something being built to finish it off early. You have to pay the entire price and hope you get a small amount back from wasted production. Game killer.
<sigh> Unit selection. This game (even with the patch) hops from unit to unit like it has Attention Deficit Disorder. I ended up looking away as it jerked around like a drug addled grass hopper. Not a game killer by itself but certainly negative points for poor design.
It is also VERY easy to not see what unit the game has selected for you and give instructions to the wrong unit. I saw a game once where a colored cone appeared over the unit that was currently selected leaving no doubt about what was selected. Such a easy solution to such a glaring problem. Programmers cant be bothered. Negative points.
<sigh> Terrain The inability to actually CHANGE the terrain is a game killer (IMO). Not being able to take worthless/marginal land and DO SOMETHING with it was the last straw. Having to spam trade stalls on every available space made this missing ability actually work. What does it matter what the terrain is when all you are doing is slamming down cash income machines?
I also did not like that there was only one Production improving building. All the other methods of improving hammers were from indirect sources like roads and culture.
It was next to impossible to make a city into a mega producer of hammers/beakers/culture.
On the other hand is was very easy to make some cities into bread baskets that could pretty much supply all the food needed for your entire empire all by themselves. Oops, guess I could just never figure out how to throw a loaf of bread into a truck and drive it to another city. How stupid of me. I can see now how protecting my supply lines is just too trivial to be bothered with.
I cant say that I even (even once) ENJOYED playing this game. It was all about trying to get the game to do something the way I wanted to do it, and finally realizing that the mechanics in Civ 5 just are not going to let it happen.
I was hoping that Civ 5 would hold my attention (at least) till the WoW expansion Cataclysm (coming out Dec 7th), but its not to be. Peace and out.
