Civ III vs Civ IV

[FiveIronFlip]

I was wanting some advice, and I come to you, Internet. I'm on a Macbook Pro with enough power, I assume, to run Civ 4. However, for the same price, I could buy Civ 3 Complete... which one could argue is more of a bargain. By looking around on the internet, I've gathered that patches and such would not make playing Civ 3 on an Intel Mac impossible. So it's really more a "bang for the buck" thing. What do you recommend? I've never played a Civilization game before, but I'm very intrigued... Should I buy just the original Civ 4, or buy the entire Civ 3 Complete?

 

[beetle]

This is just one curmudgeon's opinion, so take it with a grain of salt.

Since it is your first Civilization game, I think you should start with 3. I think you will like it. It is a decent 4X game on its own merits.

I came to Civ 3 after Alpha Centauri, which still boasts features not yet in Civ 4, so I was quite disappointed. Civ 4 adds a couple new dimensions of play, so you can look forward to trying that after Civ 3 has lost its allure for you.

IMHO the long term replay value for both Civ 3 and Civ 4 is the CFC and the GoTM archive.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

You should check to make sure your macbook can run Civ IV if you want to try it - in particular, it needs a pretty hefty video card. I bought a new computer last year with a basic crappy video card and it runs, but the graphics are, apparently, not all that great and it's slow late in the game.

Civ III isn't as visually stunning, but it doesn't need nearly the processing power and is a fine game on it's own.