Yeah. There was a bunch of buzz, and it got initially positive reviews... but over time people realized how -awful- the AI is, how repetitive combat gets now. Lot of hope was lost for modding when the SDK came out...
...And then they revealed that bonus civs are $5 apiece. That'll kill the excitement for any game.
Civ5's doomed to the same pile as CivRev.
The AI is awful, but it was awful in every Civ game so far, so I don't understand the AI complaints at all.
Repetitive combat? It was repetitive in previous Civ games as well. Not to mention the awful stacks of doom in Civ IV, when you had to wait five minutes until all the AI units finished their attacks. Combat in Civ V is even better than before because of the addition of archery and bombardment, that are actually effective, unlike in Civ IV. And the one unit per tile rule makes Civ V a real STRATEGY game, especially when you are trying to figure out how to conquer a city-state that is surrounded by water and mountains.
Hope is lost for the modding community? That's what the community thought when Civ IV came out. If you read old posts you will see how people said that "there is no way we can make LHs like the Firaxis ones". Now, Ekmek already says there is a way to make Civ V leaders, and he is working on it. Kael and others are already releasing guides for modding Civ V. The mods that were made so far aren't awesome like the Civ III and IV ones, but that's because the game was just released. Remember how long it took to get the great mods of Civ IV? Some are still in the works (like The Capo's Diplomacy II).
Bonus Civs are 5$ apiece? And how much did you pay for bonus Civs in previous editions? The same, if not more (I do remind you again that you did pay money for Warlords and BTS, unless you DLd them illegally, that is).
People, I understand that sometimes it is hard to move from a game you got addicted to to a new game in the series. I understand how hard it is for you to move from Civ IV to a totally different Civ V, but it doesn't mean Civ V is a bad game. It is different, I agree. That's what I thought when Civ IV came out, and it wasn't "like Civ III". And I still played Civ IV a lot (although it is the Civ game I enjoyed the least). To me, Civ V is a good thing, and a return to what Civ is supposed to be.
