[GCiv] GC3 Reviews anyone?

[Sal]

Galciv 3 has been out (full version) a little while now and I wonder how people who own it are finding it?

I found Sid Meier Starships surprisingly enjoyable and wonder if GalCiv might be a more full bodied version of it. Some people are saying space combat is boring, but there is a alot of praise for AI. What do people think?

 

[vmxa]

I do not have III, have the others. I have watched several LP's. So far it does not look to be for me, but I am not a fan of the other two either. Just had to give them a shot. None of the streamers that I followed have played a second game, so that is saying they were not loving it and the fans did not demand it.

Will wait for it to go on sale and give it a shot, but too many features I did not like are still in the game.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

I found Sid Meier Starships surprisingly enjoyable and wonder if GalCiv might be a more full bodied version of it. Some people are saying space combat is boring, but there is a alot of praise for AI. What do people think?

GalCiv3 is definitely not a full bodied verision of SM's Starships IMO. Starships focuses on tactical combat and makes it fun. Galciv3 focuses on strategic empire-building with no tactical combat at all. So the two games really focus on different things.

Here is my brief summary of GC3's good and bad:

Good
- Great atmosphere. The moral decisions when you colonize a planet really add to the world-building.
- Good "just one more turn". The game will definitely hook you and make you want to play another turn to see what happens next.
- The ideology system where you pick whether you are "evil", "benevolent" or "neutral" and pick various unique civ bonuses, is a good addition.
- Tech tree is good. I like that you can specialize by researching an extra sub tech that gives you a more specific bonus (for example, when you discover shields, you can continue the research to get either cheaper shields, stronger shields etc)

Bad
- Specs are pretty high IMO. My computer is average but it runs Civ5 just fine. It struggled to play Galciv3 at first. I hasd to turn off all the bells and whistles, pretty graphics and play on a small map in order to have a smooth game.
- No tactical combat. You get a video showing combat but it is just eye candy. You don't get to actually control the ships. You will quickly turn it off to save time and just go to the combat results.

 

[Sal]

I see, so it is 4X strategy with no tactical element. That is still something I could enjoy though. I like the combat in starships a lot more than I do in Civ, but even in starships which is basically all about the combat I like the empire building side of it.

I might give CG3 a shot. Is it finished or still in a beta/heavy patching stage? There is conflicting information around - although maybe they won't view it as finished for another 5 year, but is it stable?

Also I don't know what you mean by average specs. Mine is i5 3.2Ghz, 8 ram but only 512MB graphics card. Do you think I would have trouble running it?

 

[SupremacyKing2]

I might give CG3 a shot. Is it finished or still in a beta/heavy patching stage? There is conflicting information around - although maybe they won't view it as finished for another 5 year, but is it stable?

Yes, Galciv3 is finished. It was released not too long ago, so I would not be surprised if the devs release some patches like most games do.

Also I don't know what you mean by average specs. Mine is i5 3.2Ghz, 8 ram but only 512MB graphics card. Do you think I would have trouble running it?

I have a laptop with 64 bit Windows 8.1, a i3 2.6 GHz processor and 4Gb of RAM. The game took awhile to load and struggled unless I play on a small map.

These are the official "recommended requirements":
CPU: 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5 Processor or Equivalent
RAM: 6 GB
OS: 64-bit Windows 8.1 / 8 / 7
Video Card: 1 GB DX 10.1 Video Card
Sound Card: Yes
Free Disk Space: 15 GB

I think you would be ok, although you might have issues on a huge map since your graphics card appears to be a bit low. Also, make sure your OS is 64-bit. The game definitely will not run if your OS is not 64-bit.