Civilicious
Warlord
I am so tired of seeing these 'reviews' from these magazines and websites that stay in business only by selling ads for game companies. You think you are going to get an 'honest' review? CivIV should not be getting these reviews in the 90th percentile and above.
And while we are on the subject of credibility, I get a little bit steamed every time I look in the manual and see page after page of 'contributors', many of them individuals prominent on these forums. And before you say 'well golly the testers can't possssibly test evvvvery configuration out there', get real. A number of these issues HAD to have been known before release.
The GRAPHICS are incredible, but at what cost. I need a new computer so I can't get too down on them but why make a game for the mass market that you need a high end system to run? Memory Leak is horrible and it takes a forum member to come up with a patch? Sid please just take your millions and retire now. VERDICT-BREAKEVEN (only cause blue marble is just the bomb)
RELIGION is bland and almost meaningless. It does add a small bit of flavor and additional strategy which is nice. Improvements should/are be able to ve made with mods VERDICT-BREAKEVEN
The addition of GREAT PEOPLE is a nice touch, gives a lot of life to the game
VERDICT-PLEASED
COMBAT SYSTEM simplification, why? I can't think of adjectives fast enough to describe how I feel about this. I REALIZE this is not some hex based unit level war strat game. That said, the civ3 combat was too simplistic, and they go and make even more sophmoric? What was needed was a few MORE stat categories. Attack vs melee, attack vs range, attack vs cav, def vs cav,def vs range, etc. One stat? The promotion system does redeem this shortcoming a bit but its too glaring of a deficiency to be overcome that easily. Now on to sea power, all I will say is perhaps by civ8 you will get it right. Air power? What, I beg you, was wrong with civ3 air combat, except that bombers were a bit too overpowered? Why the hell can't planes be intercepted and shot down? VERDICT-HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT
(can anyone give me ONE example in history of how spearmen acting OFFENSIVELY have defeated cavalry???????)
AI. I think it is clear it still cheats although not as glaringly as in the past, and hey with all those visual goodies, who needs a smarter AI
VERDICT-BREAKEVEN
DIPLOMACY. Much improved, perhaps the best improvement in this version, although (and lets tie religion in here) I grow weary of raping opponents and having them still love me because 'we are brothers in the faith', how realistic is that? Open a history book sometime please. VERDICT-BREAKEVEN
NEW RAILROAD SYSTEM. VERDICT-PLEASED
RESOURCE CONCEPTS. I really, really, hope, before I die, to play a civ where you can use all the resources of the lands you control, and not just have this wierd CROSS formation of tiles around a city that decides how big and how productive that particular city is. VERDICT-BREAKEVEN (been disappointed with this for a long time now)
MODABILITY. From what I have seen over in the C&C forums it looks good. However the rushed release resulting in no map editor and a delayed SDK? I mean this is Civilization right? I get confused sometimes and think that maybe this is some small or new shop putting out their first game ever. And after promising such extensive modability, we find out that nukes are hardcoded???? This should be the strongest positive of this game yet it barely breaks even for as yet unfulfilled potential VERDICT-BREAKEVEN
CONTENT Civ3 31 civs, Civ4 what is it 19? More civs can be modded but max number of players actually WENT DOWN in the next version of the series???
VERDICT-DISAPPOINTMENT
I have got more to say but I am going to stop here becuase I am sure that some will waste several minutes reading this and then waste several more flaming me, and I don't want to waste any more of their precious time than necessary.
Final verdict, for now, civ4 is going into my pile of unplayed games. Right on top of Rome:Total War. And that is a funny thing because I am seeing a real pattern in the industry of releasing buggy, untested, even incomplete games. I am getting tired of buying games and then finding I need to wait on community modders to make a game that is enjoyable or even playable. Civ4 isn't as big of a pile of pos as RTW was when it first came out, and its definitely got some good things going but I am going to wait till I get a better machine and then I will try again and see if Firaxis has fixed up their end of the situation.
Civ4 can be an enjoyable game and probably will be more so as things get fixed but for those looking for something revolutionary, the next big thing in a strategy game, I think we will have to start looking elsewhere. The Civ series is actually regressing with Civ4, shedding depth for graphics, and that is a shame.
And while we are on the subject of credibility, I get a little bit steamed every time I look in the manual and see page after page of 'contributors', many of them individuals prominent on these forums. And before you say 'well golly the testers can't possssibly test evvvvery configuration out there', get real. A number of these issues HAD to have been known before release.
The GRAPHICS are incredible, but at what cost. I need a new computer so I can't get too down on them but why make a game for the mass market that you need a high end system to run? Memory Leak is horrible and it takes a forum member to come up with a patch? Sid please just take your millions and retire now. VERDICT-BREAKEVEN (only cause blue marble is just the bomb)
RELIGION is bland and almost meaningless. It does add a small bit of flavor and additional strategy which is nice. Improvements should/are be able to ve made with mods VERDICT-BREAKEVEN
The addition of GREAT PEOPLE is a nice touch, gives a lot of life to the game
VERDICT-PLEASED
COMBAT SYSTEM simplification, why? I can't think of adjectives fast enough to describe how I feel about this. I REALIZE this is not some hex based unit level war strat game. That said, the civ3 combat was too simplistic, and they go and make even more sophmoric? What was needed was a few MORE stat categories. Attack vs melee, attack vs range, attack vs cav, def vs cav,def vs range, etc. One stat? The promotion system does redeem this shortcoming a bit but its too glaring of a deficiency to be overcome that easily. Now on to sea power, all I will say is perhaps by civ8 you will get it right. Air power? What, I beg you, was wrong with civ3 air combat, except that bombers were a bit too overpowered? Why the hell can't planes be intercepted and shot down? VERDICT-HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT
(can anyone give me ONE example in history of how spearmen acting OFFENSIVELY have defeated cavalry???????)
AI. I think it is clear it still cheats although not as glaringly as in the past, and hey with all those visual goodies, who needs a smarter AI
VERDICT-BREAKEVEN
DIPLOMACY. Much improved, perhaps the best improvement in this version, although (and lets tie religion in here) I grow weary of raping opponents and having them still love me because 'we are brothers in the faith', how realistic is that? Open a history book sometime please. VERDICT-BREAKEVEN
NEW RAILROAD SYSTEM. VERDICT-PLEASED
RESOURCE CONCEPTS. I really, really, hope, before I die, to play a civ where you can use all the resources of the lands you control, and not just have this wierd CROSS formation of tiles around a city that decides how big and how productive that particular city is. VERDICT-BREAKEVEN (been disappointed with this for a long time now)
MODABILITY. From what I have seen over in the C&C forums it looks good. However the rushed release resulting in no map editor and a delayed SDK? I mean this is Civilization right? I get confused sometimes and think that maybe this is some small or new shop putting out their first game ever. And after promising such extensive modability, we find out that nukes are hardcoded???? This should be the strongest positive of this game yet it barely breaks even for as yet unfulfilled potential VERDICT-BREAKEVEN
CONTENT Civ3 31 civs, Civ4 what is it 19? More civs can be modded but max number of players actually WENT DOWN in the next version of the series???
VERDICT-DISAPPOINTMENT
I have got more to say but I am going to stop here becuase I am sure that some will waste several minutes reading this and then waste several more flaming me, and I don't want to waste any more of their precious time than necessary.
Final verdict, for now, civ4 is going into my pile of unplayed games. Right on top of Rome:Total War. And that is a funny thing because I am seeing a real pattern in the industry of releasing buggy, untested, even incomplete games. I am getting tired of buying games and then finding I need to wait on community modders to make a game that is enjoyable or even playable. Civ4 isn't as big of a pile of pos as RTW was when it first came out, and its definitely got some good things going but I am going to wait till I get a better machine and then I will try again and see if Firaxis has fixed up their end of the situation.
Civ4 can be an enjoyable game and probably will be more so as things get fixed but for those looking for something revolutionary, the next big thing in a strategy game, I think we will have to start looking elsewhere. The Civ series is actually regressing with Civ4, shedding depth for graphics, and that is a shame.
