Civ4 allows you to replay any game you have completed. Go the the Hall of Fame from the main menu and click the button at the left of the game you want to view.
It also allows you to view other people's games using their Civ4Replay files, now available for download from the GOTM Results pages. Here are the hoops you jump through to make this possible:
1. Download the .Civ4Replay file for game you want to see replayed, and put it in your \My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization IV\Replays\ folder. (~/Documents/Civilization IV/Replays/ on a Mac).
2. Run Civ4 and select "Hall of Fame" in the main menu.
3. If all is well then you will see that file listed in the displayed table.
4. Click the button on the left to see a replay, complete with minimap and histograph and key events, similar to the one in Civ3. You can Run or Step the replay to see what happened in the game.
If the file doesn't show up in the list then it means it was played with a HoF Mod, or a different version of the HoF Mod from the one you have loaded. This is where it gets more tricky ...
If the game was played with no mods, but you have a mod loaded, then go back to the main menu, click Advanced, and select "Load a Mod".
Select "None" in the next screen, and OK. Civ4 will tell you it has to restart to load the mod "None". Let it do so, and you should then see the file in the Hall of Fame list.
If the game was played with a mod then the screen will only show the file if you have a mod with the same name already loaded. This will happen with some of the GOTM 10 and WOTM 01 submissions when they are released, and with all future submissions, as they are played with versions of the HoF Mod. In order to see the Replay file in your Hall of Fame listing you will have to load up the same mod that it was played with - the mod name must be identical. You can find that information on the game release page on the GOTM web site, or in the Saves Available post for the game.
If you want to see a replay that was created using a mod on a different OS from yours (Mac/Windows) you can't load up the actual mod that was used, as the mods are not compatible across-platforms. So you will need to fool the game software by loading a copy of a HOF Mod for your OS that has been *renamed* to have the same name as the HoF Mod the game was actually played with. Here are the steps:
1. Make a copy of an existing HoF Mod folder for your OS in the Mods folder in your Civ4 application folder.
2. Rename the folder to be the same name as the mod the game was played with. You can find this on the appropriate game Release page.
3. Rename the xxxx.ini file inside that folder to have the same mod name with a '.ini' extension.
4. Use Load a Mod to load up the newly named mod, and you should now see the Replay file you wanted to view.
Well, you did ask!!!
