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Geek113377

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Some (maybe) new information from a full 2 page advertisement I found in the October edition of Popular Mechanics magazine.
It's possible that some of these topics have been discussed elsewhere, but my searches yielded no results.
The physical box version will ship in a recyclable BioBox printed with soy and UV inks.
The paper manual has been replaced with "...an improved and interactive PDF that's also easier to use."
$250,000 is being donated to charity. Select which one at install until 12/3/2010.
In the ESRB rating box, it says "Online interactions and Music Downloads not rated by the ESRB." Sorry if this has been discussed elsewhere, but what does this mean? can you give your LAN party game a specific song? change leader music? anybody have a guess/other information?
 
The music downloads probably refer to mods that change the game music.
 
The physical box version will ship in a recyclable BioBox printed with soy and UV inks.

Wow, I just canceled my preorder. Why can't the box be made from the skin of dead baby seals?
 
This was the topic of Gregs last thread, well most of it.
 
I wonder what the skin of live baby seals would be like.
 
The paper manual has been replaced with "...an improved and interactive PDF that's also easier to use."

No actual manual? :(
 
I can't believe there is no manual. The best games always have really nice, artistic, colourful manuals. This is a sign Civ 5 will suck.
 
Never, you've already shown that you don't have any objectivity on Civ 5, so seriously stop. On topic: printed manuals have been going/gone for years. I'd rather have a good PDF than a terrible paper manual
 
Are you serious man? Reading an actual manual is a lot preferable to a PDF (unless you have an iPad or some weird thing like that). Not only do your eyes get rested from the strain of looking at (practically) a lightbulb for God knows how long, PDFs can never be as beautiful as a a good print. Ever.

Is it a coincidence all the best games have always invested in a full colour, carefully thought-through, instructive and pleasing manual. Just off the top of my head: Halo: CE, Heavy Rain, Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy 7, Half-Life 1. Why is it that all these games had crappy sequels which strangely didn't have a full-blown manuals? Just crappy black-and-white ones.

OK maybe I'm being overexcitable here but it does say a lot. And if anybody disagrees that printed manuals are far superior to PDF, well, everyone's entitled to their opinion, even if it's the wrong opinion. In other wwords ya wrong.
 
Originally Posted by Bjbrains
On topic: printed manuals have been going/gone for years. I'd rather have a good PDF than a terrible paper manual

Well of course a good PDF manual will be better than a bad paper one, but I think we can all agree that, all else being equal, physical paper manuals are better than PDF manuals.
 
Some (maybe) new information from a full 2 page advertisement I found in the October edition of Popular Mechanics magazine.
It's possible that some of these topics have been discussed elsewhere, but my searches yielded no results.
The physical box version will ship in a recyclable BioBox printed with soy and UV inks.
The paper manual has been replaced with "...an improved and interactive PDF that's also easier to use."
$250,000 is being donated to charity. Select which one at install until 12/3/2010.
In the ESRB rating box, it says "Online interactions and Music Downloads not rated by the ESRB." Sorry if this has been discussed elsewhere, but what does this mean? can you give your LAN party game a specific song? change leader music? anybody have a guess/other information?
All the info about the soy ink and manual were in the Community Feature posted 31 August on the Civ5 website by 2K Greg.
 
Are you serious man? Reading an actual manual is a lot preferable to a PDF (unless you have an iPad or some weird thing like that). Not only do your eyes get rested from the strain of looking at (practically) a lightbulb for God knows how long, PDFs can never be as beautiful as a a good print. Ever.

Is it a coincidence all the best games have always invested in a full colour, carefully thought-through, instructive and pleasing manual. Just off the top of my head: Halo: CE, Heavy Rain, Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy 7, Half-Life 1. Why is it that all these games had crappy sequels which strangely didn't have a full-blown manuals? Just crappy black-and-white ones.

OK maybe I'm being overexcitable here but it does say a lot. And if anybody disagrees that printed manuals are far superior to PDF, well, everyone's entitled to their opinion, even if it's the wrong opinion. In other wwords ya wrong.

Rofl. You are basing your opinion off of flawed logic and facts. You're not just stating your opinion, you're attempting to making an evidence-based claim.

Also: You've completely gone off the wall with that middle paragraph: Heavy Rain doesn't have a sequel, I don't think anyone would call Half life 2, FF games after 7, and MGS 2-4 "crappy sequels". The more important thing is that, as I said, real manuals have become the exception rather than the rule. Their sequels had lesser manuals because most of the games you list came out years and years ago.

Also, I never said PDF manuals were better than printed. I said I'd rather have a good, content-filled and long PDF manual than a crappy, small printed manual (which is the current standard).
 
I can't believe they're not printing manuals and including them in the box! I expect my games to have manuals handwritten by central European monks, illuminated with 24-carat gold leaf, with dancing cherubim around the tech tree and saints decorating the pages on the combat system.

I'm cancelling my preorder tomorrow.

(On a serious note, I prefer digital manuals, since there's a lot more information at-hand. It's easier to click a link in the table of contents and jump to a subject than rifling through to page 43. It's nice that they're adding some useful features like magnifying images in the PDF version, which IMO beats the printed version handily. Besides, printed manuals get obsoleted awfully soon in the TBS/RTS genre - I'm sure the original Civ4 manual is more useful as a coaster than a game guide after dozens of patches.)
 
I can't believe there is no manual. The best games always have really nice, artistic, colourful manuals. This is a sign Civ 5 will suck.

You're judging how good the game will be based on there not being a physical manual..? Awfully silly. :mischief:
 
PDF manuals are the way to go. It costs less, meaning more money can go into other aspects of the game. It can't be lost. It doesn't consume resources. It's easy to access and look at quickly while playing, rather than having to fish through a paper manual.

Seriously, I can count the times I referred to the Civ IV manuals on one hand. I just used the civilopedia for the most part, or looked up info online.

I approve this change.
 
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