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Lack of a manual I sort of lean either way, some positives some negatives.

Lack of a tech-tree poster is practically unforgivable.
 
Yeah, there was a tech tree poster in the vanilla deluxe civ4 that I bought. Of course, it was TOTALLY obsolete for Warlords/BtS.

My full-size Keyboard Layout that I got with it still works fine though.
 
Ooh! - Can I please donate the money to "Guns for Children?"

About the recyclable BioBox: They could use discarded old filthy cardboard boxes and pieces of string for all I care. Not canceling my preorder. Manual? Who need a manual?
 
Geek113377 said:
The paper manual has been replaced with "...an improved and interactive PDF that's also easier to use."
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What they actually mean: "an interactive PDF that's cheaper for us to produce, and that we can say is environmentally friendly, but is harder to read". It's already been discussed, but I'm still annoyed that they've went this route: Civilization is a complicated series and it should have a manual that you can pick up and be able to find you need instantly. PDF's aren't easier to use, and I don't know anybody that thinks they are superior to a booklet :sad:
 
Never said:
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.
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Well CivIII and IV had well designed manuals, but they were in black and white, nothing wrong with that. I agree with everything else though:

bjbrains said:
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
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And I'd rather have a good paper manual over a good PDF :). Won't we be sucking enough screen with the game itself? It'd be nice to take a break (preferably bathroom break :p) and just be able to sit on my bed and read it. I suppose I still can, if I print out the 100+ pages on my printer, but that seems less eco-friendly than if Firaxis had just made the effort themselves.
 
AljayBoy said:
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.
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Digital documents are always better than anything made of paper. Think of the trees. And the children! God, the children!!!
 
Boris Godunov said:
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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I used the manual. It (the PDF) is not so easy to access when you're sitting on the couch waiting for the game to DL.

It's not a gamebreaker for me by any means, but it's definitely not a plus to exclude it.
 
Time to search through a book for the exact definition of 'trade network' in a:

Paper Manual: 3 to 5 minutes
PDF: 3 to 5 seconds.
 
Again, I wouldn't argue that PDF versus not-PDF as a fight. A better way to think about it is: You have a PDF manual with links, updated stats, images that zoom in when you click on them, and that has real substance (aka, the 200+ pages that Civ 5's manual has). Or you have what is the standard printed manual by 2K and other major publishers- no more than 100 pages, and with less imagery. The utility gained alone makes me prefer this method.
 
If it was a game with no in game help system, than a manual would be nice. But it's not. It's civ. It has the civilopedia. It doesn't need a manual, and therefore, should not have one.

Easy to search, easy to read, more portable, can read it anywhere on your phone or ipod.

Besides, saving trees is a good thing. Trees are pretty.
 
bjbrains said:
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).
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I agree with most of that, but mgs4 was amazingly crappy.
 
bjbrains said:
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).
Click to expand...


No I'm not. The best games always have really nice manuals. Games where the developers are really proud, and surely must insist on a beautiful manual because only perfectionists could have developed the games I have previously mentioned. So being perfectionists they, like me (and other sane individuals who have posted), know what is good and what is bad; they know a good manual is imperative to a completed game, and insist on a full colour manual. Have you noticed that most manuals are in full colour, but some (the bad games) are printed in black and white even though you can tell it was a developed in colour? This shows the developers didn't care as much, so didn't push for it to be printed in colour, didn't feel proud enough to demand more for their beloved game?

Even Morrowind had a good manual, Oblivion also was full colour and OK but it wasn't as nice as the Morrowind manual. Is it a coincidence that Morrowind rocked and Oblivion was boring as hell? I think not. Half-Life 2 is crap compared to all the Half-Life 1 games. The only good thing about Half-Life 2 is Portal. Every Final Fantasy after 7 was crap. Metal Gear 2-4... all really bad (in comparison to MGS1).

No it's not the standard. The standard is for crap games to have crap manuals, and good ones to have good manuals. My example of Heavy Rain was to highlight this point. They even gave you a piece of origami with in-game instructions on how to make it while the game was installing. Really high quality paper, a beautiful printed work. Because they were rightfully proud of their game.

To whoever said that black-and-white is acceptable for manuals. No it's not. (see above for reasoning)
 
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