So what are you loving? Not loving?

[Sanveann]

I've been playing the heck out of CivRev the past couple of days, and here are some of my thoughts:

LOVE
* The overall experience. I'm really glad to have a console version at last, because I like being able to play games in my living room (Plus, my TV is a heck of a lot bigger than my monitor!) I think the controls are done really well, too.
* The graphics. I've heard some complaints about them, but the game looks awesome on my TV. The colors are vibrant, and the text is crisp, too.
* The option to have a shorter game. I'm a mom and I work part-time, so I don't have the time to devote days to a game That said, I would like to have the choice to play a longer one, too, if I wanted.
* Not as much need for micromanagement as in the past. (I never cared for that part of the other versions of Civ.)


DON'T LOVE
* The aggressive AI, even at the lower levels.
* The not-very-smart AI.
* The single map size and the lack of ability to choose your map (pangaea, archipelago, etc.)
* The lack of ability to choose type of victories to include/exclude.

So what are your thoughts?!

 

[Killer Moogle]

So what are your thoughts?!

Disclaimer: Never played a CIV game until this one. I have only played the demo and the SP on Deity (always selecting a random civ).

I agree with you a lot on your likes. Especially the graphics. I don't know why anyone would want crystal clear HD barbarians getting blown three squares away by a catapault. Besides, half the time you'd be looking at HD "fog of war". Plus I'm not sure I'd want to wait 3 minutes of loading time while the Hanging Garden of Babylon builds itself in my capital. It is a very pretty game.

The game pace is great. And the other game modes look like fun even though I haven't played them yet.

I hear you on the dislikes regarding the warmongering and intelligence of the AI. It really doesn't make sense why I'd be facing army after army of German tanks when I am in last place w/two cities, and the Zulu have the Alpha Centauri spacecraft 14 years from arriving? (It wasn't even my capital either...just some podunk trailer park of a city.)

 

[KAZUY4]

Love:
- Aggressive AI
- MP full of adrenaline
- Relics concept
- Nice exploration bonus


No Love:
- Small Maps, too close one to each other.
- Unique units does not have any special bonus
- Missing some nice civilizations like Portos, Ottos and Persia.
- Easy AI games even in Deity level
- No need of special resources to construct units.

 

[Akalabeth2]

The thing that pisses me off more than anything is that the default option when a enemy Civ is demanding something, is to give it to them.

The civs are overly aggressive, and are constantly demanding that I give them the automobile tech or whatever. I have to scroll down to the "get lost" option. There should be a way of defaulting the action to "get lost" or disable communication with the other civs completely.

Note: I have only accidentally given away techs a couple times but it shouldn't have happened once.

 

[KAZUY4]

If you are weaker than you opponent he will always ask you for something. The AI abuse the weakest. The AI is aggressive with the weak, check what you adviser tell you. If you are in better shape usually if you denied a request he is not going to declare war.

 

[se7entee7]

I have to scroll down to the "get lost" option. There should be a way of defaulting the action to "get lost" or disable communication with the other civs completely.

Note: I have only accidentally given away techs a couple times but it shouldn't have happened once.

same here
also Custom Workers being the last option sucks

 

[Killer Moogle]

Custom Workers being the last option sucks

Yeah, that one irks me too.

 

[Akalabeth2]

If you are weaker than you opponent he will always ask you for something. The AI abuse the weakest. The AI is aggressive with the weak, check what you adviser tell you. If you are in better shape usually if you denied a request he is not going to declare war.

I think it works both ways. If you are the weakest they will try to bully you. If you are the strongest they want your stuff. Either way they are constantly hounding you for something every turn. I think it happens even more when you are winning as they envy the techs that you have. I am really not complaining about them threatening, I just do not want the default to be "give artillery units to my worst enemy".

 

[shadowplay]

Can old units be upgraded to new ones?

 

[skadistic]

Love the pretty graphics. Hate that the network is so unstable.

 

[Widowmaker313]

Old Units can be upgraded to new ones by either Leonardo's workshop, or having Elite German Units.

 

[PimpyMicPimp]

I love, love, love, love the Naval support. It might seem like a minor thing but one of my big Civ4 complaints is how ships cannot effect land fights, which makes no sense to me.

I'm not a huge fan of the lack of units, but I guess it fits into the whole steamlined mentality of the game.

I havn't played it enough yet too come up with many real gripes.

 

[bonafide11]

Overall, I love it and think it's a great step forward for the Civ franchise. I enjoy playing Civ without necessarily having to devote a week of my life to it. But there's one thing that I think Firaxis should have implemented to help speed up the gameplay, and I am curious why they didn't include it.

Why can't you select more than one unit to move at a time? It's such a hassle to move the large stacks around. I don't see why Firaxis didn't allow the player to select multiple units on a particular tile! It almost makes me dread going to war because I don't want to spend my entire turn shuffling through the large stack of units. Any comments/explanations/suggestions?

 

[Sanveann]

Bonafide, that's a good point. I also find that a pain in the butt.

 

[enchanter100]

I also have wondered about the missing stack unit moves.. when you have a stack of 5+ it becomes bothersome to move em around.

 

[dexters]

Old Units can be upgraded to new ones by either Leonardo's workshop, or having Elite German Units.

I thought leo's was a once in a game upgrade. When you built it, it will upgrade all your units. after that no more upgrades.

and what do you mean by elite german units?

 

[fl0atfaced0wn]

don't like: lack of options. you dont have a choice between maps or how many countries to play against. me versus four AIs can get boring quick. I personally liked real small maps with 12 countries. It doesn't get overcrowded with cities and there is alot of interaction.

There are no religions to choose from. Thats how i decide who i want to live and who I want to destroy.

I don't believe there are any defensive pacts or anything to that sort either (but i may be wrong). But if that is the case than its more of a every man for himself situation and i dont like that.

all in all im not sold on CivRev yet. Don't get me wrong im going to be stuck on it like the rest of ya'll but i wish their were afew changes that could have been made. Especially in the depth department but for being the first console addition i think it came along fairly well.

 

[Cornstalk]

I played the demo on the 360 and though... what a cute little thing they did here. The 360/PS3 version went too happy with the graphics to cover how much the game had been simplified, but it seemed like it would be a return to Civ1 or even 2 via the DS.

After playing the DS version, I'm disgusted and even a little enraged (but that might just be because I didn't eat enough today).

Variety was what made Civ fun. You never had to play the same way twice, and some some simple as resource placement could force you out of a comfort zone to try a new strategy.

With revolution, at least on the DS... it's like Russian Roulette with a monkey holding the gun. Except instead of wondering when you're going to get shot, it's more a matter of where the bullet is going to hit you this time because the revolver is fully loaded and the monkey is an angry drunk that's had too much vodka.

 

[malitano]

NO LOVE:
AI
multiplayer

 

[magimix]

Why can't you select more than one unit to move at a time? It's such a hassle to move the large stacks around. I don't see why Firaxis didn't allow the player to select multiple units on a particular tile! It almost makes me dread going to war because I don't want to spend my entire turn shuffling through the large stack of units. Any comments/explanations/suggestions?

Good heavens yes! Armies are important, but the stack is still the de-facto organisational unit. As you say, moving combined forces around is *such* a pain without a 'move stack' facility.

Oh, to be able to select a stack, and point it to an enemy city and then forget about it until it arrives. But nooOOOOooo, I have to move every unit/army in the stack individually, at the rate of the slowest element, in order to preserve the integrity of the stack. Every. Damn. Turn.