Stuff.co.nz Offers Its Own Civ5 Preview

[Ginger_Ale]

A recent Civ5 preview on Stuff.co.nz offers a few new items of note and also some commentary on the extent to which Civ5 differs from Civ4 (indeed, some forum members, noticing the reintroduction of per-turn maintenance for city buildings, have claimed the game seems to incorporate some Civ3 elements).

It would be unfair to claim that Civilization V is an outright amalgamation of Civilization IV and Civilization Revolution. The DNA is obvious, however many gameplay elements are clearly incorporated to extend the complexity of the gameplay, rather than simplify it, as was the case with Revolution. [...]

No matter the level of zoom, the world is a finely detailed entity, with subtle DirectX 11 lighting effects and clever placement of game assets complimenting your march through the ages.

It's a deceptive facade. Underneath the new hex layout and the fancy graphics beats the heart of a ground-up remake. The developer Firaxis, with the sweep of a pen, have managed to achieve what the real world has singularly failed to do - namely the abolition of religion. Temples simply add happiness and culture.

Gone too, any form of espionage. You can't even rename your cities. Indeed, it may appear from the outset that most of the changes introduced with the massive overhaul that was Civilization IV have been removed, or at least modified in a substantial way.

>> Read the full preview

 

[Nobo]

Cant rename your cities?! Well that certainly is a big step backwards IMO.

 

[Atrebates]

Reducing the Necessity of micromanagement: Fantastic
Hiding aspects of the game so that you can't fiddle numbers directly, only nudge them by instructions to a computerised management system (reducing your ability to micromanage): Bad

Now, it's not at all clear what the changes are and if they fall into either category. And even if it were; we are too close to release for anything to change.

I trust Firaxis to do well, and I hope that I have the wrong impression from the preview.

 

[Sonereal]

You can't even rename cities? That's....strange.

 

[AlpsStranger]

I understand why you can't. This is a way of saying "Your MP opponents are entitled to know what order you built these in."

 

[Gamling]

Is it only me that will miss the religions in civ 5? Historicaly they have affected the world a great deal.

And in the mods like Fall from Heaven and it's modmods they are realy important. Each fantasy race can be played diffrently depending on what religions you chose for them...

 

[Thorn]

I understand why you can't. This is a way of saying "Your MP opponents are entitled to know what order you built these in."

Not a good enough answer. Single player games should have the ability at the very least (and multiplayer too, but hey that's me). Not being able to rename cities is the first major strike against Civ5 for me. I'll go one step further and say I wished the AI would rename your cities after taking them!

 

[Sonereal]

I understand why you can't. This is a way of saying "Your MP opponents are entitled to know what order you built these in."

But they aren't entitled to know. With that logic, no one should be able to rename units since they should be "entitled" to know what units they're going up against. In any case, even though the argument is already flimsy for just MP, it doesn't even make since in SP. There's no reason why I shouldn't be allowed to rename a city whatever I want in SP (or MP for that matter to be honest).

Besides, it isn't like map trading or scouting is disabled.

 

[Oatse]

yeah firaxis pretty much ruined civ 5. maybe civ 6 will be better if steam doesn't get my personal info and kill me first.

 

[Quintillus]

Our preview code also lacked large maps and the ability to mod anything, so we've begun the long wait until the game releases on September 24 before passing further judgement.

Note that this review was based on preview code. So it may be that the final version does allow renaming cities. Since it's not really a feature that needs extensive testing, I could see them waiting until near the end to add it in.

 

[Sullla]

I have to believe that this is based off of an incomplete build. Text renaming has been a basic feature of gaming since the early 1980s. There's no possible way that renaming of cities would be disallowed in Civ5.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

I think its *extremely* premature to be talking about "ruining" Civ5. Indeed, though I'm personally not happy about *several* of the changes made to the game (no Health, shift away from city maintenance, no religion, no espionage) I still feel that the game is well worth playing-based on what I've heard to date.

 

[t-force]

I was really disappointed with the decision to remove Espionage from Civ IV. Of course, we saw it reappear in BtS, so I would imagine a similar thing will probably happen this time around.

Not being able to rename cities - now that does seem very odd indeed (not that I actually ever do, mind you).

It's a bit early to say, I know, but does anyone know if religions could be added to the game by using mods?

 

[Rexflex]

Not being able to rename cities - now that does seem very odd indeed (not that I actually ever do, mind you).

I agree it is odd. Not game breaking or a big step backwards, but there doesn't seem to be an obvious reason to not allow renaming.

I don't rename cities much myself since Civ IV - I did rename them a lot in Civ II because of its comparatively lousy city management interface, but Civ IV made that generally unnecessary. City renaming is more likely to be more due to a personal aesthetics reason these days.

I certainly don't buy the "entitled to know" argument. If your territory has already been discovered by your rival when you settle a new city, then your rival will have seen the new settlement and so knows it is a new city without the city name. If said city was settled before they discovered your territory, your rival hasn't achieved anything which entitles them to know which order it was settled.

 

[Liquidated]

Oddly written preview for sure but going to try and not go into pedantic mode and start questioning the writing style =)

The "Deceptive facade" line I think is in regards to central message belaying the fear that civ5 is a child of civ4 and civrev. Yes, Civ5 looks swank, but its in no way dumbed down.

Nowhere in the preview did I see them describing details getting hidden from the players. Basically what was meant was that the science based civics screen of civ4 has been replaced by the culture based policy screen of civ5.

Anyway, previews are previews, I am going to wait until the game ships (plus the first few patches) before denouncing any one feature. =)

Cheers!
-Liq



edit: er well I think policies are based on culture, but that isn't talked about in this preview.

 

[CommandoBob]

I like renaming my cities. I'm more than or but, hey, naming cities is really neat thing. If I'm Russia I think it is fine if my captial is named CommandoBob-grad; it has a nice flowing sound (and, yes, I'm biased ). I'm all for historical flavor, but if I cannot pronounce the name of a city I really don't want to mess with it.

Like Quintillus, I hope this gets added back in.

 

[lemonjelly]

Lack of renaming cities is odd, but hopefully it'll be in the final release.
Once again, the lack of religion is a knock-back for Civ5, but it'll be modded back in some form or another, probably the same with some form of civic system.

 

[hewhocaves]

I had really begun to believe that Civ V had already screwed up the series as much as possible... that there wasn't anything left to disappoint me (ranged units, no religion, no stacking, no espionage, et cetera...)

but not renaming cities? *shakes head*. This just affirms it. Civ V has killed the series. I've been a solid supporter of Mr. Meier since "F-15 Strike Eagle" in 1985. We've had some great times. But this is where I get off the Sid Meier bandwagon.

It's very sad, seeing an empire not stand the test of time.

 

[Balerion]

Removing the possibility to rename cities is simply stupid.
With this thirst of changes if, one day, they will be involved in the automotive industry, they'll design cars without rear view mirrors. No reason, really, just for fun!

 

[kaltorak]

The developer Firaxis, with the sweep of a pen, have managed to achieve what the real world has singularly failed to do - namely the abolition of religion.

I like that sentence, the world should learn from civ5 ^^

Still, I liked religions in civ4