I agree. Newcomers are always gunna be attracted to the eye candy of civ iv. I grew up playing games on the spectrum and commodore 64 computers. Zero eye candy, but the gameplay was great. Im only 27 now, but its very rare that i can find a game that will keep me playing until the early hours. For what its worth, i discovered civ on the playstation (civ ii). I never had a problem with the interface (ive read others had). I must of played it for 100s of hours. Never got into civ iii or civ iv. Dont know why. The only other game that i ever played as much as this was Master of Orion II. Great game. Cost me my socal life for a few years.