Product Description: Civilization IV is recognized as one of the greatest PC game franchises of all-time. Now the fun and incredibly addictive strategy game reaches new heights by adding new ways to play and win -- along with new tools to manage and expand your civilization. Civilization comes to life like never before in a beautifully detailed, living 3D world -- with all-new easy to use mod capabilities and intense multiplayer modes and options. It's a must-have for gamers around the world! Flexible Tech Tree allows players more strategic choices for developing their civilizations Team play offers a new way of setting locked alliances that result in shared wonder effects, visibility, unit trading and shared territory Over 70 in-game movies and animated sequences advance the story
Fantastic, Underrated Game I have no idea how this is averaging only three stars, because Civ IV (along with Beyond the Sword) is without a doubt the most balanced and entertaining turn-based strategy games ever made, and a serious contender for the best PC title released this decade.
This game is not for you if you: - don't like time-intensive games that you'll almost certainly not finish in one sitting - don't like strategy games in general and turn-based strategy games in particular
If either of those statements apply to you, don't buy Civilization IV. Otherwise, almost every serious criticism of previous turn-based strategy games has been addressed: - You can choose to micromanage or simply have the AI take care of city and worker management-- the latter works perfectly fine for the first few difficulty levels. This removes a huge chunk of gameplay that may people find tedious. - It's possible and oftentimes preferable) to win cultural, religious, or scientific victories. Combat is not a prerequisite to victory, particularly on the lower difficulty levels. - There are a dozen different randomly generated map types, many difficulty levels, and a wealth of options. The game's extraordinarily replayable... especially since there is quite a bit of third-party, user-generated content you can download. - The graphics are nice but not good enough that they overwhelm the gameplay or require a state-of-the-art computer. - Combat is easy to learn but difficult to master.
Basically, just get it and play it if you haven't already.
Great game Provides hours of challenging fun. I like the new additions to the original Civilization 4 game. Its nice to see that spies have returned to the game.
That old "Just one more turn" feeling I played the Revolutions demo on Xbox Live and sought a demo on PC and I liked that even more. The product delivered on what was in the demo.
If you don't know the Civilizations series, but you liked Sim City (especially its earlier incarnations) you'll definitely like Civ IV. You can actually get more involved, if you choose, in smaller issues.
On the practical side, there's good and bad. It runs almost perfectly on my Lenovo laptop, unlike the first-person-shooters made by a certain famous rocket-launching individual in Texas. The flaw was that my laptop is wide-screen and the game had to be persuaded to use the screen's 1280x800 native resolution. And there's DRM. Not exactly unheard of but it's the kind of thing that could cause trouble.
Addicting Frustration I bought this game a few years ago and instantly loved it. I can play this game for hours on end while neglecting homework, :). The only two complaints I have for the game is that the graphics can be choppy and slow if you are running with minimal system requirments and some of the leaders faces show up as just a pair of eyes and teeth instead of a full face. If you have more than the minimal system requirments you will be fine. The only other complaint I have is that it allows you to build the Great Pyramids in England or Notre Dame in New York. I think it would be funner if the game were more accurate.
Better than Ever This is quite an upgrade from the previous Civ III title. Things seemed easier to manage in this version, upgraded graphics, easier user interface, and tons of fun. You can't go wrong with this game if you like building things.
I was slightly disappointed with the limited advanced technologies but I am guessing that was intentional so they could sell the expansion packs.
Overall, fun, interesting, and a game that you can dust off every year or so and still get enjoyment from it.
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
