Civ4: A painfully mediocre game.

[Satori (original)]

Ah right I was thinking of the Alpha Centauri conversion for Civ IV

 

[The One True Gamer]

I prefer Civ III to IV but IV is still a pretty great game. I don't know exactly why, I think it's an aesthetic thing as much as anything else - Civ III just feels more like 'civ'. Like there's a vast world for you to explore, tame, and conquer.

Although I have to admit that I absolutely fucking love the Chinese unification scenario that shipped in Warlords. It has yet to get old for me.

 

[Jeff Graw]

Civ IV Sucks. The game gets exponentially more and more unplayable the later in the game you get. MoO1 is better in every way by a million times.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Eh, the same thing applies to any 4x. Most just have the decency to end before it gets too unbearable. FFH mod helps fight this effect with crazy endgame units that can single handedly destroy an entire enemy stack. (And by stack I mean 60+ units). Or spells that cripple entire stacks, if god-heroes isn't your thing. MoO gets pretty retarded too on the largest map setting, especially if you don't take the vote.

 

[RK47]

Doom Star with planetary death ray was my way of solving the Sakkran Empire of Space Lizards. They breed WAY TOO FAST.

 

[Damned Registrations]

I enjoyed using fighter fleets myself. Either Alkari with some sick engines or Darloks/Psilons with teleporters or cloaks. Either way you get a first strike for sick amounts of damage at basically no risk. I loved the way MoO actually made bigass ships feel like bigass ships. Fucking juggernauts that can repair damage faster than your entire planet filled with missile launchers can deal, armed with hundreds of lasers and enough bombs to wipe out an entire planet's population in a single attack.

 

[circ]

Not counting the upgraded graphics and music, Civ IV was worse than Civ 2. Everything that was added just felt shallow, and I couldn't believe how people would miss work so they could play with wow, religion! And the combat was seriously screwed up. I mean, how do ancient chariots roll over marines with rifles? Did they run out of bullets?

 

[spectre]

Lolwut? Chariots running over marines sounds more like Civ 1, with phalanxes defeating tanks and bombers. Unless you're talking about Marines weakened to less than 1/10 combat strength, in which case, sue me, I find it probable

 

[Jeff Graw]

MoO gets pretty retarded too on the largest map setting, especially if you don't take the vote.

Not really. You shouldn't be taking more than 20 seconds on 90% of MoO 1 turns no matter what.

 

[Damned Registrations]

You kidding? By the time I have 20 planets or so I spend more than 20 seconds just waiting for the retard computers to retreat from the half dozen planets they attacked that they can't even scratch the shields on.

 

[poocolator]

But maybe I'm just spoiled with Paradox strategy games.

I know how you feel; this is the danger in playing Paradox's games: everything else (in the same vein) becomes desperately boring, uninspired and tedious. Civ4 turns into a kiddy game overnight.

 

[sheek]

"Paradox games" - lulz

If you want to see a nasty interface, horrible AI, tedious micromanagement and uninspired repetitive combat then yes, Paradox wins.

Civ4 is a very good game for what it is, an improvement on all the previous ones except for the 3D perspective. Of course you get tired of the genre, especially after having played it for 15+ years (Civ 1) but it still has insane replay value, which you rarely get in modern games.

Civ is one of the few franchises from the 1990s not to have been ripped off or dumbed down.

Yes some aspects of Civ2 were simplified but complexity was added in other ways, and overall it balances out.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Civ4 sucks. Every time I see the childish graphics I could puke. Besides this franchise has always suffered from over-abstraction. It doesnt feel like history any more, more like a parody.

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

Sheek wins the thread (again).

Civ 4 is not a brilliant, but very decent game - especially with the two expansion. I needed a while to realize it myself, but yes, Paradox games are fucking horrible.

 

[someone else]

Civ4 sucks. It doesnt feel like history any more, more like a parody.

Funny I never play Civ for the history.

I DEMAND A LP OF CIV4!!!! or ac

 

[JarlFrank]

"Paradox games" - lulz

If you want to see a nasty interface, horrible AI, tedious micromanagement and uninspired repetitive combat then yes, Paradox wins.

Civ4 is a very good game for what it is, an improvement on all the previous ones except for the 3D perspective. Of course you get tired of the genre, especially after having played it for 15+ years (Civ 1) but it still has insane replay value, which you rarely get in modern games.

Civ is one of the few franchises from the 1990s not to have been ripped off or dumbed down.

Yes some aspects of Civ2 were simplified but complexity was added in other ways, and overall it balances out.

This.

Sid Meier also seems to be one of the very few remaining oldschool developers who haven't turned into mainstream dumbed down windbags like Molyneux. Funny that he's also one of those who don't constantly brag about their new game they're developing in the media like it was the fucking best thing since the creation of the earth.

 

[Jim Cojones]

Chess sucks. It has always suffered from over-abstraction. It doesn't feel like a war, more like a parody.

 

[Trash]

Civ 1 is still the best one. Nothing beats the nostalgia value of that wonderfull piece of software.

 

[OSK]

They released a new patch for Civ IV a couple days ago.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Civ 1 is still the best one. Nothing beats the nostalgia value of that wonderfull piece of software.

but that was

1993

I played for some weeks straight. Same when Colonization came out, I think a year later.

But not anymore. Over the years I've seen better franchises come and now even AC was a letdown.

Sid Meier also seems to be one of the very few remaining oldschool developers who haven't turned into mainstream dumbed down windbags like Molyneux

Are you insane? The re-release of Pirates was the definite, ultimative show-piece of how to dumb down a once great game. Ever since that I haven't been able to look at SM the way I used to. He's gotten old and should retire.

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

even AC was a letdown.

This is the key to understanding GlobalExplorer.

 

[Pseudofool]

The Rise of Mankind mod really improves things. From the end game to including the revolution mods, to jsut a lot more sensible tech design.

Civ4 is a great game.

 

[Trash]

but that was

1993

So what? Quite a few of my fav games come from the early 90's. Civ 1 still remains the best for me because while having everything that's really cool about the later Civ's it lacks the unnecessary clutter. It's just a streamlined little bundle of fun.

 

[DefJam101]

Been playing this lately. Pretty much my first foray into 4X games considering how badly SoaSE sucked.

The problem I always have with these types of games is lack of feedback. Unless you know the tech trees and the promotion trees and the battle percentages and the troop costs and the research times and the growth/turns/production ratio work shit then it's difficult to connect results to actions you took. I've started to become more aware of what is actually going on—knowing why things are taking 50 turns to build or why two long bowmen just slaughtered half my army and so on. It's really quite fun and, unlike in most RTS games, I can see the layout of the map making a huge difference in game play.

 

[Jaime Lannister]

Chess sucks. It has always suffered from over-abstraction. It doesn't feel like a war, more like a parody.

maybe it's a thousand year old game and not a simulation

chess owns