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Just One More Turn...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: March 02, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Honestly I can stop anytime I want. No Really. I just don't need sleep anymore. This game is like crack. I'm not saying it's perfect, just that it's like crack.

A nice game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: May 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Several years ago I wasted many hours of my life conquering the world through Civ I and Civ II. I strongly disliked Call to Power and haven't done much with Civilization since. When Civ IV came out the reviews gave it such high praise I decided to give the franchise another try, and I was not disappointed. Gameplay is smooth with the tools giving me the ability to control things directly without having to constantly order things around. Graphics are very nice, the music keeps me humming all day. I haven't run into any of the technical problems others have mentioned.

Great game after patching

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: June 27, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I have played Civilization since their first release, and so far, every new release has been much better than the previous. Civilization IV is no exception. However, I encountered one technical problem. My ATI Radeon 9600 did not work immediately after installation; patches fixed this.

I love the gameplay changes they made. Expansion is much more difficult. Great people are much more important, wonders less so. Choosing a government becomes mix and matching civics. The battle system completely changed for the better.

I tried playing online with random people, and it's very frustrating. I enjoy taking my time micromanaging my civilization, but so many people who play online have absolutely no patience. So, if you play multiplayer, I recommend to only play with friends through Skype or other voice service because the chat interface is terrible.

Disappointed a third time

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 7
Date: July 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I've been playing Civilization for over a decade, all the way back to Civ I. I excitedly buy each installment of the series hoping "this-time" they'll get it right. But each time so much energy is put into graphics and bells and so little is changed to make the game more than a mind-numbing waste of time (this from a guy who has spent hundreds maybe thousands of hours playing the games). I loose interest because all the wonderful subtlety constantly goes out the window with the inevitable surprise attack from a 3rd rate civ from the other side of the world. Each game becomes just another race to get the techs that lead to the best guns.

The diplomacy is only marginally better than Civ 2. Trade and trade routes (the most significant motivator in human history) is, and always has been, pathetic. It's still handed like spoiled kids trading snacks at lunchtime. "I'll give you my Twinkie for your coal." Religion is an interesting addition but it's used in such a benign way it does little to change the game. The great-leaders seem exciting at first but it quickly becomes apparent they are little more than anonymous "bonus cards" that show up occasionally. While the graphics are at first impressive, the game really dissolves into endless tedious hours pushing little animated soldiers around the screen.

There is still no storyline. No random events to keep it interesting. Still nothing to distinguish unique cultures beyond graphics and special units. The AI leaders act predictably hostile and uncooperative. There is no romance in the game. I don't mean royal arranged marriages, I mean the thrill you get watching that online ad narrated by Martin Sheen. There is no epic sweep that could so easily be there if the authors spent less time animating little sprites you ignore by the third game, and more time adding true personality. It needs heroes and revolutionaries, pirates and brigands, disasters and surprises. Add real trade routes and the need to provision ships and caravans. That would make the map actually strategic instead of just a pixel battlefield.
How about colonies and revolutions? New civs that appear over time? How `bout leaders that change over time? It's so stupid to be negotiating with FDR in 3000 BC. There are so many things that could be added to make the game more interseting and dynamic not just pretty to look at.
But sadly even in Civ 4, Each game is very like the last, only the map really ever changes--from game to game or version to version.

Like the three versions before, Civ IV is over by end of the bronze age. If you aren't the undisputed top dog by 1AD you might as well cash in your chips. Except for war, there is no real unpredictability in the game. War wouldn't be so bad except it's so tediously long. On this game's calendar Ike would have landed in Normandy in 1999, only a few years after Napoleon finally got back from Moscow. And frigates are still able to sink battleships, and your tanks still burst into flames attacking Knights.

I'm always so hopeful loading in the newest version of Civilization. But yet again I am disappointed. After all these years, it's still little more than a cross between Sim City and Risk.

Best Civilization Yet!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 12
Date: November 11, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This Civ could well finally eliminate my addiction to Civ 3. I love how the entire world is alive and moving. You can even zoom in to each city to see what it contains. The interface over all has been simplified so you no longer have to jump around from screen to screen to change what your cities are building, etc. Religion is a huge addition as well. If you manage to found religions in your cities, and manage to spread the religion to neighbors, you've gained a VERY loyal friend. This comes in handy if you want to concentrate on a cultural victory and you don't want to have to worry about invading neighbors.

Barbarians have gone to a whole new level as well. They now can found cities of their own within the "fog" which causes MANY early game headaches. You can't leave cities undefended anymore lest you want to have it burned to the ground by a wondering barbarian horde. Take care of barbarian cities early before they become a large problem.

I've seen some other people post that they have problems with bugs, but I have yet to have any problems withe the two systems I have it running on (basement lan for multi-player fun).

If you are a fan of the previous titles, this is a MUST purchase. You will not be disappointed.

One...more....turn

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 17
Date: December 27, 2005
Author: Amazon User

....it's as addictive as ever.

You do NOT need a mega machine to run this game people.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 8
Date: June 13, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Please do not be turned away by those who say you need an amazing computer to run this game. There are two things that you can do to make this game run smoothly.

1. Download and install all of the patches. (DUH!)

2. Check your video card. Your video card makes all the difference. Look to see what you have and check the website to see if its supported. If all else fails, check the forums, they are extremely helpful. ATI cards seem to work very well with this game. I have a Raedon 9500 (average card, about $80) and 1 gig of RAM, and I have no problems, and I mean none. I ONLY play on the LARGEST map with the MAX number of civs, and I have NEVER crashed after 80+ hours of playing.

Oh, BTW, the game is quite fun =) I am not going to go into detail, but I would rate it as one of the top five games that I have ever played.

It deserves 5 stars

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 8
Date: January 05, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Upon seeing this game on Amazon.com I was struck by the rating it had receieved. 2.5 stars?! I needed to express my own opinion about the game. I am one of those people who have had problems starting up at first since I have an ATI video card. I just went to the game's official site and followed the guide they had that helped me get rid of my problem. It took about 5, 10 minutes but was worth it.

Now to talk about the game and why it deserves 5 stars. This game is perfect. The music is great. I have never heard betting music in a game before. You should hear the main menu music for yourselve if you do not believe me. The graffics, well, not much compaired to these hot new shotting games, but even though it looks like a little kid's movie it is alright because that does not affect how much fun the game actually is. I can play this game for hours and so will you if you like any type of strategy or otherwise more syfisticated game that makes you think a little. That is what I love about it. That one must think about what he is going to do. There is so much things I love about this game that I cannot even begin to express them here. What I have to say is that it was worth the 50 bucks. Best game I ever purchased.

Seems like a fun game, but very unstable

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: December 28, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I am not going to take the time to write a full review, mainly because this is my first Civilization game and have only spent a few hours playing so far. It is a fun game, but I still fell pretty lost, VERY complex game (in a good way)!

I mainly wanted to echo what others have said about the game's stability. Even after installing the newest patch (1.52) the game still crashes a lot! I played my first game for a few hours before it crashed, installed the patch and then played another with about the same results. My newest game is crashing every 2nd time I build a wonder (about ever 15 minutes or so), I don't know why it is now so much less stable but it is almost unplayable. Auto save is the only saving grace; the game is remotely playable with it (game starts pretty quickly so reloading really isn't as bad as it could be).

A great game with patch 1.52

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: January 13, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I heard so many bad things about this game before I bought it. People were saying even with their high-end systems, the game still runs laggy and choppy. I don't have a high-end computer. I have AMD xp 1700+, 756 ram, ti200. I've been using this computer for more than 4 years now. Well, I installed this game last night on my computer and it runs so smooth I couldn't believe it. The graphic setting was 1024x768 with max settings. I didn't try higher resolution but 1024x768 is more than enough for my 19 inch monitor. You don't need a high-end computer to play this game. I think this game had been rushed out so it had many compatibility issues. But I think this latest patch 1.52 fixes most of those problems. So don't be afraid to get this game, it's really a great game.

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