0
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z


Guides


PC - Windows : Sid Meier's Civilization IV Reviews

Gas Gauge: 93
Gas Gauge 93
Below are user reviews of Sid Meier's Civilization IV and on the right are links to professionally written reviews. The summary of review scores shows the distribution of scores given by the professional reviewers for Sid Meier's Civilization IV. Column height indicates the number of reviews with a score within the range shown at the bottom of the column. Higher scores (columns further towards the right) are better.

Summary of Review Scores
0's10's20's30's40's50's60's70's80's90's


ReviewsScore
GameZone 96
1UP 90






User Reviews (1 - 11 of 271)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated
Newest
Oldest
Most Helpful
Least Helpful



Released as a beta version, but now works (mostly) fine

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 662 / 741
Date: October 30, 2005
Author: Amazon User

[5th version of my review - March 1]

While I can edit this review, I can't updating the ratings above; if I could, then I'd change them to 5 stars for 'fun' and 4 stars for 'overall' with the 1.52 patch installed.

I stand by my earlier contention that 2K Games pushed Civ4 out the door a few months too early. Civ4 should never have gotten through SQA (software quality assurance) and been declared 'golden' (ready for commercial release) with these kinds of defects. I suspect this was done to increase Christmas sales, but the net-wide flap over the Civ4 problems likely had just the opposite effect.

Since then, 2KGames had released patches to fix most of the technical problems. Because of that, I've deleted the section I originally had in this review regarding installation and graphics driver problems; just be sure to download and install the current Civ4 patch (version 1.52, as of this updated posting) from the 2kgames.com web site before playing.
----------------------------

That said, I am quite happy with the changes and expansions made to Civ4. My highest praise goes to the actual game design changes, to wit:

--Faster gameplay. I typically play with a huge world, but I finish a game a lot faster than I could in Civ3. (That's not saying too much; I've still had a few all-nighters.)

--Reduction or elimination of a lot of the micromanagement. I am _so_ happy not to be dealing with riots; in virtually every game that I've played, I've never had to open up a city and reallocate who was working where. Also, automated workers are a lot smarter (and have more options).

--The improved terrain modeling and the increased improvements options; again, it makes things more interesting.

--The combat unit "promotion" track. I tend to go for non-military victories, but this feature may make me play around more with actually conquering my neighbors. It also makes barracks more valuable.

--The "civics" and "religion" aspect. Both are interesting and fun, and both appear to be well-balanced.

--The "culture borders" concept. This allowed me to stake out territory while minimizing incursion by other nations. However, be aware that keeping your borders closed irritates the AIs after a while.

--The "great leaders" concept. There was a little of this in Civ3, but this new implementation makes it a far more vital part of the game. I managed to trigger two (2) golden ages for myself in one game (one by building the Taj Majal, the other by using several great leaders), and I also kept a few Great Engineers on hand to hurry some major wonder projects towards the end of the game. And Great Artists are very useful for 'culture bombing' neighboring cities or pre-emptively staking out large amounts of unclaimed territory.

Most of the complaints I had (UI response, lack of right-click menu features, raging barbarians) appear to have been fixed or, at least, improved by the 1.52 patch. Here are a few that remain:

--The "Show Friendly Moves" option does _not_ include units that are automaticly exploring (scouts, galleys, etc.)--which is where I used it the most in Civ3. Indeed, there appears to be some overall flakiness in both the "Show Friendly Moves" and "Show Enemy Moves" options--it's hard to tell at times whether Civ4 is paying any attention to those options.

-- Even with the 1.52 patch installed, when you complete a game, it's best to exit Civ4 before starting a new game. I've had one or two abrupt crashes when I've tried to go from completing one game to starting a new one.

All this said, Civ4 is a major improvement (in game design and graphics) over Civ3. It is very addictive, and I've spent far more time playing it over the past several months than I should have. ..bruce..

Enhancements in all the right places

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 218 / 266
Date: November 04, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I've been playing Civ since 1992 and it's amazing how, even with all the ripoff games in the same vein, it remains a leader and innovator. While some folks like the insane action of RTS, Civilization allows one to be more thoughtful about gameplay -- more like chess.

The presentation is just marvelous -- with great graphics that even with all settings turned to the max, are snappy and just right. The wonder movies are astonishing as well although I did find some sound glitches in them.

Finally you can zoom all the way into your cities and every city looks different based on the choices that you've made through the game. Developed tiles around them slowly turn into suburban sprawl and the whole effect is very realistic. The animation on the ground is also very good and adds alot of beauty to the map.

The sound design is amazing with a wonderful soundtrack. The main menu music is just for color but i find myself sitting on the screen to let it play. The music choices are interesting and varied and suitable for the period. Mozart and the classics are to be expected. What I didn't expect was to hear clips from the opera "Nixon in China". Amazing to hear.

Units animate much better and combat is the pretty much the same "dice roll" type that has always been in the game. While it is more balanced than before, with city defenses a group of archers can still defeat units with guns. What adds a nice "RPG" feel is the upgrades through XP that you can give your units. This takes units to a whole new level and encourages combat.

The resources are much more developed and make it more fun. Workers now have many levels of duties they can do. While this is fun for while -- like old games once you have 20 workers going you just automate them and don't think of them again. This is a strength and a weakness. It's great not to micromanage but why have something the computer is going to play for you? I wish there was more decisions that needed to be made in that respect that could affect how your game develops.

And as with previous versions this is an overall problem. The later stages of the game do bog down in popup clicking and choosing what to build. In the earlier phases it has alot of importance and if you are a warring nation it does. Being a peaceful, powerful nation is pretty boring though. Decision making is not as imporant or complex. Discoveries are nil and the game gets repetitive.

Battle though is pretty fun though so the best way to combat the above is to... well, combat.

The A.I. on the level I played was pretty weak. Asking someone to go to war with you gets no coordinated effort. In fact the other nation didn't do one thing except move their units around. One time they even captured a city after watching me do all the work! This area could use alot of improvement as there is really no strategic reason to do it.

The Wonders are back although later in the game they don't really add a whole lot. Mainly they will increase your culture. Only at the very end did any cities convert to my nationality due to culture. Occasionally a Wonder will afford you the ability to build something.

New in the game is the "Great Person" concept which adds another layer of choice onto what to do with your city. I wish they would do more than they do. After awhile it is a bit repetitive. Plus there is no explanation on who that person is so you can at least learn something. Mainly each category of person does the same thing.

The Civilopedia is back but doesn't seem as helpful as in previous versions. It's sad to see it actually get worse and less helpful. Also in that category are the "advisors" which are pretty useless here. Luckily other parts of the game provide insight so you don't need them quite as much.

It might seem like there are alot of negatives but there is alot of good stuff and it is definitely the best version of the game yet. Highly recommended and still as addictive as ever. But... the replay value is lacking as once you do it a few times, it doesn't vary enough to really warrant much repeating. The higher levels basically allow the other civs to "cheat" by getting things faster. I haven't tried but one level so that remains to be tested.

Overall, thumbs up. Go buy it.

Nice Job Firaxis......Now if you could just make it playable

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 35 / 40
Date: October 30, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I have an ATI graphics card (Radeon 9800) and it obviously is not supported at all. Even when following the instruction on the Firaxis website the game locks up and is completely unplayable. I am hugely disappointed in the complete lack of respect by Firaxis for its customer base. It's a shame, by all respects this should be a good game (and probably is if you could play it).
This is the last Firaxis product that I buy......
The rest of my system is as follows:
Athlon 64, 3000+
1 GB of PC3200
MSI K8T Neo Mainboard
Windows XP Pro with Service Pack 2
If you have anything similar, I'd stay away from this game till when/if they fix the game. So much for meeting every requirement.....

Strategy-gamers' heaven

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 26 / 28
Date: July 25, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Why the ridiculously low three-star average rating for this fantastic game? Only because of angry one-star reviews from a minority of customers who have encountered technological problems, which have since been patched. I play Civ IV on a laptop and have had no technological problems whatsoever. Civilization is the greatest strategy series ever invented, and Civ IV has improved by leaps and bounds over its predecessors. Result: a gaming sensation, which is easily the best strategy game ever made.

The game is so good it is hard to know where to begin. The dynamic 3D graphics, soundtrack, presentation, interface etc are all absolutely AAA. You can zoom in and out at will, and the graphical detail is absolutely astonishing. The music is also great and atmospheric. It changes to match the era, catching the mood nicely. All that is absolutely top-notch, yet it isn't even the major reason why I would recommend this game.

Of course, strategy games stand and fall by their gameplay, and here too Civilization IV does not disappoint. If you've played any of the Civilization series, then you'll know just what an addictive, "one-more-turn" experience it is. And I mean addictive. It's all too easy for me to skip meals and sleep because I am so completely engrossed in planning my next strategic move.

This much is familiar from the days of Civilization II (which I spent literally hundreds of hours playing in the old days). I'm pleased to say that the latest installment has successfully captured all of the old feel of the classic Civilization. I say this, by the way, as someone who never got into Civilization III, which meant that I certainly had my doubts before getting Civ IV. These doubts were quickly dispelled. The new features which have been included in Civ IV, such as religion and great people, add whole new layers of strategy to the game. At the same time, they all combine elegantly with the basic game system of old.

What's even more important is the radical effort that has been made to streamline the amount of micromanagement. This was always the Achilles' heal of the previous versions of the game. I could find myself spending an hour on every move, painstakingly moving grains of corn from one tile to another in city after city, in order to avoid the waste that would otherwise occur. The great news is that the designers have at last woken up to the pointlessness and tediousness of most of this micromanagement.

For example, now surplus production points do not go to waste (as they used to in previous versions) but instead go towards the production of the next item you want to build. This "roll over" of production (which also applies to food, scientific research, etc) means that you can concentrate on managing your empire, instead of managing every single tile every single turn. At the same time, the cities have also become much smarter at managing their resources, and there is a nice array of options (all very easily accessible in the city display) which enable you to guide a city's production priorities. Whether you choose to automate, or pursue a more hands-on approach, it is all very easy to manage.

As a result of these changes, the game now moves along much faster, while still containing a more-than-satisfying amount of thinking and strategizing every turn. This means I can sit down to start a game and reasonably expect to finish it within a week or two of intermittent playing. Sadly, the same cannot be said for many other strategy games on the market, which are often so long and complex that they are essentially unplayable.

What else? As a veteran of Civ II, I was pleasantly surprised to see what a challenge the game has become. Now, an effective military is just as important for defence as it is for attack. If you are weak, the AI will show you no mercy, and it can mount remarkably effective invasions. In general, warfare is now much more challenging and realistic. Pillaging has become a far more effective strategy than in the past, which means that fighting no longer revolves entirely around the capture of cities as it used to. The added emphasis on combined arms means that much more thought has to be given to the composition and deployment of your armed forces.

Really I could go on and on lavishing praise on this lavish game. But what am I doing? Why am a wasting time writing this review when I could be getting on with my next move?

Looks aren't everything

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 43 / 57
Date: January 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game on the recommendation of my brother-in-law, who has similar taste in gaming. Owning an Alienware gaming rig, I wasn't concerned about the system requirements--after all, this is a 3 GHz P4, with a GB of RAM, dual 200 GB RAID0 SATA drives, and a top-of-the-line NVIDIA video card. No worries, right?

When I ran through the tutorial, I thought that the game looked interesting and fun--albeit a bit complicated--so I started a "real" game. It was great fun, the interface is well done, and I really like the game during the time it works. But it's hard to communicate just how bad it is for a game to be pretty cool, hook you in, and then fail (badly) in a way that prevents you from completing it.

Right up until the Industrial era, everything is fine. At that point, the game started crashing (and patching it hasn't helped). Generally the crashes occur during or soon after one of the "cut scenes" showing the construction of a Wonder. Before the patch, the game failed with no error--it just dumped to the desktop. Now that it's "patched" it fails with a memory corruption error. Thanks, guys. That's ever so much better.

I've tried everything recommended and everything I could think of (I work in software development) but no dice. I've checked for updates for my video card, killed off unnecessary processes, started with a smaller world, lowered resolution... but nothing seems to help. The frustration and disappointment at this point will probably leave the game sitting on the shelf--I doubt I'll be frequenting the Civ IV Web site to see if they have a newer and better patch.

The funny thing is, I would rate this game really highly on the interface, game concept, and fun. I think this might have been a game that would have changed my interest from RTS to turn-based games. I really WANT to play this game and to like it as much as I was starting to before it started crashing. But it isn't so much fun if you can't finish.

My recommendation is to avoid this game.

Waste of money

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 32 / 39
Date: October 30, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The game simply doesn't start. The company blames bad ATI graphic cards and drivers, but I have a new NVIDIA GeForce card, and the game still doesn't start.
Tech support is a joke: if you call Canadian number, the message will say your call can not be completed as dialed; US support will keep you on hold for 15 min, then suggest to visit their web site and quickly hang up.
Overall, for me this was a classical example how the combination of incompetent development, management and support can ruin a great game.

Caveat Emptor

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 34 / 45
Date: February 07, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The copy of the game I received would not install. After quite a bit of research, I found that I was having the same problem as many others: the disc 2 that shipped with my copy of the game was defective.

I purchased this game because I have played all of the Civ games and loved them, and it _seemed_ like they had worked out most of the bugs in the game. Apparently, defective disc 2's are the latest problem with Civ 4, and no patch will fix that.

It would have cost 2k Games fifty cents (if that) to send me a replacement disc. Instead, they would rather I return the game and write this bad review on Amazon. Nothing irritates me more than a company that insists on making decisions that are bad for them and their customers. How hard can it be to sell a sequel to one of the most popular and beloved games of all time?

Amazon handled the matter professionally. Instead of making me perform multiple returns, they refunded my money and customer service informed me that due to the widespread problem of defective discs, they are not shipping this title for the moment. I appreciate their honesty and courtesy.

Save yourself the frustration and wait another few months before you even consider buying this title.

The End of History, the Beginning of Patches

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 31 / 40
Date: December 11, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The *Civilization* series comes a long way since 1991. I'm proud to say I discovered it at the beginning, and I shamed to say the one *Civ* title I did not play was *Alpha Centauri*. I caught everything else on release, and like many longtime fans, I deal with the ebb and flow of sequel quality.

The latest entry might not be considered the greatest by some, but *Civilization IV* evolves the series more significantly than any other entry I played. From interface to game mechanics, it ain't your older brother's *Civilization*. I like it, but there's a famous Gary Larson cartoon with God pulling the Earth out of an oven and thinking "Something tells me this thing is only half-baked". I also think Sid Meier's *Civilization IV* needs to spend more time in the oven.

---A Look at Civilizations Past---

*Civilization II* is probably still regarded as the best in the series: having the most units, technologies, improvements, wonders, and ease of modification. For example, players could terraform terrain or build advanced farms-something none of the other titles permit. The game even included a graphics program so you could draw your own units, and I generally find the modding features the most user-friendly of the lot.

Activision's spin-off series *Call to Power* isn't as beloved, but it certainly raised the time bar by adding entire future ages, complete with new units, wonders, and improvements. It also greatly expanded the tactical and strategic warfare aspects: such as adding watch towers and sonar buoys, stealth units, and propaganda units. It also streamlined the terrain management (no engineers or workers).

*Civ III*, for it's part, streamlined the whole show-a sort of Civ-Lite. With so many features removed and an increased dependency on menus and charts, it could have been a disaster on the scale of *Masters of Orion 3*. Fortunately, *Civ III* imported the Cultural Borders concept first seen in *Alpha Centauri*. It also imported the Strategic Resource concept, which I think was used in *CtP* (though previous games used resources on a more limited scale). And it boasted the best animations and sprites of any turned-based empire building game I knew of. Overall, *Civ III* became a decent tide-me-over `till the next big entry.

---At Last, The 2005 Show---

Here it is. With *Civ IV*, Firaxis and 2k Games kept the core turn-based, city based, tech-tree gameplay. But just about everything else has been turned on its head.

Beginning with graphics. Surely everybody has heard by now the series finally made the big leap to 3D rendering. The terrain tiles remain 2D sprites, but the developers modeled all units and buildings, and many of the improvements and resources. The camera can zoom down to individual buildings and animals, it can pull back to reveal an entire 3D globe, or somewhere the player prefers in between. Players can also view the map head on, or at 45 degrees angles left or right; no full rotation. The game even uses particle effects for smoke, wonder construction, and fireworks displays.

Speaking of displays, the maps sparkle with detail. Zoom in on an American Infantry garrison and hear the Marine Corp Hymn playing in the background. Pass over a lumber mill and hear buzzing saws. Watch tiny 3D pigs root in a pen-or an F16 circle a city in a real-time Fighter Engagement Zone mission. That lumber mills and pig-pens can be built-along with farms, windmills, quarries, rigs, plantations and even small towns-livens up the civil aspects of Civ IV. No more generic mines for any resource!

The new Terrain Improvements also combine with the resource systems to grant each city a unique identity. The proximity of resources, more than in previous titles, compels cities to specialize production without severely penalizing them for doing something different. Indeed, each tile has at least two different improvements to choose: for example, players can Farm grassland tiles for food, or build over grasslands with Small Towns for commerce. With the right technology or wonder, these improvements can even eek out a bit of production. And grasslands hosting a herd of cows can be developed with a Pasture Improvement instead of farming--once the appropriate technology has been discovered, of course.

Of course the technologies revamped as well. The game still uses a pretty simple tree and the same simple system of generating research points to unlock tech. Now players can skip technologies indefinitely, thanks to a new "either-or" system of perquisites. In other words, more than one technology can unlock most future tech, and the player need choose only one. Thus, you can skip entire blocks of machine technology to focus on an agrarian society, for example.

Technology uncovers religion, another hyped featured. Ultimately, religion in *Civ IV* might seem like window dressing; no religion victory condition exists and the religions all have the same effects. Of course, those effects include increased Culture and Commerce for each city converted to the player's state religion. And foreign cities converted to the player's religion are supposed to provide intelligence about their garrisons... Thus religion becomes another strategic element as civs flood the world with their Missionary units.

I could witness all night long to the Civ choir. A lot stuff has changed-mostly to reduce micromanagement and "less fun" elements. A new health element affects worker productivity and happiness, but doesn't require any additional management. Pollution no longer affects tiles, it just makes city dwellers sick and angry (radiation poisoning and global warming still affect terrain, however). Cities also no longer riot, and unhappy citizens merely slow production instead of grinding it to a halt. Corruption effectively no longer exists, and cities built far from the capitol suffer production penalties much less extreme than in *Civ III*.

---The Apprentice Civ---

I wish I could say the game as a whole doesn't suffer, but damn if the bugs aren't extreme. If you have heard this game was rushed out the door in time for the holidays, then consider your hearing sound.

I found out just how rushed when I discovered that the disc marked "Play" was the install disc, and the disc marked "Install" was the play disc! And while a lot of new units exist, I found some noticeable, even anachronistic gaps: the MLRS rocket unit no longer exists, so the player's modern battle tanks and helicopter gunships fight alongside World War I era artillery to the end of the game.

And for all of the hype about modding, I found the tools lacking. For example, there is a "worldbuilder" tool which permits only limited modification of an existing map (read: "I cannot add new civs nor change victory conditions, leaders, barbarian scale, event seeds, or the time scale). No map editor shell exists either-if I want to mod a map, I have to load or start a game! Experienced modders should have no problem manipulating the code, provided they can find them: the installation scatters files all over my hard drive, and I still haven't found any core files other than a basic .cfg. In many respects, *Civ IV's* mod tools are the least user friendly to noobs of the entire series.

The big giveaway, of course, is the massive memory leaks, video corruptions, and game crashes-even with the latest patch. My PC runs an AMD FX-51 64 bit 2.2 ghz processor, a 128 MB ATI 9800 Pro video card, and a gig of PC2700 ECC RAM. The wonder videos tend to stutter. On the larger maps, as the civilizations spread and advance, the desktop crashes become more and more frequent: of late I cannot play more than about five turns on my current map before the program encounters a problem and needs to shut down. Just to spice things up, I also got a few Blue Screens of Death.

---The End of History---

I guess all good things come to an end. Firaxis seems to have learned a lot about the series since it first dawned in 1991. The lessons show in *Civ IV*: collating many of the best ideas in the series and mixing them up with new features. Unfortunately, it also features a tremendous number of bugs and missing elements, and *Civ IV* frankly needs some tremendous patches to cope. Regrettably, I cannot recommend this title as it stands. Wait for patches and for an expansion set, or at least wait for the price to drop and stick to playing the smaller maps.

Turn based strategy at its best

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 16 / 16
Date: May 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Like previous Civilization games, Civ 4 is a turn based strategy game that gives you control over the development of your civilization. Without going into all the features, I will point out the strengths and weaknesses.

Strengths:
While some will complain about this, the overall game has been redesigned. Unlike previous games which encouraged the building of as many cities as you could in the early part of the game, Civ 4 goes to a more strategic approach, but also gives you something to do each turn(instead of setting production and waiting several turns for what you want to build to finish). The game now eliminates the "corruption" system of previous games, and goes to a system where there is an expense that the city places on your government. So, you start with one city, and you need to build a bit slower, at least in the early game.

The graphics engine is now 3D, and with a decently powerful video card, you can see all your city improvements from the main map. You can zoom in and out as well.

Cultural boundaries are based on the culture output of your cities, and you can use culture as a way to expand your borders and capture border cities.

Religion is a system that allows the founder(s) of the different religions certain extras. If you are the founder of a religion, and you accept that religion as your "state religion", you can see all the cities that contain that religion. Religion can spread on it's own, or you can help it by sending out missionaries.

The game is open for mods, and there are many out there that you can download to tweak the game in different ways.

Replay value is high due to multi-player, as well as the random factor in map generation. There are some static maps, but there are also a number of random maps that can be adjusted based on your preferred play style. If you prefer there being only one continent, or higher or lower ocean levels, or a larger or smaller map, you can start the game with the settings YOU prefer.

There are also different game "speeds", which decide how long each game will take. A marathon game on a huge map can take over six hours, but you don't need to play on marathon.

Each of the AI civ leaders have their own personalities, with some being more warlike than others.

With the Warlords expansion, you have both unique units for each civilization, as well as unique buildings. These unique buildings and units replace a "standard" building or unit.

There are many more positives, but no game is without it's negatives, even though I don't really consider many of these to be real flaws.

If your video card does not support directX 9 in hardware, the game won't look as good, and you will need to turn off certain graphics options. That is due to the video card not being able to handle certain graphics features. Even with DirectX 9, if you have a low end video card, including integrated video in most laptops, you may encounter some graphics issues. Intel video tends to be the source of many problems, but older laptops with DirectX 8.1 or earlier graphics chips tend to be the source of many display problems.

Even with a reasonably fast machine, video, CPU, etc, if you play on a huge world with 17 computer controlled civilizations, you will find that you need to wait a bit between turns(as the AI civs get their turn). This can make it a little annoying, but again, the choice of playing on a huge world with an older/slower computer is yours.

The AI at times can be a bit...slow. This is why multi-player is a good thing, because you can play against other humans. There are some mods out there that help with this. The next expansion(Beyond the Sword) has improved AI as a feature.

If you prefer a game that lets you win or lose based on thinking, and less on reflexes, then Civ 4 should be seen as a great game. If reflexes and fast gameplay are what you look for, then Civ 4 is NOT for you. Warlords and the second expansion(due out in July of 2007) add(and will add) to the base game. There are also a lot of elements in Civ 4 that will appeal to those interested in history, since there are references in the game to real life leaders, cultures, and world wonders.

This Game Remains Unplayable

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 27 / 34
Date: November 04, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Sorry, Sid, but I can recommend "Civ IV" to ANYONE--simply because the game will not launch on my system.

I may not have the best gaming rig, but my puter is no slouch--I won't bore you with the specs, but among em are twin BFG 512MB nVidia Ultras in SLI. I run "HalfLife 2", "Doom 3", "Age of Empires 3" and "WoW" effortlessly at top resolutions and specs. I cannot even get "Civ IV" to launch.

I have installed and re-installed three different sets of disks. Still nothing. Take2's Tech Support seems to be two guys at a pay phone in London with an antiquated copy of "Windows 95 For Fun and Worry". Four phone calls and all they can come up with is try installing ATI drivers on my nVidia GPUs? And as for the distributor's sad excuse for online Technical Support? Well, that's limited to a page listing three eMail addresses--NONE of which have even gotten me a response.

In all fairnesss to Firaxis, Kelly Gilmore of their Public Relatiosn department has promised to have a programmer look into my launch issues--after I telephoned Firaxis and begged for some "Level 2 Technical Support"--so maybe that kind offer will net me some answers.

Seriously, Sid Meier ought to be ashamed of himself for giving his name to this seriously unplayable game.

This is the WORST experience I have ever had in computer gaming. The only positive result is I now have a very precise list of Things Not To Do with any of my own games.

From the misprinted disks to the bad ATI coding to whatever is broken in the XML or initialization of the THREE copies I have tried and failed to play--I would say this game is a dog, but I have no desire to insult a species of much beloved animals.

Not only will this experience be the end of the "Civilization" franchise on my system, but this loser may mean the end of any and all Sid Meier's games for me!

Sure wish I could post Negative stars!!


Review Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next 



Actions