User Reviews (1 - 11 of 79)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

This expansion pack is obsolete!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 63 / 65
Date: December 16, 2003
Author: Amazon User

PTW should be recalled from the shelves and destroyed. It serves no purpose now that "Conquests" has been released. Read on and save yourself some money and frustration....

The "Play the World" expansion pack was originally released in 2002 and it was generally considered buggy and incomplete. Patching fixed many of the bugs but the multiplayer portion still left much to be desired due to poor original design. Unfortunately, these design flaws were deeply rooted and could not be fixed by further "free" patches (it just wouldn't be economical) and so the developer went to work on a new expansion pack called "Conquests".

Now, in 2003, with release of the "Conquests" expansion pack, the "Play The World" (PTW) xpack has been rendered utterly obsolete, since Conquests includes all of the 'good' stuff from PTW (and none of the 'bad'!). Conquests also has many new features (new civs, new wonders, new techs, new units, etc) and much better multiplayer support.

My advice to anyone considering buying this PTW xpack is: DON'T!

You're much better off getting the "Conquests" xpack instead which, at the time of this writing, is the same price as PTW!

In summary, the "Conquests" xpack:

a) includes everything in the PTW xpack except the bugs and flawed multiplayer support

b) has a bunch of new stuff: civs, techs, units, wonders, etc.

c) costs the same as PTW!

Good luck.

Should I or shouldn't I? Who should buy the PTW Expansion.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 37 / 37
Date: January 09, 2003
Author: Amazon User

First off let me say that I do not play multiplayer games nor do I have any interest in playing them. Based on the other reviews here I would not buy the expansion if playing the multiplayer game was a priority for me...but,

I let the reviews here keep me from buying the expansion for 4 months and now I wish I hadn't waited.

The Good:
1) New civilizations. Especially the Ottomans and Spanish which are very challenging.
2) New animations. These are very cool.
3) New AI...I have noticed a smarter AI in the games I have been playing since the expansion and patches. This is making deitiy level much harder to win.
4) New units! Getting to update the swordsman to medieval infantry and eventually guerillas is huge since they are a valuable early unit type.
5) The editor is GREAT...SO much better than the original editor.
6) Expanded commands, especially expanded automation for workers.

The Bad:
1) Multiplayer
2) The price

Civilization is my favorite game all time so any expansion that is put out isn't going to be a price sensitive purchase for me. I felt ripped off paying $29 for the expansion, but it was worth it to me because I am a hardcore civilization player. Bottom line is this...if you are on the fence and don't intend to use multiplayer I think this expansion is worth the money for the hardcore fan.

Follow the instructions...install the patch

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 31 / 32
Date: January 05, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I have been an avid fan of the series since the first installment of civilization and have easily wasted solid months (years?) at a time playing Civ II, SMAC, etc. I even bought a new system just for the release of Civ III because it would cause me great mental anguish to know that it was out and I couldn't play it. If this sounds anything like you, and you have a broadband connection (you really do need it) you need to buy this expansion.
Caveats:
I picked up PTW on release day and raced home to see how my months of training with Civ III would fare against human opponents. Crashes and complaints were frequent (this version should have never been shipped) but firaxis has made it work with their second patch (1.14f available from firaxis.com) and after a few frustrating weeks, I have little to no trouble connecting with people to play with, crashes are way down and probably due to new users trying to play without the patch.
My only complaint now is with the human opponents. People with leave the game if they think they are losing, or if you attack a poorly defended civ, or if their sister needs to use the computer or whatever. This wipes their cities completely off the map but also gives the neighboring civ easy access to expand their territory, upsetting the power balance. Other players must think this is a good idea because they then begin to leave in droves. There are no overall statistics kept on your own overall performance (wins/losses/quits) which could have been a nice feature especially matching similar skill levels to play each other. Dial up pings are high and hosts will often ask a player with high pings to leave, if they don't they get booted by the host before the game begins (thus the broadband recommendation). Games last on average at least 3-4 hours and significant military movements can be difficult to complete within the time allotted even if you make use of all the management features. Even with all of these issues, I find myself going straight for the multiplayer lobby rather than the single player game. Hope this helps someone.

who are these people who write a review?

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 190 / 357
Date: August 19, 2002
Author: Amazon User

How can somebody write a review of a game and give it stars when they haven't even seen it??? If you absolutely HAVE to write something on a computer, and don't know what else to do, DON'T REVIEW SOMETHING! Instead, write a letter to your grandma. She misses you.

Sheesh.

And Amazon: if you delete this one, you have to delete the previous one.

Wait for two months then buy it

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 25 / 27
Date: November 14, 2002
Author: Amazon User

The Civ series of games are probably the best computer games ever made. The trend has continued with Civ III so naturally I bought the expansion the day it came out and I have been moderatly dissappointed. I would reccomend waiting a few months before you purchase this expansion.

The reason for this is that there are may bugs with the multiplayer that makes it unplayable for most people. If you can actually manage to get a game going then it will probably be more trouble that it is worth. After a month or so they will have several patches that I am sure will work out most of these problems and it should be good to go.

If you just want to play single player with the new units and civilizations and don't care about the multiplayer then go ahead and buy it now. There is a bug with industrious civs not getting bonus shield production correctly and small bugs like this but nothing that makes it close to unplayable like the multiplayer is.

All in all Civ III is one of the best games ever but if you are going strictly for multiplayer like most people are who purchase this expansion then you'll have to wait. It just doesn't work yet.

New Stuff Is Good, But Not Enough Content To Justify Expansi

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 61 / 100
Date: October 03, 2002
Author: Amazon User

*Eight new civilizations including new leaders and units provide even more challenges and strategic options.
- I like this. New leaders include Ghengis Khan.

*A powerful Scenario Editor allows players to construct their dream scenario and share it with players from around the world.
- If you have the patch, you already have this ability.

*Play scenarios created by others, or build your own -- replayability is now truly limitless with the new benchmark in strategy gaming!
- Who cares?

Game Features
*Multiplayer Modes: Includes Turn-Based and Simultaneous game types and appearing for the first time in a Civilization game, a Turn-less mode. Provides full TCP-IP/LAN, Hotseat and Play be Email support.
- Turnless mode changes the whole strategy in the game. Not a good thing.

*Multiplayer games: Face off against the best Civilization players worldwide with fast-paced multiplayer games like Elimination, Domination, Regicide and Capture the Flag.
- The whole point of this game is management and strategy per turn. Why make it a "race?"

*Eight new Civilizations featuring new Leaders including: Genghis Khan Temujin, King Hannibal, Queen Isabella and King Brennus, and all new units will challenge your diplomatic and combat skills.
- They should have made this portion far more in depth. This could have been an expansion in itself if they had done it right. Imagine leaders from different eras. Instead of Bismark ruling Germany, how about a genocidal Hitler for example?

* Enhanced Scenario Editor, including new unit and tile sets lets players construct a Scenario from any time period.
- Again, already possible if you have the patch.

* Players can strengthen their empire with:
new map features like outposts, airfields and radar towers
new guerilla and medieval infantry units
new wonders and city improvements like the stock market or the Internet
- More to play with. Another plus!

* Updated interface improvements like auto bombard, rally points, stacked movement and a streamlined espionage interface allow for more efficient management.
- This is nice. Makes playing simpler, easier, and FASTER!

* New opening cinematic and combat animations bring your Civilization world to life like never before.
- I like the combat animations, but they are really not THAT spectacular.

Civ 3 Play the World is an unstable, laggy, bugfest

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 19 / 21
Date: November 09, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Absoluety abysmal code. The game does not work - the lag is incredible even with my cable modem and the game is so unstable I've not been able to "play" for more than 15 minutes without a crash. It is the worst bugfest I've ever seen. If you read this review and don't believe me, check the online gaming websites. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Not up to its expectations

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 18 / 20
Date: December 05, 2002
Author: Amazon User

The Civilization game series have been a huge blockbuster and success since Civil 1 came to birth in the early 90's.
The idea of building an empire of your own from the first village to a global domination was compelling undoubtedly.
Plus you had the possibility of interacting with other nations and adopt a peaceful or warmonger attitude.

Basically these were the foundations where the game appeal was built on and which were lately polished and perfected through out the next episodes II (1996) & III (2001).

The great con which was made more clear as time passed by, technology improved and Internet became something available, was the lack of multiplayer support.

Play the World (PTW) is the last installment of Sid Meier's creation, and it's merely a patch to add-in that feature long requested.

Yes, of course it has another features such as 8 new civilizations, units and options, but the main attraction was the possibility of facing other human players on your race to world domination.

The multiplayer is really slow, even if you get a Pentium IV with lots of RAM and it tends to get even slower as the game advances to modern ages and players get more cities, units and actions to do.

I know it's hard to satisfy everyone but considering the anxiety multiplayer had provoked, PTW should have been a little more polished and more beta-tested among users before being launched to the shelves.

This item is obsolete upon the release of 'Conquests'

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 13 / 13
Date: September 27, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This is the first expansion pack to 'Civilization III', and, after installing the badly-needed patches provided on the civ3 website, I've enjoyed it for its single-player additions alone.

The important thing to know at this point, however, is that all of the content in 'Civ III: Play the World' is to be included in the *next* expansion -- 'Civ III: Conquests'. That means that there's no reason whatsoever to invest in this expanion now. Note that pre-ordering 'Conquests' here at Amazon earns one an additional bonus disc of fan material as a giveaway from Atari.

Got it? In order to get the 'Play the World' material (and all the new additions), go buy 'Conquests'.

The Title of the Game isnt there yet

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 19 / 24
Date: November 13, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I do have the game. The "single Player" new aspects are exceptional. The Artifical Intelligence that controls the enemies seem even smarter than before. That said, the reason I bought this game was to have the chance to play with some friends. I even talked them into buying it.

Well, Multiplayer ( the game is called play the world) doesnt yet function at 100% or even half that. It works on a LAN. It works via PBEM (play by email) and some have had a little bit of success using the in game player matching.
BUT
going through the intended software Gamespy Arcade it simply crashes. NOT just for me. But for EVERY single person that tried it.
Most multiplayer games attempted by the in game multiplayer access failed or suffered massive lag.
This game was released when it was NOT ready for prime time. A patch was released when the game was, but it didnt solve any of the issues in multiplayer.
I am sure they will fix most of the multiplayer issues, but this game was released LONG before it should have.

Review Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next 

Actions