Civilization IV Preview

[Evil Avatar]

Gamespot has posted an "exclusive" preview (http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/civilizationiv/preview_6133927.html) of Firaxis Games upcoming strategy title, Sid Meier's Civilization IV, with enough detail that you can tell the author actually played the game (for a change).

[Redline]

It still looks terrible. But no doubt I'll be buying it... eventually... once it's patched y'know.

[RMan]

Yea, does look kinda bad, but the gameplay improvements sound great. Almost everything they talked about sounded like a welcomed change.

[Evil Avatar]

I was also suprised at how terrible this title looks. You can't spend your entire budget these days on nothing but gameplay improvements. That is fantastic for the hard core Civ fans who will buy anything with the Civilization name on it, but for the rest of us if the graphics are dog ugly I'm not even going to give it a second look.

I'll just play one of the "Civilization Clones" that has better graphics.

[Oversized Landmass]

They may have played the game, but obviously they never played Civ 3.

'It can seem a dizzying array of choices, but thanks to automation, all you have to do is let the artificial intelligence take control of your worker, and it will go about building the best available option on each square, as well as link your cities together by roads. It's such an efficient process, and it improves the pace of the game immensely, since you no longer have to worry about micromanaging all those workers, like you did in previous Civs.'

It's funny that when I press the 'A' button when i've highlighted a worker in civ 3 the exact same thing happens.

[Redline]

They may have played the game, but obviously they never played Civ 3.

'It can seem a dizzying array of choices, but thanks to automation, all you have to do is let the artificial intelligence take control of your worker, and it will go about building the best available option on each square, as well as link your cities together by roads. It's such an efficient process, and it improves the pace of the game immensely, since you no longer have to worry about micromanaging all those workers, like you did in previous Civs.'

It's funny that when I press the 'A' button when i've highlighted a worker in civ 3 the exact same thing happens.

Heh. Yeah, except the AI wasn't ever terribly good at those things anyway.

[DarthCarto]

I was also suprised at how terrible this title looks. You can't spend your entire budget these days on nothing but gameplay improvements. That is fantastic for the hard core Civ fans who will buy anything with the Civilization name on it, but for the rest of us if the graphics are dog ugly I'm not even going to give it a second look.

I'll just play one of the "Civilization Clones" that has better graphics.


PLEASE tell us you're joking! It is a joke, isn't it? Graphics over gameplay? In a Civ game? If not, I weep for the future of gaming. :(

[bKangy]

I'd buy Civ 4 is it was in black and white and used keyboard characters as unit symbols :)

[Acidpoptart]

I'd buy Civ 4 is it was in black and white and used keyboard characters as unit symbols :)

OMG SAME HERE!

Hah no but honostly, I can not wait for this game. These damn previews just make me want it more...

[MrMeatshake]

the views look like civ1 and civ2. can you choose civ 1 or civ 2 mode?

actually, i'd pay £20 for a game that remade civ1 with similar graphics but a more diverse set of options. that game was the fuckin' bollocks.

also, like Landmass said, i don't think they've evere played a Civ game. everyone knows the end game is rubbish compared to the start - so choosing america because of two special units really late on in the game is a stupid idea! you want some english longbowmen up in there! ;)

[ElPresidente]

Shall be recieving the review code for this in about 3 more days. To say I can't wait is something of an understatement. I am dissapointed by some of the comments about the games graphics. For what it is doing it is important it has a functional look. This is about as pretty as it could get without it becoming difficult to see the distinctions between terrain squares, etc.

I certainly hope this can improve upon Civ III (a great game in its own right but a step down for the series IMO) and achieve something equal to or greater than the loft heights set by Civ II.

[joruussuun]

I wish they would do another Alpha Centauri...
:-(

[jbavon]

**Ends many years of lurking to spout out the following information**

Pictures do not do this game justice. You people should look at some video captures. This game has very good graphics (not mindnumbing though), considering you can zoom from world view to city view in one move.

Please, for the haters, check out some video captures.

[RMan]

I'll just play one of the "Civilization Clones" that has better graphics.
Wow, so you have bought into the "graphics are everything" philosophy completely, eh? The vast majority of gamers consider graphics to be just a part of their experience, as games like WOW continuously indicate. I’m starting to think MS brainwashed you, or you’re getting kickbacks from 360 sales or something.

[Nerv]

I think it looks fine, although I'm in the "I'd play it if it was monochrome green and had a max resolution of shit-all" camp.

[Magnanimous Gnome]

I'm still on the fence on this one. Civ 3 is a great game, and I really don't see how much could be added to it, besides fixing some of the laughable combat stats (riflemen killing tanks, etc.)

Ah hell, I know I'll be picking this up when it hits 30 bucks or so.

Where exactly are those Civ clones Evil? I can't think of a SINGLE Civ clone on the entire market.

I'm also in agreement on Alpha Centauri 2. It is long overdue.

[Redline]

Look. There's a difference between saying 'these graphics suck!' and saying "I think the art direction needed... a little more 'direction'". The engine is more than capable, the choice of colour and style is just plain bad in this case.

It's about the style of art, rather than resources and limitation. You could have a different texture with the exact same memory usage (or similar, if they are compressed) that looks considerably better.

[Adewade]

Civ3 has quite a vibrant mod community... I wouldn't be surprised to see a beautification project be completed within a few months.