Sid Meier's Civilization IV Demo

[RainOfTerror]

Sid Meier's Civilization IV expands on the beloved gameplay of its predecessors with countless new gameplay changes and improvements, including religion, great people and for the first time in the Civilization series, a full 3D engine.

2K Games has released a demo for Firaxis' turn based strategy game Civ IV allowing you to try out a tutorial and a 100 turn demo level.

You can grab the Sid Meier's Civilization IV demo (http://www.worthplaying.com/article.php?sid=30093) over at WorthPlaying.

Mirrors:
Gamedemos (http://www.gamedemos.de/index.php?show=demos&action=details&did=650)
Gamershell (http://www.gamershell.com/download_11624.shtml)

[LilEvilFish]

I've never actually played one of the Civ games, criminal, I know, so I might have to give this a try

[Wadmaasi]

I've only played the original. I bought Civ4 for my wife to give to me for Xmas (sort of a convoluted route), so I'm reading the manual but I've been a good boy and haven't installed it yet.

[Oblivion]

STAY AWAY FROM IT! IF YOU LIKE BEING A HUMAN, FOR GODS SAKE RUN AWAY!

it is addictive to say the least.

[Nesta]

But is the patch out yet? I love this game but it has some serious memory leaks. Since I'm a cheapass and only have 512 of RAM, I find I can't play it more than an hour without t slowing down severely.

[HumpYourWay]

Does this game support 16:9 or 16:10?

[Captain M4d]

I didn't know I was going to be able to try it out before I got the game. It's on my Christmas wish list. Hopefully it'll keep me busy and teach me some new things.

[camberiu]

They never needed a demo before....I wonder if maybe it is not selling as well as it should. If that is the case, it is a shame, because it is a great game.

[Inverarity]

I wish I could recommend this game, but it's far too unstable to play in my experience - glitchy and crash-prone in the extreme. I've yet to complete a game without a series of major crashes, some of which required rebooting. Until it's patched, you're taking your chances with this one.

It's a shame, because I really like the updates and the rule modifications...

[Frogleg Special]

They never needed a demo before....I wonder if maybe it is not selling as well as it should. If that is the case, it is a shame, because it is a great game.

It's number #1 on last week (or was it the week before) in the PC game list and may continue to this week. Hardly a failure.

[BleedTheFreak]

It's number #1 on last week (or was it the week before) in the PC game list and may continue to this week. Hardly a failure.

If I had to guess, this is why the demo is a month off from the release, because they ARE doing well enough they didn't need it, but now that reviews are abounding (and wildly positive), it's time to flood the demo out for the "on the fence" masses, which will likely result in a short spike in sales, which is good for everyone (fans get to see an expansion since sales were high, developers make more money so they are encouraged to produce more quality products, and publishers can see that turn based, intelligent strategy titles are more than just a niche market).

[Citizen Philip]

I have a few problems with with video stuttering and artifacting, but the game is great! The strategic thinking occurs on turn 1, when you have decide your research and development path. Well thought-out checks and balances to warfare, economic growth, peaceful development and strategic resources.

Very good!

[Ventura_DK]

And the Boomtown mirror (http://download.boomtown.net/en_uk/articles/art.view.php?id=9896) :)

[omnithrope]

Ooh.
I've been waiting for a demo...

[Sinistar]

#1 on the PC charts does not equal huge sales. Most likely the die-hards bought it out of the gate as should be expected. A game like Civ does have legs and should be a top seller for this year. But it will still sell well under a million units. I would bet it will have a difficult time hitting 250k like most PC games.

[Adewade]

I think the UK PC Gamer had exclusivity for the demo, hence the wait.

But that's just a guess.

[TRiLoGY]

I bought Civ 4 at launch and i love it!! its really addictive!!

Though my system totally crashes (requires a reboot) every 3hrs or so while playing..

[BleedTheFreak]

I bought Civ 4 at launch and i love it!! its really addictive!!

Though my system totally crashes (requires a reboot) every 3hrs or so while playing..

The new patch 1.08 (which was available briefly) should fix that. The patch seems to have been yanked for whatever reason, but here is the readme file posted by some folks who installed it before it was yanked. Lots of great additions and some great fixes as well:

v108

The installer splits up the Art PAK file into multiple 100MB PAKs. Please be patient as this will take some time.

Changes:
- increased cost of Apollo Program...
- increased SS parts cost...
- Animal Husbandry reveals Horses
- tweaked Rifling, Chemistry, Steel, and Railroad tech costs...
- increased late-game tech costs...
- can now add two specialists in size 1 city with Mercantilism...
- final score is now modified by difficulty level...
- Speed up load times
- Global performance enhancements

Added:
- Include WB map size in the description field
- Save login name
- Added password encryption
- Added regenerate Map Button to World builder Map Mode...
- checkbox for using low resolution textures
- more logging for init failure
- minspec / video memory checking
- Added ability to change to and from fullscreen while in-game
- holding shift during startup will clean out the cache
- improved bink playback, added ini options

Fixes:
- ATI issue Failed to Init Renderer Fixed
- Multiplayer Lobby list jump problem and lobby crash fixed
- fixed war weariness calculation bug...
- units maintain their name when upgraded
- fixed Gold-for-Gold diplo exploit...
- fixed no research choice overflow exploit...
- Fix for voice initialization crash
- Fix addressing takeover AI and retirement OOS.
- Fixed issue with diplomacy text being always used in its first form in the translator.
- Popups, screens, and diplomacy properly cleared when exiting from main menu.
- Games protected by admin passwords (only) cannot be loaded if the version is different from the one that created the save
- Fixed bug where player could not offer any deal to other human in PBEM/Hotseat
- Sorting by date on domestic advisor now works.
- fixed bug where settlers could not move if the strategy layer was selected
- fixed Ironworks...
- fixed AI units not obeying open borders rules on declaration of war...
- fixed bug that prevent placing of units in world-builder
- fixed bug that prevented gifting of units to a human player
- stack attack infinite loop fixed
- Civic screen update fix (wasn’t showing the right maintenance and anarchy values)
- ctrl-g crash fix, optimized city bar art
- fixed right-click menu crash
- Intro movie crashing problems

[Taco]

I think you are exaggerating the woes of PC gaming Sinistar. Not a chance in the world CivIV does not break 1 million. CivIV has the same appeal as the Sims when it comes to appealing to the masses. Civ3 got near or surpassed the 2 million mark.

And i think 500-600k is more accurate than 250.

[TRiLoGY]

The new patch 1.08 (which was available briefly) should fix that. The patch seems to have been yanked for whatever reason, but here is the readme file posted by some folks who installed it before it was yanked. Lots of great additions and some great fixes as well:

v108

The installer splits up the Art PAK file into multiple 100MB PAKs. Please be patient as this will take some time.

Changes:
- increased cost of Apollo Program...
- increased SS parts cost...
- Animal Husbandry reveals Horses
- tweaked Rifling, Chemistry, Steel, and Railroad tech costs...
- increased late-game tech costs...
- can now add two specialists in size 1 city with Mercantilism...
- final score is now modified by difficulty level...
- Speed up load times
- Global performance enhancements

Added:
- Include WB map size in the description field
- Save login name
- Added password encryption
- Added regenerate Map Button to World builder Map Mode...
- checkbox for using low resolution textures
- more logging for init failure
- minspec / video memory checking
- Added ability to change to and from fullscreen while in-game
- holding shift during startup will clean out the cache
- improved bink playback, added ini options

Fixes:
- ATI issue Failed to Init Renderer Fixed
- Multiplayer Lobby list jump problem and lobby crash fixed
- fixed war weariness calculation bug...
- units maintain their name when upgraded
- fixed Gold-for-Gold diplo exploit...
- fixed no research choice overflow exploit...
- Fix for voice initialization crash
- Fix addressing takeover AI and retirement OOS.
- Fixed issue with diplomacy text being always used in its first form in the translator.
- Popups, screens, and diplomacy properly cleared when exiting from main menu.
- Games protected by admin passwords (only) cannot be loaded if the version is different from the one that created the save
- Fixed bug where player could not offer any deal to other human in PBEM/Hotseat
- Sorting by date on domestic advisor now works.
- fixed bug where settlers could not move if the strategy layer was selected
- fixed Ironworks...
- fixed AI units not obeying open borders rules on declaration of war...
- fixed bug that prevent placing of units in world-builder
- fixed bug that prevented gifting of units to a human player
- stack attack infinite loop fixed
- Civic screen update fix (wasn’t showing the right maintenance and anarchy values)
- ctrl-g crash fix, optimized city bar art
- fixed right-click menu crash
- Intro movie crashing problems

Thanks for the info BleedTheFreak :)

[Taco]

"increased late-game tech costs... "

Good, that was my main complaint.

[PIPBoy3000]

A demo takes quite a bit of time to plan and put together. Odds are, the sales numbers have nothing at all to do with them releasing it or not. My guess is that decision was made many months ago.

[Acidpoptart]

WHERE IS THAT PATCH! Grrrr...
Youd imagine the priority would be fixing the game... not releasing a demo for a buggy game...

[BleedTheFreak]

Thanks for the info BleedTheFreak :)

Not a problem at all.

Also, just noticed this at Apolyton:

[W]ord from firaxis is that the next version of the patch will be out very soon, so better to hold off

[Nerv]

There are a few bugs, but very little that is life threatening.
Civ4 is, well, they took Civ3 and made it almost perfect.
There are a few niggles, but I've been playing Civ since I got Civnet in 1996, and Civ4 is deffinitly the best (yes, better than Alpha Centauri)

[omnithrope]

Ok, the demo is a ton of fun.
I may have to pick this up.

Side note: I believe you can buy this via direct2drive, so you don't have to make the trip to the store. Can someone tell me if the manual is worth the trip?

http://www.direct2drive.com/309/product/Buy-Civilization-4-Download

[Nerv]

It's a Civilization game, the manual is almost thicker than the dvd case the game came in.

[omnithrope]

It's a Civilization game, the manual is almost bigger than the dvd case the game came in.

I figured.
I just wanted to be lazy. ;)

Guess I trudge down to the store.

*thanks*

[Nerv]

Hell, I ordered mine online :D

[Nakor]

Does this game support 16:9 or 16:10?

Works fine at 1680x1050 on my system. Not sure what other resolutions it supports.

[Blazyr]

If you haven't grabbed it yet we have a mirror up now as well for you:
Civ IV downloads page on 1UP.com (http://www.1up.com/do/download?cId=3137971)

Cheers,
Garnett

[gojira]

I don't meet the minimum requirements for Civ 4. I guess my rig officially sucks now...

[ElPresidente]

When I reviewed it for PC Powerplay it was given the magazine's second ever 10 out of 10 and not once have I doubted or regretted my position.

If you haven't played a Civ game get off your arses and do so damnit!

[Taco]

I take points off for a WAY too fast end game, if this patch fixes it I consider it perfection.