Civilization V- Might actually be good now. Stay tuned.

[Reg]

I was a vanilla Civ 4 (including the expansions) guy and Civ 5 isn't nearly as good. You can't tell how much worse it is going by the reviews. I'm guessing that's because reviewers didn't play it long enough to notice that it didn't have the "one more turn" addictive quality anymore.

[dusematic]

I was a vanilla Civ 4 (including the expansions) guy and Civ 5 isn't nearly as good. You can't tell how much worse it is going by the reviews. I'm guessing that's because reviewers didn't play it long enough to notice that it didn't have the "one more turn" addictive quality anymore.

Yeah I played a lot of BTS but never got into FFH.  Civ 5 is kind of like the matrix. Unfortunately no one can be told why Civ 5 sucks.  You have to see it for yourself.

[Musashi]

It's just not as deep.  You'll play it a couple times, and it's a fun risk style game to play with your friends not too seriously.  But if you are a fan of 4, this just doesn't cut it.

[Reg]

Another thing - Even if the game was twice as good as Civ 4 I still wouldn't pay 5 bucks for their lame new map and civilization DLC.  If that's the best thing they can come up with to nickel and dime us they should think again.

[Brolan]

Damn, I was hoping they would fix this by patches. But the problems sound like fundamental gameplay elements that can't be changed without altering the whole game.  What a waste.

[rk47]

Well, the concept made sense...hexes and all, no stacking leading to terrible logistics issue ...and atrocious gold economy/unit purchase plus fucked up AI diplomacy = there's not much to redeem this game. Seeing their map DLC while the fans continued to try fixing their game balance with mods is probably the finishing blow to the fifth installment. I'm done with this game. Not gonna boot it up in 2011.

[Stormwaltz]

Catching up with my intertube news, Jon Shafer (Civ 5's lead designer) quit Firaxis before Christmas.

http://flashofsteel.com/index.php/2010/12/21/jon-shafer-leaves-firaxis/

[Sky]

Interesting.

Don't know if I mentioned it elsewhere around here, I deleted Civ V off my pc last week. It's the first time since I had a 486 that the current iteration of the franchise wasn't a permanent fixture on the hdd.

So I guess I could understand leaving. Be interesting to hear the story from the guy at the helm when the franchise got torpedoed.

[dusematic]

Catching up with my intertube news, Jon Shafer (Civ 5's lead designer) quit Firaxis before Christmas.

http://flashofsteel.com/index.php/2010/12/21/jon-shafer-leaves-firaxis/

I broke this news like 2 weeks ago when it happened a couple pages up.  Sweet find though.

[K9]

The title of this thread is misleading

[ghost]

The title of this thread is misleading

Maybe it just made a subtle fade to green text and we all missed it.

[dusematic]

I don't think anyone except for maybe some internal developers saw this coming. 

[Slyfeind]

I'm glad I waited for things to die down before I bought it. Now I can just wait for Civ 6. Or not, and just keep playign Civ 4. 

[Reg]

I suspect they're in for an unpleasant surprise when they release the first Civ 5 expansion.  I don't think news of the crappiness of the base game got out in time to really hurt sales but the expansion is going to be a whole different story.

[naum]

I suspect they're in for an unpleasant surprise when they release the first Civ 5 expansion.  I don't think news of the crappiness of the base game got out in time to really hurt sales but the expansion is going to be a whole different story.

Or are they just going to trickle out expansions as DLC packages?

It seems to be the path they are presently plotting. In previous Civ expansions, new civs and features (along with bug zapping, glitch correcting and improper game balancing) were added/rectified via the expansions. But already, new civs are dribbling out as individual pieces.

[Reg]

New civs were an very minor part of the Civ IV expansion packs. Those expansions included important new gameplay as well.  So far they haven't released anything  game changing as DLC in Civ V have they?

[Musashi]

Newp.

[Ashamanchill]

Mt friends and I tried this title at release but gave it up quick. One of us, however, is a super diehard civ fan, and went back to it a few days ago to see what has changed. He quit two days later in disgust swearing to never by another civ product.

In addition to the very crippling big flaws you all have listed above, small, but entirely fixible things pissed him right off:

1. The fact that the starting video is still not skippable.
2. Production taking waaaaaaaay too long. He was playing a game on quick and thing would take 30+ turns to build.
3. Making the game 'harder' just meant that the comps could control way more cities and keep them happy while he could control way less.
4. When you are in the custom game screen, it doesn't save you r setting, and it resets the victory conditions every time you change a setting. Ex: he would make the victory setting he liked, then add a new civ, the setting would reset. He would forget he wanted barbarians off, settings would reset.
5. The improved computer diplomacy seems to mean that allies backstab at every available chance, and enemies never sit down to negotiate.

It was a shock how bad this game was.

[Der Helm]

1. The fact that the starting video is still not skippable.

I do not even own the game, but isn't that just the loading screen ? The game should be loading in the background while the video plays ?

[dusematic]

Ostensibly, yes.  But that's a shit loading screen by the 5th time you've seen it, even if it doesn't cause the game to load slower than a loading bar.

[Jade Falcon]

1. The fact that the starting video is still not skippable.

I do not even own the game, but isn't that just the loading screen ? The game should be loading in the background while the video plays ?

Yes,and after a few seconds should be able to cut out of the intro movie with escape or left click forget which been awhile since I played.

[Ashamanchill]

The video is technically a loading screen, but it's actually worse than a standard one. At least with a normal loading screen, you fire up the game and walk away for a spell, and when u come back the game is loaded up. This video will keep playing unless you are attentive to it.

If it were only 'a few seconds' before you could click out of it that would be fine, but it's like two to three minutes. Of that same goddamn intro.

It's a small thing that makes the game that much more unplayable.

[Lantyssa]

You can turn it off with an ini tweak.  I did almost immediately.

[Ingmar]

It lets me skip it sooner than 2-3 min, right around the time you get the first close up of the dude's face.

[Teleku]

Also, all you have to do is hit escape or something right as the movie starts, then walk away.  After doing so, as soon as its done loading, it will kill the movie and jump to the main screen.

[Simond]

Actually, all you have to do is play Civ IV instead. 

[tgr]

 

[Thrawn]

Civ V wins PCGamers Strategy Game of the Year award.

In many cases I find I agree with PCGamer's reviews which is why I read it, but Civ V gets a game of the year award, Black Ops gets a game of the year award...  

[Tebonas]

I suspect they didn't play it for long. Because at first it is fun, but the fun vanishes rather quickly.

[ghost]

What was Civ V's competition in that category? 

[Paelos]

What was Civ V's competition in that category? 

Mexican ball in a cup.

[Modern Angel]

Victoria 2, Revolution: Under Siege, the new Grigsby game... War in the East?

[Bunk]

It lets me skip it sooner than 2-3 min, right around the time you get the first close up of the dude's face.

Depends on the PC. I have to wait until Jean Claude Van Damme comes in to the tent to talk to his Dad before I can skip out. Would be fine if I could just hit a key and have it close the movie when its loaded, but that doesn't work. You have to hit a key after it reaches a certain point of loading.

[Sky]

Master of Mana looks pretty nifty.

[Stormwaltz]

Civ V wins PCGamers Strategy Game of the Year award.

My response (posted elsewhere) was that this pretty much confirmed that PC Gamer didn't play any of the other strategy games that came out last year (and there were some excellent ones). Strategy games make or break on how much they make you think. Civ5 may have had polish and accessibility, but at ship it required very little actual strategy to win.