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Civilization IV Review (continued)
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Manufacturer: Aspyr Media
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ESRB Rating: Everyone 10+
Platform(s): Mac OS X
Release Date: June 30, 2006
Average Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
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Retail Price: $49.99
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More User Submitted Civilization IV Reviews
Date: 2006-12-27
Not tryin to diss the game
But, yo, this game has INSANE reqs for Mac. My system won't even play it and the only discrepency is that I have a 1.5GHz proccessor. I wasted my money until I spend another few grand on a new Mac.
Date: 2006-11-30
Review for the Military Members Apple User Group
People familiar with turn-based games have probably heard of Sid Meir's Civilization series. These games have been popular since their inception. Having played the first and third versions of the game, the great thing about this fourth installment of the game is that the main premise has not changed. Of course the bad thing about this fourth installment is that the main premise had not changed. As you can see, having made a fourth generation of the same game is a double edged sword.
Installing the game - and installing games on a Mac in general for that matter - is not much trouble. It only took a few minutes and with registration done, I was ready to go. Now, I have played other Civ games before, but I thought it would be to my advantage to go through the tutorial. This is the first oddity I found. Upon selecting the Tutorial, the game had to restart itself completely, which I found it a bit odd. Through the tutorial, Sid Meir (a rendition of him) walks you through the basics of the game, though it seemed choppy and was not all inclusive. So even being familiar with the previous games, there was a bit of a learning curve.
The game play itself is much like the previous generations of the game. Each nation has their turn to build, place units and move their nations to greatness (at least that is what is hoped). The face of the game - graphics, icons and such - has improved greatly and having Leonard Nimoy as the narrator is a very nice touch.
I have found the greatest enjoyment of the game is at the start, when your nation is in its infancy, struggling to survive and progress, knowing you are in a race because one day you will meet someone who will want to rid the world of your culture. As your country grows, keeping tabs of your cities does become some of a hassle, but your advisors give you advice on what to build, taking the thinking out of it.
Sometimes I can't get enough of the game, but there are some issues that bother me. For one, it did freeze a few times (albeit after several hours straight of playing) and some graphic glitches showed up every once in a while. Unit combat is also irqusome. I like how you can give your unit upgrades, but the combat system seemed too simplistic for me. For example, if you have a stack of units, they cannot attack all at once. Second, old units (longbowmen for example) sometimes beat rifle units. Third, why can't a naval unit (battleship, cruiser, etc.) fire against land units? Issues of this nature make combat for me, too simple and unrealistic. Civ can be frustrating if you prefer the tactical deatail in games like Hearts of Iron.
Even with these annoyances, the game is very enjoyable. There were times I could not put the game down, yet I would feel a lack of satisfaction when I finished. Even though it is almost identical to previous versions in game play, the graphics and short list of added features make it a game I'll continue to play for a long time.
In the end, Civ IV is a solid game for anyone who enjoys its brand of grand strategy. If you already have Civ III it's not worth the upgrade, but if you're looking for a first grand strategy game for OS X, Civilization IV is a good buy.
Date: 2006-11-28
Wow- spectacular game
It's a pretty significant step up from the older Civ's and it took some time to get used to all the intricacies, but I'm hooked. The graphics and animation are light years beyond III and the new concepts like religion are fantastic additions! I don't want to get too hooked, but I may have already!
Date: 2006-11-04
AWESOME!!!!!
This game is truly amazing. I played it on my PC and when I got a mac, I just had to get the mac version, I missed it so much.
Date: 2006-11-04
Much Better than the reviews
Been a Civ fan since the original.. Best civ yet. I've been playing for 3 months straight now. Almost didn't get the game based on the reviews of it being slow.
Not a problem!
I have one of the new Intel Dual Core IMacs with the standard RAM and the game runs smooth all the way to the end. I downloaded the patch before starting the game and have very few problems. If I play for a long time (as we all do as civ addicts), the map (lower left) starts to degrade. Easily solved by closing and reopening.. Not an issue for me after playing 6 hours straight...
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