We get our greedy, land-grabbing hands on an early version of the next Civilization game, and we'll be right with you as soon as we just take one more turn.
The classic Civilization turn-based strategy series has been the pride and joy of Hunt Valley, Maryland-based Firaxis studio for years and is also apparently the pride and joy of the state of Maryland since that state's governor recently declared that the game's upcoming release date of September 21 will officially be "Civilization V day." The frighteningly habit-forming series has challenged armchair dictators for years to play as one of world history's greatest leaders (such as George Washington of America or Catherine II of Russia) and "build an empire to stand the test of time."
This wording sounds really dignified and impressive, but it really boils down to exploring a randomly generated land map, seizing resources, meeting new nations (and either allying with them or crushing them), and researching new technologies that will make your nation more powerful. And that really boils down to spending hour after hour in front of your computer, taking turn after turn to develop your nation's science, economy, military, culture, or borders until the morning sun starts peeking in through your window. We've finally gotten our filthy mitts on the fifth edition of Civ, and we have much to report, though to be honest, we'd rather be taking another turn.
Civ V looks strikingly different from previous games in the series for a number of reasons. While the most obvious (and initially, the most shocking) difference is the way that the game divides up the world map into wargame-style hexes rather than squares, the game's overall visual design is also really striking. While the previous game, Civ IV, was pretty to look at, there were times when it almost looked like it would burst at the seams by displaying so many informational notes and events onscreen at once. In contrast, Civ V looks like a very, very streamlined game that compresses important information and alerts down to a single line of updates in the lower-right corner of the screen and handily prompts you to take action whenever you have an idle unit, completed city production, or completed research advancement to which to attend. Also, the game's clean art deco look--a tip of the hat to 2K Games' BioShock--encompasses all its interfaces and menus and seems to work beautifully with the game's equally clean 3D maps and units, which are far more detailed and colorful than those of Civ IV and are much more visually distinct from each other.
Aside from its cosmetic makeover, Civ V has a whole lot more new stuff to offer under the hood, such as combat, research, diplomacy, exploration, and expansion. For instance, while the basic first steps to building an empire are similar to previous games--root your settler in a good spot (ideally near precious resources and/or a life-sustaining river), build your first city, and send that first warrior or scout unit out to explore--even the early game has been changed in subtle (and not-so-subtle) ways.
As we found, scouting early and often is still crucially important to find ruins (Civ V's version of the goodie hut--a small cache that grants a random bonus of a free unit, technology, or money to whomever grabs it first), although the version we played had a more realistic, but occasionally inconvenient feature when setting units to automatically explore. Auto-exploring units will occasionally bumble right into the borders of an unmet city-state, immediately committing an act of trespassing that puts your at a diplomatic disadvantage with that city-state. Still, recon is now more important than ever, thanks to two brand new map features. For starters, Civ V introduces new natural wonders, such as the Old Faithful geyser or Lake Titicaca, which grant a permanent happiness bonus to the civilization that first discovers them (and also tend to produce more money and production resources than the average land tile).
And more importantly, there are the much talked-about city-states out there, which also take up a certain amount of real estate on the finite-sized map and offer a small gold bonus to the nation that discovers them first. Better still, the nation that forms an alliance by bribing with gold (or eventually takes bounties to clear out nearby barbarian hordes or to annihilate a rival city-state) can benefit from being on good terms with city-states by being granted trade resources, free units, and eventually, votes in the UN for the game's diplomatic victory condition. Oh, and take our word for it--you can also attack city-states, as well as plunder or annex them, which seems like easy money at first because unaffiliated city-states consist of only a single city and whatever defenses that one city has mustered.
However, knocking out a bunch of these municipalities eventually marks you as a city-state destroying despot and puts you out of favor with the world's remaining city-states. It also triggers war with any rival nation that has granted its protection to that city-state, so unless you want to rumble with Chancellor Bismarck, you'll want to steer clear of the city-states under the protection of Germany, for instance.
stupid game, you try hard to build an army and all the necessary, but the army of the opponent even a small country grows like rabbits, they have no tech, no resources but they grow, stupid and without logic, i wonder how old are developers of this idiot game.
It' s obvious that Usa,Great brittain,Spain and greece all belong there. They ve all had major impacts at some point
Europe would be ruled by Germany today if it not for the Brave men and women of the United States,Not once but twice ! WWI and WWII are proof enough you can't have a game like this without the USA.Also we are a superpower still today,all the fat jokes and bankruptcy/ disease mudslinging doesn't change anything but prove how ridiculous you sound yac-off.
@squidbilly22 you are absolutely correct america made the cheeseburger (cause of most of today's disease from fats and cholestrol) and the best in warfare tech(cause of destruction and human suffering) and the videogames and movies (that made ppl even more lazy then before) perfect and all of that wouldnt have been done without the so called thrid countries since they are full of raw materials, potential and people who actually wants to do something well yeah you are right what have america offered to the world in the last 300 years ? now you tell me btw CIV V will rock :)
@Fable_Lord thats why they are the biggest arms sellers to other countries to be controlling the flow of money and the loyalty of other countries ;)
@squidbilly22 , it aint difficult to have a country like america .. just loan a lot of money from other country's.. America has the biggest loan.. if all the country's, banks want their money back, america is bankrupt and really become's a third world.
Bottom line what has your country done in the last 3 hundred years ? America has reshaped global boundaries and provided the most technological improvements not to mention the best movies , Video games,amuzment parks ect... We are the global standard in Entertainment and warfare by far,not to mention we have really hot women and cheeseburgers too.What has your pathetic third world done lately other than ask for money from us ?
When will Sid let us play as the most advanced, powerful and intelligent civilization to ever exist... Australia. I mean come on we progressed society so much with the invention of... ummm....
well, this debate actually reflects that the more the game is realistic the more we like it, I hope Sid will always take this idea into consideration... great game indeed by the way ... the land of all prophets and religions: judaism, chrisitianity and islam, and the land of the first alphabet in the world is Great Syria (Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine), historically known as Assyria.
Come on dudes. It's finished. You really think they are going to add civs now? But Alexander of Macedon was nothing compared to the Khans. Definitely not the greatest war leader in history. No debate to be entered into.
@Kabals If you really think you are good with history, you should know that the United States did more propaganda than fighting compared to the Russians. Btw, look at the map and check if Spain isn't really that important.
for once please put Macedonia. The greatest war leader in the world is Macedonian, not greek; he conquered the greeks... you have Macedonia in the Bible, first christian on the european territory was Macedonian...
America is a must for civ 5 and im not being biased I live in britain but there are civs that are less important than spain
Spain didn't discover the New World. Vikings had settlements in what is now Canada prior to William the Conqueror's invasion of the British Isles in 1066. I also find it highly amusing that non-Americans blast the game developers for including America but not countries like Spain or Bulgaria (on the Civ5 official forums)...they say things like the U.S. hasn't been around long enough...look at what these countries did for human history, blah blah blah. All I know is that if it had not been for the United States (TWICE!), the continent of Europe would be speaking German today.
I've played every Civ and replayed them up to the point of the next one coming out and I can honestly say it is probably in my top 3 games of all time as a franchise. Though I'm tired of a weak political and espionage aspect. I think they need to sack up and deal with the real world issues of today like religion, rogue governments, terrorist groups, dictators and nuclear power, and do a better job of tying it into a global economy. Also create those same scenarios when getting into the futuristic mods like Next War... Real world leaders would be nice too... an option to play as the world stands today with it's technology and issues. Will always play civ, but let's take it to the next level please.
"@Petch1984 Then why the f*** America is in? It's there just to please large consumers market." Short answer yes and probobly because Sid is an American had a play in that. I agree however that Spain most certainly belongs in a game about world history (real or otherwise). It is a game in which we replay history, albeit we create a new one, the big players should all be their and Spain most certainly belongs their if the US was important enough to include. Suffice to say I would imagine any future expansion will most definitly include Spain among other missing Civs. In either case looking forward to this game, their can never be too many Civ's!... Sid how about a science fiction (aka Master of Orion like) Space Civ game? The last good one was Alpha Centuri and that was what like a decade ago!
Just hope that this time around late game on huge maps will be playable without waiting 1 min between every turn for the AI to play.
I hope they didn't not omit religion just to not offend anyone- Mind you, the Civ 4 Islamic conversion tune did have something of a radical tone to it.
Why isn't Spain in Civ V????? Really annoys me. Spain's been hugely influential throughout history not to mention... Oh, let me see...DISCOVERING THE NEW WORLD!! Firaxis will probably be cheap and release it in some kind of colonisation expansion pack. I'm sure it'll get annoying after a while, Queen Elizabeth saying, 'We are pleased to meet you.' in exactly the same tone every time you negotiate with England. Anyway, looking forward to Civ V apart from disappointments.
I hope someone from Firaxis reads this thread. That way, I might get an answer to this question: What was Firaxis thinking when they removed the ability to stack units? Even once that gets answered, Civ V still seems too much like Civ IV to convince me to buy it. I'll just stick with Civ III, at least until Civ VI is released. (eta on Civ VI, 2014)
Ok The Romans gave us sewers and Poland gave us plumbers. I joke, I have nothing against Poland really they've done NOTHING to upset me.
@guys that claim that there was no Polish civilization in history I think Poland done much more than Mali or Songhai (civ5)- none of my friends even know the name and i can bet that there is a small chance for that, that anyone in US knows as a few of Americans know where Poland is. Poland was the biggest country in Europe when cololization begun and Copernicus was polish as well. It doesn't matter anyway- the thing is that thousands of polish fans that are a part of Civ society is waitng for that for ages and as a sign of appreciation they they could add it at least in some add on. But no- they prefer to add another exotic nation instead of listening of voices and hearts of fans. Sick of it. And price is not a subject as it would be the only game i play- it's just a sign of protest and i hope polish fans will join that. Bless ya lucky guys that can play your own civ- enjoy that as i cannot. Mike
at danielkennedy91 actually the Scottish invented most technology's not to mention the fried mars bar ;)
21 of September is my new birthday :) @danielkennedy91 : Civ is about making your own history, not replay this one.. Get another game.
@kasabkata Correct....and also (ironically) because USA helped create capitalism amongst other things. Anyway I'm from Britain and we offered theories and practises on gravity,maths,astronomy, physics,laws of motion,optics and evolution to the world...
@Petch1984 Then why the f*** America is in? It's there just to please large consumers market.
@jccgold CIV games aren't about our history, it's about creating a new world with a different history
It's going to have to be pretty damn special for me to fork out for what seems practically the same game!
@jccgold Technically you could say that portugal was in Civ IV because they added it for BTS ^^
@jccgold Well said, its time that software designers for this kind of games know some history and don't left out one of the most important civilizations in the world... the portuguese.
Well i might ask why Portugal wasnt available in Civ IV when it was in Civ III. Portugal was the biggest country in the world around 1500s, is the older european country with the oldest borders, was the country to connect Asia with Europe with sea routes, colonized many lands from wich countrys appeared like Brazil, so i hope CIV V developers know a little more of history then CIV IV developers
@ Shinkaisin I'm surprised that he isn't, because in this game we all know it doesn't follow history on a dime, so not only was hitler a brilliant leader, but if he was in this game, then this would be the chance to speculate what would happen if he was a good leader and not a psychotic dictator.
@ Obidion You won't buy the game until Poland is represented??? I guess your nation has done nothing to progress civilization on this planet lol.
@Comment1 I hope so ^^. or there is going to be some pretty intense faction switching for some cities.
| Platform | GameSpot | Metacritic / User Score |
|---|---|---|
Users who looked at content for this game also looked at these games.
See More Similar Games
