(October 7, 1999) Scouring the Net has resulted in the discovery of some less-than-publicized reviews of Test of Time, but worth a look nonetheless.

Over the next several days we'll be bringing you a quick run-down on what we've gathered. Let's get started:

• Hyper@ctive (8/10): "Among these changes" [to the graphics] "is the addition of animation to the units, which gives them the ability to fight, move and die more realistically. This said, press releases put out before the release of the game indicated that animations would be incorporated into almost every aspect of the game (resources, city, ocean, etc.), however it seems that a rush to get the game out meant that they had to cut back in some areas.

  So you want to know if it's worth buying?... if some new animations, some new cut-scenes and a few other new game improvements are worth the cost to you, then go for it - otherwise you would probably be just as happy with one of the bundled copies of CivII".

• Intelligamer (3.5/5): "The gamer is now a native Windows 95 application which has a tweaked user interface that is a bit easier to use than the original. In addition, you get extended play in the form of multi-map games.

  But really the core of the game is essentially the same. Sure, different races have different units in the Fantasy game, by far the most interesting of the variants, and the science fiction game is sort of like Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri in scope, but ultimately the game feels more like a set of user created "mods" than anything else... I think the game also has some "leaks," read bugs, in memory management.

  The bottom line for Civilization II fans is this: if you must have every Civilization II product ever sold, by all means buy this one, but wait until the price falls. For anyone who has, for whatever reason, missed out on one of the best games ever, buy the original and skip this one unless you simply have to try multiplayer".

• Escape Magazine (7/10): "The final result, unfortunately, is a mishmash that makes Civ fans want to pop in the game that started it all.

  The graphics have been given an overhaul, but are darker and blurrier now. Granted, the original graphics don’t hold up, especially in the face of Alpha Centauri, but these prevent those hours-long gaming sessions we fondly remember. They’re simply too vague to stare at for very long without massive eye strain... The fantasy and sci-fi scenarios are interesting, but never really compelling.

  Luckily, there’s lots of talk about this being a stopgap until Civilization 3. While that may sound bad, it means there’s a Civ 3 on the horizon, presumably with Meier’s participation again. That can make this one’s failings a bit more bearable".

KICKING THE TIRES
(September 24, 1999) More gaming sites on the Web are starting to come out of the woodwork with their official stances on Civilization II: Test of Time, now nearing its two month birthday of being available within the public domain.
Here is another review that has recently come to light (excerpts only):

• From GamePlayer (Overall Score: 7.5/10): "Well, what's new? Essentially, you have "microscoped time periods" for CivII. Everything looks really frickin' weird. On the plus side, some of the new tech is fairly cool...like Applied Hedonics. (Look up hedonism, and you figure out why it leads to the Holographic Arcade.)

  I had hoped that there would be a now city overview, like they had in the original CivII, some sort of 3D rendering of what the city and all it's advancements looked like. No dice. Maybe some new Wonder movies? Wrong. Just new tiles, and new piece art. All in all I wasn't very impressed with the new piece art either.

  One of the biggest disappointments for me was the fact that I can't tell what all the new Wonders do. You figure it'll pop up after the Wonder movie begins, except for the fact that there aren't any. At the very least there should be a pop up box that tells you what it does.

  On the plus side, combat isn't weighed down by the clunky Acitivision [the C:CTP] interface. It takes place swiftly, either in just "simplified' combat, or with nifty dying animations with the health bar and firepower statistics. The units are also bigger and easier to see in CivII: ToT.

  You still get that invigorating feeeling that every Civ game prior has given you, but yet, you don't really get anything more, and it's missing a few things. If there was some more time spent on the glitz and glamour parts of the game, then ToT might actually be cooler than it's ancestor. But it isn't. You're constantly reminded that it's sort of a knock off. It's like giving a Pepsi drinker RC Cola...he's going to know the difference, but it'll get the job done". -- Reviewer: Dr. Smooth

Thanks to SidGames for the news.

FIRST ToT PATCH IS HERE
(September 23, 1999) It has arrived. Less than two months after it was released, the first patch for Civilization II: Test of Time is now available to the public. Documentation is included.

To download, click here (3.4MB); the file is self-extracting so you needn't worry about having to install WinZip or any other compression utility on your PC if you have not already done so. If you're worried about having your download interrupted by being disconnected from your ISP without warning, try GoZilla! which enables you to resume d'loads from most HTTP (Web) sites.

A WRONG TURN?
(September 17, 1999) Games Domain, a little late from everyone else (taking time to do a better review?), posted a review of Civ2: ToT. The author covers both the good and the bad of the game, but ends with a negative feeling: "the whole package feels a little like a fancy Gold edition of Civ 2: Fantastic Worlds without the editor"...
Let's see the Pros and the Cons according to David Finn
"Pros: Multimap feature, Updated graphics, New worlds to explore, Multiplayer, Great music
Cons: Navigating the multimaps, Many of the fun Civilization 2 frills have been dropped in this update, Unbelievable system hog, Some old problems, like pathfinding, still plague this title, Despite interesting tweaks and additions, very little new here"
Other than that, in the footnotes we see: "Appeal: Civilization 2 fans". Ok, then we shouldn't have any problems :)

REGAINING SOME GROUND
(September 7, 1999) A certain Civilization title is back in the Top Ten listing for PC Games for the week of August 15-21, according to data collected and released by PCData today.

With a listed price of $28US, Civilization II: Test of Time took the #9 spot for the aforementioned period, just ahead of Microsoft Flight Simulator, and hot on the heels of Cabela's Big Game Hunter 2. This just goes to show that even with stiff competition from a newer and greater variety of games than was to be had even a year ago, let alone three, there is still a steady demand for a quick fix of CivII.