When I get Civ4, the first thing I'll do is...

[AeonOfTime]

So... let's say you have just installed the game, what is the first thing you will do? I know I am going to start a new game, and check out all the new things, and generally take my time reading and testing everything.

I know we've got a lot of different players and ways of playing the game here, so the poll is certainly not covering them all Just post your plans!

[Maniac]

read the manual

[Solver]

Take a look at the manual while installing. Depending on my patience and manual thickness, read all of it, but I'll at least look over the new concepts - health, religions, unit experience and whatever else is in. Then start a SP game on the fair difficulty, whatever it is, and enjoy it.

[Jaybe]

Ditto Solver's post.

[Ninot]

in all likely hood i'll have 5 chapters to read for class, and probably a date with my girlfriend.

so I probably wont start a game for a day or 2 after i buy it.

[AeonOfTime]

@maniac: read the manual

Damn, forgot about that... Probably because I really only read it while the game installs (like Solver) - after that, it's just playing. The only manual I ever read from start to end was the Sim Life manual, it was a mesmerizing read. It helped me a lot in biology class

[Tassadar500]

Originally posted by Ninot
in all likely hood i'll have 5 chapters to read for class, and probably a date with my girlfriend.

so I probably wont start a game for a day or 2 after i buy it.

[Aro]

"Start a game and take my time to try out all the new stuff" or "Come here to apolyton and tell everybody that you have it"?

Tough decision...

Come here first, post, and THEN start a game.

[yin26]

First, I don't plan to announce I have the game for some time. I want to put together a serious review for the people waiting to buy the game and/or waiting for the game to be released in their part of the world.

So to do a good review, I'll first read the manual very carefully. I don't want to be for or against something in my review if I misunderstand how it actually works. Obviously a good manual will help this process.

Next step will be to get the Windex glass cleaner and get my 22" monitor looking absolutely flawless.

I'll then adjust any lighting in the room to avoid any glare on the screen.

I'll start my typical crazy testing setup: Super small map, lots of resources, mostly land, and as many civs as possible (all aggressive so as to not get any resource feeder civ on my side). The goal here is to get to as many of the game elements as possible in the shortest amount of time possible. I want to bang out a string of games within a few days.

Throughout the process, I'll have a Word document in the background, to which I'll drop to keep notes, screenshots, etc.

Hopefully having found some of the game's best and worst elements, I'll expand the map size to see if that changes much. If there are no show stoppers, this is when I'll finally start simply to play the game for pleasure and can begin to think about a proper review based on solid experience.

[Robert]

Yin, why don't you first play the game just to enjoy it?
Don't you think anyway that it's impossible to write a good review within 2 or 4 weeks after it's release, after you've played it a few times?

I'll most probably take a bath and read the manual in bad, then after that bath I'll play the game just to explore it.

[Kinjiru]

Step 1: Install
Step 2: Play 3 games
Step 3: Uninstall
Step 4: Fire up SMAC and enjoy the peak of Firaxian gaming goodness...

[yin26]

Cyber: That *is* how I enjoy a game when I first play it! I'm looking for reasons to commit/not commit to the game long-term, so that's my usual approach. If there's something in there I don't like (I mean something serious), then I'll pause from the game for a while, watch the forum discussions and patch announcements. I won't pick up again unless the issue is fixed. Yes, this means that very few games keep me actively involved for more than a few weeks. Yes, maybe that's my tough luck.

I should say, though, that Gigantic Map, Land, Bountiful Resources, Tons of (aggressive) Civs is where I'd ultimately want to game to function at its best. Just not sure I could wait *that* long before doing a review...

Anyway, to recap: I'd read the manual and clean my monitor screen and asjust lighting to give my eyes the best chance of surviving very late-nighters.

[Solver]

You know Yin, if you try a small map with 8 aggressive civs, you can hardly expect the game to work the way its supposed to. No one will have room for more than 2 cities, and you will have to war constantly so you won't get to experience any of the peaceful aspects.

My idea is the opposite - play one game on standard settings, wait a while before going to war, and see how it unfolds.

[yin26]

Solver: What I'm testing there specifically is AI aggressiveness and diplomacy. Abundant resources and land map helps this. And, frankly, if the war aspect of the game is flawed, then I'll be quite worried (I don't want Civ to be all about war, but the war aspect needs to be handled well). More generally just to finish a few games as a tutorial. Only if I find something really broken here will I walk away with a conclusion about much. From there, larger maps to get more nuance, test peace-time strategy, etc.

[Modo44]

Originally posted by Maniac
read the manual

While playing my first game.