Gamespot Civ4 review: 9.4/10

[Guynemer]

christ, I can't wait any longer.

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/civilizationiv/review.html

[vee4473]

Quote: "As it turns out, different technologies aren't tied to specific epochs anymore, so you're free to pursue some technologies in advance of others. In fact, fans of the Civilization series' focus on world history may be somewhat disappointed that Civ IV no longer emphasizes the different eras, or dresses up its world leaders in different clothing as time goes by.

wonder why they did that.

[JonahFalcon]

Originally posted by vee4473
Quote: "As it turns out, different technologies aren't tied to specific epochs anymore, so you're free to pursue some technologies in advance of others. In fact, fans of the Civilization series' focus on world history may be somewhat disappointed that Civ IV no longer emphasizes the different eras, or dresses up its world leaders in different clothing as time goes by.

wonder why they did that.

Unnecessary work on bells and whistles.

[Locutus]

Because you can only pile so much work on the poor artists' desks Top item on the list of Civ5 feature requests: bigger desks

[nahmed]

But is the speed really too fast? How does it feel in the normal settings? Technologies rush?

[Martinus]

Yeah, I don't mind that they axed the dressing of leaders in different clothes. It looked both kinda goofy for some leaders, and meant a fan-made leaderhead would require four times as much work.

[Solver]

Very nice score - 10 for Gameplay, that's exceedingly rare from Gamespot. "Value" should have been 10 - with the modding capabilities this time around, Civ4 has even more replay value than previous Civ games, and then Civ games are some of the most replayable.

I think cutting era-specific leaderheads is one of the best atmospheric changes for Civ4. Civ3 lacked many atmospheric elements, and some of the ridicilous leaderheads, like modern Jeanne D'Arc or Alexander, or Ancient Lincoln and Mao really made the atmosphere worse.

[Tiberius]

Also on Gamespot, the average user review is 9.7 !! With all the installation problems people seem to encounter this is pretty amazing. The game must be awesome.

Damn it, I can't wait!

[Solver]

In a truly unusual way, this review doesn't have many wrong/stupid things. OK, the tech rate in Civ4 is actually much slower than Civ3, due to the absence of tech whoring, and difficulty is most certainly not "medium" - yet another reviewer playing at the lowest levels, but other than that, we have a pretty good review.

[Grumbold]

Difficulty "medium" probably makes it a lot more approachable for civ virgins, and Firaxis definitely want new customers to buy their product. He does mention in the review that the highest settings are there to challenge the experts.

[SSBLoveU]

I too have enjoyed the reviews. However, Amazon has not shipped my copy to me yet.

[lockstep]

Both IGN and Gamespot 94% ... that doesn't only mean that the game is great, but that it will be bought by many newcomers to turn-based games and the civ franchise. Which is great!

[Locutus]

Originally posted by Solver
In a truly unusual way, this review doesn't have many wrong/stupid things. OK, the tech rate in Civ4 is actually much slower than Civ3, due to the absence of tech whoring, and difficulty is most certainly not "medium" - yet another reviewer playing at the lowest levels, but other than that, we have a pretty good review.

Uhm, did you read it? There's a couple of insanely stupid claims in there, e.g. that there's no industrious trait in Civ4 anymore and that expansive is a new trait (and that every civ game has had traits like this), that religion isn't a very important factor in the game, that all cities generate culture by default, that there is such a thing as a military Great Leader and that GP aren't very powerful and are in fact fragile, that the music loops endlessly (yes, it loops, but with 7+ hours worth of it it'll be a while before you hear the same track twice!), that the modding tools aren't as powerful as originally planned and/because the release date was moved up a month. There's probably other stuff I missed.