First Impressions (screenshots, etc.)

[Grumbold]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph
I mean, I lost perfectly healthy, experienced men, armed with big clubs to some blown up pussycats?!??

Clearly a mistake. The lions should have been glutted after eating a dozen men and allowed the rest of the warband to escape

[Fidel]

LOL@sir ralph

anyway, i gotta say that yin liked civ3 back then (if i recall his early review) after playing one or two campaigns. let him breathe, he is in a loose-loose situation.

[yin26]

Yes, I have learned my lesson about saying too much too early.

[Ninot]

Originally posted by yin26
Yes, I have learned my lesson about saying too much too early.

This also means that Yin hasn't found a cardboard recipee he wishes to try yet.

[Verenti]

OKay, The first thing that worried me about Civ4, Alva saying "Give it a chance, It will grow on you" (Paraphrasing, To lazy to quote)

I remember the Devs and Betas saying EXACTLY the same thing about Moo3. Then again, I said exactly the same thing about plenty of complex strategy games, Soooo....

[Solver]

Alva said it, I think, about the interface. What do you want, it's a new game, there are some things that you need some time to get adjusted to.

[Mao_Tse_Tongue]

I've got the game and played for 4 hours last night.

Civ fans will not be disapointed. They have introduced so many new systems with this game that it feels like a completely new experience.

The music is great... not overwhelming but adds a nice flavor to the different areas of the game. Sounds are terrific.

The graphics really do work. I was big time concerned about the switch to 3d using the Pirates engine (mostly because that game disapointed me and I didn't like the "look" of it). The ability to zoom seamlessly from a global view to a city or unit close-up really makes the world feel real and alive. The little sheep walking around and the "squish squish" noise that your units make when walking near a river... all that stuff adds up and you get sucked right in.

Religion is a great new system that I'm still futzing around with... 4 hours didn't even scratch the surface. I can envision whole strategies built around missionary spamming and religion rushes... it is very cool that they managed to introduce the concept in such a nice way.

The wonder movies are cool (build Oracle and Stonehenge last night).

The game pace is interesting. The first 15 or so turns seem to go at a Civ 3 pace. Lots of exploring and waiting for cities to grow and units to pop. Then all of a sudden everything picks up speed and before you know it you are up to Fudalism and in the middle ages.

I could go on and on, but I've got real work to do

I've played every Civ for way too many hours, and I'm really happy with this new version. Civ 3 was a disappointment to me (didn't really play much until C3C came out), so I was a bit skeptical heading into this purchase.

So far, so good.

[Stuie]

Originally posted by Mao_Tse_Tongue
Civ 3 was a disappointment to me (didn't really play much until C3C came out), so I was a bit skeptical heading into this purchase.

Yeah - Civ3 wasn't worth playing until the 1.17 patch or so, and even then it didn't really grab me. But when I first bought it, I played maybe two games and then put it away. It was... dull.

Civ4 appears to be way better - I'm only half way through my first game and I already have a mental list of things I want to try "next time".... and the time after that. So it looks like it will continue to entertain right out of the box...

[yin26]

Originally posted by Ninot


This also means that Yin hasn't found a cardboard recipee he wishes to try yet.

You know, funny thing. It was a bizarre moment: I opened the packaging on the Special Edition and said: "Hey, this outside slip cover isn't very thick at all, and there is not a lot of dark ink. Hmmm, I might survive this!"

Is that not strange?

[Ninot]

Originally posted by yin26


You know, funny thing. It was a bizarre moment: I opened the packaging on the Special Edition and said: "Hey, this outside slip cover isn't very thick at all, and there is not a lot of dark ink. Hmmm, I might survive this!"

Is that not strange?

The civ gods are smiling upon us all

.....

EXCEPT THE DAMN EBGAMES IN MONTREAL WHERE THEY DONT HAVE COPIES YET

[abenamer]

Full health tank?

Yes. Full health. There's nothing like watching a pikeman stick his pipe into the tank's turret and seeing the turret explode.

I'm glad you can fix the UI somewhat but it's annoying to me that when I click on the city I end up clicking on the units IN the city. Worse, when I see the list of units in the city popup on the left I assume I should be able to click on it but the list disappears because it only works on a mouseover event on the city. There should be a way to make that popup sticky so that I can click on a unit's description name instead of the icons that appear when the stack is selected. To me, the UI is just plain inconsistent -- you can't give people mouseover events but then deny them the ability to click inside the popup that shows. They incorporated an RTS interface and only half-incorporated a pseudo-Web browser interface.

[alva]

Have you tried the CIv3 UI? You can set it in the options menu, it sounds like that's more or less what you're lookng for.

I never had problems getting into a city, so I can't really tell what's going on. Have you tried looking for the "sweet" spot? (double-clicking on the flag takes you inside your capital btw, then you can go to the next city using the arrows (top-ish of the screen) or using IIRC left and right arrow keys.)

[Fidel]

Originally posted by Stuie
I'm only half way through my first game and I already have a mental list of things I want to try "next time".... and the time after that.

[Imran Siddiqui]

[q=abenamer]Yes. Full health. There's nothing like watching a pikeman stick his pipe into the tank's turret and seeing the turret explode. [/q]

Didn't that happen in the last Indiana Jones movie, but with a rock?

[Addled Platypus]

Originally posted by Nikolai
Yin liking Civ4 is a great sign.

I had to read his review first,

agreed a good thing