You may now Pre-Load your CIV 5 Steam Install!

[ScrotusMaximus]

Just thought you might like to know that as of yesterday AFAIK you can officially preload your copy of CIV 5 on Steam.

Will it be playable at midnight, I wonder?

[wodan11]

Sorry, wodan! And thanks, wodan!

no worries!

[wodan11]

Will it be playable at midnight, I wonder?

Apparently not.

[Stuie]

Apparently not.

For the linkophobes, here are the unlock times listed in the linked thread on the 2k forums:

North America:
September 21 @ 10am EDT (New York, Toronto, Fake Virginia, Miami)
September 21 @ 9am CDT (Chicago)
September 21 @ 8am MDT (Denver)
September 21 @ 7am PDT (California, Washington)
September 21 @ 11am PDT (Nova Scotia)
South America:
UK/Europe: September 24 @
Australia/New Zealand: September 24 @
Asia/Africa: September 24 @

[OneFootInTheGrave]

Don't I hate this BS

"Sid Meier’s Civilization V is Country restricted on your IP. "

Well I hope that buying regular games via "irregular" means is not against forum rules, but I have option A: buy from Amazon UK, and wait a few more days until it arrives, or option B: call a friend in UK, get him to buy it for me, and than download from Steam.

Luckily with Steam so far it only seems to prevent you from buying stuff, but once you do, it does not block you from downloading what you already bought based on your IP.

Corporate bureaucratic c**p

[Asher]

September 21 @ 11am PDT (Nova Scotia)

What the hell?

[Aro]

This is what I see on steam:
Available: 23 September 2010
This game will unlock in approximately 1 week, and 9 hours
I've preloaded the game, my credit card was charged and I'm sitting here, waiting.

[MxM]

When you pre-load the game, does that store the xml files on your hard disk already?

The whole game structure is there on hardrive and there are files named *.xml in ...Steam\steamapps\common\sid meier's civilization v\Assets\Gameplay\XML

However all the files are encoded, i.e. if you use notepad to open them you get garbage - I have checked couple of them.

[Dinner]

Thanks a lot. Loading now!
But I have a doubt...
The game is ready, isn't? What am I downloading now? If this is true...

WHY are they doing this to us?

They're probably working on a zero day patch right now while this the final ship version.

[Dinner]

A little side note because I saw the question somewhere earlier and I don't remember where...
Direct2Drive is now giving out the Steam codes to preload Civ5. If you ordered from D2D and want to preload, check your account page.

I think it came from this thread: http://forums.2kgames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=86617

People are saying it is cheaper on D2D plus they throw in the Babylonian civ for free and the first DLC (what ever that is) which you have to pay extra to get on Steam. To boot some folks are claiming D2D has coupon codes which give you an additional $10 off the game.

[Robert]

I still have not decided where to get the game.
Bottom line is that I want a boxed copy of the game, to place on the shelf next to all the other civ-boxes!
But the D2D offer seems to be really good.

[wodan11]

No offense, RP, but I don't get the collectibility aspect of the box. It's packaging. To each his own, I guess.

[campm@jor]

Same for me here. Though I still have the tin cookie box from civ III limited edition!

[Boris Godunov]

The game has likely been "complete" for nearly 1 month, during the live gameplay the first part was explicitly stated as being a "press build" as in, the final release, sent to the presses.

"Press build" does not mean what you think it means. It's a build of the game sent to gaming media outlets (the "press") so they can write all those hands-on previews we see. During the live game play, the 2K rep noted that it was not exactly the final version, citing the city wall graphics as an example of something that was changed for the final release.

[Melboz99]

"Press build" does not mean what you think it means. It's a build of the game sent to gaming media outlets (the "press") so they can write all those hands-on previews we see. During the live game play, the 2K rep noted that it was not exactly the final version, citing the city wall graphics as an example of something that was changed for the final release.

I was under the impression that the second clip he had loaded a save that he had started on an earlier development build, and that's why the walls were funky, but that during the first part he was using the Press build.

Listen again to woman speaking where people ask about the release on the first part "what you see is what you get" and then again on the second part, where she says something entirely different due to the player having started the game on an older development build.


Either way, they sure as heck aren't going to box, package, and ship all those copies in under a week or such. :P Trust me, most games are finalized before being sent to be pressed into discs, and this usually happens 2-4 weeks in advance of release day.

Dan O.