A review of Civ3 by korn469

[Adm.Naismith]

Originally posted by LaRusso
admiral, IMHO you can just as well go and buy it right now. it is very addictive and a lot of fun. plays really well. best civ game so far.

Thanks for your suggestion. You see, I still have some trouble to iron out before: a new (expensive) notebook to buy before I can run the game, the game itself available in Italy, my lovely wife and two sons that want my attention not killed from a game...

[MidKnight Lament]

Ahh, old friend. Long time no see. I hope you can manage to juggle your family and gaming life. Maybe if you start teaching them all how to play now, they'll be ready to take you on by the time we get a chance to play Civ 3 MP.

[Fidel]

my gf was psychologically prepared so she is still thinking that this will last a week or so

[player1]

My rating of the game would be B+ without the patch.
With first of sencond patch it would probably be A-
And, maybe after several more and Hotseat MP, I would rate it A+

[Fidel]

hm, B+ for a pirated copy? i must rate it A- already then
btw, what does it say when you load the game? 1.07f or some earlier version? i am wondering because it appeared in Plato several days ago, so it still puzzles me....

[dainbramaged13]

Originally posted by Libertarian
Earthling, thanks for that info. What's the procedure for upgrading all units?

when u select a unit, even if that unit itself is not in a city, and cant be upgraded, if you press 'shift+u then u can upgrade al uunits of that type that can be upgraded.. this is best for upgrading all your defensemen if u have sun tzus

[Chowlett]

Good review, thanks. I was having some doubts as to whether or not to fulfill my preorder at EB, given what others are finding, but this reassures me to some extent. I will take it and Yin's forthcoming one very seriously when I decied whether or not to buy...

[connorkimbro]

This bonus is more appropriate for Communism, since most of Communsit countries have been industralised very quickly, compared to other countries wich need much more time.

Exactly! Just compare say. . cuba or east germany (back when there was east german) to say. . South Korea, right? Or even North Korea to South Korea?

[wotan321]

Nice review Korn, you made a lot of valuable points.

ya get the feeling that the folks at Firaxis got cut by that "double edged sword" in that they were handed this Giant of a game, loaded with hype, tradition and the rep of being perhaps the greatest PC Game EVER....no pressure there.....

... so we in the civ community expected a perfect game out of Civ3.... to be handled with the respect and importance it deserved. Meanwhile, someone somewhere in charge of the "bottome line" was saying to themselves...."We gunna be RICH!!!! All we have to do it print up some boxes with Sid's name on 'em, make up a Civ3 logo....and WHAMMO! MONEY MONEY MONEY!!" and of course they were right too. This game wuz gonna sell, no ifs-and-or-buts. Firaxis was in a no-win situation since there was a lot left to do on the game before the Christmas sales season. Korn did a good job objectively pointing out what is missing.

The game we got is fantastic, but its not finished and that's a shame. One of the things that made Civ3 top dog was the MP and the Mod community. Both are gone.

Has anyone gotten any word on when the first patch will surface?

[dr.charm]

On Communism and Industrialisation:

Someone makes the comparison of of East and West Germany and their rates of Industrialization.

I trust they are aware that the Soviets took every piece of industrial equipment from East Germany at the end of the Second World War, right?

One assumes that they would be interested in the rates of industrialisation of the Soviet Union and India as well... except that it doesn't look as good for the democratic country in that comparison.

Other posters have made the (accurate) point that Communism appears intentionally weakened in Civ3. Whether or not you think Communism is a good gov't system in the real world (it ain't BTW), the absence of Fascism and the weakness of Communism basically leave *no* choice in gov't style in Civ3. It's Democracy or nothing in the game .

Cheers,

Dr. Charm

[Adm.Naismith]

Originally posted by MidKnight Lament
Ahh, old friend. Long time no see.

Your fault, my friend. I was stable in Civ III long enough to gain "King" ranking and some bad opinion

I hope you can manage to juggle your family and gaming life. Maybe if you start teaching them all how to play now, they'll be ready to take you on by the time we get a chance to play Civ 3 MP.

Well, my older son his barely 6, and as clever as a proud father as I am can consider him, it's a long time before he can play Civ III and win at Warlord.
I hope the Civ community don't have to wait so long for MP

La Russo, if a gf can love you AND live with your Civ III passion, better you rush for a marriage with her: girls like that are rare and valuable as Strategic Resources in the right spot on the map.

[cyril25376]

A good review, korn469. But I think you forget a point - the strategic resources. When I look at the game reports, to fight for the resources is an important part of gameplay. and the AI is also able to handle with it.

[dr.charm]

I have to agree with Cyril. The strategic resources kick much butt. I *love* having to trade to get the resources I want, and having that affect my foreign policy. The luxury resources I could take it or leave it... but the strategic ones are a great layer on the game.

For example, right now, I'm playing on a large map, but the Aztecs ended up with 5 of the 6 rubber resources. There's no way I can take on the Aztecs without rubber, so I cozied up to them and went after the Persians instead (and launched a royal 'ol world war which my allies and I (Aztecs, Iroquois and myself (Romans)) pretty handily won, while the Chinese sat on the outside shaking their heads I'm sure.

Incidentally this brings me to another point. Air power. Air power is just plain different, not better, not worse, just different (well except for the whole stupid air superiority bug). I tried a different tactic which seemed to work quite well. I didn't bomb a single city of the Persians during my war. Not one. Nope, I used my bomber fleet (started at about 9 and was about 20 by the end of the war) to destroy all but one road from Persia to my border, and then worked from there toward his cities, bombing every improvement and troop that I came across. I cut his cities off from one another by destroying roads and railroads, hit his attacking troops on the way to the front so that my defenses just chewed them to pieces, and *then* I sent in my tanks and infantry. I took a few cities before 1) war weariness was shelaking me back home and 2) he got mech infantry making my assault much more difficult.

In case anyone is keeping score, this is a tried and true tactic in the real world, you might know it as World War 2

Cheers,

Dr. Charm

[Fidel]

Originally posted by Adm.Naismith


Your fault, my friend. I was stable in Civ III long enough to gain "King" ranking and some bad opinion



Well, my older son his barely 6, and as clever as a proud father as I am can consider him, it's a long time before he can play Civ III and win at Warlord.
I hope the Civ community don't have to wait so long for MP

La Russo, if a gf can love you AND live with your Civ III passion, better you rush for a marriage with her: girls like that are rare and valuable as Strategic Resources in the right spot on the map.

hehe. so i should trade her for some wine then?

actually she hates civ3 but is hoping that my madness will pass

[Steve Clark]

For what it's worth, I just posted my "story" in Civ3-Stories of my initial reaction and Civ3 game.