Sid Meier's Civilization IV

[Quirinus]

Right, so I just bought the game. I bought the Gold edition of Civilization III but didn't get it at all, but then again it was a looong time ago, so I decided to give it a try.

So, is it any good? And are the expansions Warlords and Beyond the Sword worth the money?

[TinCow]

I've played every single Civ game, plus Alpha Centauri, and I think I can easily say that Civ IV is the best of them all. The two expansion packs are also superb. I very much encourage you to get them, as they simply add more greatness to what is very possibly the best strategy game ever made. BTS in particular is crucial, as it completely overhauls the Espionage system, which adds a huge dimension to the game. It also adds the Apostolic Palace, which is essentially a mini-UN which is available far earlier in the game.

If you had to pick one, pick BTS over Warlords. Try not to pick, though. Get both expansion packs.

[FesterShinetop]

CIV IV is the best. Be prepared to loose a lot of time on it though!!

Considering the expensions. Beyond the sword is a must have, it adds so much to the original game, no doubt, just get it.
Also keep in mind that BTS adds everything that is also in Warlords, except for the scenarios... so if you (like me) don't play the scenarios there is no reason to get Warlords, just get BTS.

[Quirinus]

Should I get the expansions at a later date after I play the vanilla game for a while, or should I just get it immediately? Meaning, are the expansions like Zero Hour where they just improve on the game, or is it like Barbarian Invasion which plays totally differently and is distinct from vanilla RTW?

[TinCow]

They improve the original game.

[FesterShinetop]

And even if you have the expansions installed you can still start up CIV IV vanilla. You'd even have to if you want to play the tutorial.
But I'd buys BTS right away, install it, start up Civ IV vanilla to play through the tutorial. And after that just play BTS!

[seireikhaan]

I'm going to echo the previous responses and say that civ IV is a very quality game, with a few things that do kinda bug me. The expansions are very much worth it, especially BTS, as they add a lot of dimensions and variety to the game. New civs, new traits, new leaders, new units, new buildings, unique buildings, corporations, and random events which can be very good or very bad, depending on the event. I've heard there's even a "tsunami" event which can be enabled by a user which actually completely destroys a city.

[Quirinus]

I am annoyed. In two days, Civ IV has CTD'd on me twice. In both instances, I was just playing, when the game just suddenly CTD'd. No error message, no lame 'apologise for inconveniece' window from Windows, nothing. It just closed and booted me onto the desktop.

I appreciate a good game, but then again, KotOR was a good game too.

[TevashSzat]

It's weird for me, my interest in the civ games are actually decreasing as they come out

CivII: Hours upon hours upon hours on it
CivIII: Had me interested for a while, not exorbitantly long, but long enough to be satisfied in that it was well worth the money
CivIV: Eh, never finished one game yet and rarely even went into the Industrial age

[frogbeastegg]

Best of all, get Civilisation 4 complete. It has everything in one box. If you buy it from the right place (i.e. online) it works out a touch cheaper than buying the two expansions seperately.

[TinCow]

Unless you're an American. Civ 4 Complete is only available outside the US. Apparently the 'Gold' edition (Civ 4 + Warlords) is still selling too well and they don't want to ruin its numbers by releasing Complete just yet. Complete will be released when the 'Gold' sales drop.

[TevashSzat]

Unless you're an American. Civ 4 Complete is only available outside the US. Apparently the 'Gold' edition (Civ 4 + Warlords) is still selling too well and they don't want to ruin its numbers by releasing Complete just yet. Complete will be released when the 'Gold' sales drop.

I think I read somewhere that there is a collector's edition out there too that apparently includes every civilization game made so far

Edit:

Link

[econ21]

I am annoyed. In two days, Civ IV has CTD'd on me twice.

I guess you are patched up? And just playing the original game?

Out of the box, I found Civ4 was extremely demanding on my computer. I think it did CTD occasionally, but also was laggy and overheated my machine. This got better with the patches, but also the BTS expansion made it zip along much faster without so many problems.

At least the autosave is pretty good though, so you should not lose much.

[Lemur]

The game does a good job of auto-patching. I'll admit, I've had a couple of CTDs, but that's after waaaay too much play, and with apps running the in background, so I'm not sure Civ is to blame ...

[Quirinus]

I guess you are patched up? And just playing the original game?

Out of the box, I found Civ4 was extremely demanding on my computer. I think it did CTD occasionally, but also was laggy and overheated my machine. This got better with the patches, but also the BTS expansion made it zip along much faster without so many problems.

At least the autosave is pretty good though, so you should not lose much.

Not sure if I am up to the latest version, but I didn't install any patches-- just out of the box.

At this point, though, I'm not particularly motivated to look for patches or buy the expansions. I guess the Civ series is just not for me-- I didn't enjoy Civ III that much either. As in Empire Earth II, I couldn't get past how ahistorical it was. Rome founds Buddhism? Victoria in the classical ages? Come on.

I guess I'll skulk back to GalCiv now.

[Adrian II]

Rome founds Buddhism? Victoria in the classical ages? Come on. I guess I'll skulk back to GalCiv now.

I never play games in order to recreate history. I don't need games for that. I want a game that allows me to play with history and Civ IV does just that. Because of its great sense of humour, its good algorithm and the ingenious way in which it mixes ages and concepts, it is far smarter and funnier than many a so-called historically correct game. You're supposed to know your history before you start playing Civ IV, not learn anything from it.

[Quirinus]

I don't go for total realism either (heck, I play vanilla RTW!), but there should be a base standard -- if nothing else, they improve game immersion.

But my guess is that I didn't 'get' the game. Sometimes it happens. Two CTDs in two gaming sessions really killed my interest to explore the game further.

[Praxil]

I don't go for total realism either (heck, I play vanilla RTW!), but there should be a base standard -- if nothing else, they improve game immersion.

But my guess is that I didn't 'get' the game. Sometimes it happens. Two CTDs in two gaming sessions really killed my interest to explore the game further.

I think that you're giving up quite easily. I think that Civ IV is just too good to pass, if you love strategy games. Especially in this case after only two CDTs.

[CountArach]

Not sure if I am up to the latest version, but I didn't install any patches-- just out of the box.

At this point, though, I'm not particularly motivated to look for patches or buy the expansions. I guess the Civ series is just not for me-- I didn't enjoy Civ III that much either. As in Empire Earth II, I couldn't get past how ahistorical it was. Rome founds Buddhism? Victoria in the classical ages? Come on.

I guess I'll skulk back to GalCiv now.

Download Civilisation Total Realism. It fixes so many of these historical issues (Religions spread at different rates and each nation has a preferred religion).

[Papewaio]

Download Civilisation Total Realism. It fixes so many of these historical issues (Religions spread at different rates and each nation has a preferred religion).

Doesn't that kind of defeat the point of having a fictional sandbox setting? Making it too historical?

Afterall most of the preferred religions in nations would have to be based on what happened in OUR history. When playing out your own sets of histories why should they be identical to the other ones? Also the rate at which religions spread has as much to do with communications (technology and geography (social as well as physical))... both peaceful and aggressive forms of communication... as much as any inherent attribute of the religions.

[Divinus Arma]

Bought it. Installing.

[Divinus Arma]

Damn! I am convinced this game is giving me migraines!

I play for an hour at a time, and by the end of that hour I have a horrific left hemisphere migraine. I would normally play a game, like TW, for 8 -10 hrs a strecth with no problem. I have never had anything like this before. I can't even even play it anymore. This has been going on for three days and only with Civ IV. Bizarre!

[Reverend Joe]

I can't believe you can play any game for 8-10 hours without getting a migraine... I haven't been able to do that for years, and I'm only 22.

[TevashSzat]

I can't believe you can play any game for 8-10 hours without getting a migraine... I haven't been able to do that for years, and I'm only 22.

Not that hard at all. All you really need to play videogames for a really long time is a couple of friends and alot of caffeine. I've played Halo 2 for 20 hours straight easily before and have had 36 hour nonstop LAN parties. You do get extremely tired towards the end and your reaction time becomes horrible, but I just somehow never get sleepy until after it during which I sleep for like 10 hours straight

[Ironside]

Damn! I am convinced this game is giving me migraines!

I play for an hour at a time, and by the end of that hour I have a horrific left hemisphere migraine. I would normally play a game, like TW, for 8 -10 hrs a strecth with no problem. I have never had anything like this before. I can't even even play it anymore. This has been going on for three days and only with Civ IV. Bizarre!

My guess is a kind of graphic glich, that you aren't aware of. Test checking the net and testing other graphic settings. Another thing could be the sound, but that's more unlikely that there's something that you don't notice.

Personally I don't have that problem with Civ IV, so I doubt that it's a general problem as if things are wrong I can get headaches pretty easily.

[Decker]

The last time I played a Civ game it was Civ III Gold Edition and I couldn't get the hang of it after hours of play! I always ended up having my populace rebel and riot setting my cities on fire while my armies smashed and conquered. I would be forced to return, kill off my population and then go back and regain all that I had lost, including my own territory! And I really tried dangit !! Now, how is Civ IV compared? I almost bought it but couldn't decided to get that or that Rome game by the chumps who did Europe Unviversalis.

[seireikhaan]

The last time I played a Civ game it was Civ III Gold Edition and I couldn't get the hang of it after hours of play! I always ended up having my populace rebel and riot setting my cities on fire while my armies smashed and conquered. I would be forced to return, kill off my population and then go back and regain all that I had lost, including my own territory! And I really tried dangit !! Now, how is Civ IV compared? I almost bought it but couldn't decided to get that or that Rome game by the chumps who did Europe Unviversalis.

Civ IV is enormous fun, imo. There's 2 expansions, Warlords and Beyond the Sword(they gotta squeeze us for more dollars, I guess). However, you can get Civ IV gold, which has Warlords included, and Beyond the Sword is relatively cheap. I'd say the expansions are definitely worth it. I haven't played EU Rome, but I've heard its not nearly as good as the other EU/Victoria/HoI games, so I'd say to go with Civ. I'd say in comparison to Civ III, IV is better as a whole, with the only exception being that you can no longer go through other people's cultural borders unless you get open borders, which I personally find absurd. I don't know what you were doing to get your cities to riot on you in Civ III, but I haven't had too much of that kind of problem in either game. The game is similar concept, but executed differently, and the combat is more detailed and involved than Civ III. Oh, and I guess the other thing I miss from Civ III is that I can't build a massive army of 100 stealth bombers and utterly annihialate everybody who dares to stand in my way, because the bombers can no longer kill units completely.

[Decker]

Civ IV is enormous fun, imo. There's 2 expansions, Warlords and Beyond the Sword(they gotta squeeze us for more dollars, I guess). However, you can get Civ IV gold, which has Warlords included, and Beyond the Sword is relatively cheap. I'd say the expansions are definitely worth it. I haven't played EU Rome, but I've heard its not nearly as good as the other EU/Victoria/HoI games, so I'd say to go with Civ. I'd say in comparison to Civ III, IV is better as a whole, with the only exception being that you can no longer go through other people's cultural borders unless you get open borders, which I personally find absurd. I don't know what you were doing to get your cities to riot on you in Civ III, but I haven't had too much of that kind of problem in either game. The game is similar concept, but executed differently, and the combat is more detailed and involved than Civ III. Oh, and I guess the other thing I miss from Civ III is that I can't build a massive army of 100 stealth bombers and utterly annihialate everybody who dares to stand in my way, because the bombers can no longer kill units completely.

Wow...I think you almost sold me on it lol...I'll do a little more research on it but I think you practically sold me on it And as for the riots, well I get the same problem in my TW games lol...I guess I'm just a bad leader lol...

[TinCow]

Civ IV with both expansion packs (GET THEM!) is definitely the best version of any of the Civ games ever made, including Alpha Centauri. I have played ALL of them, and this is the first one that balances everything very well. It is probably the single best strategy game ever made IMO and is infinitely replayable. On top of it all, they've actually figured out how to make it work well with multiplayer. MP games are now not only possible, but relatively painless to play. Not that you need a human to make the game challenging, though, it also has one of the best AIs I've ever seen in a game.