Civ 4

[screwtype]

WOW

Sorry, I just didn't find any "WOW" factor in this preview. The changes they are making sound incremental and conservative, with even a bit of possible "dumbing down" and removal of features I enjoyed.

Can't say I'm impressed with the graphics either. The campaign map looks remarkably similar to the RTW campaign map, which is by no means a thing of great beauty. I mean, haven't these people ever heard of scale? What is it with soldiers that tower above the land like colossi, while wee little animals on a much smaller scale graze nearby? Just looks weird to me.

I'm disappointed to read that combat looks to be much the same as in previous versions. Geez, if only they'd done as much as have a battlefield screen like in the Age of Wonders series, where you get to maneouvre your units around and play to their strengths. It sounds like they've got the same simple (and tediously repetitive) battle system that they had in CivIII, which is a great disappointment.

No, overall this doesn't sound like much of an advance over CivIII at all except for snazzier graphics - and even the graphics aren't that good.