Civilization IV

The Core Video Games Forum
1

Well, as any Civ fan knows, the first two games in the series were published by Microprose. Microprose was purchased by Hasbro Interactive, who rereleased Civ II a couple of times under the Microprose name. Hasbro Interactive was sold by Hasbro to Infogrames, who released Civilization III, and both expansions. During those releases, Infogrames changed their name to Atari, a property that Hasbro had previously owned, and published the last Civ 3 expansion under that name. Sid Meier’s Pirates was also released under the Atari banner.

Though it’s not too important in the long and short of things, Firaxis, Sid Meier’s company, has severed ties with Atari after about 15 years of cooperation. I assume the current Atari management isn’t quite like the Microprose management of the early 1990s.

<A HREF=“http://www.take2games.com/index.php?p=games&platform=PC&title=civ4”>Civilization IV</A> (and the Xbox port of <A HREF=“http://www.take2games.com/index.php?p=games&platform=Xbox&title=pirates”>Sid Meier’s Pirates</A>) are both being published by <A HREF=“http://www.take2games.com/”>Take Two interactive</A>, the same company that publishes Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne, and Midnight Club racing. Specifically, the new Firaxis games are being published by <A HREF=“http://www.2kgames.com/”>2K Games</A>, a new division of Take Two that was originally designed to continue the work of Sega’s sports division.

That really doesn’t effect the game at all, it’s just a bit odd to think that Civilization, one of the few PC games that makes you feel smart just playing it, is being published by the same people who put out State of Emergency. Well, at least they were smart enough to pick up the games. That shows that, while they’re primarily interested in making a buck, they know that there are ways to do it that aren’t completely cheap.

Oh yeah, and it’s coming out by the end of the year, and it hasn’t been shown at E3, or at least no one’s reported on it. Yippie.

2

I like civ. And just because the same publishers put out some crappy games before is no sign of anything, Ataris certainly done some bad games before. So long as it isn’t… ‘cheapened’, ie given more pop culture references and/or violence just to get some extra sales, I’m for it.

I saw some screenies and wasn’t impressed, but looking at prerelease screens of Alpha Centauri and Civ3, it is effectively wise to not judge Sid’s games on prerelease graphics (or graphics at all, Civ2 and AC still hold their own to me).

I havent been following it as closely as I should though. All I know is that somehow religion is going to be incorporated into the game, somehow.

3

My father was a Civ II addict, then turned into a Civ III devourer. Me, I loved both games and the expansions as well. This game never gets old, and if a fourth game is indeed being made, I hope it’ll be at least as good as its predecessors. I just wish there would be a little more depth in government systems, I don’t know… maybe the ability to define certain aspects of the regime such as fundamental principles. That way, besides running a civilization, one would also directly influence the ruling system, instead of just choosing from a predetermined list.

4

Manus, that sounds an aweful lot like how AC handled it. Well, kinda.

Instead of straight up ‘democracy’, ‘communism’, etc, you had separate choices for ‘governing style’ (and used terms like police state and so on rather than their typical names), choices for ‘market’, for ‘values’, and finally ‘future society’. Each independent of each other. So you could set democratic governing style, with planned economics, whilst valuing knowledge through thought control society. Or go with the same but change economics to free market.

5

You’re making me miss Alpha Centauri… I guess I could just reinstall it. Anyone know how well it works w/ XP?

Yeah, I’m not too worried about the quality of the new Civ game suffering. It’s still Firaxis developing it, it’s just strange that someone else is going to be publishing a game in the series. This isn’t the only way Atari’s screwed up lately, either. They got rid of the Unreal franchise to Midway.

6

Runs perfectly in XP, though if you have hyperthreading or a 64-bit processor, you need to make a change in your INI file or get a crash on bootup, but thats a hardware issue, not a OS issue.

Just make sure you have the latest patch, its one of them that makes the game run on XP.

7

Huh. I’ll have to dig out the CDs then.

8

Do you have the expansion? Make note that there is a separate set of patches used for the expansion (though I do believe XP compatability is added in with the xpac on its own anyways).

Actually, you say CDs pluralized, so I guess thats a yes, since both core game and xpac are one CD each :stuck_out_tongue:

9

Yeah, I have Alien Crossfire. Found it used at an EB once, never had the box for it. >_>

10

Okay, Computer Gaming World’s preview of Civ4 just sold the game.

First of all, the civics system described above? Sounds like they are doing that, or at least what they describe is implied as such, along with one-time governing options like emancipating the slaves, is in.

Also, my main beef with the games, the cheating AI, is something they are doing away with! Nuff’ said!

Also included is an option at the start for quick games, long games, or mid-range length games, though how its implemented is yet to be determined.

Also, the screens seem to have lost the ‘bad vibes’ I was getting from the earlier ones, and they describe how they are using the zooming-in-and-out to a nice effect; hated having to examine your cities to get some minor details about them? Apparently you can just zoom in on the 3d map, and the model of said city will become more detailed as you zoom in, allowing you to see at a glance traits held by said cities.

The only thing that I’m wary of, which I am more than willing to actually try, is the reworking of unit strengths. Now instead of separate attack and defense skills for units, its just straight-up ‘strength’, with every unit having ‘special abilities’ which equate to strength bonuses under certain circumstances, IE bonus to fighting cavalry, or bonus if defending or attacking from a mountain tile. I’m still going to check it out.

Also, while I’m wary of 4x multiplayer games, they seem to have some good ideas for implementing multi. Now its possible to play ‘cooperatively’, whereing all the players are the same civ, its just that each handles one aspect of it, so there are still AI players that can finish up their turns earlier.

Don’t believe me? Get the latest CGW, the one with the quake4 cover. I must say, the ‘beta sid meier game’ look has faded away fast on this one, and I am glad I kept faithful.

11

Dammit, now I gotta find a store around here that carries CGW.