Civilization III

[Jim Martin]

Picked up Sid Meier's Civ III for $55.00 or so the other day. I must say, it's a disappointment. Basically just a repackaging of CivII, some neat little animations of units, new rules regarding creating cities and building improvements, and that's it. No really new Wonders, and if you liked the movies from the other Civ games when you built a new Wonder, don't look for it in this game--it has no movies.

 

It's nice, yeah, and the interface has improved, but it's basically Civ II v1.5. NOT worth the 55 bucks I put down for it. Sid Meier suckered me on this one, IMHO.

 

[Edited by Jim Martin (15 Dec 2001).]

[Guest Murph]

Same here. Can't really argue any point made here. I was very disappointed. Oh well back to EU II.

 

Originally posted by Jim Martin:

Picked up Sid Meier's Civ III for $55.00 or so the other day.  I must say, it's a disappointment.  Basically just a repackaging of CivII, some neat little animations of units, new rules regarding creating cities and building improvements, and that's it.  No really new Wonders, and if you liked the movies from the other Civ games when you built a new Wonder, don't look for it in this game--it has no movies.

 

It's nice, yeah, and the interface has improved, but it's basically Civ II v1.5.  NOT worth the 55 bucks I put down for it.  Sid Meier suckered me on this one, IMHO.

 

<font size=1>[Edited by Jim Martin (15 Dec 2001).]

[Jim Martin]

Awright, I'm getting pissed. Strategic resources: Howinthehell long does it take for new ones to be discovered???? I've had Steam Power for maybe 30 bloody years, and haven't discovered ONE coal deposit--so I can't build ironclads. Just discovered Replaceable Parts--and no damned rubber is available. It's not lack of suitable terrain--for coal, I've plenty of hills, mountains and jungles, but I CAN'T FIND ANY. I'm currently downloading patch 1.16f for the game, but in the patch notes, I couldn't find any reference to its fixing lack of resources.

 

Murph, you experience the same prob w/ Civ III?

[Red Ant]

Yeah, that's pretty much what I expected. Seems they're running out of ideas.

 

[Edited by Red Ant (15 Dec 2001).]

[Guest Murph]

Yep, same problem. Civ III is already boring. Check out the review in the newest PC Gamer.

[Bomb Chick]

Well, I didn't have Civ I (except on play station) or II, and I just got III. I'm not disappointed, but I didn't really have anything to compare it to. I finally made it through a game without completely getting my ass stomped, and haven't had any problems finding strategic resources. The only problem so far is every once in a while it will lock up on me, but with the auto save it isn't an issue.

 

If you didn't have Civ II, then IMO you won't be disappointed with III.

[Guest Hans Engström]

However Ms. Chick, you are about the only computer literate person I know off who doesn't have CivII.

 

 

Sid is masively alineating his fans here. I tried it and found it very disappointing, mainly because there isn't anything really new.

 

Hasn

[Harold Jones]

Originally posted by Hans Engström:

However Ms. Chick, you are about the only computer literate person I know off who doesn't have CivII.

 

Hasn

 

 

Meet another one, CIV 1 burned me out on empire building games.

[Bomb Chick]

That's because hubby was dominating the computer game field. I don't like putting it this way, but pretty much, this was the first game I was "allowed" to have. Well, actually it was the first one I wanted to waste money on, anyway.

[Dan Weaver]

Played Alpha Centauri until 5:30 in the morning. Ouch. Too wrapped up in the Locusts of Chiron. Love those Gaians.

[Elliot Howard]

The Best PC games that I've ever played have been Red Alert 2 and Home World. Tactics, graphics, and game play are all superior to anything else. RB6 and RG were fun, but get old after a while, along with Half-Life.

 

Has anyone tried Red Faction or HALO yet? I heard HALO was pretty bad ass.

 

Elliot

[Jim Martin]

I didn't even know HALO was out yet. I certainly didn't see it on the shelves in Best Buy today.

[Elliot Howard]

Originally posted by Jim Martin:

I didn't even know HALO was out yet.  I certainly didn't see it on the shelves in Best Buy today.

 

My bad, I ment for the XBOX, not PC Gaming. I haven't had a chance to play it yet, but most of my buddies who have it, say it's the shiznick.

 

Elliot

[Brian Kennedy]

I played HALO (up until recently part of my job was reviewing video games) and it's great, if you go for those console-game shooter-type things.

 

Personally, I think 2001 was kind of a crummy year for video games. I think that a lot of game companies have learned to scam reviewers by making games that seem amazing for the first few hours (which is all reviewers usually play them for) but quickly get boring. Like Black and White -- the first hour or so you play the game it seems revolutionary, but feeding your pet monster gets old REAL fast.

 

I agree re Civ III -- basically it's just a rehash of Civ II, and is actually a worse game in a lot of respects. By the way, is anybody besides me pissed that the "civil war" feature went away after Civ I? So much for U.S. History...

 

My vote for the best game of 2001: Combat Mission. Even though it came out in 2000 .

[Brad Edmondson]

I haven't played any of the Civ series and I was thinking of trying Civ III. I need an outlet for my megalomanical delusions of grandeur and MOO III isn't coming out until later in the year. My game time is pretty sparse now, that's the one thing I miss about shift work is having lots of time off to blow away on the computer.

 

So, what's the verdict, does Civ III have enough depth of play to keep me busy for a while?

[Brian Kennedy]

If you haven't played any Civ games, sure -- it's a blast. The basic game structure is still intact, and the graphics are better than Civ II.

 

 

Originally posted by Brad Edmondson:

I haven't played any of the Civ series and I was thinking of trying Civ III.  I need an outlet for my megalomanical delusions of grandeur and MOO III isn't coming out until later in the year.  My game time is pretty sparse now, that's the one thing I miss about shift work is having lots of time off to blow away on the computer.

 

So, what's the verdict, does Civ III have enough depth of play to keep me busy for a while?

[Rickard N]

The waste, the waste...

 

How the he** do you get rid of waste and corruption?

If you play the huge map, you can't colonize ANYWHERE away from your capital due to waste...

I hate it, doesn't matter if you play a Democracy and have courthouses!!!

 

/Rickard

[Bomb Chick]

Brad, I didn't have the others and I like it.

 

Rickard,

 

I haven't the slightest idea! I haven't had any issues with waste and corruption yet. But then again, the one thing I kinda let the computer do for me is I did set a default for the governor of each city to manage his own people's happiness. I am not sure if that affects corruption or not, but IIRC, it might. I also don't build too many colonies. And I havne't played the huge map yet, only the large. I'll try it tomorrow and see what happens.

 

My peeve. When building your space ship (yeah, tell me what YOU think it looks like and you want to see everyone else's ship, it says I have to have a spy. So what, do you have to conduct espionage in every single city to see what they're doing or what?

[Jim Martin]

Bomb Chick,

Howinthehell do you manage to GET to building the spaceship before the bloody game retires you???

 

Both my Dad and I were fair hands at the last two Civ games, in this one, my most successful civilization was researching Radio technology in 1984.

 

My dad has now been playing it (over and over and over) and without fail gets the "forced retirement in 2050" and he's still nowhere near having the tech needed to build the spaceship. It's our considered opinion that Meier allows the time to go by WAY TOO FAST for TOO LONG, before slowing it to yearly turns. Either that, or setting research costs way too high for certain technologies. What do you do to get yourself building a spaceship before 3000 AD?

[Guest Murph]

Civ III is going to be removed from the Hard Drive. Its just a rehash of the first two. TEch takes far to long to research, and there are other minor quibbles. The first patch was 7.8 megs in size.

 

I'm going back to EU II. Its a lot more fun.

[Bomb Chick]

Hahaha! I FINALLY found a game that I am better at than hubby, and I have to share my secrets with YOU GUYS????!!! I think not.

 

Really. What I have found to work is to build as many cities as you can quickly. I always play Chinese Mao. He seems to have the best advantages. I build a city, a warrior, a settler, another city, a worker, a warrior, go back to first city, build walls, then alternate between building a settler or a worker, and an improvement. I also try to get the Great Library more than anything else. Once I get going, I change my tax rates alot. I put scientific research money at about 80% till I start running out of money, then I put it at 10% while I build up my cash supply again, then switch it back. I get tech advances about avery 4 turns on average once I am at this point.

 

I have achieved a diplomatic, cultural, and space race victories so far. I turned those off and am now trying to just simply take over the world.

I'll let you know how it goes.

 

Also, I ran into the corruption problem, and am now trying to put a courthouse in my distant cities to try and help. Doesn't seem to be doing much.

[Jim Martin]

So I follow BC's advice, to see if I do better. Yup, yup, movin' right along on the tech tree. Lookin' good...uh huh.

 

I get to motor transport...no oil. Flight...no aluminum. Conquer another civilization to get it? No problem. Except the resources are not to be found ANYWHERE ON THE BOARD. I mean, I have a massive empire, with all the terrain necessary for these resources, and not a one.

 

Okeys fine...I go to YAhoo and do a search for Civ III cheat codes. Typically, I don't use cheat codes, but in this case I figure I'll make an exception, and force the game to give over with the good stuff.

 

No cheat codes available on any of the sites I've checked. FAQ's sure. But none of them have cheat codes. WTF, OVER?????????

[Bomb Chick]

Jim,

 

to get aluminumiumumum, you have to have Rocketry, for oil, you have to have refining, rubber is replaceable parts.

 

I looked for cheat codes, never found them either, but there is a patch for the "edit." I haven't tried it.

 

Do you guys even look at the index for the resources, units, improvements, etc? Just like a man, try to put something together without reading the directions.......sheesh.

[Jim Martin]

Shana,

Rulebooks are for sissys!

 

Okay, I was thinking you needed aluminum for aircraft. The fact remains, I've had refining for years...and no oil to be found. Can't make no stinkin' tanks.

[Bomb Chick]

hmmm. I don't know why you can't see oil. very odd. I know that it should be in the desert or maybe in the flood plains??? Can't remember right now.

 

And for the record, I never opened the rule book. I did however, use the icon in the middle on the top left of the screen to check out why I couldn't see some resources, or how to do this or that. I may be a sissy, but I'm the one that's won the game.

 

Have you seen the spaceship yet?