Other Game Discussion

[Wen Xu]

Lol, I have conquered half the map with an army of 50 people. I just march from one place to the next, if I lose some men I boost it back up to 50 and continue on.

[KvChaos]

On easy settings you mean.

[yoshi]

Played Civ V last night. I like the new battles - cities are real fortresses. I also like the Policy structures. I'm not sure I think there were enough changes though.

What did the rest of you Civ-lovers think?

I feel like the game went over the line from 'streamlining' to 'dumbing down'.

I find the interface useful but rather sterile and lifeless.

I find the diplomatic options with other rulers rather dry and uninteresting.

I appreciate the way they added more importance and longevity to combat units instead of making them cannonfodder.

I like that cities are capable of defending themselves without garrisoning a military unit inside it.

I have mixed feelings about the change to how settling Great People works - I'm not wild about the idea of having my Great Person improvements pillaged.

I like the incremental selective improvements you can make to government with the policies but I dislike how none of them have any drawbacks in exchange for stronger benefits, as if the audience the devs were aiming at couldn't handle the concept of tradeoffs. That having been said, since you can't disable the policies I see how permanently penalizing yourself for the rest of the game for one decision you might regret would probably be something they'd want to avoid. I'm sure they could have worked around it though, say with policies that replaced that one entirely.

Although I appreciate the (relatively) flashy graphics, the fact that the game starts to get a bit slow and choppy when I hit 3-4 cities on low graphics settings is a bit of a downer.

I miss religion dammit!

I have mixed feelings about how happiness is now an empire-wide thing instead of specific to each city. It does avoid the happiness juggling you often had to do with cities in Civ IV but I kind of liked the micromanagement to squeeze out every last bit of performance in my cities.

I do not miss health.

I'm not sure how I feel about how the pace of the game itself feels more stretched out.

I find the city states an interesting addition. I always seem to find though that much like how in Civ IV I never seem to find stone with an Industrious leader, when i have an ability that improves my ability to bond with city states or have money to burn to gift them, there are very few of them near me while when I don't have much of an economy they box me in on all sides.

Overall, I like some things, I dislike some things. I agree the game doesn't feel different enough from the previous version - I'd have a hard time recommending this to a friend on a limited budget who already had Civ IV, for example. There just isn't enough different in the way the game plays and the variety is missing right now - one of the things Civ IV with the expansions has over Civ V is the sheer volume of civs, rulers and mods (official and otherwise) which Civ V is lacking at the moment so we'll see how it feels after an expansion or two.

I feel it only fair to mention that when I first got Civ IV I eventually decided I didn't care for it much and went back to Alpha Centauri. Now I play nothing but Civ IV and tried going back to AC but couldn't do it, so take this for what it is, the first impressions based off approximately six hours of gameplay i.e. the loud, dumb opinion of someone who likes Civ IV and is still in shock from having to... deal with change.

[KvChaos]

Finally play it...
My first thought... Is that Deckard Cain in the cinematic?

What I can think of right now is:

• City-states are a great addition
• Choices given when a city is conquered.
• Battles is a lot better, especially with hex.
• Troops can move on water now without having to build a transport (forget if this exists in Civ4).
• No more Mao and his weird hairstyle but Wu Zetian? -.-"
• Purchasing grid.
• Controlling happiness is easier.
• Difficulty looks like it changes, Find it a little easier. (On prince level top most of the chart etc...)
• Something else I can't remember or haven't seen since I've only reached the Gunpowder tree.

[KongFau]

Any on Aeria's Dynasty Warrior Online? It open yesterday

[KvChaos]

I bought this game Magicka for 9.99, and personally I give it a 9.
Multiplayer has been an awesome experience, even with those pesky bugs.

[DragonNova]

I've been getting re-addicted to Mount and Blade Warband thanks to a few mods to mess around with.