Civilization IV

A excellent game. It is easy to understand, but challenging to master.

It allows you to customize your own nation through history, and its Worldbuilder function saves you in a pinch. Does your nation evolve into a democracy, a dictatorship? Do the Huns conquer you, or do you conquer them?

However, this game is for patient people, you can't be expecting it to explode quickly. You must be willing to bide your time as your nation grows in strength. Or is it for the impatient? With world builder, you can jump ahead, marines can be played against knights and guns against clubs are possible with this feature

All in all, a great game

This was the best of the bunch (although I miss some of the III scenarios and I miss the WW1 style infantry that just looked and sounded deadly).

But it still stacked units and that is necessary for the PC to be an actual threat. When you don't stack... wars are sort of boring and void of all challenge when you face off against the AI.

So the stacking was still here and they made cultural victories so difficult that you no longer had to disable them to avoid an accidental win (which actually makes cultural victories a little more respectable).

The space-race is an actual race this time (but, again, it works better when you play against a human than when you play against the AI).

And the introduction of religion makes for a fun turn. It aids in alliances, it makes the game feel more like there are linked cultures.

IV is where Civilization hit it's high water mark. Despite it's short comings this is the best of the series. It's almost a decade old and this is still the game I fire up when I have a long wait on my hands and want to kill time.

When I first heard about Civ IV and all the new additions, I was a bit doubtful. Religion and unit categories and all that didn't sound like they would be good. I was wrong. Once I was playing the game, I was amazed. If I go back and play the others, I will miss so many things, such as religion. Easier gameplay, such as civil disorder changes, were brought in. (Rather than have cities stop building stuff when people get angry, only those angry people stop working). New animations, showing the actual combat, enhanced the feel of this world. The ability to choose which leader of a team you are was also welcome, as well as the speed with which the game moves. (I never finished a Civ III game because it took so long to get technologies, I got bored.) The one fault is the scenario creating system. Unlike Civ III, where you just clicked "Add Civ" and added one, you have to go through a lot of tough programming sequences and "XML" files and all that. However, the game is easy to play and fun. Not only is it neat, it has great quotes from history from Leonard Nimoy, and lots of humor can be found throughout (mainly through dialogues from characters from Caeser and Catherine.) Highly recommended. 9/10

The new Sid Meier's Civ4 is one of the best games I've ever played!

Sid really took his time working on this one. Well, the gameplay didn't change much (& that's good). The first & the most major change is the new 3D engine (I'm not sure, but it looks like the one from Sid Meier's Pirates!). The world is so detailed you really begin to believe in what happens on screen. 2nd thing are the religions they have implemented. A very interesting addition. You can have a state religion & it will grant you some benefits but other civs with different religion may get annoyed with you. 3rd - now there are important historical people (well, they are like other common units) which can boost up your civ's progress. For example: a great artist can create a masterpiece & it will grant a significant culture bonus to the city where it was made. Among other things are new civs, some civs have one of two leaders to choose, new buildings and units etc.

Overall - a great game which should be bought be every self respecting gamer.

Amen!