General

Re: Civilization 5

Scrooge McDuck — Wed, 11 May 2011 06:30:55 GMT

Civilization to come to Facebook: http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/gaming.gadgets/05/10/sid.meier.civilization/index.html?hpt=C2

Re: Civilization 5

SirThinkALot — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 18:09:54 GMT

Another great RTS is the Dawn of War series. Particularly Dark Crusade and Soulstorm. I think its focus on actual combat and base building makes it more fun than other games of the genre.

Its set in the Warhammer 40K universe, and assumes at least a passing familarity with the setting and factions involved. But its not too hard to pick up on unless you are a total newb to the setting.

Re: Civilization 5

Anton — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 19:49:05 GMT

Caley McKibbin:

As far as 4X turn-based games go, have you looked at the improvements in the independent gaming scene?

You mean open source? The only good 4x game IMO is Anacreon 2.

As far as RTS games go, they were never a sophisticated genre, so it is like asking for functional improvement in smoking or pornography

They were never sophisticated because they have all been C&C clones, with the exception of Men of War and Theatre of War.

Never thought that Men of war gained wide acclaim in the West.But it's really good game and the first RTS I ever played ( I am talking about the whole game series, in particular the 1st game in the series released in 2004).

Unfortunately, the 2nd part (it is called in English "Faces Of War") was less interesting for me. Despite numerous breakthroughs in gameplay and graphics/physics, a much larger number of units under your control and inablity to repair tanks confused me. I had played the whole Soviet campaign and part of the German when I finally realised what is wrong. That's the idea of it. Because of localisation you didn't get it but in Russian the title of the series sounds like "В тылу врага" which means "In the enemy's rears" (in the western localisation it is called Soldiers: Heroes of World War II). The 1st part was all about it. You acted in deep rear, especially playing Soviet campaign and German campain. The number of units was much smaller, so it required only micromanagement which I really loved (imagine damaging Panzer, killing its crew, and then repairing it!) Yeah, there was much more fun...
It was also more dramatic (american and german campaigns, in particular). In german campaigh you played Michael Wittmann, a german tank ace. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Wittmann), and under your command was a single Panzer VI Tiger and a couple of soldiers. Besides, all missions were based on real events covering some Wittmann's fights in 1944 (an assault on Villers-Bocage).
So if you liked the sequels I suggest you play an original one.

Also, there is a game called DEFCON developed by Introversion Software, an independent british team. It is a simulator of nuclear war with great multiplayer (the whole idea is based on the old movie "War Games"). Here's the web site:http://www.introversion.co.uk/

Re: Civilization 5

Caley McKibbin — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 13:36:23 GMT

I just remembered a game called Space Empires V that comes from the MoO family. That game is infinitely better than Civ, especially with some mods.

Re: Civilization 5

SirThinkALot — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 21:50:17 GMT

I'm pretty sure Civ V had as many civilizations as Civ IV proper(although the expansions to IV added quite a few), and none of the Civ games have had very good AI. .

Re: Civilization 5

abskebabs — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 21:34:53 GMT

I was tempted to get Civ 5(as I was with Civ 4), but I heard it's a nightmare automating workers, a feature that worked pretty well in Civ 3. Central planning's not as fun with micromanagement of everything.

Re: Civilization 5

ulrichPf — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 20:45:17 GMT

Agree the game felt like a step backwards, it was the first civ game where I felt that I wasted my money on it.

The tactical battles of civ 5 were a fatal mistake, archers cannot shoot at cities from hundreds of kilometers away, the tactical hex battles remind me of ww2 battle games. The sound track was not as good as civ4. They took away religion from the game, whether one likes it or not, religion was key to past civilzations so should have been left there. They had less civilizations to pick from than civ4. The AI was weak. The game slowed down very badly on large maps, much worse than anything ever on civ 4.

Re: Civilization 5

Caley McKibbin — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 19:53:42 GMT

Anyway, my turn-based strategy game of choice is Total War. It's honest about what the state is for.

Have you played Jagged Alliance 2 1.13? You play as a mercenary army taking over a country. It essentially demonstrates a "PDA".

Re: Civilization 5

James — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 14:58:07 GMT

You can't build long lasting friendships and the AI is very schizophrenic and you don't know why they're doing what they're doing. They're now also programmed to gang up on you if you start winning, effectively making diplomacy worthless. Why bother if you're trying to win and they're going to turn on you?

You mean the real world doesn't seem like this to you?

Anyway, my turn-based strategy game of choice is Total War. It's honest about what the state is for. My only realism gripe is that temples, churches, mosques etc increase public order. :p

Re: Civilization 5

Caley McKibbin — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 07:00:03 GMT

I've got question about Patrician. Is "Patrician III: The Rise of Hanse" addon to original Patrician III or it is sequel?

"Patrician III: Rise of the Hanse" is the English version of the German expansion of Patrician II.

I’d add SimCity-like series.

I played SimCity 4 for a while. It is no more a simulation of cities than chess is a simulation of war. The way the game is designed rewards innefficient planning and makes cities comically over-industrialized. An airport is the size of a soccer field. Everything is just ridiculously out of proportion. You may as well play Tropico instead, which is basically the same except much deeper and more challenging, not just a graphically glorified plop-fest.

Re: Civilization 5

Maggie Gilmore — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 23:09:55 GMT

I read an interview with the designers of the new game, Deux Ex: Human Revolution, that confirmed that you will be able to go through the entire game without killing anyone, which is a big plus for me because I love gaming but I'm pretty terrible at combat.

Re: Civilization 5

Libertyandlife — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 21:20:49 GMT

Dinosaurs and Libertarianism: Civilization mod

Re: Civilization 5

Anton — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 19:14:21 GMT

Caley McKibbin:

Capitalism II is far too easy and also dumbed down in a way from the first. I found it rather funny that in that game it tells you exactly what demand is for everything you sell. Multiplayer would probably be good as real competition (unlike AI) would bring the selling prices down to a sensible level. Never knew anyone with the game, though.

Here are my 3 top picks for solo economic/financial games:

1. Patrician III

2. Tropico

3. Free Enterprise

I've got question about Patrician. Is "Patrician III: The Rise of Hanse" addon to original Patrician III or it is sequel?

I've never played economic strategies and Rise of Hanse is likely to be my first (as soon as I download it) because of the title. I've recently made a report in my german class about Hanse and I really absorbed in this topic.

Re: Civilization 5

SirThinkALot — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 21:16:59 GMT

I'v never tried it in Deus Ex, I know its possible to do 'no-kill' playthroughs of the Metal Gear games(except for hte first one which didnt have a tranq gun). Although the bosses can be a bit tricky to kill using non-lethal weaponry(Raging Raven is particularly painful).

Re: Civilization 5

Prateek Sanjay — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 12:42:57 GMT

I know this will shock you, Andrew, but there has already been a second one. This is the third one.

But yes, we all like to forget that the second one happened.