Which is kind of realistic... especially considering that most of the world today still does not have access to quality healthcare.

Err, not healthcare as in modern welfare states, but healthcare as in generally having an ample supply of doctors so your population doesn't go extinct if you don't make everyone a farmer. Rome managed to do that, Greece did, Egypt too. A few mods for Civ4 managed that better, all I'm saying. ^_^

I am not excites With Civ V as I was with other Civ games. I have been burned to much to be excited for Civ anymore. Anxious? Yes a bit but not exicted where I can't wait for it to come out and go crazy in the mean time.

Civ III was so hyped up as better than Civ II, so when I got the collectors edtion, (what just a stupid cookie box?) and the game svcked compared to Civ II. The "one more turn" was never there. I didn't like civ III at all. I was excited for Civ IV. Bought it on release, and I couldn't play it. WTF?! I had more than the minimum specs. 3 or 4 patches later, and a few months later, I could finally play the game, so small maps, but it was playable.

So now I am leary I can play Civ V. I am glad the demo will be out so I can see if I can run it. At least I could run Civ III, and hate it, I couldn't run Civ IV or like it or hate it.

Now that spies and espionage is gone, I am disapointed. I say the game is dumbed down because of this. This is like another Oblivion to appeal to the masses instead of the hard core gamer. This dosn't mean it will not be a good game, because I do love Oblvion now, so it can be a good thing. I just love espionage, and I can't understand how you have a Civ game without espionage.

So I am looking forward to the demo, to see if the game will run. If I have no issues with it, then I will purchase Civ V.

I'm looking forward to Civ 5. My copy has been shipped and I hope to get it tomorrow , but more likely Wed. I adored Civ II, disliked intensly Civ III and never played Civ IV. What excites me about this game is that there is a "Flat" 2D hex map option, which I will likely be using over the normal animated map.

A new CIV and a new Fallout almost at the same time? wow....

Not looking forward to it at all. I like the idea of a hex map but that's it. The game seems dumbed down to appeal to a wider audience. Here's what I don't like:

-No tech trading

-No gold/science/culture slider

-Only 1 unit per hex (stacks of doom svck, but limit stack sizes don't eliminate them altogether)

-No religion or espionage

-No troop transports (they automatically create their own? Wtf?)

-Cities have their own defense instead of needing units

-Preorders get extra civs

-Steam

I'll be sticking with good ol' complicated Civ 4. I do not like the dumbed down direction they're taking with Civ 5, and the "preorder bonus" and Steam reliance is the nail in the coffin for me.

I've predicted elsewhere that Civ 5 combat will be SLOW unless units get more than 1 movement point per turn. If it's 1 MP per turn, and 1 unit per hex, imagine your front units taking over the next enemy hex, on the enemy's turn he takes it back, on your turn you take it back again, etc. etc. constantly bringing reinforcements. Nobody gets anywhere. They really better give more than 1 MP per turn.

Wow. I didn't know all that was cut. No tech trading and no sliders? I'm a recent convert to Civ IV from Civ Revolutions. I bought it because of all the extra elements of gameplay and after 7 monthes I'm still learning to win on Noble. Maybe they took out things but built in quicker ways manage them in the city?

Tech trading has been replaced by joint research. You can form a research pact with another country and as long as that stays effective, you will discover new technologies for both nations after a dozen or so turns.
The sliders have been removed to give gold more uses than just redirecting it to research or culture. The most basic thing is that its used as, well, money this time around. Nearly everything you build has a maintenance cost. No more building roads on any tile you conquer - choose wisely. Combine that with the new resource economy - where resources are no longer triggers and one mine of iron allows you to build swordsmen, knights and tanks for 3000 years, but where you have to actually get enough of a resource to outfit an army of those - and you might even end up with a more logical and deep system than Civ IV.
Well, that is all still theory which will prove itself in the next weeks, but for now I see one step backwards in depth over here, but two forwards in another.

I'm realy looking forward to it. As for the main complaints:




Not a big loss, tech trading is pretty unfair and it's much more strategic to trade for ressources that will allow you to research more and better.



I tended to put almost all I could on Science anyways, and it'll be more fun to try to raise those by other means then just a slider.



No, I think it's an AMAZING idea, it allows for both "total war"-esque great strategies and tactical combat at the same time. It also allows the terrain to follow a much more natural path, with you placing companies in the best points and defeating a larger ennemy army by creating traps and chokepoints.



Meh, most of the time only one or two civs had all religions anyway. And ispies are the kind of thing that will be added in an expansion. (like for civ 4)



It's actually much more realistic, as trough history there quite rarely was "transport" transports, but army rather used all all available civillian and military ships they could find.

And beside, transports where such an HORRIBLE and useless chore in civ 4 that I could never gather the courage to play an archipelago game. (seriously, it was soooooo tedious.)



Makes sense to drive fighting out of cities, anyways, most cities will be surrounded by suburbs, so it's not like they completely eliminated city warfare.



That will probably will be given in some expension / DLC / free givaway at one point, and anyways, it's 2K's fault.



Sorry to break your fun, but Steam's what keeps PC gaming from "dying", seriously, except Wal-Mart, most other retails stores and even specialized games stores (like EB games) stopped carrying PC games entirely! Add to that the insane deals, the usefulness of it's services. And that it's so practical, I cant see anyone be against it.



Oh no, a front line that goes back and forth, THE HORROR :yuck:

Seriously, I'm getting quite tired of so many people complaining about change. CIV 4 was almost perfect, so they are trying something new, and it looks fun.

And even if it ain't, mods will make it fun in the next few months. So I think it's a must buy.

Judging from this post, it sounds better than Civ IV already.

Demo is out tomorrow, apparently with 150 turns of gameplay, a small map, a selection of civs, and all the techs up until the medieval era. I can't wait to see how it plays finally, but I'm still unconvinced about some things. I agree with some of the points acesolid mentioned - even though I'm from the evil "Civ 4 is great, change is bad" camp - however there is something quite unique about the gameplay in Civilization, all the little quirks and gamey tactics employed in each version, and the true test will be if Civ V really has the same "one more turn" compulsiveness. I can easily see the one-unit-per-tile thing becoming a major and counter-intuitive annoyance, given the scale of the game, but I hope I'm proven wrong. Guess we'll see tomorrow.

I'll wait to see what people say about this game, I love games like these but never played any Civ game.

I think the game you are looking for is Call to Power 2. I am not trying to be funny. Get the game, then install the Apolyton patch, and the game is good. I love it. Graphics are a bit dated of course, but the game play is great now. I tried to play it like old, and my capitol got captured.

We obviously don't live in the same place, but PC gaming here is as strong as ever. I am very certain that I'm the only one out of my friends that own a console and my bro and sis gave that to me as a gift. Most likely because I'm the only one with an economy able to support buying console games semi-regularly. Seriously. If a PC and console game is released, you can get the PC version for several hundred SEKs cheaper than the console version. Take Fallout: New Vegas for example. PC version cost 450 and the console versions cost a whooping 600! (64 and 85 USD respectively)

Its actually 50 and 60 in USD. But still, ten bucks difference.

Nope. I check the current exchange rate at currency conversion. The exact exchange is where 450 SEK to 64,26 USD and 600 SEK to 85,68 USD
Edit: 21,42 USD difference

Darn, no demo yet. I thought I read on CFC that the demo would be released at 10am. Guess it's time to go back to bed and hope it's up when I wake up. CFC forums are too busy now. Same goes for 2K Civ V forum. I am shocked they can't handle the people?

Or maybe there is a problem with Civ V and they don't want people on the forum. Anyone having problem with thier Civ V? If you answer this, and have no problem, how come you are here answering and not playing your game? LOL.

Demo loading now. Any Yankees already done decrypting? ^_^

That's the same everywhere. It's not about the games, it's about the hardware and, well, the inability of some devs to write performant code for the PC versions of their games. I mean, look at Mass Effect 2 and Quake 4. One is one of the best things you can see on the console now, and one is what was possible at the start. Now compare the system requirements on the PC. To cut that long story short: You would have to put much more money into a PC to keep an adequate performance and graphical level than into a console. And I've not started talking about compatibility issues.
So the preference of consoles is at least understandable.

Finished pre-loading yesterday, woke up this morning before work hoping to at least start the install - and it's downloading an update already. :sadvaultboy: So I haven't been able to check it out, yet.

As far the "dumbing-down" thing goes - I figure there's a difference between refining a game, and dumbening it. I guess we'll just have to wait and see (until after work, for me) to find out which category Civ V falls into...

Just finished the demo - which capped off at 100 turns rather than the 150 I had read elsewhere - and I have to say I'm suitably impressed. A lot of the flavor that makes Civilization unique is largely intact, including the svelte background music, the lush world map, most of the familiar hotkeys (build cities, fortify, end turn, etc) and the degree of automation in city and worker management. The interface is slick, the hexagons work (although aren't much different to squares, tbh) and everything plays quite intuitively. I blitzed through the 100 rounds, always wanting to expand my empire just a little bit, and was definitely left craving more. This bodes well for the longevity of the game.

However, a couple of things annoyed me: first of all, the game chugs along like nothing I've ever played. My rig is designed to chew up Crysis and ask for more, yet I had to turn all the graphical options down to medium before I got even acceptable framerates - and even then it was a little laggy. What's more, there didn't seem to be much appreciable difference in visual quality moving from high to medium, so I have to wonder where all the performance is going. Second, savegames are listed alphabetically rather than chronologically, with no option to change it, and while this is only a minor issue it does highlight some of the oversimplification that seems to have crept into the design. I get the feeling that the game was built from the ground up to appeal to a wide and inexperienced playerbase, and this may leave veterans feeling a little cold when familiar features are inexplicably absent. Hand-holding is much in evidence, and though this in itself isn't a bad thing, I fear the game may be erring a little too much on the "dumbing down" side of refinement.

As I also predicted, the one-unit-per-tile aspect became a bit of a hassle to deal with, jockeying my units around to get the melee units to the front and archers to the rear - given that some sections of the map are only a few tiles wide, it doesn't leave much room to maneuver. Thankfully even basic units get 2 movement points, and they included the ability for units to pass through each other, as long as they end their turn on a free tile (without which I don't think the game would work at all.) In the end combat was quite fun, but I'm still concerned with how tedious it might become to command 20+ units all individually every round, instead of just stacking them into neat groups. Especially since city sieges will now consume multiple turns, and casualties can be expected to mount higher than previously (cities have the ability to bombard their attackers, sapping the strength of encircling troops without taking damage themselves.)

Ultimately 100 turns is simply not enough to make a full judgement on the game, but I'd be willing to give it another shot. I won't be splashing out top dollar for it, as it still feels a little weak around the edges, but with enough time and expansions I can see it being a worthy sequel to the venerable series. As it stands it's a good Civ, but not a great one, though I would be happy enough to play through the test of time to the end.

just downloading the demo now, excited!

So is this Civ's version of Oblivion then? Trying to appeal to a mass audience? Hopefully like Oblivion this will still be a fun game.

Keep in mind that it's still a demo. Full game has a few more days/weeks before release

This friday on europe, i think it's already relesed in US, a little late to develop it further

I've been wanting to get into a 4x game, i've never played a civilisation game before, but i'll try the demo and see what it's like. In my case a little "hand-holding" would be welcome, everyone starts a noob, afterall

Today is the release day for North America.

I've recently gotten into CivIV, when I first got it I didn't really like it, but last week I gave it another try and really liked it. I'll be getting V soon. I'm not real crazy about having to run it on Steam but oh well.