Best Civilization Title?

[SirNitram]

Yes, and the fact that it went beyond 2050 or whatever and into the realm of science fiction. Also, the AI Entity video is still the creepiest fucking thing on earth.

Pity it's vanished into the same hole as Alien Crossfire.

Good Old Games

Shazzam! AC is now available again. Call to Power is there for three quid as well.

Sir, you are a gentlemen among gentlemen. PIRATES, AWAY.

[2000AD]

It was a coin toss between IV and Alpha Centauri, ended up plumping for IV because of the sheer modability, Fall From Heaven (and all it's mods) is up there with things like Counter Strike as greatest mod of all time for me.
A little surprised to see V out in front, given the shallacking it got on release, but G&K really improved it. Only real problem I had with V is that it came after IV and in my book it was damn near impossible to improve on IV so anything coming after was bound to be a step down, but it managed to be more of a step sideways than down as it made some key changes to the Civ formula.

[Dartzap]

It was a coin toss between IV and Alpha Centauri, ended up plumping for IV because of the sheer modability, Fall From Heaven (and all it's mods) is up there with things like Counter Strike as greatest mod of all time for me.
A little surprised to see V out in front, given the shallacking it got on release, but G&K really improved it. Only real problem I had with V is that it came after IV and in my book it was damn near impossible to improve on IV so anything coming after was bound to be a step down, but it managed to be more of a step sideways than down as it made some key changes to the Civ formula.

I think it is mostly down to the fact IV is now looking like the arse end of a badger suffering from the norovirus. Makes my eyes hurt!

[The Yosemite Bear]

II is still classic Civ, SMAC is just sweet, sweet crack.....

I really can't choose as I'm an addict....

[Iron Bridge]

SMAC is the one I remember most fondly. The amount of detail that went into the setting was incredible; truly a game of its time, unlikely to repeated.

After II/SMAC, the series continued to get better but suffered major diminishing returns, because most of the improvements were just fiddling. Better graphics, more 'special units' and 'special characters', etc. They never made the simulation of creating and commanding an entire civilisation any deeper, content with the boardgame format they started with. Nor did they fix major omissions such as the lack of any real AI diplomacy, other than flip from 'help the player' to 'punish the player' depending on difficulty.

It was just churning out the same game to win the same market. Compare, say, Colonization to Civ II, and there is a major change in concepts as well as just aesthetic and marginal things.

[Lord Woodlouse]

I've owned and played all of them. Though my first experience and one that is the most nostalgic to me is Colonization. Would love a true remake of that game (I know they did one with the IV engine, but it didn't improve enough for me).

All the Civ games have had fond memories for me, except Civ III. Civ III seemed almost offensive to me when I played it.

Never really got into SMAC. I liked a lot of what it did but overall I think it just felt too miserable for me, partly because of the dull colour scheme. Would have benefited from a more overt terraforming element I reckon.

V has done the most to really shake things up, for me in a positive way. I know there are some hardcore old schoolers out there who despise it though. My only possible gripe with it might be the difficulty. It kinda feels like it's either hard enough to challenge you, but forces you to play for one particular victory (thus making it feel less "free"), or it's too easy. But that might be just me.

The Call to Power games were pretty neat. Diplomacy had some cool features (though I've never been that impressed by any AI diplomacy in these games to be honest) and I quite liked that improvements were carried out with a kind of public works tax and you just picked what needed improving and where.

[PainRack]

I've owned and played all of them. Though my first experience and one that is the most nostalgic to me is Colonization. Would love a true remake of that game (I know they did one with the IV engine, but it didn't improve enough for me).

There's this project called FreeCol. It remains much more truer to the original Colonization, but allowed for bigger maps and I think there's more nations and variations such as Africia.


Its...... no improvement over the original, and frankly, the original looked a bit more nicer, what with the MIDI music and text font but I like it over Colonization(Civ IV).

There are some minor game differences .... Reaching Independence is a bit harder than in the original game, the game also changes some of the trade prices differently such as Ore, the ingame Map of America is huge but makes playing North America extremely difficult(the best location is in South America, with easy access to Ore and all the trade resources of cotton/sugar/tobacco) and defending your settlements is more difficult now due to the larger scope. The last portion is trading with Indians. In the DOS game, trade with Indians was inequitable until extremely high tax rates due to the low prices, but now, even the simple huts offer decent prices for your goods constantly.

I still boot it up on and off when I get bored...