Frustrated previous owner of Civ IV here - that’s right, I said previous - because I’ve taken that thing back to the store. Oh I want to play it! I get green with envy and purple with frustration when I read all the good reviews and see how many people are enjoying it. But when I put it on I get the black land of death (on both of my computers) - and I’m sick of installing and rolling back drivers and turning off graphics / etc.
Ahem! Anyways - there’s a whole 'nother thread in the Pit for that sort of thing.
So here’s the thing. I haven’t bought a computer game in a long time. Long story, but I was sort of saving up for Civ IV - since it’s the type of game I enjoy. So now I have cash to burn and a mad hunger for a new PC game.
So (finally he gets to the point!) what game should I get to replace my Civ IV which wouldn’t work?
Suggestions? I’ve thought about Rome: Total War, or Age of Empires, or just buying another copy of Civ III? Help dopers!
Have you ever played Europa Universalis II? I’d give it a try; still gets updated from time to time by the programmer, has a great forum with lots of ongoing commentary, a VERY supportive MP community with lots of available games, and can’t be beat for the elegance and intricacy of the play. Graphics are kinda lame, but only cause they are based on the old Boardgame of the same name.
Rome Total War is one of the best RTS games ever, and has some very strong ‘civ style’ elements.
If you want a turn based game, see if you can track down a copy of Alpha Centauri, you will not be disapointed.
If you’d like to get a very decent pure RTS game, try to pick up a bargain bin copy of Dawn of War, you should be able to get your hands on it for twenty bucks, tops.
I’ve played 'em all from Colonization through Civ III. If you care about gameplay, Alpha Centauri is the best. It took Civ II to the next level. Everything since has either been improvement on graphics or interface but has completely failed to improve on the enjoyment level of Civ II or Alpha Centauri.
Graphics are nice. So are neato interface doodads. But I play games for the substantive gameplay enjoyment. I’ll take a fun ugly game over a beautiful boring game anyday.
Seriously. I tried it out this afternoon at my friend’s place (and it works on his 9800 Pro), and that is without a doubt one of the slowest games I’ve ever played. Sitting there for minutes on end mashing the end turn button waiting for things to finish just to get a prompt for what we’d like to go for during the next mash-a-thon. After a boring 90 minutes we loaded up Unreal Tournament 2004. Now that has gameplay.
Good stuff! Especially if you like deep historical gameplay you’ll be in clover. Apply patch 1.08 for sure; we have semi- and un-official post 1.08 patches, and lots of user mods available. Do drop by the forums for anything you might want to chat about.
Ahh good old Alpha Centauri I found it far more enjoyable then Civ III when it came out. If you like Rome: Total War you might want to check out Medieval Total War. The major difference is that the world map plays more like a board game moving from tile to tile instead of actually having to march your units from city to city. Even though I have Rome and its expansion pack I still fire up Medieval Viking Invasion from time to time.
The black land of death described by the OP is, as I understand it, due to the graphics card lacking hardware T&L. This is different from the renderer error described here. I could be all wrong though, as I still don’t have the game (curse you Amazon!).
To the OP: Be sure to check out the Alpha Centauri has an expansion pack, Alien Crossfire.
The black land of death can be counteracted by going to worldbuilder and telling it you want to see all the land from the start. On regular zoom level it is kind of dark, however if you zoom out it gets brighter.
Obviously I only consider this a temporary solution.
Rise of Nations is MicroSoft’s answer to Civilization. I, myself, love nuking the crap out of my neighbors.
This game is sort of Civ and AoE mixed up with both turn based and real time aspects.
I know who I am over there; same as here. Who are you over there? I love finding out that people I know from one board are people I know from another board!
I completely failed to realise why your nom de net here was so familiar. Huh.
My ID over there is a bit unencrypted for my liking, but too late to change: I’m the moderator of the EU2 Bug Reporting forum who isn’t kurtbrian or Carolus Rex. I also work in the EU2 Tech Support forum there, and am a beta tester on the Diplomacy game that Lute Skywatcher mentioned a couple of posts ago.
I would love to play Alpha Centauri, but it absolutely refuses to work with my graphics card. It’s been so long that I don’t remember what the error was, but it refuses to play nicely with a GeForce2 GTS. The game won’t even run.
