The good and the bad of Sid Meier's Civilization series

The Game Room
#101

Do you know if any good numbers exist? While PC gaming stats may be up year over year, how does that compare in raw numbers to the big 3 consoles? My gut, though I admit to not being hardcore about gaming so take that with a grain of salt, is that the big studios are going all in on consoles. Because XBox and PC games are pretty similar they get released for both, but the number of PC-only games is vanishingly small.

How much of the success of Civ VI is based on the cross-platform nature of the game?

#102

Consoles are bigger if you treat them all as one market, PCs are bigger if you track console sales independently. Mobile is bigger than anything else.

From this page of game market statistics.

Civ VI, specifically, sold over 5.5 million copies when this article was published in 2019, two months before the console versions released.

#103

102 posts, and only two mentions of Call to Power?

#104

Call to Power isn’t a civilization game. It was meant to fool people into thinking it was Civilization game (they actually had to change the name from Civilization: Call to Power), and it’s not well rated.

Now, granted, even if it’s not a real civ game, if people liked it, they’re free to discuss it, but I’ve never heard it mentioned as a good/important/whatever game. I think it’s mostly forgotten.

#105

@SenorBeef explained why, a better question would had been why we have more than 100 posts and no proper explanation of the bug that caused Nuclear Gandhi.

YMMV about if that was a good or a bad “feature” to have, but the curious thing about it is that it was reported many times in the past that peaceful Gandhi became a warmonger thanks to a bug in the earlier games; however, recent word from the god (Sid Meir’s) is that it wasn’t.

So, a retelling of the origin to make it mysterious or wasn’t planned? AFAIK some programmers reported finding the bug that caused it in the earlier games, but that in later games it was done on purpose for tradition’s sake, what do you guys think?

#106

It sure looked/acted like one to me.

#107

Well, you currently have the Warlock franchise and the Endless franchise. And Humankind will be launching soon. That’s not counting the blatant low-effort Civ clones for mobile, etc. But I guess they all try to add to the formula rather than take away since, even for a new title, “Civilization but with less” is a harder sell than “Civilization, plus [Whatver]”

#108

So it succeeded in fooling at least one person.

#109

Humankind looks so close to Civ IV they might get sued.

As a kinda related sidenote I see Humankind already won a “Best Game” award from, well, someone. A game that HASN’T BEEN RELEASED. Don’t trust video game “Reviews,” kids.

#110

I still own stock in Battlecruiser 3000 AD. Is that bad?

#111

One will note the lack of “Sid Meier’s” on the box. The original Civs were done by Microprose. Sid Meier, Jeff Briggs, and Bryan Reynolds left Microprose and founded Firaxis Games in 1996 (and released Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri in 1999). Call to Power was produced by Activision and released in 1999.

So the reason Call to Power wasn’t a Civilization game is because it literally wasn’t. It was Activision’s attempt to create a Civilization game.

#112

If you started exploring the discs, you could find the video files for the advisors and get some clips that represented highly-unlikely scenarios. I remember the Trade advisor wearing modern clothes and frantically advising the leader to discover trade. I don’t know if it’s even possible to get to the modern era without trade, but the writers of the game must considered it.

You can find all the “Civilization II Council” clips on YouTube.

#113

When I see lists for worst game ever I always think of this game but few remember it and certainly not the younger generations.

I remember being so excited for that game too and shocked at what a complete ass Derek Smart was about it.

#114

I only know of it because of its terrible reputation. Everyone loves a train wreck (or is that spaceship wreck?), see this glowing review:

#115

Wait, it was worse than Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing?

#116

By orders of magnitude, due to the fact that BC3K was supposed to be so much more complicated than driving a truck from Point A to Point B.

#117

Which explains why Derek Smart has been such a vocal critic of Star Citizen. Battlecruiser 3000 was the Star Citizen of the 90s.

#118

Is Star Citizen any good?

#119

It doesn’t technically exist. It’s been in development since 2012, and still has no actual release date. It may or may not be a scam.

Here’s an active thread about it that was started in 2015.

#120

It is very good…

…at emptying wallets!