Yup, great graphics and cool new stuff. But I can't care about all this anymore after some hours of gameplay of Civ4, while I could spend days playing 3. Can't get hooked by all these new features because the game loses its power to immerse the player. Why? Diplomacy useless through centuries. No future: Once the map is covered into borders, change stops happening. You need long and boring wars to conquer territories that low culture won't allow to use before eons... So when taking a first "row" of cities, you need to destroy the next row in order to make your first ones' grow. The system seeks to prevent you from doing daring conquests. Then the only best option is tech race, while you resist a few defensive wars, and while your workers just stand for centuries on a territory all covered by roads and improvements (which also happened in Civ3, but late), waiting for a new tech that'll let them improve a tile or two. To sum up: fine innovations worth the try, not addictive at all once the learning curve has been climbed. Still, I'll be the first to buy Civ5...… Expand

If you do not want to lose hours of your day without noticing... DO NOT get this game, but if you don't mind playing marathon sessions and being totally obsessed with conquering the world then this is the right game for you!

This is, quite literally, the best game I've ever played. Will keep you hooked for hours on end.

Best Civ game ever made. Great technology tree, culture, military, superb graphic, music and the best gameplay in strategic games. There are "only" 18 nations (civilizations) but additional are added in the next addons ;P My score is 10-/10, but there are no "-" scores availabele, so i score maxumim ;)

Great game. Other than some issues with the ATI card I had at the time, I've thoroughly enjoyed this game. Definitely the high water mark of the series.

A very seductive one. At first I didn't like it, but after a few times playing it, I really started to like it. This game also teaches you a bit of history and geography, so... Great!

Civ 1 was a revolutionary game. Civ 2 was a worthy successor. Civ 3 was well.. a step into a new direction. This game however. This game gives you the greatness of civ 1, the streamlined feeling you had in civ 2 and if that wouldn't be enough, civ 4 manages to do the impossible and takes the game even further. The only real negative i could mention in regards of this game is the fact, that it will completely take over your life. Other than that, its 10/10 +. One of the titles that truly deserve the maximum score.… Expand

Another big fan of Civ 2 who cant play it on my new Vista computer. The main things I don't like about this are how slow it is to play, and the main gripe, the ridiculous numbers of units needed to conquer an enemy city, yet if the enemy has horse archer or elephant he'll take your city in one attack. In theory the idea of experience and strength/attack improvements is good, but you get ridiculous situations of attacking a city and your tanks are getting wiped out by defending archers!!!! This is at Chieftan level, the second lowest. The graphics are pretty but I'd take Civ 2 any day as its better as a game. I almost feel I want to buy an old XP machine just to get back to Civ 2. The sounds and graphics are nice but this game has serious flaws.… Expand

This is a perfect game. Didn't play Civ 2+3 because I started with Call to Power and that wasn't the best version of Civ. Realy love Civ 4 though. It is easy to get started and you can learn more strategic depths while playing. The choice of music is also very good. I like the music before 1700. I also played it on my P4 1700 laptop with an ATI firegl graphics card. did not have any performance issues. Thats very nice. Found a few technical issues with the graphics but I must admit I didn't install the latest drivers. Don't expect too much from the graphics. It is just there to present the gameplay. And the gameplay is superb.… Expand

Looks great, but the same tired strategy still works from Civ 1-3. Pick an enemy. Beat up on him until he cries uncle. Let him surrender. Send the huge army against someone else to beat up on. Repeat as needed. Religion adds nothing. Resource concept needs to be fixed. All those resources and still, if your not LUCKY enough to have Iron or Horses or (20 game hours later) no Uranium, you get to sit and watch you opponent beat up on you, with no hope of matching him. It would be nice if mining Gold was worth more then something like Clams. Great People? Great disappointment. Bottom line - Great game if you don't know Civs 1-3. But if you know them, then to me this is a flop.… Expand

This game is so much better than Civ III. They have left out all the tedious micro-management and enhanced the areas which make it more fun. Obviously they have listened to players gripes and recommendations and produced a work of art. Fantastic.

This isn't Quake or Half-Life or Far Cry. It is a strategy game. If you can't handle strategy then don't buy this game. However, if you enjoy thinking and planning then you can't go wrong with Civ 4. Like others here Civ 3 was a let down in my eyes. However, Civ 4 storms back and is just awesome. Have completed the game three times now - each with a different strategry. There is tons of flexibility for just about any type of player. Trust me - you'll get your $50 back in gameplay. Hours and hours of fun!… Expand

Boy is this game overrated!! I don't understand why it got such a high rating, it's really not that good!! don't get me wrong, I liked the older versions and had fun playing them but the reason I bought the special edition is because I thought it would be, well.... "special" there is nothing really special about this game!! other than the fact that it is the same old rehash of the older versions. I was really expecting a big change but was sadly disappointed to see that, apart from the graphics, there was really none. It's the same old dull routine over and over again!! Oh wel,l guess as long as it makes money why bother to change it right? wrong!! these people seriously need to change the formula a little... because this game is really getting stale and tiresome..... I think it's time to do something different!… Expand

Avoid at all costs unless your computer meets or exceeds recommended specs! Minimum specs listed for game are completely insufficient and it will not play! Rushed to market, the game is truely un-playable on most systems. Review info on patches to see just how much had to be repaired after date of sale! (and see how much STILL has to be repaired) My advice would be if you really love the Civ series, wait until the price drops and the "Game of the Year" version is released.… Expand

The ultimate in strategy. If you’re not playing this game it should be because either your brain or computer are too slow.

There are some gameplay improvements over Civilization 3 but the terrible interface, lack of city governor options and frustrating unit selection/command system makes this inferior to Civ 3.

Civ IV is extremely disappointing!! The huge size of the military units, as well as the pointless upgrades make them unwieldy and extremely difficult to use. They don't have defense/attack values which totally destroys the fun and strategy involved in military campaigns. There is too much going on in this game, nothing is simple, everything is a chore and its simply a waste of time.

Whatever people say about the game being bad is likely because in all honesty it's not just insanely tough, it's also hard to get into. But i give this game a 9 because once you do get into it, it is one of the best strategy games i play to date, the indepth of the culture aspect of the game leads to a whole new way of getting victory, why kill your annoyingly AI oppents when they can kill your tank with archers (which i've tested and isn't true) when you can expand your cultrual borders into theirs and then before they know it! The city is yours!… Expand

Deeply disappointing. Above all, the geography stinks. What I mean by this is that in far, far too many cases one's civilization is bereft of any natural frontiers - obviously designed deliberately that way so that you HAVE to build massive armies. Unrealistic and tedious. A massive step backwards from Civ 3.

What a sad, sad day. I sat awake at night until the game arived here last FRI. J.J. said it, a mess is right. The addictive quality of the game is gone, not endearing or fun. I seriously doubt I'll still be playing this one next week. Note to Sid... you're getting old man.

A great improvement on the other Civ games, and that's saying a lot. The changes from Civ3 make the gameplay smoother and more emersive.

Very addictive game. If you like Civ you will like this. Note to Julio: 'You're a blank'.

Civ 4 da best!!!!

I never liked Civilization games before, but this one pulled me in. The graphics are superb and it's easier than ever for newbies. It's deeper and overall more satisfying.

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. Sooo much better than AOE3. If you're an AOE fan but never thought you had the brain for CIV, then this is for you.

Good game. Potentially addicting for spurts of time, but also potentially repetitive, predictable and tedious. A 9.3?? Alongside such classics as Baldur's Gate II, Quake or Civ 2?!! Ridiculous. I was blown away by Civ 2, dissapointed w/ Civ3, and found this one to be good, but not deserving of the effusive praise seen here.

Excellent game - after the dissapointment of Civ III (The day I bought Civ III ended with me re-installing Civ II) This game has everything. People her say you can't micromanage the cities...Oh yes you can - you just don't have to (it's an option) LIkewise the autoexplore etc YOU CAN DO IT YOURSELF IF YOU LIKE.

I had thought my playing habits were falling for good as I more and more rarely found myself playing long hours of any game. But Civilization 4 took me by suprise. I got it at 11 'o clock when I was just about to goto the lecture. The lecture was skipped and after 16 hours I finally went to sleep. Also the next day I skipped all the lectures that day. Even now after a year I still find myself playing the famous "one more turn" all over again. But nowadays I only play on my leisure time. Civanonymous video was so funny, because it was true.… Expand

I must say I really enjoy this game. I have been playing Civ since 1993. Oringal Civ was good, Civ II was excellent, Civ III had some neat ideas but cheated a lot and was a bit of a bummer although the "Conquest" expansion made it a bit better it still wasn't close to the excellent Civ II. Now there is Civ IV and I must say after playing two games for a total of 25 hours that I quite like it. The game works very smooth for me, I have a Ati 9800 but have no problems at all. The game (version 1.09) has crashed once and with the new patch (1.52) it hasn't crashed at all. I love the fact that you can set it at Marathon now, the game takes a lot longer and you really have time to build up an army and go to war. In the past it happened a lot that by the time you were ready to attack your units were obsolete already. Non of this in marathon setting. The in game music is great also. I only don't like the 3D graphics, it's to hard to get a good view of your part of the world, and the in game movies are still a let down compared to the fantastic Civ II in games movies (classical music and very unique little movies). I highly recommend this game.… Expand

I give it a one, only because it might be a game small percentage of people could like. I find dull dull dull. pathetic. The grafics and the turn base stinks the zoom is worse and the movies are a waste of time. Warriors, fighting with spears, taller than sky scappers, come on! This game puts me to sleep. Just can't for the life of me see why it is rated so High. And as for any game scorring a 10 that should be impossible. For a game to score 10 every person sould want to play it and forgo every thing else. Wake you game reviewers and get a ratting system that means something.… Expand

Ruined by technical problems. Customer support useless and slow. I'm never buying anything by these people again.

Long time Civ fan and this is far and away an improvement on every level. The graphics, the playability, the new interface.

a boring frustrasting game... about half the thing u need to now are not taught in the tutorial!

Absolutely awesome - 100% improvement on Civ III

Honestly, I expected more from the gameplay in Civ4 than in Civ3. The units are still horribly inferior, and when longbows can defeat my modern armor, I wonder how it was even possible in the first place. The combat of the game is horrifically bad in the sense that it still suffers from the technology differences. Civilization three was superior for its time, but Civ4, instead of being a sequel. Is more like a "Civ3 new and improved." Similar to the horrible sequels of the "Might and Magic" series where the graphics and gameplay were horrifically bad after every sequel, I hope Civilization does not fall into the same trap.… Expand

Its hard to justify the pricetag for a game like Civ IV. In total it adds a few minor feature changes from Civ III, some worse and some bette. The engine is beautiful but excessive for the style of gameplay and problems running it are commmon even on game meeting the specs. Finally the game has serious holes related to balance, as well as strategic options. Any strategy hound would be better served by Civ III or Alpha Centari both of which while recieving less unanimous critical praise were far more solid games.… Expand

Civilization 3 complete was better....Civilization 4 is horrible, the graphics are 3d but the game is more confusing, frustrating, glitchy.....I can't even uninstall the fuking thing from my computer because of some glitch...i hate this game with a passion, I smash the CDs into tiny little pieces and then set them on fire then sweet the ashes into a...container and weigh the container down and make it sink to the deepest darkest part of the ocean.… Expand

I've been playing Civ since Civ I and Civ II was always my favorite. Now along comes Civ IV and it is the perfect upgrade. It brings back the fun of Civ II with a pretty face and removes some of the tedious stuff that brought Civ III down. Great game.

I think that Civ III is a better game than Civ IV. I think the global view was not the best view that they could have added to the game. I much prefer the view for Civilization 3, the 3D view is tacky in my opinion. I wish they gave the option to use the view used for Civ 3.

I have always enjoyed the civilization series and I think this is a great addition.

It is a really good game, the graphics are great and there are a few "new" things that keep me entertained but in the end civ3 was more playable. Tech problems and slooooow turns towards end of game make this game frustrating. And I agree it does feel a bit like a re-hash.

Perfect Game. I felt like an accountant in Civ 3 and II. The first one made me feel like the real ruler and warlord. In Civ4 i feel a ruler again. Thank you Sid for finally making a good sequel for Civ 1.

Once this one arrived, i knew my private life will have to go on hold for quite some time.

This is much over rated game. It looks fun, it have "everything in it" but...it cheats so badly and it is adjusted so hard (AI is not so intelligent, but barbarians are overpowered and there is WAY too many of them and if you take them off, game becomes boring). Very very very unbalanced game.

I have played CIV in most of its itterations for 16 years, and CIV IV is the worst game I've ever played. At the next to the easiest level, you have to contend with a never-ending supply of barbarians who can't be beat. If you build more than 6 or 7cities, the game crashes your economy. After playing for weeks, I still can't score higher than next to last. Now, I can't even delete it from my computer because it has some kind of error. The beauty -- I spent $100 to upgrade my computer so I could play this worthless piece of crap.… Expand

I think this may be one of those games where fans of the previous titles in the series will either love this one or hate it, with few exceptions. I, for one, played Civ 2 Gold for days and weeks on end. I adored that game, yet I barely touched Civ 3. After being pushed into playing the 4th, I rediscovered my love of the Civ series, for the most part. One thing all fans of Civ 3 who read this must be aware of is that this is **much** different from Civ 3. Go to www.civfanatics.com (biggest Civ fan site) and look for articles comparing the two, especially the one that specifically addresses Civ 3 players who are having a miserable time with the game. The gist of the article is this: **This is not Civ 3, and if you play it like it's Civ 3 YOU WILL LOSE**. Most agree, after getting over that, that Civ 4 is the far superior game. I won't go into all of the details; you can look those up for yourself. There IS an issue with Civ 4's formula for barbarian activity, however, that should also be made known in these reviews so that no one will be disappointed. **The bigger your map is and the more civs you add, the worse the barbarian problems will be.** Don't start off on a huge map with lots of civs. Start small and learn what's different in Civ 4 first. Ok, have I moved past all of the necessary disclaimers yet? I forget. I hope so. Civ 4 is a deep, interesting, and fairly balanced strategy game. We've come along way since the 2nd and certainly since the 1st. Civ specific units are in from the last one, as well as special buildings. The biggest difference on the front end, though, are the leaders. Yeah, they're historical, but, more importantly, their various abilities (more added in the two expansions) become specialized tools for however the player would like to play the game. Strategies have never been more diverse in the series. Hannibal sure as heck ain't gonna play like Gandhi. These strategies make use of everything: old and new concepts. To keep this from becoming much longer than it already is, I'll just say that everything is much improved and evolved over the previous iterations, and readers would be wise to give a good Civ strategy site a look to get the hang of the finer points of the game and its various strategies. Hmmm, well, then why did I give it only a 9? Civ 4 lacks the ocean of mods and scenarios that the previous versions, especially the 2D versions, had. That's a no brainer, of course. Not as many people have or would like to take the time to develop the skills necessary to do that in a 3D game like Civ 4. It's sad, but it was inevitable, too. Still, Civ 4 is a Civ title in all the glory a fan would expect. Great game.… Expand

First time I have tried an 'epic strategy game' in some years, and what can I say? its just not a sufficiently interesting strategic challenge for the time invested. My old complaints from (probably) Civ2 remain: the AI is not at all interesting, surprising, or even rational, and must cheat to be 'challenging'. The game soon bogs down in micromanagement, unless maybe you want to use the in-game helpers, which are as bad as the opposing AI... and then the graphics... they are worthless and distracting in such a strategy game. I had to turn on this extra layer of silly balloons to 'clarify' what is supposed to be displayed in the graphics, and still, something as significant as a huge hostile army at the border is not at all clear... so you are left to make your strategic decisions with incomplete information. and although it proports to be not solely a wargame, wars seem unavoidable, and are the worst and most tedious micromanagement of all. there are a lot of interesting aspects to this... but it certainly cannot be seen as any kind of meaningful 'historical simulation', so all this 'stuff' is mainly clutter, and not really that interesting strategically. maybe the makers should just play 'go' for a few years, and get back to the basics.… Expand

The gameplay is fully identical with rise of nations and sizes are wery weird

It's no Alpha Centauri, but better than Civ 3 at any rate. I would greatly prefer a classical iso perspective, but every game has to be 3D nowadays, whether it makes sense or not.

One of the best games i have ever played!

Vastly over rated, slow, boring, and half the time nothing to do but click end turn. I can't be the only one out there who thinks this surely?

This is a huge step forward. Adding new gameplay, cutting out the boring parts, making the game accessible to newbs while streamlining everything is perfect. The problem is that you have old grumpy people who want civ1. if that's what you want, go play it. kudos for taking some risks.

Give the game time.. a lot has changed since civ3. Contrary to what some of the other reviewers have said there IS city-micromanagement. After i played my first game i thought it was garbage.. after another one i can barely put the game down. Also artillery can attack conventionally, but they don't have the imbalanced no-retaliation attack they did in civ3.

Probably overrated, but still the only game out there which keeps you playing the same 'map' for hours., in a good way. Unfortunately the game crashes pretty often even with a good AMD system w/ 1gb RAM. I would have preferred more depth in the gameplay - the only way you can really affect your world is still through borders, miltary and city upgrades. I'm disappointed they removed many technologies and units, as a result the standard game is quite short even on 'epic'. For the non-civ fans, wait until the SDK is released when new, free mods (such as one based on SMACentauri) start being developed. Still, all this is unfortunately to be expected from a game offered via retail channels by a commercial developer.… Expand

Lets you control cities without any immersive feel of actually controlling cities. The most addictive cartoon spreadsheet invented. At the risk of overusing the word "addictive", it's addictive, but burnout factor will come quick.

Ok, did some extensive "testing". The game is really impro?ved and immersive - in general. But... - As already said, the eras pass too fast and your units get obsolete before you can use them. - Religions need to be improved by patches. Christianity and Islam are almost never adopted as state religions. There is no incentive for the AI and the player to do so. - Streamlined gameplay also causes the cities to get easily idle. To few buildings to build. - The PC can't keep up with the late game on a standard map. The delays and lag can become horrible. The same when you zoom out on a messy map. (CPU 2,8 and 512 RAM) Obvious pros: - Religion adds a new layer. - Culture conversion is a viable option, but not too easy achieved. - Civics are nice. I'm not sure if I am happy with the graphics. From a perspective of functionality 3D was surely not necessary. And it's a drain on system performance. On the other hand... well, I don't know. I guess you get used and grow fond of them. All in all a good game. I hope it will get better with patches.… Expand

If you expect to use the same strategies as civ 3 you'll hate this, it is quite different so takes a while to readjust. More factors complicate the strategy making it less formulaic. Some people have complained of slow performance, sound problems, and firaxis really should release a demo so people can see if this effects them. But my system is quite puny [AMD 2000, 512MB, FX5200] and it runs things fine on a standard map slowing down slightly at the end game but nothing drastic. Good game if you are willing to learn new strategies.; a really good game.… Expand

This game is absolutely stunning. One warning: you will get the chants stuck in your head with about 6 hours of play! This is one of the best games out there, but there are huge bugs on the MP. However, this will be fixed within the week.

Civ Rocks! Is the very best game ever!!!

The bets of the Civ games. The biggest problem with the older games in the series was overall game length. Its been fixed with many other great improvements.

Like a breath of fresh air. I can't wait to get home from work and play some more. IN fact I might take off a few days to really get stuck in :) No problems with getting it to work out of the box even though I have an ATI 9700 pro video card.

I have played CIV I, II and III, this one sucks. 3D graphics detract from the game and are certainly not relevant to a CIV game. User Interface is clumsy. Too many sacrifices made in attempt to improve performance - probably a result of wasting too much computer time on silly graphics. It's a shame but this one is BAD.

I have to agree with all of the other low reviews. I loved the other civs, even civ 1 is fun to go back to. But this one is very boring and slow. Terribly disapointed and sad at the state of this game. Its addictive but only cause i'm hoping that at the next turn something, anything will finally happen to prove to me that this game doesn't suck , alas a few thousand years later the same boring lack of anything to make me stop from throwing this thing in the trash. Sad, so sad.… Expand

Extremely boring. Got tired of it after 30 minutes of constantly clicking end turn and next to nothing really happening.

Best civ ever, and now its noob friendly... too bad ill have to drop out of college now...

One of the best games of ALL TIME.

I've played em all and more or less left the series after the last was such a flop. I cannot harp enough on how great this game actually is...I have never played a Civ game as good as this. Has the charm of the original matched with new game improving features. I couldn't have asked for more.

Amazing. The games are of the right length, not too long that you can't try out new strategies, but long enough to make it feel important. The epic Spearman vs. Tank battles don't happen AS much, but it's still an issue. Much easier on the eyes. The interface is streamlined, the bottom left has a box with info depending on where you're clicking. Best in Civilization series and contending with AC for best TBS.… Expand

IF I could give it a 9.9 I would because of some technical issues involving on-line play that caused me and three to completely lose a three hour game. Other than that, perfect this far in my view.

Good game overall. Could be better. I think the pace of the game is too fast. You can't actually enjoy the feel of an Era, because tech progress goes so fast. Even on Epic, the time you spend building an army to crush an ennemy makes your units obselete before the end of the war! At the end of my first war, i upgraded archer for marines!!! Need more playing maybe...

I'm a big fan of the series but this time around I'm left wondering why such a big departure from the others. I still rate Alpha Centauri as the best and still play it on occasion. Most of what disappointed me about this one is the combat units... too big for one, no reliable way of knowing defensive strengths and why the bowman is such a defensive powerhouse. The graphics are beautiful but sorry to say they aren't easier on the eyes, leaves me cockeyed really and why the change from left to right click for unit movements. Here's hoping for Alpha Centauri II...… Expand

"Kind to n00bs!" (Dumbed down to the extreme), hate the civics system, the interface is a mess... BUT IT'S CIV!!!! Feel really ambivalent about this one.. but if this is the way that PC gaming is going, I might have to stop playing games and get a life ;0)

An easy 10. Hard to find any flaws with it. I even liked civ3, but this is much better.

Note to David P. - You didn't give the game a 10 because "1) lesser units can still destroy greater units, e.g. cavalry destroying an Apache helicopter." If you look at the actual odds of this happening it would be extremely rare. Like one in a million. Even if you have a severely damages gunship vs. a heavily fortified and upgraded cavalry, the gunship will still usually win. I don't see the problem. You also said "why are the units so large? Tanks and soldiers tower over cityscapes. I'd love to see a more realistic sense of scale, so that the game itself takes on a greater sense of scale." Well it wouldn't make any sense to have units actual size. You would not be able to see them at all on the map. You are basically viewing the world from outer space. It would make no sense at all to have the units represented to scale on the map.… Expand

Great game! They have fixed all of the problems with the old game and made this one much better!

Excellent game! Not as complex as Civilization 3, but there are some new things to compensate! I don't understand the need for a 3d world, it makes the game graphic quite heavy and slow down everything, especially in multiplayer. Nevertheless the best Sid Meyer's Civilization!

Fantastic game! Multiplayer is absolutely amazing. Definately get it if you're a fan of strategy games.

Seriously, if you have not already go and buy this game right now. I could literally talk for hours about how amazing and addictive this title is but you can never truely understand such things until you play it for yourself. I was unlucky enough to miss previous installments in the Civilization series, and was overjoyed when this forth game was finally announced. Incredibly accessible and overflowing with depth and creativity, Civ 4 is easily the game of the year for the PC, and overall the series of Civ titles are with out a doubt some of the best games ever made on any platform.… Expand

This game is plain stupid! I believe Sid Meier has done well paying off all the game reviewers as he consistently gets overinflated ratings for all of his games. Pirates was stupid too! Give me Age of Empires anytime anyday. This turn based system is for the birds. We're not playing Dungeons and Dragons Sid. I give this game a 1 only because there is no ZERO.

I can't believe some of the reasons people have for giving this game a bad rating. Ok, the steep system requirements and buggy initial release are valid, but wanting the scale of units to be more accurate? You idiots. How would you be able to see them? Then there's the gripe about the game playing itself. It has 7 or 8 difficulty levels, try a harder one if it's too easy for you, or just turn off the tips and City Governors. I agree that it suggests some pretty stupid moves, but a 10 second look through the Options menu solves that problem you retards. And finally, my favorite; "Why isn't there a difference between religions?" Gee, let's think about this for a minute. I really can't see any problems coming from that. Who would get offended or argue over differing views on something as trivial as Religion? (That was sarcasm). Besides, does it really matter? You can still create a peaceful, loving civ, or a nation full of war-mongering fanatics. What you call the god that you do these things in the name of is just a formality really. Civ IV is a great game that shows an honest effort by Firaxis not to rest on there laurels, but to improve upon an already great formula. If you don't think they accomplished that, at least come up with a good reason.… Expand

This is a great game totally spoiled by lazy programming. The concept is great and the gameplay is entralling. However my computer which vastly exceeds the minimum specs runs it at abour 2 Frames Per Second (P4 1.5Ghz, 512Mb Ram, Gefore6600 256Mb). The engine is slow and laggy, and it even skips during the in game movies. The last time my computer did this it was 1995 and I had a Pentium 133Mhz! The graphics aren't that great. When you look at what can be done with a good 3D engine I find it amazing that firaxis can get it so wrong with this game. I am returning this game as faulty as even with the recent patches and latest drivers it is all but unplayably slow. A great dissapointment.… Expand

I originally purchased this game for my 10 year old son. After spending $50 AND upgrading my video card, I found that this is the optimal age range for this game. While the variation from game to game may keep older people interested, long spells consisting of only "Click To End Turn" while waiting for things to happen will make you wish you just downloaded a Beta version.

The best Civ ever. Much improved in every aspect. I can't believe all the nay-sayers. They shouldn't lose time with TBS anyway if they can't appreciate Civ IV.

Unit promotions and inventive new wonders push the strategy to a new level. AI is improved as well. it waits until it has an optimal amount of units before advancing, rather than immediatly sending new units into battle, no matter the odds. I'm still waiting to for them to ressurect the advisor's screen in Civ2 where you have Elvis and Co.

Tedious, buggy and complete lack of pace - the worst in the series.

At first it was hard to transfer from Civ3 to Civ4, but once you get how to play a great experience. The online can be slow when loading, but once you get going its real fun. A great strategy game and well improved.

Great game, although it stops in 2780 AD. Probably my civ is too large. At end turn, the game stops.

Civilization IV is a great game, it is very addictive and requires alot of skill to play and win. When playing Civilization IV it teaches you about history and it also makes you have fun at the same time!

Hated this when I first played it. I'd been a big fan of all three previous Civilization versions and just could not believe what they'd done to the latest version. The maps seemed smaller, a lot of things appeared to be simplified, etc. However, a few hours later I was hooked - this is by far the best of the series. The unimportant stuff's been automated and some new key elements added such as religions. If you like strategy games, this is a must.… Expand

Amazing strategy and just the incredible amount of variablity.

Back in college, i'd play civ 2 for fifteen hours, only getting up from my chair to pee. i have been a huge civ fan for over a decade. i loved civ2, didn't care so much for civ3; as for civ4...oh my god, this is the best video game ever created, hands down. Woohoo!!!

Well, everyone has its taste... and i didnt like civ4, though i had been a huge fan of civ3. What did i not like? Hmmmm.... graphics was ok, altough i definitely prefere 2d in this kind of game... you know, everything is neater, clearer.... surely with mroe details than the poligonal images, that anyways are like 2s sprites, for what its worth. I didnt like some of the new adds.... religion, form of government etc were good, but the tech tree, the new type of terrain and similar... bah. Ok, it is civ after all... a nice game. But, for me, civ3 is 100% better.… Expand

To all the people who say "this game sucks", "you can't build more than 6 or 7 cities because the economy crashes", and other things, tell me which is more realistic: 1. 30 tiny little towns all based around one big city, which is constantly having people go make more tiny little towns. 2. 6 or 7 large, well developed cities, with little tiny towns (the civ 4 way, not the civ 3 way of towns) growing into more large, well developed cities. To elaborate, the civ 3 towns, in my view, are size 1 and size 2 cities, and civ 4 towns, in my view, are the "town" culture improvement.… Expand

I am particularly surprised how this game got such a high rating from reviewers... that is unless they were bribed. Sorry, but "wow great graphics! 100!" just isnt a solid, or even truthful review. There have been many games with significantly better graphics and more organic play than Civ4. Hell, the original Myst had better graphics than this tripe. The gameplay is actually quite fun, which warrants a solid 4/5 points from me - however it gets bogged down quite quickly with all the war micromanagement required to beat cheating computer opponents. Other than the gameplay... I can't give this game anymore points. It hogs system resources and has not significantly improved anything at all since the second addition.... unless you consider the massive cost increase to be an improvement.… Expand

Very good and addicting gameplay. Fans of the genre will spend hours replaying with different civilizations and options. Difficulty allows players of different abilities and investment to play at a challenging level. Only drawback is ok AI and tedious micromanagement near the end of the game. Expansion packs help with the AI.

Civ four falls hard coming to the worst of the series. The graphics are about a 6.5 and only on par with other games in its class just barely better then those of Civ 3. In what they have made up for in streamlining the game they have lost in strategy. There is no middle ground in this game it is either ridiculously hard or boringly easy. The AI show little to no improvement from that of civ 2 While the negotiation is much more complex even on the easiest of level the player will find 80% of negotiations wasted and unusable. The civ knowledges are so dumb down that most of them are nonsensically as wells as their improvements they lead to throughout the game. Its hard to build cites through the map because of borders and war constraints based on the layout of most of the maps and area that each city consumes. The movies also take huge steps back compared to those of 3 and 2. The palace and animated counsel are completely missing as well as the large array of units and improvements. Civ 4 is almost an identical copy of Age of empires 2 and Total War crossed over and mashed together. How Sid Meiers could slap his name on this crap is beyond me. Over all advice is to save your money.… Expand

It's very frustrating seeing your entire army get wiped out by 2 archers.. the 2nd time it happened (after rebuilding it AND having a Military "Great Person" assigned to some units) i was ready to throw my fist through the screen... anybody want to buy and barely used version of Civ4 Gold?

Loved Civ 1 and 2, played Civ 3 quite possibly more than any game, so take it from me this is not a low score from someone who rarely plays such games....but Civ 4 is just well, meh....so disappointing. Graphically I actually prefer 3 in many ways, the units look bad, the cartoony leaders just shout out that they're dumbing the game down for more casual gamers....the religion aspect is a welcome addition, but it wasn't long before I was playing mods to keep the interest going. I have since played Civ 3 a few times, but Civ 4 is gathering dust on my shelf. Galactic Civs 2 is my current game of choice for this genre.… Expand