Civilization V

Scotch_Lufkin · 2012-06-15T10:47:26.000Z

Well that’s… annoying. :)

Mysterio · 2012-06-16T05:17:55.000Z

For this who didn’t take advantage of Green Man Gaming’s 23% discount on Civ V’s expansion Gods & Kings earlier this week can take advantage of Get Games’ 27% discount on it. They’re also offering the base game (non-GoTY) for 75% off.

Giaddon · 2012-06-18T06:06:41.000Z

First review of Gods and Kings? Wot I Think at RPS.

Money shot:

"RPS":

Gods and Kings has required me to spend a great deal of time playing Civ V in the past few days. It’s also made me remember how much I enjoy the game, although not without also drawing my mind more to its differences from previous entries and its flaws. As an expansion it delivers lots of content but doesn’t have the killer addition that elevates the game beyond its base.

KevinC · 2012-06-18T07:17:46.000Z

To those finding the game is sluggish post-patch, you can try the following:

Open up your config.ini (My Documents/My Games/Sid Meier’s Civilization V/)

Look for the following line: EnableGameCoreThreading = 1

Change it to: EnableGameCoreThreading = 0

Seems as though turning off the new threading improvements helps some people that are having issues (I’m guessing older single/dual core CPUs for the most part?).

Miramon · 2012-06-18T07:33:32.000Z

KevinC:

To those finding the game is sluggish post-patch, you can try the following:

Seems as though turning off the new threading improvements helps some people that are having issues (I’m guessing older single/dual core CPUs for the most part?).

Quad core for me, so no.

KevinC · 2012-06-18T07:45:01.000Z

Had you tried that .ini tweak previously, Miramon? Did it have any effect for you or was it still sluggish either way? Just curious!

Scotch_Lufkin · 2012-06-18T08:14:34.000Z

Community Manager 2K Greg is playing the game live on Twitch.TV for two hours later today.

2k.com

2K

2K publishes titles in today's most popular gaming genres, including shooters, action, role-playing, strategy, sports, casual, and family entertainment.

He’s going to take his decisions and strategy from the community. I’m most interesting in watching him play to see if he comments or reacts to potential AI weaknesses/foolishness or other bugs that might pop up during the game.

I’m honestly hoping nothing like that happens of course, and in actuallity hope that the fact this is happening is an indication of their belief in the product as a whole, but if something does happen, I would be interested in the “official” reaction.

Nephrinn · 2012-06-18T08:18:40.000Z

Developer Diary #2 is up!

The religion and spy systems look really great, but what caught my eye the most was how much work went into the naval AI. Archipelago maps should be a lot more interesting now.

They also said generals shouldn’t wander around like idiots anymore. :P

Dejin · 2012-06-18T09:29:39.000Z

Nephrinn:

Developer Diary #2 is up!

The religion and spy systems look really great, but what caught my eye the most was how much work went into the naval AI. Archipelago maps should be a lot more interesting now.

They also said generals shouldn’t wander around like idiots anymore. :P

I’m glad they say they’ve gotten rid of the generals wandering around like idiots. I’m not convinced the melee naval units make any sense past the ancient trireme stage, and I’m particularly not convinced that allowing naval units to take over coastal cities makes any sense.

The only historical precedence I could think of would be something like the Vikings coming in and sacking a town. In the modern era it makes no sense at all for a destroyer to come in and take over a city.

[Edit: if Steam is to be believed it looks like Gods & Kings is actually going to unlock at Midnight Eastern Time.]

Giaddon · 2012-06-18T09:56:05.000Z

Adam “Warlock gets a 6.5” Biessener gives Gods and Kings 8.5 at GameInformer.

"Adam":

The Civ V AI that many players despise is improved in Gods & Kings, but not by a lot. It still fails to capture cities it should easily roll over thanks to baffling tactical stupidity, and it still doesn’t expand as far as it should in most cases. At least you don’t run into unimproved tiles around AI capitals in the mid to late game anymore, and it’s much better about upgrading its units instead of sending warriors to die uselessly against crossbowmen.

Scotch_Lufkin · 2012-06-18T09:59:12.000Z

I don’t believe they are doing these change to the Naval units to be “realistic” but rather to make the Navy a viable thing that you would WANT to build for offense AND defense, and I think that’s a grand idea.

Dejin · 2012-06-18T10:12:36.000Z

BleedTheFreak:

I don’t believe they are doing these change to the Naval units to be “realistic” but rather to make the Navy a viable thing that you would WANT to build for offense AND defense, and I think that’s a grand idea.

I thought maybe it was a way to make the AI “act smarter” sort of like (AIUI) the move to eliminate transports was in part to make the AI’s job easier. (If that’s what it takes to make the AI competitive, I’m okay with that, although I did think the transports provided an interesting strategic element that isn’t there anymore.)

KevinC · 2012-06-18T10:30:29.000Z

Tom sure loved the expansion!

Scotch_Lufkin · 2012-06-18T10:34:23.000Z

I don’t understand why he even bothered?

KevinC · 2012-06-18T10:38:18.000Z

Because reviewing games is what he does? FWIW, I found it a negative image (in the photographic sense) of Adam B’s review. Adam B seemed basically to gloss over the (very big, IMO) problems that still apparently exist. Tom continues to bash them over the head for not fixing it.

Improved AI, both in the combat and diplomatic spaces, was a very big selling point for the expansion. It’s unfortunate that neither apparently received much attention, although I can’t say it’s surprising at this point.

Nephrinn · 2012-06-18T10:38:37.000Z

BleedTheFreak:

I don’t understand why he even bothered?

Agreed. Tom hated Civ V, so it was no surprise he would hate the expansion short of Firaxis gutting it and making it more like Civ IV, which obviously wasn’t going to happen.

Telefrog · 2012-06-18T10:42:28.000Z

I knew the AI wasn’t going to be “fixed” to Tom’s liking, so the score isn’t a surprise, but I’m grateful for the review.

It sounds like Firaxis has introduced some half-baked gameplay with Religion and Spying here. Shame. I was hoping that the inclusion of religion would be as cool as the way Civ IV used it.

KevinC · 2012-06-18T10:43:24.000Z

Nephrinn:

Agreed. Tom hated Civ V, so it was no surprise he would hate the expansion short of Firaxis gutting it and making it more like Civ IV, which obviously wasn’t going to happen.

I don’t think not liking a base game is a good reason to avoid reviewing an expansion. It may give you a good indication of what the reviewer is going to feel but it doesn’t mean that his/her observations aren’t interesting.

I was pretty disappointed in Civ5 but the things they’re adding in G&K are things that I felt the base game lacked, so perhaps I’ll enjoy it. As such, I want to read the reviews, both good and bad.

Giaddon · 2012-06-18T10:59:04.000Z

Lots more reviews coming in. Pretty even spread from 90 (XGN) to 40 (Tom)

Nephrinn · 2012-06-18T11:05:25.000Z

Giaddon:

Lots more reviews coming in. Pretty even spread from 90 (XGN) to 40 (Tom)

Which further convinces me that those who loved Civ V will love the expansion and those that hated Civ V will hate the expansion.