Comments on: The Frighteningly Modern Age: Facebook Civ

By: DMJ

DMJ — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:17:44 +0000

I agree! More of this, RPS, if only because some of the most entertaining games journalism I’ve ever read has been about the mediocre and the poor.

The destruction of the offending game in a storm of exquisitely barbed words reminds me of Roman gladiatorial combat.

By: Tei

Tei — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 07:53:34 +0000

You can waste a hour in youtube just watching Alpha Centarury “Special Proyects”. Theres even one with Al Gore and “The Internet” :-), other amazing for “Self-aware colony”, “theory of everything” , “nanotechnology”….

I doubt other game can achieve this eights again. Is downhill from here.

By: Vinraith

Vinraith — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 01:38:30 +0000

I can see the argument, Civ 4 is certainly a superb iteration of the series and has held up extremely well. I don’t think we per se NEED a Civ 5 in light of it, which is not to say I’d turn one down. :)

That said, while Civ 4 certainly learned from the mechanics of Alpha Centauri, it would be nice to see a new game using a unique sci fi setting with a narrative context in the way AC did and Civ 4 obviously does not.

By: LionsPhil

LionsPhil — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 23:46:11 +0000

@Vinraith: I have to say I agree somewhat with the PCG review of Civ IV, in that it was Alpha Centauri 2. It took the good lessons from it, and left the questionable.

Ok, unit design didn’t make it. It was kind of a faff that never really paid off vs letting the AI manage it all, though, IMO—compare with, say, ship design in Stars!. (Aside: if the developers aren’t going to get anywhere with a sequel, I wish they’d at least open-source, or even just freeware, the original. It’s 14 years old, still excellent, but you can’t convince friends to buy the damn thing because nobody is even selling it any more.)

By: LionsPhil

LionsPhil — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 23:37:21 +0000

@Lack_26: You keep right on resisting.

Thankfully, Civ IV got so much right that it’s hard to feel gypped. I can’t point to anything and say, “hey, Sid, stop mucking about with this week’s latest Internet fad and fix ${BLAH} for Civ V already”.

By: Kua

Kua — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:16:19 +0000

Well said. Although with the past hour having disappeared into Civdom I can tell you the fourth iteration is still a worthy way to pass the time.

By: Vinraith

Vinraith — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:03:52 +0000

Alpha Centauri 2 is also acceptable, but your underlying point is sound.

By: wm

wm — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:54:03 +0000

Firaxis keep making Civ games that aren’t Civ 5. I really wish they would stop.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:38:29 +0000

Non-gaming?
Friends?

By: Kua

Kua — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:03:19 +0000

Not sure how I feel about Facebook Civ but man do I feel like playing some BTS. I think it was just seeing the logo that did it.

By: Kua

Kua — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:00:18 +0000

#1 was the only one to make me laugh out loud. A worthy winner.

By: JonFitt

JonFitt — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:17:17 +0000

On a side note. I added Mafia Wars so the missus could have one more person to level her up. I have never played the “game”. I am level 12 :-)
It’s like Eve, it plays itself!