Hey hey! So lately I've really been getting into Civ 5, mostly working to get the achievements, and I wanted to see if someone else here played it, maybe to play together or simply to talk about the game.

For those uninitiated, Civilization is a series of PC games running from the early 90's up to today, It has several installments: five main games which take place on earth with historical civilizations and leaders, and two space-based ones, among others. The game is a challenging and long turn-based strategy game. There's a strong military aspect to the game, but it can be won in five ways of which only one is Domination (conquering other civilizations' capital cities). The other four are Diplomatic (being elected world leader by the United Nations) Scientific (building a spaceship) Cultural (Becoming the main culture of the world) and the very unpopular Time (having the highest score by the year 2050)

A game of civilization on standard speed may require anywhere between 7-20 hours, a quick speed game anywhere between 3-7, and marathon speed anywhere between 50-80. In order to get every achievement you will need to play more than 50 games, so the amount of hours someone with all achievements put into the game is staggering. However, the game is so engrossing and fun that people are more than willing to spend that much time on it.

As of right now I have spent 148 hours in the game and completed 75 achievements of 287 (26%) I suspect I'll take me anywhere between 500-700 more hours to complete them given the nature of the achievements I've still got to do.

So tell me Vizzed, do any of you play Civ?

Civilization V is actually one of my favourite games of all time. I have over 800 hours logged total, and its addictive properties are immense.

My favourite civilizations are those designed for netting Domination victories, like Japan and Germany. I dislike the Science victory since it pretty amounts to a last resort kind. Still, getting all the victories is a fun challenge.

While you gave a good overview of the Civilization franchise, you barely talked about Civ V as such. How does it compare to previous games of the franchise? What changed?

For example my Civ IV review made ample comparisons with Civ III because there were so many (mostly) good changes. It was well over 2000 words too; you may not need to be as exhaustive but you didn't even have 300 words, which is very short.

General trick: divide your review into the categories you review (graphics, music, depth, etc.) and go from there

janus : Thanks for the advice, but this isn't quite a review or intensive analysis of the game. I wrote this mostly to talk about the game to those who have played the game, and a short description of the game to pique the interest of potential players. Again, thank you for your tips regarding reviews, I'll definitely take them into account if I end up reviewing the game.

Then you might want to consider the "video games" of "game discussion" treads. They seem to be more appropriate for what you look like you want to write about

I prefer Civ IV over Civ V but still love Civ V. Haven't played it in months yet, after I reached 800 hours.

DARKANINE : Damn, what level was that? Settler games - with the highest honor degree - take at most 4 hours at the slowest speed

I do play Civ V from time to time.. The problem for me with the game is that I personally find long strategy based games very dull. Especially when most of them are pretty much decided in the first hour on who is likely to win and lose. 

But of course that's just my personal opinion.. For me it's a game that I really can't too seriously or it just ruins the game for me.. I think the worst memory I have of the game was playing against friends and I started attacking the player who was leading easily.. He then got irritated that I was attacking him.. And after I offered him a peace settlement for 30 gold.. He literally got irritated and got revenge.. About 4 turns later he quit... I mean it's a strategy game after all if some one is beating you, do something about it.. It's not my fault they didn't understand the concept of the game lol x3

sonicmcmuffin : I admit that it takes quite a while to get used to the game. It took me well over 6 months to master Civ II as I didn't understand that trade = wealth.

I disagree with you that the winner can be known early on, especially at higher difficulty levels. In Civ II for example other civilizations can build wonders YOU haven't discovered starting at Prince. And in Civ IV your opponents' mood can be predicted in some way - depending on YOUR civics and religion - but making them happy can handicap you.

I, surprisingly enough, have not logged much time with this particular game. I've played a little here and there, but I haven't gotten around to purchasing it yet. Although I have played a TON of civ over the years with all the different versions they have released, as well as logging a considerable amount of time on the game "Freeciv"

I have it and I had it for quite a while really but when I tried to play it I realized that my computer wouldn't be able to handle such a game so I hadn't been able to play this one get but I have played it with my friend a really long time ago on my old school laptop. I just love this kind of strategy games, aside for the time to play of course.

No, but after reading all the responses I realized I must. The last Civilization I played was Revolutions on PS3. Didn't really care for it a whole lot. Not open-ended enough. I'm old though and Civ 2 is one of my favorite games ever.

I've never played any of the games in this particular series, but after hearing some of the responses on this thread, I think I may have to try it out at some point. If I were to start playing a game in this series, I'd probably buy the one being talked about in this thread. Is it better than previous installments in this franchise?

Ferdinand : I have never played V, but my guess it it's more complex than the others. So you might want to start back at II or III, and then progress to IV so you can get a better mastery of the game.