First Impressions

MarkG · October 29, 2001, 18:00

Jonah Falcon (yes he is one and the same with the Gamepen reviewer), has given us some first impressions on Civ3:

- Typical(full) installation: 700MB
- Intro video is exactly the same as the one posted on Gamespot
- Extremely windows friendly(we have been chating on icq for over 2 hours while he was playing civ3!)
- Excellent music, amazing world setup screen
- Manual is really big, do read it before starting a game
- Saved games start at 2.5MB!!!
- Interface is not 100% like civ2, you will need some time to learn it
- After more than 2 hours of playing along with icq chating and screenshot grabbing, civ3 did crash. Not a serious issue though due to very smooth autosave feature, which goes unnoticed

Rommel393 · October 29, 2001, 18:04

sounds wonderful.... although I hope the crash isn't a bad omen. I'm optomistic though and trust Firaxis.

Andrew1999 · October 29, 2001, 18:07

Quote:

Originally posted by Rommel393
sounds wonderful.... although I hope the crash isn't a bad omen. I'm optomistic though and trust Firaxis.

Processing big images (screenshots) takes a lot of RAM and CPU power--I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Provost Harrison · October 29, 2001, 18:09

A crash already? I must admit, that is a bit ominous...let us hope it is just a one off!

Gramphos · October 29, 2001, 18:15

Quote:

Originally posted by Provost Harrison
A crash already? I must admit, that is a bit ominous...let us hope it is just a one off!

Well, we don't know the reason for it yet. He might have over acted and clicked on everything

PS
PH I can't send you a PM as your mailbox is full. ColMap is updated.

CapTVK · October 29, 2001, 18:16

I don't want to rain on the Civ3 parade but some cool facts are in order.

Quote:

Originally posted by MarkG
Jonah Falcon (yes he is one and the same with the Gamepen reviewer), has given us some first impressions on Civ3:

- Typical(full) installation: 700MB
Civ2MP had a mere +10Mb Footmark

- Intro video is exactly the same as the one posted on Gamespot
Intro's are intro's how many of kept watching the Civ2 intro?

- Extremely windows friendly(we have been chating on icq for over 2 hours while he was playing civ3!)
seems fair, but Civ2 had real windows
- Excellent music, amazing world setup screen
Only first impressions, the world setup screens in Civ and Civ2 were okay too

- Manual is really big, do read it before starting a game
Nice too hear, hope it's better than the flaky strategy guide

- Saved games start at 2.5MB!!!
That would explain the missing rules.txt a few weeks back and how the editor functions. Restarting/Reloading will be a pain on slower systems.

- Interface is not 100% like civ2, you will need some time to learn it

Hmmmmm...

- After more than 2 hours of playing along with icq chating and screenshot grabbing, civ3 did crash. Not a serious issue though due to very smooth autosave feature, which goes unnoticed

I'll give the benefit of the doubt.

In short, be weary of eye- and ear candy.

As for the rest....enjoy the game!

Comrade Tribune · October 29, 2001, 18:21

How challenging does the AI seem to be?

Are the promised 12 scenarios included?

GoofyBoy · October 29, 2001, 18:26

Quote:

Originally posted by CapTVK
Civ2MP had a mere +10Mb Footmark

HDs are alot larger now. And I believe that it mentions the space requirements on the box.

Quote:

Interface is not 100% like civ2, you will need some time to learn it
Hmmmmm...

I would hope so. Civ2 was alooooong time ago.

Steve Clark · October 29, 2001, 18:31

That's nice and all but not worthy of a sticky thread. Personally, I am much more interested in the First Impressions of folks like Ralf or some of the long time Civ2/Apolyton vets.

Roman · October 29, 2001, 18:32

Quote:

Originally posted by Comrade Tribune
Are the promised 12 scenarios included?

Tell us about the scenarios, please!

Ralf · October 29, 2001, 18:33

Quote:

Originally posted by Provost Harrison
A crash already? I must admit, that is a bit ominous...let us hope it is just a one off!

Please, give them a brake.

ALL new software ALWAYS have some few bugs. By comparison; "Europa Universalis" didnt even start up the first time I booted it. That, I didnt like.

Comrade Tribune · October 29, 2001, 18:38

Quote:

Originally posted by Steve Clark
That's nice and all but not worthy of a sticky thread. Personally, I am much more interested in the First Impressions of folks like Ralf or some of the long time Civ2/Apolyton vets.

What happen? Did you get up with the wrong foot today?

Why should the official game pen reviewer not be able to tell us a *large* number of things we want to know?

Ralf · October 29, 2001, 18:39

Quote:

Originally posted by Steve Clark
That's nice and all but not worthy of a sticky thread. Personally, I am much more interested in the First Impressions of folks like Ralf or some of the long time Civ2/Apolyton vets.

...And I shall certainly read your (and other apolyton-vets) impressions with great interests as well.

Unfortunately, I dont get hold of my own copy, until earliest 16 november.

So I guess you gonna beat me to it.

The diplomat · October 29, 2001, 18:42

Quote:

Originally posted by Rommel393
sounds wonderful.... although I hope the crash isn't a bad omen. I'm optomistic though and trust Firaxis.

Considering that he was apparently playing the game, grabbing screenshots AND chatting on ICQ at the same time for 2 hours, I am not surprised that it finally crashed. That it took 2 hours before crashing is actually a good sign. I think if you tried to chat on icq, take screens and play at the same time with most games, they would crash long before 2 hours.

Pembleton · October 29, 2001, 18:46

Quote:

Originally posted by Provost Harrison
A crash already? I must admit, that is a bit ominous...let us hope it is just a one off!

Geez. One report of a crash and people get worried.

I hear reports of crashes all the time with games and 95%+ of the games I buy never have that problem. It's that people are playing on unstable systems or situations.

Now it is possible that Civ3 could be unstable for most people, but you can't make this conclusion after *ONE* report.

*Every* game that gets released has people complaining about crashes and it's usually their system, and not the game. Wait until more people report about their experiences before drawing any conclusions.

And, as others mentioned, he was multitasking with a very unstable situation.

Faboba · October 29, 2001, 18:47

First in my defense I'd like to remind you all I really do love Firaxis and their new-born.

However the large savegame size gives two bad points.

1 : It's going to be a pain in the ass saving games. Probably take a minute or two.
2 : It's not going to be easy doing progressive/dynastic games anymore. I mean it takes me a good 10 minutes to get a file that size on my 56.

Ray K · October 29, 2001, 18:47

Quote:

Originally posted by The diplomat
Considering that he was apparently playing the game, grabbing screenshots AND chatting on ICQ at the same time for 2 hours, I am not surprised that it finally crashed. That it took 2 hours before crashing is actually a good sign. I think if you tried to chat on icq, take screens and play at the same time with most games, they would crash long before 2 hours.

Good grief! Are you on Firaxis' payroll?

A crash after 2 hours of play is a good thing???? Not in my world.

Steve Clark · October 29, 2001, 18:48

Comrade, I always do.

My point simply was that it shouldn't warrant a sticky thread AND a news item.

Either make all of the First Impressions tonight and tomorrow a sticky or none of them...unless there are some arrangements between Apolyton and GamePen...naaaahhh.

Comrade Tribune · October 29, 2001, 18:49

Quote:

Originally posted by The diplomat
Considering that he was apparently playing the game, grabbing screenshots AND chatting on ICQ at the same time for 2 hours, I am not surprised that it finally crashed. That it took 2 hours before crashing is actually a good sign. I think if you tried to chat on icq, take screens and play at the same time with most games, they would crash long before 2 hours.

I totally agree. The questions is? Where are the screens?

Apolyton, give us the screens, please!

Faboba · October 29, 2001, 18:50

Quote:

Originally posted by Ray K

Good grief! Are you on Firaxis' payroll?

A crash after 2 hours of play is a good thing???? Not in my world.

I don't know. If I'm playing a game and have MSN on and it doesn't crash or start getting slowdown when I alt-tab it, I get upset.

Also I don't know if you played the Civ1 windows edition, but jesus could it eat up your RAM. It took everything it could possibly take from the system resources.

Comrade Tribune · October 29, 2001, 18:56

Quote:

Originally posted by Ray K
Good grief! Are you on Firaxis' payroll?

A crash after 2 hours of play is a good thing???? Not in my world.

I have a friend who can crash any program by just looking at it.

I am not too concerned about this.

BlueHooHoo · October 29, 2001, 19:15

From personal experience I have found Civ 3 to be pretty stable; I haven't experienced one crash in 3 or 4 days of playing on three different PC's with fairly different hardware specifications (Win XP and '98). I know its early days and there will be bugs/crashes and configuration issues, but so far so good.

I still think that the minimum system requirements are a little low and some people will find the game slower than expected. However the save/load game function is very quick (the files I have produce so far are about 1.6 Mb in size on average)

The Templar · October 29, 2001, 19:18

One crash in two hours? Well, at least its better than the "benchmark" set by CTP2 (crash after 1 hour and about 15 minutes. Of course that was on my old system).

manofthehour · October 29, 2001, 19:20

How is the AI. What diffuculties are you playing at.

MarkG · October 29, 2001, 19:39

Quote:

Originally posted by Steve Clark
That's nice and all but not worthy of a sticky thread. Personally, I am much more interested in the First Impressions of folks like Ralf or some of the long time Civ2/Apolyton vets.

if you took the time to read our news, you might notice that i asked from other people with the game to post their own first impressions here....

OneFootInTheGrave · October 29, 2001, 19:50

when are we getting the first official Apolyton preview than?

albiedamned · October 29, 2001, 20:15

I have it!!! I got it at Electronics Boutique in Laurel Mall, in case anyone in the Baltimore/Washington area is interested. I called around beforehand, and not every EB in the area has it (for example, EB at Columbia Mall said they wouldn't have it until Wednesday).

I've been playing for about 30 minutes, and my first impression is I need to read the manual! I've been utterly involved on the message boards here the past couple weeks, so you would think I should know what is going on in the game. But the new interface is different enough from Civ2 that I'm not yet fluent with it.

By the way, before I start a controversy, I didn't say the new interface is bad, just different. The overall visual effect is awesome, and the music is very mood-setting.

So far I have managed to set Athens on fire (civil disorder), build a few Hoplites, and build some roads. Roads seem to provide a commerce bonus on every square, not just grassland and plains. In case you're wondering how I managed to achieve civil disorder so quickly - I'm playing on Regent level (they've renamed Prince to Regent), which allows 2 content citizens before unhappy ones appear. I had no military units in the city, no luxuries, and I had a wheat bonus square on a flood plain which let me grow to size 3 quickly.

BLackraven42 · October 29, 2001, 20:30

Quote:

Originally posted by Faboba
First in my defense I'd like to remind you all I really do love Firaxis and their new-born.

However the large savegame size gives two bad points.

1 : It's going to be a pain in the ass saving games. Probably take a minute or two.
2 : It's not going to be easy doing progressive/dynastic games anymore. I mean it takes me a good 10 minutes to get a file that size on my 56.

Not true. I have the game and saves take the better of 2 to 3 seconds. I'm running Windows XP and haven't had a crash yet. And don't worry about the AI. It's almost too good. Before you know it 5 civs will atack from all directions at once. And that's on Cheiftan.

Darkknight · October 29, 2001, 20:53

God I'm jealous as hell I need to wait till 16th. The "shop" here probably wont have it in for another few days after that. It's looking good though keep up the reviews!

old dog · October 29, 2001, 21:09

I got my copy too. It'll be tomorrow before I can give it a serious try. It's really clear that an hour or two of manual reading is in order.

The biggest thing I noticed, though, is rivers. In the game I started, they are everywhere. Plenty of freshwater irrigation, to replace oceans. However, this does present obstacles to road transport of resources -- not a problem that I had forseen.

The game looks good, and I had no problems with the interface or playing with the rules settings. But it'll be many hours before I can judge the main thing -- the AI.

I can see that I'll spend tomorrow at work watching the clock!!!