Sid Meier's Civilization IV
Customer Ratings
Based on 92 reviews
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Sid Meier's Civilization IV
A step backward.
Written by VV from Fairfax
Oct 17, 2007
I've played all Civ games as well as Alpha Centauri from the same developers. I agree with those who think the graphics aren't all that. Not so much in quality, but in graphic style. I've had the program (as well as the Warlords expansion) ever since it came out. I use a Macbook Pro dual core intel with 1.5 gig ram and 128mb of videocard. The game is buggy but still playable (just remember to save often). Patches seem to add new problems in place of the the ones they solve. The Warlords expansion is more stable. I dislike the fact that there is little in the way of future technologies. Combat odds are still totally unrealistic and badly computed. When the computer tells you that you have a 90-95% percent chance of winning a fight, figure that you really have only a 50-60% chance. Also, like in previous versions, any great leader cannot be airlifted. That's really stupid & unrealistic & it always bugged me. A great man can't catch a plane? Please.
In my book this edition has the least replay value of all civ games so far; after a few months I got really bored with it. I loved Alpha Centauri for the chance to design and build your own units; it would be nice if that feature came back in Sid Meier's future offerings.57 of 98 people found this useful
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Sid Meier's Civilization IV
Unfortunate Support
Written by EG from Dallas
Aug 20, 2007
Here is my quick take after spending the 50 bucks:
1. The company uses reseller websites, so support is wierd.
2. Multiplayer capabilities are not streamlined.
3. The 'check for updates' feature doesn't work properly (downloads the data but fails to install. where the heck is it?
4. It's a great game if you like to play alone. I'm an extravert darnit!27 of 43 people found this useful
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Sid Meier's Civilization IV
Boring
Written by WB from Boise
Aug 12, 2007
Beautiful, but boring. Why anyone thinks it's a good time to wait 90 turns for a building to be created or a unit to be built (units vary depending on type and era) I'll never understand. Depending on the era that's 90 to 2, 200 representative years to make a single city improvemet. And, if it's a Wonder, well lets just say if the Pyramids took as long to build in the real world we would still be building them. Visually, however, it is really quite stunning. I enjoyed the feature in Civ 3 that allowed for accelerated production in a custom game. Too bad they didn't think to leave that in Civ 4. This game is just not my idea of a good time.
14 of 35 people found this useful
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Sid Meier's Civilization IV
works on mbp 2.16ghz not on new 2.4 ghz imac
Written by RG from Bloomington
Aug 9, 2007
I'm confused. Game is great when it works. And works well on MBP with 2.16 ghz chip. BUT WILL NOT WORK ON new 24 inch iMac i picked up this week with 2.4 ghz with 2gb ram. Then I bought Civ iv warlords, installed, and that didn't help things - same problem - screen blacks randomly and rapidly, then shuts down. I'm more than unhappy. This is the main game (only game?) I play. I'm really hoping for a fix soon!
20 of 23 people found this useful
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Sid Meier's Civilization IV
disapointing
Written by SS from london
Nov 20, 2006
I bought this having salivated over it for weeks, only to find it is the most buggy game ever. It wont run very well on my PowerPC G5 even with all the setting smacked down. I've patched it but all the publishers say is "put your settings down". WHY then when I have MORE than the recommended specs do I have to play the game in basic-cant-really-tell-whats going-on mode? Anyone know how I could improve the gameplay?
48 of 106 people found this useful
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Sid Meier's Civilization IV
Not good
Written by DM from SALEM
Sep 6, 2006
I wanted to get civ 3 but it wouldn't run on my Intel mac book. I got civ 4 instead, expecting it to be like civ 3. But it's not the same. It takes to long to tell everything exactly what to do every turn but if you put them on automate then I don't really feel like I'm playing, I'm just pressing "next turn". I was very disappointed with this game, it wasn't at all what I was expecting.
52 of 95 people found this useful
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Sid Meier's Civilization IV
Horrible performance outweighs improvements
Written by CL from Wenatchee
Jul 17, 2006
The Civ games have been my top favorites over the years, absorbing more hours of my time than any other games of any format on any platform, so I have anticipated this Mac release for a year now. I can hardly express how extremely disappointed I have been with this program. I'm using a 9 month old iMac G5 1.9 GHz/1.5 GB RAM/OS 10.4.7/Radeon X600 Pro, which exceeds all minimum requirements and meets all recommended requirements except 2.0 GHz speed. I have tried all settings, followed all recommendations, and finally resorted to the lowest graphic options possible, and yet - the game cannot even scroll across the screen smoothly! Response is incredibly slow and jerky at all times. I never thought I would say this, but I actually wish I had bought the PC version of a game!!!
436 of 771 people found this useful
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Sid Meier's Civilization IV
Slow, but why?
Written by PP from Rutherford
Jul 12, 2006
I'm running it on a dual 2.3GHz G5 with 1.5GB of RAM and 256MB of video RAM. as said previously: music cuts in and out, seems to take far too long to calculate moves. Plus i think the interface is confusing and the game board is far too cluttered. it's hard to see whats going on. Civ3 was far superior.
43 of 57 people found this useful
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Sid Meier's Civilization IV
Fun, but VERY slow, even on recent Macs.
Written by CF from Midlothian
Jul 8, 2006
I've had this game for about a week now, and while it offers fun with an educational bent, it performs surprisingly slow on my dual 2.3GHz G5 with 1GB of RAM and 256MB of video RAM. I have to drop the quality of the graphics to the lowest possible levels to make the game even playable, and still I see frequent dropped frames, skipped animations and audio cutting in and out. I followed the Read Me's recommendation to set my processor performance level to Highest, but that did not seem to help. The performance is very disappointing.
49 of 69 people found this useful
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