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Sid Meier's Civilization IV

Civ IV is awesome.

Written by JR from Short Hills

Jul 6, 2006

I bought this game yesterday after hearing many good things. I anxiously waited as it installed, then quickly played through the tutorial because I have never played any previous games from the franchise. I was instantly hooked. At first I wasn't sure if I would like the turn based style of the game, as when I purchased it I had thought it was more of an RTS. It almost does play like real time, the game moves quickly and is very fun. It runs great on my standard 2.16 ghz MacBook Pro.

419 of 624 people found this useful

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!!!

438 of 774 people found this useful

Sid Meier's Civilization IV

Best Civ yet - But not for slower macs

Written by MH from Thornton

Feb 20, 2008

Absolutely amazing game - fixes everything wrong with Civ3 - and adds in a slew of new features that work flawlessly to create the most immersive civilization experience yet.

I run this on an Intel Core Duo iMac 1.83GHz, with 1GB of RAM and an ATI X1600 graphics card. It runs amazingly well in Tiger, OSX v10.4, and I would assume runs just as well or better in Leopard. Although the game suggests at least a gig of RAM, I highly suggest that you have at least 1.5GB, and the minimum requirements are indeed minimum requirements. If you'll be running this on a laptop, don't even consider it, unless you have a dedicated graphics card, like what is on a Macbook Pro. Towards the end of a long game, the program itself slows down and takes longer to process turns, i.e. it lags. This is entirely forgivable, noting the sheer amount of actions taking place every turn, and that I usually play with seven computer-controlled civilizations on a HUGE map. Knowing that, the game runs exceedingly well within the hardware parameters I have available, but is obviously functioning at the limit of what my computer can process.

Before the release of an update, there were some odd glitches which caused the face of a computer-controlled opponent to be displayed on the globe-view instead of regular terrain features. The mini-map would also often display a strange swatch of colors, instead of the visible and fog-of-war views which it normally shows. A recent update seems to have fixed these bugs.

Aside from these quirky, graphics-related bugs, and the fact that this game really does require more than the suggested minimum operating requirements, this has to be one of the best strategy games I've ever played. It reminds me of the social-control and science styles of Alpha Centauri mixed in with Civilization 3 and a bunch of new features thrown in for good measure.

Enjoy.

154 of 236 people found this useful

Sid Meier's Civilization IV

i could play this game all night and day forever if i could

Written by HC from Wayland

Sep 28, 2008

improved graphics, better unit's and technology and civs. did i mention the outstanding graphics? to every one who hates this game, you don't belong to a world of gamers. the only flaw is it crash's sometimes, but there is an auto save which saves your progress. six stars if i could!

68 of 77 people found this useful

Sid Meier's Civilization IV

An Amazing game!

Written by JG from Pambrun

Feb 7, 2008

Played Civ IV on the PC, bought the Mac version when I migrated. An amazing implementation of a great game. Easily the most polished, interesting version of Civilization yet.

For fans of turn-based strategy. Takes time to learn... but worthi it.

135 of 217 people found this useful

Sid Meier's Civilization IV

Very good but with some definite problems

Written by TL

Oct 20, 2008

I have been a Civ fan from the beginning. This version is great when it works. The biggest problem started when I uploaded the patch. It is possible a security update from Apple caused this to take place too. The game crashes about every 10 turns you take. I read of another problem with black patches later on in the game. This is true. I found by just simply zooming out and then zooming in, it will permanently solve this little problem. The crashing is just unbearable though. I am calling the company today. I have to say, that even though the game crashes, I still play it. I just swear a lot when it happens!

67 of 82 people found this useful

Sid Meier's Civilization IV

Does not work (for some).

Written by SW

Nov 19, 2007

Be aware that buying this game is a chancy proposition. I know some people, using machines identical to mine (Macbook Core 2 Duo 2GHz, 2GB RAM) who can play this game. Unfortunately, I can't. It crashes within ten minutes of startup every time and usually causes a kernel panic. This is a horrendous port produced by a company that refused to make a leopard-compatible version despite having a developer's kit available for months. Aspyr doesn't know what it's doing. What else is new.

Purchase at your own peril.

80 of 117 people found this useful

Sid Meier's Civilization IV

Steep Learning Curve

Written by TP from Round Lake

Nov 1, 2006

Civilization IV is a clever, intelligent and addictive game that is difficult to learn. I understand why so many people have tried it for 30 minutes and given up. But DON'T GIVE UP! Once you get over the steep learning curve it is a truly great game. I run smooth and stable on my G5 iMac, but a little slow.

75 of 109 people found this useful

Sid Meier's Civilization IV

Almost perfect

Written by JJ from Lafayette

Jan 11, 2008

I love this game. the graphics are great and game play is the best it has ever been for a Civ game. My only problem is a tendency toward video artifacts (at around the 6th hour of play at the earliest) and a tendency towards crashing after 10 hours. Most people will probably not run into these problems as most probably won't play for that many straight hours.

Looking forward to the Beyond The Sword expansion pack

82 of 124 people found this useful

Sid Meier's Civilization IV

Sound/Performance problems, get the patch!

Written by GW from Seattle

Jul 21, 2006

This is a beta of a patch from the developers of Civ IV for the mac. It fixes many of the performance and sound problems. The final patch is due out later that should fix the rest of the sound problems. You can read about the patch and get it from the "Civ IV - Macintosh" form from this web site: forums.civfanatics.com.

44 of 51 people found this useful

Sid Meier's Civilization IV

one flaw - addiction

Written by GO from Rishon Le Ziyyon

Sep 19, 2008

it takes some time to move from CIV III to this one, and get used to its concept, but once you're there, the only flaw about this game is that its addictive.
its a game that never ends, every game differs from the others.

Highly recommended for strategy and politics gamers.

37 of 39 people found this useful

Sid Meier's Civilization IV

Civ IV is one of the best games ever

Written by CW from Norman

Dec 26, 2007

I have played every version of Civ since the original version I played on my Amiga. Civ IV is the best. I can play this game for days in a row. It is engrossing and the new units/technologies/rules for Civ IV continue to expand on the great gameplay of the prior versions. That being said, the performance is less than ideal and even on a top of the line Mac expect pauses and waits. It certainly does not have "Teh Snappy." It is also fairly buggy with occasional crashes -- save often (note that the PC version is just as buggy as I had it before the Mac version was released). Even with the performance and stability issues the fact that this is such an enjoyable, addictive game make me overlook the problems and give it five stars on the fact that I have so much fun playing it.

53 of 71 people found this useful

Sid Meier's Civilization IV

Excellent Game

Written by LL from Corona

Jul 24, 2006

I have been playing it for about a week now. I had Civ 3. The new game is very different in its graphic representation, far more spectacular. It's a playable game, a fun game and if you like strategy style non-arcade games, you'll like this. It played perfectly on my G-5 dual 2MHz and on my MacBook Pro.

Highly recommended

66 of 99 people found this useful

Sid Meier's Civilization IV

Civilization IV does not work on MacBook Air

Written by WW from New York

Mar 8, 2009

Aspyr's copy protection/DRM requires you to insert the DVD before you can run the game. Unfortunately, a MacBook Air doesn't have one. Using the Remote Disk feature of the Air does not satisfy Civilization IV and so this game is useless.

Aspyr--you have lost yet another customer. I want to buy your game, but now I am angry and annoyed. Not a good way to build a business.

75 of 118 people found this useful

Sid Meier's Civilization IV

Great game, but....

Written by JB from Burnaby

May 8, 2008

I love this game, but it seems very unstable. Even after installing the patches for this and "Warlords" I find the game crash prone and buggy. I run it on a MacBook Pro and Mac Pro 8 core (2.8GHz) and I find that eventually either the ice and 'improvements' start to go black, or the game simply quits. The patches have reduced the frequency of both, to a minor degree, but it still goes Ka-Boom at irregularly regular intervals. Four stars for the game, minus one for the glitches.

56 of 81 people found this useful

Sid Meier's Civilization IV

Good Game but ...

Written by MS from York

Jul 9, 2006

... I have an iMac G5, 2.1 ghz, 1 gig Ram, 128 vRam, OS C 10.4.7, etc. and the game is jumpy, choppy and the sound cuts in and out. The fact that I still think its a good game and that I gave it three stars speaks volumes as to what I feel is a great concept but, come on, its not like I am using a G3 Mac running OS 9 here

47 of 64 people found this useful

Sid Meier's Civilization IV

Really Fun... the First time

Written by CG from Leesburg

Jul 28, 2006

With my Intel iMac the game ran fine from the most part. Towards the end, when i was at war with two places at the same time, and there were a lot of units moving and a lot going on, it slowed down a little. My iMac has 1.83 GHz, 512 MB RAM, 128 vRAM, it meet all the system requirements, and all but one of the recomended specs. The only problem i had with this game is i could only play it once. I got bored after the first game, one reason is because the start is basically the same every game up until at least the AD time periods, but i don't last that long before quitting or moding. Which is the other problem, when i started my second game i discovered the World Editor. Now i have trouble fighting the urge to mod, and both way (modded and not) seem to bore me. I had a lot of fun with Civ III, i was able to play that one a lot more, i don't know what the difference is now. I think i will be putting my game up on ebay soon, so if you have not bought it already look out for a used Civ IV game.

42 of 55 people found this useful

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