1st March 2010, 5:54 PM
I love Civ II's wonder movies, the videos look cool and it's really great to get a reward for all the work that went into building them. I never turn off the videos except for when I'm playing a scenario and they wouldn't fit anyway.
I liked the somewhat cheesy live-action-video high council, too. Yeah, I can see why they dropped it, FMV was out of style by the time Civ III came out, but couldn't they have at least had a CG rendered council and wonder movies? But no, it's all just static images or minimal animation. Civ II does it better.
Similarly, with music, I always play games with their own soundtrack, not something else, and pretty much never mute game soundtracks for nothing or something of my own... I don't know, that's the music that's supposed to be there, so that's what I listen to with it.
But besides, even if I didn't do that, Civ II has a really, really good soundtrack. It's in three parts though, eight songs each from the original game, the first expansion (Conflicts in Civilization), and the second expansion (Fantastic Worlds). There are two songs in all versions, the Ode to Joy and Funeral March. The original game has the 8 base songs. Conflicts in Civilization has the base and CiC songs. Fantastric Worlds has the base, CiC, and FW songs. Civ II Gold Multiplayer Edition, however, despite containing all the game content from both expansions plus the new multiplayer mode and being Win95 native instead of Win3.1, has ONLY the Fantastic World music, Ode to Joy, and Funeral March. Nothing else. And that's why I never use that disc for playing the game, despite that being the version I have installed -- it's missing two thirds of the music, including many of the best songs! I always play with the Fantastic Worlds CD, of course. Yes, you can play Civ II GME with any previous Civ II CD, you don't need to play it with the GME CD. It doesn't send you into FW-only mode or something just because you're using that disc. :)
Civ II and Alpha Centauri scored higher than Civ III, so perhaps, but not entirely. :)
Alpha Centauri got a 98% from PC Gamer (US) at the time, which is the highest number they have ever given... they've only given 98%s a couple of times since. Half-Life 2, perhaps Half-Life 1, not sure about anything else.
Making a lot of the better units useless really hurts the game you know...
Well I always assumed that the idea was that small rivers and such would be more likely near the coast, or something... I don't know, makes sense to me well enough.
But anyway, just because something might be more realistic doesn't mean that it makes for better gameplay, that's for sure. This is most definitely one of those cases. That was an awful design change, it burned me several times I believe... but really, as I said, I don't think it's really that much more realistic either.
Perhaps it should be based both on water AND terrain type? That is, if it's a desert by an ocean no, but if it's the best type of grasslands, well, they're getting their water from somewhere... or perhaps some kind of 'water' tile that isn't a full river, but notes that this square can support irrigation base? I don't know, there are solutions that would have both "realism" and reduce the degree of the problem.
Really though, all that was really needed was a way to ensure that your starting city cannot be blocked off from irrigating just based on the random luck of the draw of your start location. After that you should be able to tell where you're putting cities, but you really don't get that choice with your first one, not if you want to start setting up your civilization.
Oh yeah, and I remember them saying that they were improving the diplomacy system, but they didn't really. It's kind of silly that now diplomacy is always head-to-head -- that is you always just see the head of state's picture. It was better in Civ II where you negotiate with a herald, with the ruler's picture in the background. More realistic. :) Plus the diplomacy system itself really wasn't better. It was a little different, but not better.
Also, on that note, the removal of the Caravan/Freight and Diplomat/Spy units was really unfortunate, and is another major strike against the game. Civilization is not better with those as automated systems in menus. They should be units.
I liked the somewhat cheesy live-action-video high council, too. Yeah, I can see why they dropped it, FMV was out of style by the time Civ III came out, but couldn't they have at least had a CG rendered council and wonder movies? But no, it's all just static images or minimal animation. Civ II does it better.
Similarly, with music, I always play games with their own soundtrack, not something else, and pretty much never mute game soundtracks for nothing or something of my own... I don't know, that's the music that's supposed to be there, so that's what I listen to with it.
But besides, even if I didn't do that, Civ II has a really, really good soundtrack. It's in three parts though, eight songs each from the original game, the first expansion (Conflicts in Civilization), and the second expansion (Fantastic Worlds). There are two songs in all versions, the Ode to Joy and Funeral March. The original game has the 8 base songs. Conflicts in Civilization has the base and CiC songs. Fantastric Worlds has the base, CiC, and FW songs. Civ II Gold Multiplayer Edition, however, despite containing all the game content from both expansions plus the new multiplayer mode and being Win95 native instead of Win3.1, has ONLY the Fantastic World music, Ode to Joy, and Funeral March. Nothing else. And that's why I never use that disc for playing the game, despite that being the version I have installed -- it's missing two thirds of the music, including many of the best songs! I always play with the Fantastic Worlds CD, of course. Yes, you can play Civ II GME with any previous Civ II CD, you don't need to play it with the GME CD. It doesn't send you into FW-only mode or something just because you're using that disc. :)
Quote:> Subjective.
Civ II and Alpha Centauri scored higher than Civ III, so perhaps, but not entirely. :)
Alpha Centauri got a 98% from PC Gamer (US) at the time, which is the highest number they have ever given... they've only given 98%s a couple of times since. Half-Life 2, perhaps Half-Life 1, not sure about anything else.
Quote:> Okay, here I agree. Air units also became mostly useless in III.
Making a lot of the better units useless really hurts the game you know...
Quote:> This is realism! You can't irrigate seawater in real life and expect to grow crops!
Well I always assumed that the idea was that small rivers and such would be more likely near the coast, or something... I don't know, makes sense to me well enough.
But anyway, just because something might be more realistic doesn't mean that it makes for better gameplay, that's for sure. This is most definitely one of those cases. That was an awful design change, it burned me several times I believe... but really, as I said, I don't think it's really that much more realistic either.
Perhaps it should be based both on water AND terrain type? That is, if it's a desert by an ocean no, but if it's the best type of grasslands, well, they're getting their water from somewhere... or perhaps some kind of 'water' tile that isn't a full river, but notes that this square can support irrigation base? I don't know, there are solutions that would have both "realism" and reduce the degree of the problem.
Really though, all that was really needed was a way to ensure that your starting city cannot be blocked off from irrigating just based on the random luck of the draw of your start location. After that you should be able to tell where you're putting cities, but you really don't get that choice with your first one, not if you want to start setting up your civilization.
Oh yeah, and I remember them saying that they were improving the diplomacy system, but they didn't really. It's kind of silly that now diplomacy is always head-to-head -- that is you always just see the head of state's picture. It was better in Civ II where you negotiate with a herald, with the ruler's picture in the background. More realistic. :) Plus the diplomacy system itself really wasn't better. It was a little different, but not better.
Also, on that note, the removal of the Caravan/Freight and Diplomat/Spy units was really unfortunate, and is another major strike against the game. Civilization is not better with those as automated systems in menus. They should be units.
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