Rating: 
Summary: Civ III a failure
Review: The game has some great additions, but the play has bugs or has been changed so much you never finish. This is due mostly to changes in waste and curruption, but the book does not spell out the great changes made in trade and negotations well. This led me to many hours reading the book and then trying to find the screen they were talking about. It seems clunky and with the waste and curruption problem, unplayable!
Rating: 
Summary: Little improvement on the original or the sequel
Review: Civilization was tons of fun. Civilization II had some notable improvements like individual unit strength. The greater complexity burdened the game and the attempt at 3D perspective resulted in ugliness. Civiliation III makes the same mistakes Civ II did.The greatest virtue of Civ I was the simple yet realistic design, which did not depend on graphics or burden the processor. It seems the game is simply beyond meaningful improvement. There are quite a few glitches in my game - once a city simply never completed a settler unit it was building...it simply was one turn from completion indefinitely. Just today a unit I ordered to fortify was still selected and I was unable to end my turn. Patch the game as soon as you get it. Then things are much better. The fun aspects of this game are still there, if somewhat obfuscated by junk. I somewhat regret purchasing this game. But if you want the classic with neater graphics, this game is for you.
Rating:
Summary: Boring- right out of the box!
Review: The eclipsing star of the computer gaming world, Sid Meyer, resurfaces to serve up a game that is every bit as exciting as watching lint accumulate. Basically a re-warnmed version of his earlier title, "Alpha Centauri" (a game now in re-release, which will put you back 9 bucks), but without all the cool movies that AC offered, Civilization 3 has all the action of glacial movement, the excitement of a six-hour monotonal history lecture, and all the visual appeal of a mid-80's DOS game.
After buying this game, I popped it into the drive, booted it up, and five minutes later, was wishing that I had bought something more exciting- like a program that would monitor the growth of my fingernails. I've played a lot of games- and over a game-playing hobby that has stretched over the past two decades, I cannot remember a title that was so underwhelming, so dissapointing, and so downright boring.
Rating: 
Summary: Just as good as the original 2, if not better
Review: For a decade, since I was 13, I've played the civilization series, and I've greatly anticipated the arrival of the third Civilization game. This is everything Call to Power wasn't, and more. First off, if you take off the good graphics, take away the great AI, and chisel off some other features, you have the same game that you had 10 years ago. But even so, that gaming premise has never grown old. The new resource system is terrific, it makes world trade and diplomacy much more important than it was in the previous two games. The aquisition of precious resources, especially those that pretty much start new eras, such as coal, seem to be clustered in spots. there was a time in my game, when the only source of oil on the entire map readily available was in the hands of my traditional enemy, the aztecs.
Second, wars are much harder to win. Morale and training are much more important than even in Firaxis' most recent god game, Alpha Centauri. No longer can you construct a handful of powerful units, you must build overwhelming armies of top of the line troops to win a war. AI doesen't make this easier, they're pretty smart, taking advantage of terrain, and often having massive armies of their own. Transit times between areas of conflict are also more important. No longer can you capture a handful of cities on the other side of the world and let the cities there build the units for you. These cities are uncooperative at best, often rejoining their mother country if you don't defend them well enough.
Diplomacy is where the game excels greatly. No longer can you establish a peace treaty with an agressive civilization. No, you have to pay them, and guarantee that you won't attack them. The AI is great at diplomacy, and an inexperienced player will soon be surrounded by an AI coalition if they aren't experienced. Resources have a great effect in diplomacy, a civilization with all the coal on the map will often have better relations with other civs.
In general, at its core, Civilization III is pretty much the same game I played when I was 13, but the add ons adds the prospect of replayability high for many players. In other words, BUY THIS GAME. I accidentally stayed up till one on a monday playing, horrible, barely was awake at work....Tip: Never start a game with settings on Huge World, with 70% water, you'll soon find that transit times for ships are unbearable, especially in wars, where it takes 20 years for top of the line troops to reach their destination, and by then they're bound to be outgunned by newer troops.
Rating:
Summary: Started out good but...
Review: When I first got the game I really liked it, but after playing it for awhile I got tired of it rather quickly. One of the worst things about the game, was later in the game when the computer moves its armies. It can take a long while. The interface is much improved over civ 2, but the game does tire quickly. Only for a real fan of the civ games.
Rating:
Summary: Civilization III
Review: I have always been a fan of the Civilization series. After becoming obsessed with Civ II, I could hardly wait for a sequel. Unfortunately, the next several attempts were horrible in my eyes. Civilization III is a game worthy to follow, and I am glad it was the only one to keep a name so close to its predicesor. I love the game. It's fun and most of the stupid little things from Civ II are gone. Kudos to Sid Meier and to all the design team. Thanks again.
Rating:
Summary: Lame, Lame, Lame. What a disappointment! (Zero stars.)
Review: Clearly, this game was released too soon. Instead of rambling on too much about my own hellish installation/compatibility issues, I'd recommend you check out... and peruse the multitude of horror stories. Surely, you'll find a hopeless scenario describing a system like yours. Tech support was useless (basically, they tell everyone to update drivers, firmware, etc., when the real problem is the buggy copy protection.) BTW, my system is an AMD 1.2/512 RAM/ATI Radeon/SB Audigy. Compare my specs to the minimum requirements. In addition, all my drivers and firmware are current. I'll also add that the user manual is horrible. Useless unless you read it cover to cover... like you usually do. And they quietly dropped the multiplayer feature. (Which becomes less irritating after you realize that most people can't even play by themselves.) Lame copy protection, greedy rush to market, poor QA and documentation, have robbed us again. The graphics are pretty. Save your money. Or at least wait for the patch... The rebirth that could have been the dawning of a new era for this epic game, sadly, seems more like an end. A bitter end, if you haven't already discerned that.
Rating: 
Summary: *Yawn* i am bored
Review: Yes like my title I realized that this game is fun for the first two dayz, but after the second day i dunt seem to be able to keep myself awake. The constent need to manage 60 cities is more than a nuisance. The so called computer "governer" that is suposed to help with the job of managing cities, is absolutly stupid. This game is almost exactly like Civ 2 only with better graphics. This game is not worth the price, but for those that enjoy spending lots of time doing the same tasks over and over again, this might be your game. Yet i estimate this game can only keep gamers intersted for at most 1 week.
Rating:
Summary: Sad sad decline from the glory of Civilization II
Review: Civilization II is my all time favorite computer game. When I lost that game when a computer virus damaged my hard drive I recieved the Third edition of this series. And what a utter crock of $h!t. I am so dissapointed I am almost crying in disbelief. There are so many thing that completely ruin the qualities of this so called game. First you can't bribe rival units. Second, there is no cheat mode to toggle. Third there is no complete it button to spend money to build improvements, units, or wonders. God, is there no end to this sorry story. I felt so excited when I got this game for my birthday but when I installed it all it did was crash almost a few minutes after starting and it wrecked my hard drive. Needless to say is that this is nothing but a computer wrecking hunk of garbage. I personally am going to the computer store and am buying a replacement copie of the Second civilization. This one on the other hand will be sitting on the shelf and collecting dust or heading to the garbage can. Maybe if my computer is fixed and upgraded this game will be playable and given a higher rating but from where things stand right now this is one of the biggest dissapointments ever. For those who are rushing out to buy this: Stick with your older versions because all this one will do is eat up hard drive space and ruin your hard drive.
Rating:
Summary: I want my money back!!!
Review: This game was a huge disappointment. I pre-ordered this game and was very excited about the release of Civ III, but it's definately not all than it was made out to be. I would reccommend either Civ II or the new Age of Empires rather than this waste of money.
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