Rating: 
Summary: You gotta get this game! Five million stars, baby!
Review: I've been playing non-stop since I picked up the game on pre-order on Monday. If you like strategy games, you will LOVE Civilization III! Sure, the graphics and sound are not great, but they're not bad either and they're NOT what this game is about. It's about the GAMEPLAY! This game is about creating and building a country and maintaining it against foes and establishing friendships with other countries. The AI is incredibly more advanced and as a result, the negotiations are so much more FUN than before! Now, I can trade the technology Gunpowder to a neighbor for 10 gold a turn plus an agreement to get horses so I can recruit Knights. I can also capture an ally's city that was taken over by an enemy and give it back to my ally. You can win in many ways-- war, diplomacy, trade, or culture. Also, you can play against up to... get this... 15 (that's right FIFTEEN) AI's, too. You'll learn a bit of history along the way as well, which is a big bonus. Civilization III is a game that should go down in history as one the greatest computer games ever made. It is a must-have for any game player. This is going to sell millions of copies. I'm buying Infogrames stock now!
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but not great, sequel.
Review: Nice features: great graphics, streamlined trade and diplomacy, better research tree explanation, queues for production in towns. It's great that the game has sixteen cultures, each different, so that there's a different play each time. The new resource system has three types. Some are what we're used to, "bonus" squares. Some are luxuries, connect them by road and all cities are happier. Some are strategic, you need horses somewhere to make any horse units, saltpetre to make gunpowder based units. It adds to the game, though I wish the game would explain why we cannot make items we have the technology to make (maybe greyed out units with explanation). The drawback - the old strategies are no good anymore. You'll have to change the way you play Civ to do well here. Not a big problem, but be aware of it. The problems - production queues cannot be changed by any means I have seen or read (yes I read and reread the rules). You cannot access the civilopedia from the 'production screen'. The rush job button is unmarked and simply says "shields" when you hold your mouse over it. Many worker (engineer/settlers who cannot build towns) orders are not available via the icons, e.g. automate to upgrade this city, automate clean pollution. Plus, armies, which seems to be very important, are not at all user friendly. There is no explanation in the civilopedia on how to "load" units (put them in the same square and choose "load" from _unit_ orders). There is no apparent way to switch units once the army has them loaded. In short, the documentation on how to use armies is poor. The worst - for those whose play, like mine, was peaceful until a massive technology advantage had been built up, your style is unplayable now. You'll find fairly early (between 1000 BC and 1 AD) that you run out of things to make in town and can only make units. What you end up with is RTS style play, build a stack of guys and rush the enemy. The streamlining of other aspects of the games will often leave you with only units to build, and since making cash gets you little gold per turn, you'll make units, then you'll need something to do with them. All in all it's still Civ, it's still Civ3. I don't mean to imply that it's bad, hence the four stars. A bad Civ is better than the best of most other genres. However, veteran Civ players need to know that there will be frustrations.
Rating: 
Summary: Save your money and get Civilization: Call To Power
Review: I was eagerly anticipating this game. I was a big fan of the origional Civilization for MSDOS, and then a big fan of Civilization: Call To Power. However, after purchasing this game, I must say I am very sadly disapointed. First of all, the game has tons of bugs and technical problems. Entries in the Civilopedia that are larger than one page, simply are printed down beyond the Civilopedia panel and down below the screen. There is no way to scroll down to read it. There is no way to set the resolution of the game. None. You play it in the screen resolution they want to you play it in. Second of all, the artwork is seriously lacking. The artwork is on par with a game that came out maybe 2 or 3 years ago. Civilization: Call To Power had much better artwork. They have eliminated the cool movies that you used to get with each wonder or new technology. Now, all you get is a little icon that shows up in your city information page. Third, the game is lacking. Civilization: Call To Power had hundreds of units, hundreds of city improvements, and took you from the ancient past into the future where you could build undersea colonies, space colonies, etc. Some of the funnest moments of Civilization: Call To Power involved huge outer space battles. Civ 3 on the other hand, only has 60 units, and increadably SIMPLIFIED technology tree, less civilizations. IT IS TOO DARN SIMPLE!!!! Fourth, Civilzation 3 doesn't have multiplayer!!! Darnit, Civ: Call To Power had it 3 years ago!!!! My final thoughts are this: The makers of this game realized that people like me, fans of computer strategy games, would buy this game nomatter what. So they dumbed the game down, hoping to win over some of those twitch gamers, and hopefully get the game ported to Playstation 2 or Xbox were the real money is. The next day after purchasing this game, I uninstalled it and installed Civilization: Call To Power! In my opinion, this 3 year old game beats this brand new game in every single aspect. That includes graphics!!! Maybe in 1996 this game would be great, but in 2001, this game is a sorry disapointment!
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful edition to the Civilization Saga!
Review: This is a cool game :) If you are a fan of the Civilization Saga, as I am, you won't be disappointed. The graphics are good, the soundtrack is much improved, and the leaders are well drawn and excellent. The game has gotton harder, much harder in my opinion. Your strategy of playing the game has gotten more complex, and gives you better play. The game has become more realistic, and is definately more challenging. If you are ready to conquor the world either by peace, force, economically, or culture you are now set to do this. I would encourage you, if you have played this game in the past, to try this edition.
Rating:
Summary: Looks fun but won't run
Review: This program should've been through a few more rounds of testing. I've got a new system that runs plenty of hard-core programs (Think Half-Life, SC3000, Unreal) and has plenty of guts (1ghz/256mg ram/PIII/Gforce) but Civ 3 still freazes-up, errors out, and (this is the most frustratingly stupid) it layers words overtop of each other making important information impossible to read. I'm returning my copy tomorrow.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: I don't get it. Why the heck would you review something you haven't played yet? Well, for the past few days, evening, wee hours of the morning I've been plugging away at this one. At first I was let down slightly by the overall similarity to Civ II, since its basically the same game with some improvements. However these improvements in graphics and several other areas add a condisderable amount of depth to the game. You no longer have to mess around with trading (caravans) which is a tremendous improvement. In addition, resources have been tweaked to make them a foundational aspect of success. This also blends into the deep diplomatic elements of the game. Overall, a very good improvement to Civ II and Alpha Centari that is just as time consuming as its forerunners. Excellent!
Rating:
Summary: No skin off Call to Power's back!
Review: Oooh! Horrible Horrible game! I saw reviews here way before the game was released. Come on have you played it before you gave it 5 stars? Just the prospect of the game? Feel free to spend your money and see how it stacks up to CTP2. Of course, Call to Power 2 was not perfect but this is abysmal. You WILL notice that the playability is extremely hard and vague compared to Activision's CTP2. Wars are strange with no stacking and each soldier fights another one!! How realistic is that? Trading is so vague with no idea of what's going on unlike CTP2 where trade routes are clearly shown. Diplomacy is also toothless and you do not get to compose a message nicely like you can in CTP. And there are many more instances that show Sid Meier is losing his touch or he doesn't have enough resources to hire enough programmers and do a good job. Mark my words, you would be better off saving your money for CTP3!!
Rating:
Summary: Please read, before your rush out to buy...
Review: And it is a monumental disappointment!!! I am going to try and return it to the shop - if I can.
If you have never played Civilization, this may be a good buy, since you don't know what you're missing. It is merely a souped up version of Civ2 - nothing surprising there. However, they ignored myriad things that Call To Power (CTP 2) had improved upon that were not picked up by this version. CTP has been advancing this series under the flagship of Activision. Here are some annoyances:
1. There is no concept of army. It is one soldier fighting at a time like the old one, even if you pile 'em up.
2. There is bare minimum you can configure on your display etc. No changing resolution. There are 10-12 things that you select/deselect - that's it!
3. CTP offers amazing array of options on every screen. Not here. For e.g., the file-save window is a joke - even I can design a better GUI!!
4. There is no defined trade route or caravans. So you have no idea what the hell is going on. You just negotiate "passage rights" then some magic might be happening!! To be honest, I don't know all the steps, probably, but it is 1780 AD and I have no sign of a trade!
5. You cannot design a build list. Each time a thing gets done, city is in focus. If you don't notice, you may be churning out warriors after warriors! No concept of a "Manager" either.
6. Can't check ranking from a menu. Wait from scholars to write stupid books. No warning when Wonders are getting done my opponents. Can't see your cash readily - have to talk to your "advisors".
7. The diplomacy is extremely complicated. After frustrating clicks, I could not tell the damned English to stop trespassing - sometimes it is there in the choice of dialogs, sometimes not! It is not like the standard menu that CTP uses where you can construct your dialog.
8. Can't exchange goods since there are not "sea routes". How do you make one? Read the thick manual - and I haven't found it yet!!
9. Can't toggle off grids.
10. Build list is woefully short even into advanced years!!
11. Terrain improvements are very limited as compared to CTP.
NN..... List goes on!!!...
Here are the paltry positives that I see:
1. Graphics is pleasant, but you see very little portion of the screen. It is like CTP zoomed into just few grids.
2. Your manufacturing requires that you have access to raw goods. Thus, without access to "iron" you don't get to make "swordsmen". Thus, it may become 1700 AD and all you are still making are "warriors" and "archers"!!! Gets tiring...
3. Cities expand when the culture in it grows, and it can engulf nearby rival's city - this is probably the coolest feature.
4. You can have more kinds of exchange with the neighbors.
5. You can make roads anywhere, not just within your own city limit like in CTP.
Overall, it is a travesty. They should've espoused all the advancements that CTP2 did, and some more. I know what I'm going to do. I'll be playing CTP2 until CTP3 come out, and this piece of junk is going back to the shop for a ("pray") refund.
Rating: 
Summary: civilzation 3 quick review
Review: civ and upgrades are some of the best games you can buy for the pc.
However CIV 3 HAS ONE MAJOR FLAW - IT DOESN'T SUPPORT NETWORK/NET PLAY
This is a major drawback as playing live against real polayers is great fun and you can do this with CIV 2.
CIV 2 can now be found in full on some pc magazine free cd roms so i dont recommend t=you buy civ 3 till it supports network play (give it 6 months) till then unless you are really keen.
Rating:
Summary: If it's two in the morning, it must be a good game...
Review: I bought the game on my lunch break, came home after work, finished up some projects, installed the game at 7 and started to play. The next thing I knew, it was two in the morning. I felt like I was back in college, obsessing over playing the original Civilization in the computer lab until I really should have gone to bed. This is a good thing. Yes, I suppose you could complain that there aren't really that many changes from the original or Civ2. Yes, the workers are just as braindead as they've ever been. Yes, you may find yourself in the year 1600 relieved you finally have a swordsman. Yes, the diplomacy is improved but on occasion you'll get some strange demands. But, honestly, if you're a fan of the games, you have to admit that as frustrating as those things may be, they're as much a part of the game as anything. Chalk it up to nostalgia if you must. I'm someone who balks at spending more than $30 on a computer game but I can honestly say that this is worth it. I'll be up until 2 tonight trying to get those miserable French off my continent once and for all.
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