Rating: 
Summary: Decent, but not well balanced
Review: Civilization. The name should conjure forth in a player's memory countless hours of "One more turn", how much coffee the human body can consume, and the true meaning of the word "Addiction".
I poured more time into Civ2 than I have *ever* put into any other game, hands down. To this day I find myself playing it for hours at a time...the game is perfect, has seemingly infinite replayability, and is a blast in multiplayer. So when Civilization III was slated to come out I was beside myself with joy. I was an almost daily visitor to the game's website, inputting my own questions alongside the other thousands of fans. But how do you explain this game? To really understand the problem, one must look at both the inherent pros and cons of the game itself. In my humble opinion Sid got some things dead right, things that really do add to a game like this. And others it's like he forgot (God forgive me for saying this about a computer gaming legend like this) and got completely backwards. In it's favor Civ 3 is very pretty to look at for a game of it's type. Animated units run across the landscape and terrain has a fresh and real feel to it. Another plus to the game is the addition of borders. I love it when I can take over a rival city bloodlessly and intact. And it offers incentive to throw production into buildings that otherwise might be sidelined in favor of military applications: Libraries and the like. The research tree makes a little more sense than it did in Civ 2, but I'll be the first to tell ya that I miss the old one a lot more. I keep hitting Philosophy and expecting to get a free advance, and when nothing happens I can't hide my disappointment. The animated battles are nice to watch, and I like the addition of levels of experience for your troops, ie "Veteran" and "Elite". The end of the game, as I watch my Civlization's borders expand on the overview area, I can't help but think back to that turn and say "I remember that!", when certain events happen or Wonders are built. These are all great things about this game to me, and it's one of the reasons that I continue to try to win at it. But the whole effort is hamstrung by some rather critical problems, ones that I'm surprised the gaming community doesn't seem to want to acknowledge, and those that do do it reluctantly. Here's some examples... - Units are horribly unbalanced. This has gotten a little better with the latest patches, but the fact remains that a guy wielding a sword should be NO match for a guy firing a rifle. It's frustrating to see advanced units fall before Medieval weapons...it makes no sense. I could forgive the game every single fault it had, if not for this single problem. - I have played, and played, and played. And yet I cannot seem to advance beyond Industrial Age despite the outrageous amount of time and effort I put into expansion and science research. I do not know what the American F-15 Special Unit looks or plays like. Nor the German Panzer. These will probably remain mysteries to me for as long as I play the game, and that bothers me. Civ 2 rewarded the player who put the most time and effort into Science by giving them technological edge over rivals and enemies. This, along with the unit imbalances mentioned above, seriously hamper the entire experience for me. Someone write me and tell me they've at least *seen* a Spaceship without cheating. I want to know if it's possible. - Diplomacy is a mixed bag. It starts out civil enough when dealing with other Civs, but I cannot see the sense in Hiawatha demanding that I give him World Maps, Money, and my latest Scientific Discovery, just so I can get useless World Maps in return. World Maps + 200 Gold + Printing Press does NOT equal World Maps, no matter how much of the globe he possesses. - The Corruption thing is a little out of whack. What incentive do I have to expand my empire when I know that my fringe colonies will never be able to build anything because they'll always have just one production shield? And yes I'm a Democracy, with a Police Station, Courthouse, Roads, and a Harbor. It makes me not want to expand because it's almost too much trouble. As I said, I could let the game slide by with 4 stars if the unit imbalance issue was corrected, but even after all these patches I still can't get over the fact that a Veteran Swordman can take down an Elite Rifle unit while only taking 1 hit. Star Control 3. Master of Orion 3. Civilization 3. Bad things come from Infogrames in 3's...
Rating: 
Summary: Civilization 3
Review: Very Entertaining. In can Start out boring in the first age but gets better quickly.
Rating: 
Summary: New and improved - the best one yet.
Review: Civilization III is a must for any fan of the earlier civilization games, and it is a great addition to any gamer's library who is a fan of strategy games. However, be warned: this is not a multiplayer game, you will need the "Play the World" expansion pack to play with someone online(sold separately). Still, I give it an A+.
Rating: 
Summary: tons of potential, but too many irritating problems
Review: To start, I have been way too addicted to the civ franchise for my own good. Civ1 probably dropped my grade point average by a point in college. Civ2 is still my favorite game of all time, and Alpha Centauri is nothing less then a masterpiece, although it shared some of the same problems that this game has. Unfortunately, these problems make this game wholey unenjoyable
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1. The made NO ATTEMPT at making the ai seem like it doesn't cheat. The ai will always attack your least defended city. If you have a city half way across the world with only one unit, they ai will show up with just enough force to take the city. Therefore you spend the whole game building units, because a city with less then 4 units WILL be taken, even if it is in the interior of your civ. So so so aggravating. 2. The comps have always been able to spit out a lot more units then you, but in this version it is absolutely ridiculous. A civ half the size of your will easily keep up with you in production, making war a serious extremely hard. And I've been playing at the 3 level out of 6. 3. The new addition of a concept of culture could have been great. Your civ builds up a cultural score, which other civs either envy, or snub there noses at. The problem arises, when entire cities up and leave your empire for another. I wouldn't have a problem with this if it was smaller cities, or if your civ was extremely far behind an adjacent civ. This, however, isn't the case. I've lost cities of up to 12 to civs whom my people were "unimpressed" with. This also makes war much harder, because conquered cities lose improvements that give them cultural gains. So you either spend money rebuilding temples and the like, or often lose the city (including its entire garrison) to this phenomenon. You want to punch your computer, and throw it out the window. 4. The whole concept of spying has been thrown out the window. For some reason, they decided it wasn't hard enough to keep up with comps, with all of there cheats, in the tech race. So, they got rid of spy units, and instead make you spend ludicrous amounts (upwards of 5000) of money to steal technologies. Oh I should mention you spend ludicrous amounts of money for a CHANCE to steal a technology! 5. they took out your ability to speed up great wonder production, with either money, or with caravans. Again, with the comps cheats, this makes it very hard to get any of the wonders, and is counter to real life. If a society decides to put all of its energies into one thing, it can and has historically. So why not in this game? 6. the diplomacy is terrible. There is no room for diplomacy actually, the civs will always ask for more then you are getting, but will never give you more? There is no room for haggling whatsoever. If you refuse their outlandish requests they get annoyed at you and unless you are armed to the teeth will perpetually invade your borders, making you perpetually tell them to get out. It flat out sucks. About the only addition they made to this new version that was well implemented was the addition of special resources which are needed to build specific units. For instance, if you want to build musketeers, you not only need the technology, but you need to have saltpeter as a resource somewhere in you empire. I could go on, but I think you get the idea. Luckily I bought this game used, and didn't get taken for the whole price. I would not recommend this game at all. Unfortunately, it didn't live up to its vast potential, because they didn't put in the time on the AI. It's is really more annoying and tedious then fun.
Rating:
Summary: mediocre
Review: I feel kinda let down by this game. Yeah, it has some ok graphics (would kinda have to, considering its the 21st century!) but its really the least fun of any of the civilizations, for me at least. I highly reccomend "alpha centauri". Its better in every way, imo.
Rating:
Summary: This game was okay
Review: This game really had no point. I didn't even understand the point. One thing I really didn't like about this game was the fact that there was no "levels". At first the game looked great,and I thought it was going to be my favorite game of all time. It was a big letdown. The cheats for this game really .... I don't really reccomend this game, but it is not bad as some games I've played.
Rating:
Summary: THE BEST!
Review: If you like strategy games then this is the game for you! If you dont have this on your shelf then go buy it! Run, don't walk!
Rating:
Summary: What a letdown!
Review: I enjoyed Civ 2 & got hooked on it. But unlike in Civ 2, I can't customize the name or adjective of the civ I play, much less the leader's face--or even gender! I'm stuck with a name like Lincoln or Tokugawa or whoever is the leader of the civ I choose to play. The AI civs are often not courteous to me either. When I lag behind scientifically &/or militarily, these people will demand that I give them some tech advance, the only thing in return being that they refrain from attacking me. Excuse me, but when I give knowledge, I want knowledge in return! Unlike in Civ 2, I can't rush-build Wonders of the World. Thus, when I'm only 2 or 3 turns away from finishing a Wonder, an AI civ beats me to it, which for me means A LOT of production down the drain. The AI civs are also hypocritical when it comes to our troops being in each other's territory. They'll build a city right next to one of my colonies & then tell my troops to get out. But when they move their troops through my territory & I tell THEM to get out, they declare war on me & I find myself outgunned & start losing my cities. All this happens even if I play at the lowest levels of difficulty (Chieftain, Warlord). If you can endure all this, then by all means buy & play this game. But if it's too much for you, then don't waste a penny or a second. As for me, if a bandaged-faced Lincoln is taunted by his rivals & remembered by his citizens as "the Worthless," so what? I've had enough of this foolishness!
Rating:
Summary: Civilization Weak
Review: This game does not draw you in. It is somehow less enticing than Civ II. It is cold, distant, and impersonal, and feels like the rival Call to Power. I hate to admit it, but Call to Power is better than this version of Civ., because call to power has neat stuff, such as underwater and space colonies. I did not find any cool units in this game, nor any cool concepts. "Culture" is a trick. It does not enrich the game, and often makes the conquest of cities frustrating because citizens rebel and overthrow you--give me a break. What this game calls "culture" is an empty word. Apparently you have to build temples in all your cities and feverishly construct "wonders of the world" to gain culture. Slow and uninspring, this game lacks any new imagination. There has been no progress made since Civ II in terms of spicing the game up and making it more interesting.
Rating:
Summary: Graphics
Review: Civilization 3 is the new civ game. Control civilizations by making choices such as build or battle. The combat engines are phenomenal! The problem is that there is luck incorperated in the battles. Stunning graphics, but when you play a game like this you don't play for graphics. A game for the serious player. Very complicated but after a while you should get the hang of it.
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