Rating: 
Summary: Addictive!
Review: ...[Darn] this game is fun. Rich, thought-provoking, exciting. I knew I was a goner when it was 6 in the morning and I could barely bring myself to quit the game I was playing.
Rating:
Summary: wow
Review: addictive. will leave your eyes, fingers, and brain exhausted.
Rating:
Summary: Great game, even better
Review: As a game, Civilization 3 is a much more sophisticated game than its predecessors. Rather than trying to provide a detailed discussion and evaluation of each change, I'll just note that the most improvements have taken place in the real of diplomacy and economics. Specific changes worth noting include: much more sophisticated diplomatic interaction; three different categories of resources exist (bonus, luxury, and strategic), each with its own purpose; national boundaries (like exist in Alpha Centauri); national identity of citizens (i.e. if the French conquer a Chinese city, the population remains Chinese and may still have strong ties to the Chinese empire); trade routes/networks that are based on the existence of roads and navigable waterways rather than caravan units; historical resource discovery (i.e. you don't see where strategic iron resources are until you discover Iron Working; you don't see where oil sesources are until you discover Refining); etc. Also new-- and quite crucial to CIV3 is the idea of *culture*. Temples, libraries, cathedrals, universities and cultural wonders (like Shakespeare's Theatre) give 'culture' points to your civilization. If you have a high culture, cities from rival civilizations may voluntarily and peacefully choose to join your civilization.... or if you don't have a respectable culture, your cities might revolt and join another civ! It is also possible to win the game by having a 'cultural' victory, in addition to the traditional 'military conquest' and 'space race' victories. There are of course plenty of other changes I could mention, but hopefully this will be enough to show those familiar with the previous versions of the game that Civ3 is a major leap forward.So much for CIV3 qua game-- let's talk about CIV3 qua software product. I've heard a lot of complaints from folks about how *slow* this game is on the Mac-- but I haven't seen this at all on my G3 (running 8.6) at all. Perhaps those folks who are complaining about long delays are running this on System X? Or maybe they're playing this on the *max* level, with a "huge" world (rather than the normal standard size one) and with all 16 possible civilizations at play (rather than just the normal 7)? I just haven't seen any problems like this at all. Complaints about the relative unhelpfulness of the manual and of certain aspects of the user interface, however, are dead on. The manual is awkwardly written with crucial information hidden away in appendices. The online 'Civilpedia' is a much more reliable guide than the manual... although even it falls short in some ways. Some things, like the establishment of embassies and the conduct of espionage require very specific-- and rather unusual user actions to activate... and it's almost impossible to figure out how to do them etiher from the manual or the civilpedia. (Thank goodness for fan sites telling how to do these things!) One other thing I should mention is the extraordinary degree to which this game is really being *supported* on the Mac. The company is putting out regular patches to fine tune errors, and even to make minor revisions in the game due to fan suggestions. As a Mac gamer, I have to say I really appreciate that. Anyway, all in all-- excellent game, if you like empire-building strategy cames that have both military and economic development to them (e.g. previous versions of Civ, Alpha Centauri, Masters of Orion). I don't know if this would appeal to folks, however, whose main gaming activity is to play first-person shooters like Quake and Doom. I'd give it a solid 5 as a game, although I was tempted to lower it to a 4 due to the weak manual and clunky user interface. But the game itself is so good, that I think it more than makes up for those problems-- so a solid 5 it is!
Rating:
Summary: An excellent Sequel
Review: Being an absolute Civ. II maniac, I obviously approached Civ. III with a little bit of aprehension and fear that this latest sequel would not live up to its hype. I was wrong. Civ III successfully incorporates all the great elements of Civ II and adds on a whole new level of diplomacy, trade, strategy unparalelled in the gaming world. All in all, an excellent buy!
Rating:
Summary: thanks to civ iii, i no longer sleep!
Review: Civ iii is a remarkable improvement to Civ ii. It is a smoother playing game, and the new and various ways of winning keeps it challenging and exciting. The fact that one no longer needs to be a vicious war loving maniac to win gives even a peace-nik such as myself hopes of a win. There are trade-offs, but all in all, it is a very satisfying and addictive game.
Rating: 
Summary: Really Disappointing
Review: Civilization III in a word is simply a dissapointment. Measured on its own, its an OK game but compared against previous masterpieces like Civilization I, II, and Alpha Centauri, Civilization III pales in comparison. First off, the new graphics are quite impressive, however one cannot enjoy them because the game does not seem to be optimized at all for the Macintosh or PC. Whereas, the games' response in the three previous versions was snappy and quick, Civilization III plods along. Second, the AI is very poorly done. Though the whole diplomacy concept has been redone admirably, the AI is very one-dimensional and more often than not, a cheat. Alpha Centauri I believe had the most refined AI to date in a Sid Meier game. The AI of Civilization III is simply frustrating. I cannot tell you how annoying it is to have lost battles to units which are light-years behind in technology. That is, to lose a modern tank to a warrior or a phalanx unit. It happens too often. Third, the game seems to follow a trend now being set by software manufactures, especially those for the Mac OS. The game is incomplete and unfinished. One has to download two patches, PC users probably more, to correct major flaws in gameplay and stability. I really do not think it fair to pay on the order...for a beta-quality software product. Also, the editor does not ship with the Macintosh version. Also, the great elements of Civilization I, II, and Alpha Centauri were not incorporated into Civilization III. For example, the feature of Alpha Centauri whereby you had over 32,000 possible unit types was omitted from Civilization III. Definitely a step backwards. Also with Civilization II, it was, in practice, truly possible to win the game other than through war and conquest. Civilization III in practice forces you down one track. Expand feverishly, and conquer, conquer, conquer. Finally, my biggest qualm with the game is simply the replay factor. Civilization I, II, and Alpha Centauri kept me up for hours and sometimes days at end. This is especially dangerous for me as I am currently in college. Civilization III however does not do it for me. I have surprisingly played the game only 7 days and then put it back on the shelf. Civilization III's underlying concepts and ideas have enormous potential to provide an unprecedented challenge and yet still be addictively fun. The actual game itself however becomes boring due to either frustration or banality. I hope Civilization III is not a sign of things to come from Sid Meier.
Rating:
Summary: It does not match up to its predecessors.
Review: Civilization III is a great game, very in depth and enjoyable. However, it is NOT a civilization sequel, by no means does the game continue the legacy of the undisputed best game series of all time. To start off, the game is built for a windows interface, which makes the game simply a windows' game that runs in a Macintosh, even the instructions have commands that make use of the right click. This makes the Mac version user-unfriendly. Furthermore, to mention a few flaws, the game lacks the details that had made the previous versions so enjoyable. Details such as the male/female civilization leaders, among others. The game does not have a world map, something I personally enjoyed. I liked running the Spanish empire from the Iberian Peninsula, not from... wherever. Also, there is no longer a Spanish Civilization as well as many other loved civilizations from Civilization II. Multiplayer games are not available, fact that simply put my copy into the closed closet. There are many other things that are not to my liking, but I do not feel it is necessary for me to write a 1000 word review about them. I have heard a Gold Edition is in progress, I can only hope that they make this version specifically for the Macintosh and that they use the game foundations from Civilization II, which are by far better. In few words, Civilization III is a dissapointment.
Rating: 
Summary: Yes, the AI cheats!
Review: First, this game is extremely fun. I've owned it for years now, and I keep reinstalling it and playing it again. I think it's a huge step up from Civ II, but there are still huge flaws. The game is made for limitless possibilities, yet the designers obviously didn't try any of them. I had once conquered a huge map before, and had to shut down the computer because the game insisted on popping up the exact same text message for all of my cities (literally hundreds of them - around 300) for about 3 seconds each. 300x3/60 = 15 minutes. - If anyone is curious, it was the message stating "we love the king day" had been cancled, due to my excessive warring in Democracy. Another FATAL flaw is the combat system. It will literally have you ripping out your hair, or throwing your monitor across the room. The AI cheats badly. In the long game I had played, only on the second difficulty, I lost hundreds of "Modern Armor" tanks attacking primitive units such as pikemen. And I loved it when the little cave-man row-boat destroyed my battleship. Yet the AI could smash my Mech-Infintry (Best Defensive unit) with pathetic units such as Knights and other sword-based fighters. These things don't happen in the real word. One tank could probably take out thousands of little guys with sticks. And no matter how many times you shoot the tank with arrows, it's just not going to damage it. If it only happened once in a while, fine. But trust me, you will need extreme self control to keep your cool after spending so much time researching techs and building up this deadly beautiful army of tanks, only to have it completely worthless in the end. So it's either play the game on the easiest setting (the AI is basically retarded here, and the game very boring), or stress out. I'll stop complaining now. And I'll add the fact that I wouldn't be so touchy about it if I hated it. It really is a fun game, especially for strategy fans. Just don't take the end results as serious as I did!
Rating:
Summary: Incompatible with older iBooks
Review: I played Civ 3 on a friend's PC and loved it so much I couldn't wait for the Mac version to come out. I still think that the game itself is great, but it turns out that if you have an older iBook, as I do (the clamshell style that came in different colors), you absolutely should not buy Civ 3 because you won't be able to play it on your computer. Old iBooks cannot even open the program because it requires a higher resolution than the computer can support (the max resolution an old iBook can support is 800x600 and the bare minimum resolution that the game requires is something like 1024x768). The box doesn't mention this resolution requirement. So I guess I'm reinstalling my copy of Civ 2 today. Pretty disappointing.
Rating:
Summary: An overall great game.
Review: I recently purchased Civ III for my Mac and was quite content even after reading some of the nasty reviews about it. Many people say that not much has changed, but honestly people, what were you expecting? If you wanted a completely changed game, why did you buy a Sid Meier game? It's the same basic format, just with more eye candy, and more realistic, which is all I really wanted. They've also got patches and maps and even an expansion coming out to boot! My only complaint is that it does react a little slowly, but that's a price I'm willing to pay. I'd urge you to buy this game if you liked the other civ games.
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