Rating: 
Summary: Mac version has no editor
Review: I was hesistant to buy this sequel of a sequel game, wondering if it was worth the money. I would have to definitly say yes. Whether it is as good as Civ 2 is debatable, but at least it is different enough to bring back some of the fun and novelty to this decade-old franchise.They have incorporated a number of changes from Alpha Centauri, like the unique factions/nations, separating settlers and workers, and adding borders. Unique to this game, and a great addition, is the cultural aspect, which defines your borders and gives you more incentive to build libraries, temples and certain wonders. Having strong culture can lead to bordering cities of culturally inferior civs voluntarily joining you without firing a shot. The diplomacy of the game has been greatly improved, although I find the AI a bit unreasonable, but Teddy Roosevelt's "Speak softly and carry a big stick" work's out that problem. Minor complaints are that the wonder movies are rather unimpressive, and your advisors no longer speak. I don't miss the animated heralds at all. You also have no way of customizing your civ, but that is understandable considering other features of the game. I am hoping that MacSoft will port the expansion, with the King feature and eight new civs (many of them which were dropped from Civ 2). Bottom line: if you are a civ fan, and tired of playing the 1996 Civ 2, the get this game. If not, there's probably not much to lure you to this game.
Rating: 
Summary: Civilization Evolves
Review: I was hesistant to buy this sequel of a sequel game, wondering if it was worth the money. I would have to definitly say yes. Whether it is as good as Civ 2 is debatable, but at least it is different enough to bring back some of the fun and novelty to this decade-old franchise. They have incorporated a number of changes from Alpha Centauri, like the unique factions/nations, separating settlers and workers, and adding borders. Unique to this game, and a great addition, is the cultural aspect, which defines your borders and gives you more incentive to build libraries, temples and certain wonders. Having strong culture can lead to bordering cities of culturally inferior civs voluntarily joining you without firing a shot. The diplomacy of the game has been greatly improved, although I find the AI a bit unreasonable, but Teddy Roosevelt's "Speak softly and carry a big stick" work's out that problem. Minor complaints are that the wonder movies are rather unimpressive, and your advisors no longer speak. I don't miss the animated heralds at all. You also have no way of customizing your civ, but that is understandable considering other features of the game. I am hoping that MacSoft will port the expansion, with the King feature and eight new civs (many of them which were dropped from Civ 2). Bottom line: if you are a civ fan, and tired of playing the 1996 Civ 2, the get this game. If not, there's probably not much to lure you to this game.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable as ever, just not as good as it could be
Review: I've always njoyed Sid Meier's games, he produces a world with rules and an objective or objectives in the distant future and lets the user figure out how to get there. As a result the user is responsible fo plotting the course of his experience. This offers infinite replayablillity while the game itself rarely gets old. The Civilization franchise has been around for nearly a decade and has included some excellent titles so I was eager to grab up Civ 3, however after countless hours I've enjoyed the game tremendously but noticed a few nasty flaws. First, the gameplay in Civ 3 is excellent, and the game adds a few new dimensions to the turn-based strategy game and they all work well. Improved borders, more detailed trade and better resource management come to mind. These improvements make the game more fun and realistic by centering combat and strategy around specific areas such as a key road junction or resource area. However these are simply minor improvements and do not make the game unique. However for some strange reason my Civ 3 games seem slower and more monotonous than previous efforts in other turn-based strategy games. I wouldn't call the game boring but it seems to require more patience than its predecessors. The Civ 3 interface has been cleaned up and better designed, now you run the game from the keyboard rather than the complex system of menus in previous titles, however the interface, especially in the city screen feels too cluttered it is difficult to figure out exactly what everything is. I prefered the contextual menus of Alpha Centauri. Civ 3 has good graphics, music, and sound effects which only add to the experience but be warned that most of the sound is disabled by a bug until you install a small upgrade from MacSoft. The Mac version also plays somewhat slower than its PC sibling but other than this the OS X version at least is solid and well ported. My biggest problem with the game is the lack off multiplayer gaming suport. Sid Meier & co have had plenty of time and experience to make a fun multiplayer game but they simply don't seem to put any thought into it. In the end I enjoy Civ 3 but it isn't one of my favorite games of all time and unlike past games such as, say Alpha Centauri or Escape Velocity It won't last the test of time.
Rating: 
Summary: Not quite Civ II
Review: It hurts me to say something bad about a civilization game, but to be honest, this one just does not measure up to it's predecessor. I owned, played and LOVED both the original Civ. and Civ II. This game however leaves a LOT to be desired. Wile it DOES give the much needed diplomacy / trading option upgrades that are so desperately lacking in Civ II, the game play tradeoffs are not, in my opinion, near worth it. The new interface is nice looking, though it is not intuitive, and is really clunky. For example, in order to establish an embassy with a foreign power, (diplomat and spy units no longer exist) one does not go to the foreign relations advisor, but instead clicks on a star that is attached to ones own capitol, every other foreign ministry action is carried out through the foreign relations advisor. There are other examples. Much of the information that was previously available to the player in the main play screen is no longer available in the main screen, and some of it seems to be completely unavailable. An example would be terrain information. In Civ II the game would automatically give you the terrain info for the square the active unit was situated on. This is really helpful in a lot of situations, if for instance you are trying to build a road to someplace, and you cant see if a road exists in the square (because your unit is blocking it) and you have forgotten if you have built a road in that square or not - looking at the window that says definitely one way or another is nice. In Civ III in order to get the terrain info you must Cmd-Click on the square - and the resulting window still does not tell you if there are improvements or not. Again, there are other examples. All of the interface things would be bearable if it were not for one glairing fault with the game. It runs SLOWLY. There is no other way to say it, gracefully or not. It is a dog. I have a relatively new computer, purchased about the time the game was released... and the game is painful to play. There is an excruciating pause between each units movement. For example: If you want to move a unit three steps down a road, you direct the unit, and it moves, then you wait, then you get to direct it again, and it moves again... then you wait again... then you get to move the unit a last time, it moves for a last time, and then you get to wait again... until the game locates your next unit and the process starts over. Moving units has always been problematic in Civ games, and this just makes it excruciating. The way combat is carried out is improved a bit, but there was nothing drastically wrong with it before. On the whole there seems to be something of a liberal "Anti-War" agenda undermining the entire war making process, as the entire enterprise of going to war has become much more difficult. The main improvements are in diplomatic and trade negotiations - which are MUCH needed improvements. On the whole, this edition is not an improvement over the previous edition so much as it is an entirely different animal... If I had never played the previous two versions I would likely not be the least bit unhappy, but having played the previous versions this feels like a half effort to me, like the funding ran out before it was finished and it had to get to market or die. In my opinion, Civ II is a much better game, with more thought included, if less eye-candy.
Rating:
Summary: Not quite Civ II
Review: It hurts me to say something bad about a civilization game, but to be honest, this one just does not measure up to it's predecessor. I owned, played and LOVED both the original Civ. and Civ II. This game however leaves a LOT to be desired. Wile it DOES give the much needed diplomacy / trading option upgrades that are so desperately lacking in Civ II, the game play tradeoffs are not, in my opinion, near worth it. The new interface is nice looking, though it is not intuitive, and is really clunky. For example, in order to establish an embassy with a foreign power, (diplomat and spy units no longer exist) one does not go to the foreign relations advisor, but instead clicks on a star that is attached to ones own capitol, every other foreign ministry action is carried out through the foreign relations advisor. There are other examples. Much of the information that was previously available to the player in the main play screen is no longer available in the main screen, and some of it seems to be completely unavailable. An example would be terrain information. In Civ II the game would automatically give you the terrain info for the square the active unit was situated on. This is really helpful in a lot of situations, if for instance you are trying to build a road to someplace, and you cant see if a road exists in the square (because your unit is blocking it) and you have forgotten if you have built a road in that square or not - looking at the window that says definitely one way or another is nice. In Civ III in order to get the terrain info you must Cmd-Click on the square - and the resulting window still does not tell you if there are improvements or not. Again, there are other examples. All of the interface things would be bearable if it were not for one glairing fault with the game. It runs SLOWLY. There is no other way to say it, gracefully or not. It is a dog. I have a relatively new computer, purchased about the time the game was released... and the game is painful to play. There is an excruciating pause between each units movement. For example: If you want to move a unit three steps down a road, you direct the unit, and it moves, then you wait, then you get to direct it again, and it moves again... then you wait again... then you get to move the unit a last time, it moves for a last time, and then you get to wait again... until the game locates your next unit and the process starts over. Moving units has always been problematic in Civ games, and this just makes it excruciating. The way combat is carried out is improved a bit, but there was nothing drastically wrong with it before. On the whole there seems to be something of a liberal "Anti-War" agenda undermining the entire war making process, as the entire enterprise of going to war has become much more difficult. The main improvements are in diplomatic and trade negotiations - which are MUCH needed improvements. On the whole, this edition is not an improvement over the previous edition so much as it is an entirely different animal... If I had never played the previous two versions I would likely not be the least bit unhappy, but having played the previous versions this feels like a half effort to me, like the funding ran out before it was finished and it had to get to market or die. In my opinion, Civ II is a much better game, with more thought included, if less eye-candy.
Rating:
Summary: Great Game, But Some Changes from Civ 2 are not for better
Review: Over all, I really like the game. Most of the changes from Civ 2 are good, but there is one REALLY annoying one that costs this version a full star, one and a half if I could, and that is the fact that ships and planes cannot destroy units. They can only bombard them, which can weaken them to a point where they're ALMOST finished, but they cannot finish them off themselves. Planes can destroy planes, ships can destroy ships, but planes cannot destroy ships or land units, and ships can't destroy land units (or planes). I would imagine that the makers had many complaints about this and hopefully they'll put it back the way it was for Civ IV. If your a Civ nut, buy it. If not, wait for Civ IV.
Rating:
Summary: One step forward, two back.
Review: Pros: Aerial view - Shows what is in your city. You build a factory, a factory appears in the city. Really neat. Leaders - You win a battle, you have a chance of getting one of these. After you take them to your city, They can: Make an Army - This is great. They turn into a unit which can hold other units making a super unit. They, however, cannot go into boats (I think), so they are pointless on island maps because you need to take them back to your city. Good for protecting your island I guess. Complete Improvement (Or unit I think) - Rushes an improvement or building. Battle animation - The animation is nice. I perfer Call to Power's battles, but this isn't bad. Cons: Annoying interface - The interface isn't hard tot use.. its just annoying to use. Slow - Game gets REALLY slow later on in huge maps. This is beyond annoying. Waiting several minutes between turns, a few between unit movements.. Its a mess. Flat terrain - The terrain is flat. Sure, there are tiles with mountains on them, but its flat. Very much unlike Alpha Centauri, which has very nice looking terrain. Set units - I know this would be hard to do in a Civilization game, but not impossible. In Alpha Centauri, you can change things around in units. Give them a different weapon, body, shielding, etc. Espionage Prices - The prices for Espionage things are WAY too high. Impossible to afford on island maps because you can't have billions of cities to give you money. Unfair AI - The AI never accepts fair deals. Even on the lowest setting. And when you ask what they want for a technology, they usually ask for 4 of yours or 3k gold. Even if its a lousy technology. Multiplayer - Multiplayer isn't included. Of course, you can buy it for thirty dollars more. Expect to see more of this in future games. Buy half now, half later. Its BS. This is all I can think of right now. I'm sure there are more pros.. and cons. In the end, this isn't a bad game. It just.. Isn't very good. Go buy Alpha Centauri and the Alien Crossfire expansion.
Rating:
Summary: Mac version has no editor
Review: The ad says it comes with an editor for the maps and etc. This is not true, unless you have a PC. They have been promising this for a long time, and I am beginning to get tired of playing this game and still no editor. This is unacceptable support from the publishers. It is a good game. I have played it a lot in the last six months, but the delay on the editor is now becoming a real sore point. I would give it 5 stars otherwise. It plays well, and with plenty of speed on my flat-screen iMac, by the way. This will be a great game when the publishers live up to their advertising and supply the editors. It is just wrong to advertise this product as coming with an editor. Shame on you for deceptive advertising!
Rating: 
Summary: I *was* excited about this game, too bad it hoovers the tool
Review: The AI is good and the graphics are nice. However the performance is abominable. I have been running this on two Macs, a PowerMac G4 733 with 1.5Gb of RAM and a Dual 1Ghz PowerMac with 1.5Gb of RAM and performance on both platforms is completely unacceptable. It is obvious to me that the programmers at Firaxis didn't do any usability testing or performance QA before they shipped this. Civilization Call to Power on a G3 is a speed demon compared to this game on the G4. I don't know what's wrong with this game but I'm giving up on the Mac version as it is just too slow to play. I strongly recommend avoiding the Macintosh version of this game, it's awful.
Rating:
Summary: No Multiplayer Support
Review: The MacOS X port of this game is done pretty well. However, Civilization 3 is a lot like its predecessors in terms of gameplay. The main changes being improved user interface, graphics, and no multiplayer support. I subtracted 3 stars for going backwards.
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