I'm boycotting Civ V for now. I might get it when in few years they make Civ V complete, but before that I refuse to pay extra for Babylon. I mean really.. who made the decision to exclude one of the most influential ancient civilizations from the standard game.

And now you're going to tell us education is more important to you than a good old Civ headache? Come on, be a fan. Join usss... sad ili nikad.

Or, you know, delay until the first exams start. If you break at around that time, you're in the shit.

That is one of the reasons I haven't bought it yet. To quote Rock Paper Shotgun's review, there's expansion-sized holes which will probably be filled with expansions and pay-for DLC. Besides, I'm probably going to jump in to Civ 4 if I see the Actually Complete Version (as in, including Colonization) cheap.

Not really... you need to research naval stuff to unlock the ability and they are completely defenseless, meaning you need to build escorts. You also need to unlock ocean travel and faster travel seperately... it works well and doesn't feel dumbed down.

Spy was added in an expansion before and probably will be again. As for city stuff you can manage it if you want to, but you don't have to.

Culture is extremely important, it's like experience points in an RPG. You can largely ignore the social unlocks, but they are quite nifty to have and of course culture still expands your borders, all be it slower than in Civ4 so that you have to buy land. I like buying land, it makes sense from a growing empire point of view and it makes money more useful along with buying units outright, which is another great idea. In a war with too little units? Blow your treasury on a quick boost, but you might need that money later.

As for religion I do miss it sometimes and I hope it's put back in with an expansion, but changed significantly to go with Civ5's very different feel. I don't really know how to explain that... Civ5 feels very determined, very purposed. You must expand, either by conquest or by rapid migration, and you mist deal with all the city states and Civs. You can't steamroll other Civs anymore, if you want war you have to invest in tactical battles with fewer but more important units. Taking a city is a huge deal as they have great default defenses that are easy to buff up to massive strength. The game sort of streamlines a good number of things but then requires more investment and determination in other things, like war, expansion and picking which social trees to unlock. On prince or higher you really need to steadily manage your economy and happiness too, it's not like they hand it to you.

The game is not streamlined in the sense of making it easy, other than some AI issues they will likely patch. It's more streamlined on the back end because the front end is so much more tactical and needing of attention, if that makes sense. Less in the background, more in the foreground.

who needs that the legion mod is an example one thats already included...

Yeah, Firaxis really went out of their way to make sure we could mod in Civ 5. So nothing to worry about there, and you'll get to import your Civ 4 maps into Civ 5!

The demo certainly convinced me. This is a good thing since I'd already ordered a copy online

WTB Steam free version... :(

Best Civ Eva.

Ok I'm really incredibly angry. I'm in the middle of a fantastic game, and I usually go about 50-60 turns before saving. Well theres no autosave feature. So, this stupid game has now crashed, and I've lost around 55 turns. TWICE. I just got done re-doing what I did and the game crashed again, out of the blue. I've heard that this game really needs a patch and now I believe it. I really don't want to start a new game but I also don't want to play another 1 1/2 hours doing the same schlock for the 3rd time! RAGEEEEEEEEE

umm it autosaves every 10 turns mate

tick the autosaves box on the load menu

I'm a bit conflicted in my opinion of Civ 5 so far. There are features, such as the new combat system, that I really enjoy, and there are omissions that I make the experience feel somewhat shallow compared to previous iterations. Things change though, and I am doing my best not to hold those changes against this latest version of one of my favorite franchises.

However, bugs and A.I. issues are the only real complaint about the game that I have so far. Civ 5 seem to be plagued by some fairly serious bugs at release and the A.I., in many instances, leaves much to be desired. I can only hope that future patches address these issues, and help to make this version of Civilization as engaging and memorable as the past ones.

I must be the only person where the only bugs have been achievement related not a single bug yet and I'm on my 4th huge marathon game on prince...

I am quite happy so far... I haven't found anything I don't like yet, but at the same time, I'm still getting used to the changes, especially how strategies I'ved used in Civ2, 3, and 4 are different.

One thing, though... the game could be clearer in some of the details of the changes. For example (and this is the only one that kinda irked me when i figured it out) I have always built roads on every tile to get the added bonus. But now, roads are for trade networks only AND they have an added maintenance cost.

This is good... but it is better if you know that going in :-) In my first game, I used the old build all the roads plan, and my economy was crushed under the weight of my infrastructure.

Now I know better :-)

I am sure I'll develop a few complaints... but mostly I'm happy to have a game that is both highly streamlined but still with a lot of depth... and I'm really happy to be playing a favorite classic, but one that is also a new experience with new tactics and new rules. If I wanted the same old, I could play those games.