Okay, I gave in and got me the game... So far, I'm happy with what I see and experience. The game is really visually much nicer. It gets a little while to get accusotmed to the new icons, the discoveries of natural wonders, of barbaric camps and the city-states I still have to fully understand how it works.

I love the "no-piling military troops" except legendary generals. This is much more tactic than before. I like also the new tweaks in the general economy of the game, as HoneyBakedHam just said, you have to think twice about your old "all-infrastructures" tactics. ^_^

Still, I'm still on the learning process of the new interface, new rules and new features, so I'll reserve my final judgement. But so far, I'm quite pleased. And I have to convince my old Civ IV partners to buy it to play with me...

Yeah, hexagon are kind of best approach for strategy games. Actually I would have liked that the guys at Firaxis include a real sphere as a map. Would just need to include some pentagons now and then. However they didn't... Maybe next time.

The game is fantacular. I'm on my third civ now.

Spent 54 hours in just 6 days of playing it. I feel like I'm in a huge bottomless time sink. Can't stop playing it either, so friggin' addicting. Just one more turn, and that turn leads to another, and another, and another.. and so on and so forth.

It autosaves in every 10 turns by default.

I've just ordered my version. I was playing years in Civ III, then years in CIV and then months in the Civ: Revolution on my PS3 (also great but more arcade than tactic).

I can't wait to open the box and provide wealth and prosperity to my nation! :D

I was hesitant when I bought the game due to all the marketing before release that used the word 'streamlined', but I have to say that Civ5 has pleasantly surprised me. In fact, it has brought back fond memories of playing Civ1 on my Amiga due to the refocus on gameplay mechanics over feature creep.

I know that some people on various forums have been reporting that the game is unstable and massively bugged, but from my own experience it has been crash free and smooth as silk so far. I do run a very clean gaming PC though, so maybe that helps. Firaxis have also released two patches since release that apparently deal with some of the reported crash issues.

The absence of religion in its previous incarnation is a great relief, mainly due to how overpowered it was in the diplomacy section of Civ4. The new Social Policies mechanic replaces the Civics of Civ4 in a way that I believe is more historically believable, as your civilization develops a flavour over the course of the game that can be quite unique and flexible. Not everyone in the community is sold, though, so YMMV.

So, all in all, I am enjoying Civ5 and look forward to seeing how it develops over time. There is no doubt that Firaxis/2K have provided a core gameplay base upon which to build further DLC, though even if you are staunchly against such revenue mechanisms there is enough gameplay in the current build to feel satisfied anyway.

Thing is every CIv since 3 has built up over time with expansion packs. Some of the things people say are missing like spies and corporations were added through expansion packs and I expect the same will happen over the course of Civ5's life. This isn't a case of 2K witholding content to sell quickly knowing they have Civ 6 due in 2011, Civ 5 will likely be around for the next 4 years getting content added with DLC and mods.

You won't be missing out too much by skipping over Civ4 directly to Civ5 as the two games are very different in gameplay. Civ4 is quite a complex beast with its expansion packs, containing many gameplay elements that need balancing to be successful (health, happiness, gold, science, culture, religion).

Civ5 is more pared back to the basic gameplay elements, and is probably much easier to get into than the previous iteration. The new hex changes are a fantastic change to the Civ series, as are the changes to military units such as no more stacking and learning to use units properly rather than throwing them away like cannon fodder. The economy changes are perhaps harder to get used to as you won't have enough gold to build everything in every city, having to instead tailor your efforts towards the advantages of your civilization choice and your environment.

Some people would argue that too much has been removed in favour of attracting new players to the franchise, but I would say play the demo fro free and make up your own mind about that. Personally, Civ5 feels like a breath of fresh air after years of playing Civ4 to death.

Thank you that was really helpful. Didn't know there was a demo out there. I'll try it after work.

YAY IT AUTOSAVED! :) :) :)

So, you lost a maximum of 10 tens. Which isn't *that* bad. Change Autosave to something like every three turns for next time (unless you want to do a spot a save scumming).

Well first patch has no AI fixes... if they fix some of the AI's dumber moments, like ignoring water completely, then I will consider Civ5 a masterpiece.

AI is going to take some time as at the moment it's flat out broken. Thats not to say it doesn't work properly, sometimes it does but other times it's just WTF? Attacking over water is the main gripe but the erratic behavior of Civ's is also a problem. Civ's warning you about buying tiles when you are no-where near them, Civ's calling you a warmonger when you are joining a war THEY started and so on. Even the diplomacy makes no sense at the moment. For example I was just playing a game were I asked Alexander if he wanted to make a defence pact, he refused. I asked him what it would take and he wanted every luxury resource I had, I refused. I asked him the same thing again and this time he agreed and offered to pay me 40 Gold a turn for the pleasure...