Is there a TL;DR version?
In fact, I'll just take your word for it and not get it. :D
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tl;dr version is that whilst one unit per tile (1UPT) and a hex system can be good ideas, they don't lend themselves well to a game with Civ's scale. A hex game of the Eastern Front in WW2 isn't going to be seriously if there are fewer than several hundred tiles between Odessa and Koenigsberg, but Civ V doesn't come close to this.
So by the end of the game you have a ridiculous 'carpet of doom' where every single tile in the world is occupied. And they knew this problem existed, so they tried to make it hard to build those big armies, but that only leads to different problems, specifically that you don't have any reasonable sense of progression, indeed progress is hindered more than benefited by, say, buildings.
Efforts to patch the game thus far have largely revolved around this. If X is underpowered, they solve it by nerfing Y down to X's level. They have to, or the carpet of doom issue would arise even sooner than it does. As the article says, it works after a fashion, but it's hardly fun.
AI seems entirely random. Granted the very obvious math of Civ IV in terms of leader attitudes might have been a bit too simple, but this is not the correct solution. Even though you can now see leader attitudes to some extent, it doesn't feel like these have any bearing on how you act. Obfuscating diplomacy to a degree I can get behind - this just feels like you're dealing with dice rolls.
Also the game has regressed to pre-IV Infinite City Sprawl being by far the best strategy.
Ah I see, thanks MILF.
Some good deals today, well at least for those of us who haven't kept our game library up to date in the previous 5 years. Also managed to get a friend from the US to gift me L4D1 and 2 to bypass that god awful censorship the Australia version has.
Today's games are pretty great and I encourage their purchase!
Don't overlook King's Bounty!
Some of us just have no money. Though I did grab Deus Ex Invisible War yesterday. Wanted to get it for a while even if it is worse than the original. For $2.50 it would have to be unbelievably bad to not be worth it.
I like PC gaming but I'm not a huge fan of Steam. I've actually forgotten why this is the case, but I'm sure it was a really, really good reason. Obviously. :p
Yeah, I guess I'm just lucky I picked up some more contract work so I've been a little gun-ho. Other than The Sims 3, I've only just been getting indie/cheap games for $3-5 each though.
Today's alright. I am wondering what Cities XL 2011 is like, and if it's worth $8? There's also some C&C games cheap too.
I'm pretty awful, actually; despite the fact that I REALLY SHOULD be saving money, I've ransacked the $10 and under section a couple of times if I'm feeling like new stuff or there's something there particularly tempting and/or cheap.
I'm trying to be a good girl and stay away from the temptation of the Steam Summer Sales, though.
I like playing strategy games on my laptop mostly, I'm not huge on playing RPGs or FPS's through it. I know games like Elder Scrolls would be much better on the PC due to the huge number of mods (though I have morrowind, I have never found a reliably good place to get mods and a list of mods worth getting. If you happen to know of such a place/list then mognet me or usernote me the location) Therefore I'm trying to be good with the Steam Summer sales, I've picked up Dawn of War 2 and that should keep me going for a while but I will keep my eyes peeled for some amazing games in the next couple of weeks thats for sure.
If you're looking for strategy games, keep your eyes open for:
Civ IV
Europa Universalis 3
Hearts of Iron 2 and/or Darkest Hour
...listed there pretty much in order of increasing difficulty/complexity. I know all of these are on Steam so if any of those go on sale I highly recommend them to any strategy fan (who hasn't played them).
hmm thanks for the link Huxtables, I think you and I might need to have a bit of a discussion where you advise me more on what mods to take and what ones to avoid :) However lets not derail this thread with it lol because that'd just be mean. Might have to wait until after I play through the Dawn of War 2 campaign and Chaos Rising before I even begin to play Morrowind again.
Edit: Whether that was you or Paul doing the epic quote modification there, smurf you :love:
Woo, Mass Effect 1 and 2 are on sale for $6 each. What' I've been waiting for. :D