Anyone still playing Civilization 3 Complete? Worth buying?

[lindstrom]

I recently just found a copy of Civ 3 Complete, granted the it is a bit pricey but I am still very much tempted it get it.

Is anyone here still playing it?

Civ 4 is out of the question as I will be running it on a MacBook (don't really want to install windows).

Is it still worth paying premium price for Civ 3 complete? Any advice to help me decide to buy or not to buy would be appreciated =)!

[Sijmen]

I'm playing Civ 3 regulary on my PC, but the price for the Mac version is ridiculous (€ 50).

[lindstrom]

Originally Posted by Sijmen

I'm playing Civ 3 regulary on my PC, but the price for the Mac version is ridiculous (€ 50).

So you are saying that the joy of playing is still there though? I am almost willing to look past the €43 price tag if the gameplay is worth it. The earlier Civ games gave lasted me for years. Any input on Leopard compatibility with the latest Intel game patch?

[Sijmen]

Well yeah, but I didn't play it for ages before I picked it up again a few weeks ago. But € 45 :S

[arkitect]

Originally Posted by lindstrom

So you are saying that the joy of playing is still there though? I am almost willing to look past the €43 price tag if the gameplay is worth it. The earlier Civ games gave lasted me for years. Any input on Leopard compatibility with the latest Intel game patch?

Just a personal note… I have played Civilization since Civ I… MS-DOS

The game I have always returned to and loved… but… the latest version has lost it's appeal for me. Sloooow in the later stages and loads of freezes — and that is on a Mac Pro with 4G RAM…

If I play Civ these days I play Civ III sad to say.

[Nugget]

I stopped playing Civ3 completely when Civ4 came out. I find that Civ 4's improvements are really well-suited for my preferred play style and it sucked all the fun out of Civ 3 for me.

I'm not so sure that Civ4 would be as bad on your MacBook as you think it would be. I play it mostly on my PowerMac G5 2.7, but when I'm travelling I play it on my 1st gen MacBook Pro (Core Duo, just like your MacBook) and it's quite playable. I do have 2GB of RAM, which helps, but like previous Civilization games it's pretty much CPU bound when the game gets into the late stage and the MBP does a reasonable job with it.

[Sijmen]

I might be wrong, but I believe that Civ 4 is quite heavy on the GPU.

[lindstrom]

Originally Posted by arkitect

Just a personal note… I have played Civilization since Civ I… MS-DOS

The game I have always returned to and loved… but… the latest version has lost it's appeal for me. Sloooow in the later stages and loads of freezes — and that is on a Mac Pro with 4G RAM…

If I play Civ these days I play Civ III sad to say.

Great to hear from a fellow Civ 1 player, have great memories of playing that game for years back in the old MS-DOS days! And that you still play Civ 3 is good news to me as that means as we come from the same Civ background, Civ 3 still delivers then.

One step closer to purchase.

[lindstrom]

Originally Posted by Sijmen

I might be wrong, but I believe that Civ 4 is quite heavy on the GPU.

That is what I heard as well. I did try the demo some time ago, and it hung even before loading up the main title screen. Was hoping to try it, but to no avail.

[aidanpendragon]

If you haven't played Civ 3 before, it's certainly worth the money. It's the final refinement of the classic Civ formula, and will easily suck away days of your life. I miss the cool movies for Wonders, but other than that, a very solid game.

[booksacool1]

Originally Posted by aidanpendragon

If you haven't played Civ 3 before, it's certainly worth the money. It's the final refinement of the classic Civ formula, and will easily suck away days of your life. I miss the cool movies for Wonders, but other than that, a very solid game.

Ah those Wonders movies in Civ 2. Incredible. Absolutely ground breaking.
Anyway, are you sure you can't play Civ 4? Its not 'that' gpu heavy, but it does suck at the CPU i've found. Just try turning down the graphics a lot.

I wouldn't bother paying for Civ 3 though, at 50 euro's (or whatever it may be) its ridiculous.

[Sijmen]

One thing I was thinking about is this: is the game any less good than it was when it was released? The only counter point I can think of if that new games have become better and better, and that Civ 3 could feeld old now.

By the way € 50 ~= $ 65

[it5five]

Civ III is a blast. I don't know if I'd buy it at that price, though. Can you find a used copy anywhere?

[lindstrom]

Originally Posted by booksacool1

Ah those Wonders movies in Civ 2. Incredible. Absolutely ground breaking.
Anyway, are you sure you can't play Civ 4? Its not 'that' gpu heavy, but it does suck at the CPU i've found. Just try turning down the graphics a lot.

I wouldn't bother paying for Civ 3 though, at 50 euro's (or whatever it may be) its ridiculous.

Yeah, think Civ 4 is out of the question as it did not even load the main title screen when I tried to start up the demo.

Hmm, I know the price is a bit steeper than I would like it to be. I did look for a used copy, but I could not find one anywhere. But I am really craving that old genuine Civ 1 + 2 feeling. Now I am not sure that Civ 3 might deliver that. There are so many new things, like culture rating for example.

What do you guys think, was Civ 3 complete a worthy sequel to the splendid Civ 2?

[Sijmen]

The best Civ game I've ever played. Not played that many others though: Alpha Centauri, FreeCiv, and CivCTP.

Edit: can Civ 3 be multiplayered (by email and LAN) with the Windows version?

[Mac OS X Ocelot]

I like Civ4 more, but it runs like ****. Pure. utter. ****. They forgot to optimize it completely. It runs like crap on Windows, too. I ditched it for AoE3 + WarChiefs. Still hoping to see Asian Dynasties ported to mac...

[aidanpendragon]

Originally Posted by lindstrom

Yeah, think Civ 4 is out of the question as it did not even load the main title screen when I tried to start up the demo.

Hmm, I know the price is a bit steeper than I would like it to be. I did look for a used copy, but I could not find one anywhere. But I am really craving that old genuine Civ 1 + 2 feeling. Now I am not sure that Civ 3 might deliver that. There are so many new things, like culture rating for example.

What do you guys think, was Civ 3 complete a worthy sequel to the splendid Civ 2?

Again, Civ 3 is the final refinement of Civ 2, and aside from a few quirks, it's all-around a better and more polished game. Culture is actually good as it prevents the computer from building cities willy-nilly in your existing city zones. Though I miss the Wonder movies, I don't know that I'd go back and play Civ 2, having 3 available instead.

Don't know how well it works in EU, but try Ebay (or Half.com?) persistently.

[cubist]

imho, Civ2 is much more fun than Civ3 or Civ4.

Civ3 added a lot of complexity which is interesting, but just takes too darn long to play, and there's a lot of tedious micromanagement.

I was hoping Civ4 would be better, but it adds a huge amount of complexity which is invisible and uncontrollable. If you automate the workers, they start doing things which seem incomprehensible. The lack of visibility is, for a Civ game, a significant negative.

FTM, I don't see what was wrong with the icons in Civ2/Alpha Centauri, that required 3D-Animated little people. They worked fine. Build a fleet of Shard Copters and conquer the planet.

Is there a Carbonizing patch for Civ2 or AC? They don't work well in Classic, and I suppose they won't work in an Intel Mac at all (grumble). Civ3 may be the only game in town.

[lindstrom]

I decided to go for it and ordered a copy. Will pick it up after work tomorrow. Here's to hoping for a very entertaining weekend!

Thanks for all your input.

[Sijmen]

Cool, have fun!

[damonopants]

Originally Posted by Sijmen

Cool, have fun!

any joy with civ 3 on leopard?

[damonopants]

Originally Posted by lindstrom

I decided to go for it and ordered a copy. Will pick it up after work tomorrow. Here's to hoping for a very entertaining weekend!

Thanks for all your input.

how did you get on with civ 3? are you on leopard?

[QCassidy352]

Originally Posted by lindstrom

Great to hear from a fellow Civ 1 player, have great memories of playing that game for years back in the old MS-DOS days!

I played Civ I, on a Macintosh LC III!

Originally Posted by booksacool1

Anyway, are you sure you can't play Civ 4? Its not 'that' gpu heavy, but it does suck at the CPU i've found. Just try turning down the graphics a lot.

With the latest patch (1.74) it actually runs quite well on a core duo imac (1.83/2 GB/x1600) at least early on. Still slows down a bit later, but it's a lot better than 1.61.

It's utterly miserable on a macbook.

Originally Posted by cubist

imho, Civ2 is much more fun than Civ3 or Civ4.

how funny, that's the only one of the series that I never liked. I kept playing Civ 1 instead.

[brop52]

I loved the scenarios on Civ II Gold. It was also one of my very first big name games on the mac.

[tog22]

I've played C3C a lot: its excellent, and a good port. I've been put off buying C4 because I've heard the port is not so good(?)

(FWIW, I'm using a 2GHz Core 2 Duo iMac with the standard 128MB X1600 graphics card... does anyone know if this would run Civ 4 Mac at decent speed? Would the PC version run better?)