Is Civilization 5 worth the money?

[jasonellington]

Hello everyone, I am new to this forum but I decided to create this account to see if anyone on here could tell me about Civilization 5. I just purchased the new Macbook Pro (without retina display) with Processor: 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 and Memory: 4 GB 1600 MHz DDR3. Version 10.8 (OS X Mountain Lion)

I was wondering if anybody had the current version of Civilization 5 (1.0.7 I believe) and could tell me if it ran smoothly, if it crashed, just the pros and cons of the $40.00 App store purchase. I read the reviews on the App store but they don't give me an actual personal opinion. Thanks for your help.

 

[ljx718]

im sure you can find it cheaper. i got it for 4.99 during the steam summer sale

 

[jasonellington]

does it run well?

 

[cherlj]

im sure you can find it cheaper. i got it for 4.99 during the steam summer sale

Yea, buy it on steam during one of their sales! At least you'll have the choice to install it on either OS X or Windows (Civ 5 runs great in bootcamp!)

 

[Logged]

I would highly recommend against it. Civilization V is a good game, but a couple of things to note:

1. I've never gotten good FPS/performance on the Mac version. I've tried running it on the rMBP at 1440x900 at minimum settings, and it stutters every couple of seconds, even at the game beginning when there are not too many units.

2. If you still decide to buy it, you can get it for $30 on Steam. Unlike the Mac store version, this one has multiplayer (I think) and you also get the PC version for free. That way, if you find it's not running well on Mac OS, you will have a chance to install Windows/run it on a PC.

Basically, it doesn't run well on Mac, get it on Steam for Windows.

 

[ljx718]

I would highly recommend against it. Civilization V is a good game, but a couple of things to note:

1. I've never gotten good FPS/performance on the Mac version. I've tried running it on the rMBP at 1440x900 at minimum settings, and it stutters every couple of seconds, even at the game beginning when there are not too many units.

2. If you still decide to buy it, you can get it for $30 on Steam. Unlike the Mac store version, this one has multiplayer (I think) and you also get the PC version for free. That way, if you find it's not running well on Mac OS, you will have a chance to install Windows/run it on a PC.

Basically, it doesn't run well on Mac, get it on Steam for Windows.

i run it at 1920 on my rmbp on max setting and it plays fine. no studdering.

 

[cherlj]

By the way I have the Gods & Kings expansion pack as well. Late game tends to be a little more graphics intensive due to the nature of the game (lots of units and cities etc), so you may see some slight lag (Sorry, I don't have actual FPS measurements). Otherwise, I think the game itself is great!

Generally, if you want to play games, I think it's better to do so with boot camp rather than on OS X.

[Edit] Oops, forgot to mention that your graphics card (discrete/integrated) and amount of GDDR5 memory available would also make a difference.

 

[Dangerous Theory]

I don't like the game at all but it's just not my type, but absolutely do not purchase it on the App store. Either buy a retail copy or off Steam, both of which are cheaper.

 

[hwojtek]

The retail copy reverts to Steam anyway, if you feel comfortable with it, it's OK. I'd much more buy it from App Store than Steam (the need to constantly update both Steam client AND Civ5 is really annoying) but I did my mistake and pre-ordered a retail copy from Amazon (in fact two boxes for me and my wife) and I regret it anytime we want to just play a casual game and are forced to hundred-megabyte updates to both apps because we do not play every so often.

 

[tninety]

The retail copy reverts to Steam anyway, if you feel comfortable with it, it's OK. I'd much more buy it from App Store than Steam (the need to constantly update both Steam client AND Civ5 is really annoying) but I did my mistake and pre-ordered a retail copy from Amazon (in fact two boxes for me and my wife) and I regret it anytime we want to just play a casual game and are forced to hundred-megabyte updates to both apps because we do not play every so often.

Steam is okay, and that only works if you want to never play multiplayer, ever.

 

[BFW122083]

After I got my rMBP I bought Civ 5 looking for a good game to play. It ran perfect, but I just don't get it. I know its a popular game, but it just bored me. I got hooked on TF2 instead

 

[hallux]

I picked it up when Steam had the entire Civ V package for $50 this summer. Now to actually play it and learn it. I figured it'd be a good time waster instead of some of the other stuff I do.

I also picked up Counter Strike during the summer sale, that will also play on Mac or PC.

 

[Enjoi03]

For some reason the game stutters when scrolling on my rmbp. Anyone know why?

 

[miles01110]

For some reason the game stutters when scrolling on my rmbp. Anyone know why?

Perhaps your civilization is too large for it to scroll smoothly.

 

[gotters]

my experience is that it runs like a dog on a maxxed out RMBP - not in that it lags or struggles in gameplay, just crashed constantly, so much so apple gave me a refund for it.

mailed the devs and they recommended setting everything to minimum (their recommended settings for retina resolution).

it also did a nice trick of stuffing a 90gb save file on my machine (yup gb not mb)

so my experience of it via itunes is its a bug ridden dog and not fit for sale

 

[hwojtek]

Steam is okay

Not if you live in a rural area with a 512k satellite connection shared between 9 devices.

 

[guspasho]

I would not recommend it. As a strategy game, it's pretty terrible. The gameplay is just broken. I'm a fan of the series and I was very disappointed in it, and the core problems haven't been/can't be fixed with patches or expansions. These are things like the 1 unit per tile rule, completely insane AI that doesn't know how to play the game, and all the very not-fun punitive things it does, etc etc. If you're like me, you'll put it down in a week.

I would recommend Civ 4 instead. I'm still playing it, (literally, today, I played a few turns this morning), the replayability is endless. If mods are your thing, you can install the Windows version with Wine, and I can point you to how to do that, or with Bootcamp. (Get Civ 4 Complete edition, it has everything and no DRM.) But if not, get the Mac port, which runs great, and make sure to get the Warlords and Beyond the Sword expansions. You won't get retina graphics support. The graphics are a bit older but the gameplay is superior in every way. Or try another game like Europa Universalis, where you can get, I think, a pretty decent bundle in the App Store for $30.

I don't know what your standards are, you may not care about any of the things I care about, and that's completely valid. I can't speak anything about whether it runs well on Mac, it probably does, (but it's a polished turd IMO.)