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Which Civilization game would be best for me?

H

HIGham13

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 12, 2011
1
0
I have a 13" Macbook Unibody. I'm not sure what model it is, but I got it in late January 2011, and it was (might still be) the latest version.

Well, I'm not sure of what I'd need to say... I'm running Mac OS X 10.6.6, I have a 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, an NVIDIA Geforce 320M graphics card, and 256 MB of VRAM. If there's anything else I need to tell you, please let me know.

So, the question... could I run Civilization IV or Civilization V better? I'd be purchasing from Steam.
 
No problem at least up to Civ IV. My MacBook is weaker than yours and it runs fine on an external 20" screen.

You can even play Civ. 2 on Classic Mac OS 9 through SheepShaver :)

I heard Civ. V was more demanding, I suspect the playing experience could be less pleasant.
 
Civ 4 runs perfectly. Civ 5 works well only on Windows, don't bother with it.
 
as long as you run on low graphics settings... it runs fine. I've played civ5 a lot on a 2010 MBP with a 320m. I have a much better machine now and it runs great.. no more low settings... but was perfectly playable before.
 
doh123 said:
as long as you run on low graphics settings... it runs fine. I've played civ5 a lot on a 2010 MBP with a 320m. I have a much better machine now and it runs great.. no more low settings... but was perfectly playable before.
Click to expand...

Playing at bare minimum settings is still terrible. Moving around the map is terrible, I thought the patch was supposed to resolve that. The game is still gorgeous at low settings however, much improved on Civ 4 but they need to fix that. Playing it on Bootcamp is much better.

I believe the OP will have a much better experience with Civ 4.
 
miles01110 said:
Err... incorrect. Civ V runs fine on Macs.
Click to expand...

It runs fine on Macs via Bootcamp. It runs like **** in OS X.

Civ 4 is a better "civilization" experience anyway, but please do give Aspyr support **** about the still persistent anti-alias and cmd-tab mouse cursor issues.
 
I had a Macbook Pro i5 330m and it really struggled with Civilization V even on the lowest settings so I think the 320m would have even more trouble running it. Civilization IV ran MUCH better on it so I'd suggest you pick up that one.
 
How does Civ V run on the 2011 13" (HD 3000 graphics) in bootcamp (if at all)? I'm assuming it'll be utter crap in OS X
 
maverick86 said:
How does Civ V run on the 2011 13" (HD 3000 graphics) in bootcamp (if at all)? I'm assuming it'll be utter crap in OS X
Click to expand...

you have to run it in bootcamp as far as I know... the OSX port of Civ5 has no text in any menus or the game on the Intel HD 3000... maybe Aspyr will fix that sometime, but right now its totally unplayable.


as to the debates over the 320m... what is playable is very subjective. Lowest settings with 15 fps is fine for some people in a turn based game, and others find it horrid and won't play.

Playing the biggest map, late in the game, even my 6750 has trouble keeping up, watching it drawing in the ground texture all the time when I move too fast...

While Civ4 has some nice parts about it they need to add to civ5... overall civ5 is a much better game. Civ4 always gets boring as heck to me later in the game when you can just make 50 units and stack them all up in one square and devastate any city and defenses easy... in Civ5 not being able to stack units and having to use a lot more strategy seems more fair and fun. For that reason alone I'll never play civ4 again.
 
I would stick to Civ 4 too. PIck it up during a steam sale with all the expansions.

I like it better than V and it runs like butter.
 
doh123 said:
While Civ4 has some nice parts about it they need to add to civ5... overall civ5 is a much better game. Civ4 always gets boring as heck to me later in the game when you can just make 50 units and stack them all up in one square and devastate any city and defenses easy... in Civ5 not being able to stack units and having to use a lot more strategy seems more fair and fun. For that reason alone I'll never play civ4 again.
Click to expand...

You know what? For some reason I never really enjoyed Civ 4. Maybe because of this religion thing that never really impressed me.

I remembered how pleasant it was to start a new big game in Civ 2. So I found it back in my archives, and thanks to SheepShaver I have that pleasure again. Now I can do on my Intel MacBook what I've been doing for years on Classic OS 9: spend 30-40 hours on a large Civ 2 game while listenning to my favorite music. And at the same time still being able to monitor other things like mail coming in, etc.. In other words, a perfect combination of concentration on the game, action and strategy, without being totally cut off from the outside world.:D
 
Everybody's talkin' about graphics, so I'll talk about gameplay. I prefer Civ IV to V. I got tired of the small city states very quickly; they were just too whiny. I also prefer the Religion dynamic present in Civ IV. And of course, who can forget Leonard Nimoy's narration in IV.
 
I've never played a civ game before. The only similar game I've done is the Total War series (Rome and Medieval II). I bought Civ V, but haven't opened it yet.
 
evaporateddwarf said:
I've never played a civ game before. The only similar game I've done is the Total War series (Rome and Medieval II). I bought Civ V, but haven't opened it yet.
Click to expand...

^ :confused: So... your response is "I don't know, I haven't played it?"

Civ5 is a more streamlined game. Watch some demos on YouTube to get a better opinion. The biggest difference between the two games is Civ 5's "single unit per hexagon tile" rule.
 
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