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First Reviews of Civilization V
An anonymous reader submitted linkage to a story explaining why Hemos has been twitching for a week in anticipation: "Defying the urge to phone-in an unambitious sequel and coast on past successes, Sid Meier's Civilization V is anything but a lazy rehash. It feels almost as if someone described the concept of the renowned 19-year-old turn-based strategy series to a talented designer who'd never played it, and let him come up with his own version. It's similar enough to be familiar to veterans, different enough to be fresh, and its polish and accessibility make it a great place for new players to pick up one hell of a Civ addiction."
I didn't see anything in the review related to DRM. That's an essential subject for any game review these days.
It uses Steam, the opinions on which are divided. You might like it, or you might not.
Multiplayer is done over Steam.
The demo also requires Steam.
Even if you purchase an actual retail box with the game, you still have to create a Steam account. The only thing the box gives you is less time spent downloading the initial game. But you'll get your patches through Steam, not separate downloads.
That's pretty much it.
An explanation of how their DRM works:
The executables for the game are built to need to launch Steam (it can be cracked, of course). When you run the game, Steam must be running on the system. If it is not currently, it will be spawned. Steam will then need to log in with a user and password that has purchased that game. By default, it will log in online which gives access to things like achievements, online chat, multi-player and so on. Also any game the person has purchase is available. If it is not installed on the system, it can be downloaded. There is no restriction on the number of downloads, you can download to new systems or reinstall as often as you like.
However if an Internet connection is not available, or if requested by the user, it will log in offline mode. You will have access to any games that account has purchased that are currently installed on the system. Obviously you can't download any new ones if you aren't online.
As you might guess you do require an Internet connection the first time a game is installed. You either need to be online to download it, or if purchased retail, online to activate it and add it to your account.
However no matter what, Steam has to be running and has to be logged in with a legit account, be it online or offline.
Also because of the activation, the game may not be resold. It becomes tied to your Steam account. I suppose you could make an account just for that one game and then sell the account with the game, but as a practical matter Steamworks games cannot be transferred or resold.
So it is not the least invasive DRM, but it isn't horrible. It does come with some bonuses too, like the download capability. Buy a game retail, it is associated with your account. Losing the DVD is no problem, just redownload it. The Steam interface provides nice perks too. However it does mean no resale and you have to run Steam to play.
I consider it an acceptable DRM, but some do not.
My favorite path: Play as Romans. Research Bronze working, switch to slavery, then Mysticism. Chop/whip for Stonehenge. Bee-line to priesthood, chop/whip for Oracle (preferably in the same city as Stonehenge). When you get the Oracle, you should be able to get Monarchy. Switch to Hereditary Rule, then pick up all the technologies you need for Theology, but don't research Theology. Once you have all those techs, get Iron Working. By the time you've finished researching Iron Working, you should have enough great person points in the city with Stonehenge & the Oracle to get a Great Prophet. Use him to discover Theology. Convert to Christianity & adopt theology. Now you'll be able to produce Praetorians with City Raider 2 promos off the bat if you've built baracks. That gives them an unequalled 12 attack power. This will give you an advantage for a very long time versus anything you'll come up against, even archers in walled cities on hilltops.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
>>Is it actually any good?
I'm enjoying it. Playing it on normal difficulty (prince), and I've made it to 1500AD without going to war with anyone. No real pressure to, either. Peace has a lot of benefits - earn gold, bribe city states, and they supply you with lots of resources. If you start blowing up city states, though, they get annoyed at you, and the present parade ends. They also give you lots of quests to earn reputation with them as well.
Culture is now like science - earn a certain amount, and you get a culture tech. (Remember fascism and the like? That's how you get them now. I love how it's implemented.) Instead of culture pushing boundaries out in all directions all at once, it's broken down to just one hex at a time of expansion, but a lot more often. Another good change.
Money can be used to buy units right off the bat, which means that gold is a lot more useful in Civ V than in previous versions (when you'd have thousands sitting around without much to do for them.)
Naval adventures are a lot better, with an early-ish tech allowing land units to build their own transports. They can't defend themselves, but it eliminates a lot of the annoyance of building transports and microing units on and off of them.
Diplomacy seems kind of limited. I miss the old diplomacy screen that shows all the plusses and minuses enemies have toward you. I think there's something missing here.
Overall, a very good game. It's nice to see that they didn't make another shit game like their latest Colonization attempt.
Why wouldn't they? It was a unique Firaxis product. That's like saying MS doesn't have the rights to Windows. You're confusing it with Civ itself, which used to be a MicroProse IP.
http://www.firaxis.com/company/faq.php
Question :
I really loved Alpha Centauri! Are you planning to make Alpha Centauri 2?
Answer:
We’re all big fans of Alpha Centauri as well. However, the rights to that game are owned by Electronic Arts (we were making games for them at the time) so any decision to make a sequel is up to them..
Property is theft.