Comparing it to Civ 4..

[Zeldor]

It is impossible to like Civ4 if you played Alpha Centauri... if they made Civ4 on that I would play that again. In Civ4 every game comes down to 2-3 opponents [some nations plus their vassals] + some weak nations that are smaller challange than indies in Dom3. Civ4 is like Dom3 with research and gem income based only on number of your provinces. Imagine playing that.

[Meglobob]

I like Civ4, I loved Alpha Centauri but dominions beats them both. I cant believe I am still playing Dom3 after nearly a year and enjoying it.

Even other much loved games such as GC2 and MOO2 never held my interest for so long.

The patches help alot to keep my interest.

The 'new project' that Illwinter is working on will after be fantastic to compare with Dom3.

[Shuma]

I'm with Folket, Civ 4 is an excellent game. The best in the series, certainly.

Any beefs you have with that game specifially are more due to the genre than anything else. The gameplay has gotten to be so polished and streamlined that I don't understand where the gripes are coming from.

[Edratman]

Shuma said:
I'm with Folket, Civ 4 is an excellent game. The best in the series, certainly.

Any beefs you have with that game specifially are more due to the genre than anything else. The gameplay has gotten to be so polished and streamlined that I don't understand where the gripes are coming from.

I am not saying Civ 4 is a bad game. But look at it from my perspective. I'm a few weeks short of 56, so I played all the Civ games the day they were released and when they were state of the art. I am still a major Civ fan. Civ 1 broke new ground in the gaming world. The others 3 were the same game with improvements, many in gameplay, but mostly in graphics.

Dom 3 is Civ 1 with an increase of complexity by several magnitudes. Civ 2, 3 and 4 are Civ 1 with an increase of complexity of several multiples. Therein lies the difference.

By saying I like Dom 3 more than Civ 4 I am not downgrading the Civ 4.

[sector24]

Yeah, Civ 4 is highly polished but very derivative. It's great, but very familiar. Sometimes familiar is what you want, but Dominions is like a brand new adventure every time.

[Folket]

I find that civ 4 is very diffrent from earlier civs.

Civ 1 was a great game, 2 and 3 was allmost the same. Civ 4 was the first civ that changed the gameplay.

I also agre on that Alpha Centauri is also a great game. At the moment I will not compare it to civ 4, but it was better then 2 and 3.

Dom3 is really a great game but I would say that most people will enjoy civ 4 more.

[Cor2]

Alpha Centauri !!! what memories. sigh.

[Velusion]

Edratman said:

I am not saying Civ 4 is a bad game. But look at it from my perspective. I'm a few weeks short of 56, so I played all the Civ games the day they were released and when they were state of the art. I am still a major Civ fan. Civ 1 broke new ground in the gaming world. The others 3 were the same game with improvements, many in gameplay, but mostly in graphics.

Dom 3 is Civ 1 with an increase of complexity by several magnitudes. Civ 2, 3 and 4 are Civ 1 with an increase of complexity of several multiples. Therein lies the difference.

By saying I like Dom 3 more than Civ 4 I am not downgrading the Civ 4.

I pretty much agree with everything here. Civ4 is a wonderful, polished, fairly deep 4x turn based game. It's glaring problems are it's lack of originality (it doesn't really change much from its originals) and it's horrible MP play.

I played civ4 for awhile and admired it but I tired of it quickly because I felt as if I'd already played "that game" to death.

Of course - you could say the same thing about Dom3 just being an updated Dom2, but then I never really played Dom2 so the whole game feels fresher to me.

[thejeff]

That was my experience. I loved Civ I and Civ II. Played Alpha Centauri, then tried both Civ III & IV and was left cold.

Dominions scratches the same itch, but is even deeper.

I'd still go back to play Alpha Centauri, if some upgrade hadn't broken it's compatibility with Linux install.

[solops]

Alpha Centauri was the only Civ series game I did not like. And I truly disliked it. It was visually revolting and totally unintuitive.

On another point: Victoria..Yeah! I am one of the 6 people that really thought is was Great!!