Last year when this was announced I instantly rolled my eyes.  "A turn based strategy game... exclusive to the consoles?  It'll be a half-assed port of Civ4 with terrible controls and shitty AI."

I just played through the demo and boy was I wrong!



Built from the ground up for the PS3, 360, and DS Civ Revolution is pretty similar to Civ 4 but with several notable changes.  The game was designed for multiplayer in mind (although it still has an extensive single player mode with all the normal world creation features) and because of it things move A LOT faster.  They removed the workers and put a lot of emphasis on gold which is used to create improvements.  Roads are no longer built but bought and they automatically connect the cities.  While this new focus on gold may seem like a game breaking thing, it really helps to speed up the game and turns fly by faster than they normally do (which is probably a big multiplayer appeal especially for console gamers).



The controls, a touchy thing for console strategy games, is really fluid.  The user interface is SLICK and all the buttons and options are in huge bold letters with a corresponding symbol next to them.  You never feel lost in a sea of information or popups and navigating the menus is a breeze.  It seriously feels like second nature using the bumpers to bring up menus and instantly selecting unit options via the face buttons.



The graphics are also great.  Like I said above, the interface is slick as fuck but the character models are a lot more expressive and animated.  Battles are actually fun to watch as characters will clash weapons, bob and weave, and flourish.  Your leader and advisors will often interact with each other like knocking characters off the screen when they have something to say or storming off angry when you don't take their advice.  The textures show a huge improvement, the entirity of your city is practically visible on the map screen, environment effects have a visible effect on the map (fog rolls and banks down hills, fish hop out of the water and swim in circles, farmers wipe the sweat off their brow, smog turns the sky black, etc.). 



So yeah, I can see myself wasting some massive amounts of time with this.  It comes out first week of July.  I don't know what system to buy it for but I plan on playing all you Civ fuckers so BRING IT.

Holy shit, this actually looks pretty awesome. When I started reading I was really "ehhh..." but if what you're saying is true this might actually work. Plus for a series that's never been known for good graphics they look preeeeeetty slick.

For some reason I didn't get into Civ IV but I absolutely loved II and III so I'm keen for this. I'd like to pick it up on the DS if at all possible, does the port look horribly shit or passable in your opinion?

Yeah, I was thinking of getting this. I've been playing Civilization 4 a little recently and I'm terrible at it. I don't understand why my people are mad and sick all the time. But yeah, anyway, where did you get the demo? I've been hearing about the demo for a while and I have no idea where people are getting it.

does the port look horribly shit or passable in your opinion?

The graphics are really muddy and ugly.  This may be because all the screenshots I've seen are taking lo-res DS images and blowing them up but the map tiles look like they're straight from Civ1 and the unit sprites from Civ2.  I miss the isometric map (the DS version is birds eye like Civ1) and the battles show a brief animation a la Advance Wars but like I said, the sprites are soooo blocky.

On the gameplay side, Firaxis said that all the versions are the same including multiplayer options and I heard the DS will have wi-fi multiplayer.  Add in the stylus and the control scheme is probably best suited for the game.  I can't think of a single 4x game on the handhelds so having a portable one is a pretty good deal even if it does offend the eyes.

I don't understand why my people are mad and sick all the time.

You let your cities get too large.  Building stuff like Aqueducts improves health and entertainment improves happiness.  Once you hit a certain point (like population 10) people will be perpetually pissed off... kind of like every major city!

I've been hearing about the demo for a while and I have no idea where people are getting it.

I downloaded it off the playstation store.  I don't know if you can download demos off XBL or if there were demo discs in past magazines.

I have been looking forward to this for a while.  I am definitely getting it for the 360, and maybe for the DS too if it doesn't look too watered down.  As soon as I get my new TV I will get Xbox Live (right now there's no TV where my router is, I'm not paying for a wireless adapter, and I don't want to carry a TV to that room to hook my 360 up) and play with you dudes.

eh... I'm skeptical. Guess I'll have to grab the demo once I get back to my 360 and see... But a fast-paced civ? idk

It's still a pretty lengthy game.  The demo is timed at 2 hours I think I just hit 800AD.  All they did was remove the slower functions.  There's no point in building workers and assigning every single one of them with an individual task when you can simply purchase the improvement for the same resources you'd have otherwise spent on it.  Basically, you're paying to have the job rushed and the importance of gold in this game is reflected on that.

is that Condoleezza Rice

also this looks kind of half-cool and half not cool - looks too much like Play-doh imo

the graphics reminds me very much of sid meier's pirates

I like the look of this! I mean, it's clearly designed for the consoles. If you want the true Civ experience, there's still Civ4 of course, but I sort of like the idea of a SPEEDIER, more multiplayer friendly option.

Also yes, the XBL Marketplace has the demo available, it's 1.25GB.

The demo is also pretty extensive, it lets you go up to the year 1250 (or somewhere around that) and you can even play online with others.

I spent awhile with this the other night. It's got all the addictive gameplay that the PC Civilization games have but it also DOES feel quicker. There's a definite sacrifice in depth; just about every aspect of the game has been streamlined and I'm sure a lot of wonders/technologies etc were cut, but it was watered down in a GOOD way if you follow me. It's still very deep and strategic and all that, just streamlined to work better for the console demographic. There's less micromanagement basically. Also agree with Marcus, the interface is slick. All your options with a given unit or city etc are clearly labeled, so you don't really need to remember which menu accesses what and so forth.

Also theHunter, RTS games are.. real time, hence "Real Time Strategy". Civilization is Turn Based, hence TBS or Turn Based Strategy. That's really the only major difference but it's a very very big one in terms of how the game is played!

I think the reason they slimmed it down is to make it more compatible with a console controller interface. Less features = less buttons and all that.

I've only played brief demos of the series since Civ2 and I think this is the only one that has grabbed my insterest since that golden era. I used to play against my sister on network and she would kick my ass

Downloaded this off PSN last night and I have to say I am considering buying the full version. If it was £19.99 and not £29.99 I would consider it. I think the pricing of games at the moment is ridiculing young people's wallets. Call of Duty 4 came out before Christmas and it is still £49.99 in Game. That's practically $100USD what are they playing at!

Wow, it's pretty ridiculous that you Brits have to pay more than 30 pounds for any game! Considering the exchange is like 2 USD for 1 GBP, you're paying like twice as much as even Canadians! Most new, "blockbuster" games are 59 or 69 CAD, or 49/59 USD! Some stay there, like Halo 3, Mass Effect, CoD4 etc are all still full price.

We have to pay about 100 (sometimes up to 130) Australian for games which is about 96 US dollars. You guys have it pretty good for games!

I'll probably pick this up when I get my 360, I've decided.

I've always been one to say that Civ 3 was the best of the series, and the all-at-once turn-ism in the online play and in Civ 4 really turned me off. It didn't feel like Civ at all. The turns and order of turns became a huge part of my strategy in tighter games. So, I thought the best part of Civ was taking the time to examine that extra layer of depth, and I managed the regularly-slow-speed to something digestable by re-balancing the production and growth costs. I can finish a game in about 4 hours this way, if I don't get bogged down in managing workers.

I guess I'm really going to have to try it out for myself and see if I agree with the gameplay style.

this sounded absolutely horrible when I first read about it, but if you say it's good I'll give it a shot.

what I definitely like is that this new SPEEDY game might make them less inclined to speed up their other Civ releases, like they have been doing. You have to run CivIV on epic or marathon speed just for it to be fun playing imo. I still love CivIV+expansions though and I might be the only one

someone said they were having trouble with civ but I can't really give any good tips. I've been playing the civ games on and off for a ridiculously long time now and I'm still figuring out new stuff, a lot of it's just shit you pick up over time. India with a spiritual leader is pretty good for beginners I think.