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Civilization V announced

BertyBoy said:
Mmm, some might say the original was the best. They are all good in their own way. I just get annoyed by the fundamental changes in the building benefits between the versions.
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Yeah. There's fairly major changes in pretty much everything between versions: tech, wonder, leader benefits, tile improvement benefits, etc. Oh well.

A game "feature" for the real dedicated players. Gives you a chance for a 10 minute power nap at 4am while concentrating on strengthening your defences.
Yes, you're right, it crawls in late game, even on an 8-core Mac Pro.
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Hah, well I never thought about it that way. I remember one time I reloaded an old saved game and didn't have the "Show Enemy Movements" or whatever unticked. You have no idea (or maybe you do?) how infuriating it is to watch your city or large stack of units get attacked one by one and watching the animations go back and forth for two hours. Gah!
 
Can't wait. I've been playing Civ since the original and I love it to death. Totally agree with the late-game issues though - my Mac Pro slowed right down. I also wish that you could get to later era units/buildings faster, as being stuck in the ancient/medieval ages for ever can get tedious.

That said, I'm still struggling with Colonization - I can't seem to win, ever!
 
Mac mini?

Hey does anyone know if the new mac mini will run this at all smoothly?

Here are the min sys requirements.

Operating System: Windows® XP SP3/ Windows® Vista SP2/ Windows® 7
Processor: Dual Core CPU
Memory: 2GB RAM
Hard Disk Space: 8 GB Free
DVD-ROM Drive: Required for disc-based installation
Video: 256 MB ATI HD2600 XT or better, 256 MB nVidia 7900 GS or better, or Core i3 or better integrated graphics
Sound: DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound card
DirectX®: DirectX® version 9.0c

And recommended sys requirements:

Operating System: Windows® Vista SP2/ Windows® 7
Processor: 1.8 GHz Quad Core CPU
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Hard Disk Space: 8 GB Free
DVD-ROM Drive: Required for disc-based installation
Video: 512 MB ATI 4800 series or better, 512 MB nVidia 9800 series or better
Sound: DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound card
DirectX®: DirectX® version 11

This seems to indicate to me that this wouldn't work so well on the mini but I have no experience with gaming on my mac and I have no idea of the capabilities of the 320M graphics of the mini. This could honestly be the deciding factor between a mini and a iMac for my next purchase.

thanks!
-Mav
 
Since the Mini has integrated graphics, you're never going to get top performance. It's hard to say at this point. Sounds like you haven't purchased yet.

If you're still shopping, and plan to game on your Mac, I suggest that you stay away from the Mini's. Even the base iMacs aren't good gaming machines. To be perfectly honest, none of the Macs are great gaming machines.

If you're like me, a casual gamer who couldn't care less about running the newest games with all settings maxed, an iMac should be fine. If you're serious, consider a lower-end Mac plus a console, or a lower-end Mac plus building yourself a gaming rig.
 
Integrated graphics?

So integrated graphics = no graphics card upgrades?

It looks like the graphics card of the mini is what is at the bare minimum for this game. Would be nice if you could upgrade the graphics card of the mini to play civ 5 full bore. Although I guess graphics aren't very important for a strategy game.

Would a borderline graphics card slow down the overall gameplay?

Thanks,
Cnerd
 
CNerd said:
So integrated graphics = no graphics card upgrades?

It looks like the graphics card of the mini is what is at the bare minimum for this game. Would be nice if you could upgrade the graphics card of the mini to play civ 5 full bore. Although I guess graphics aren't very important for a strategy game.

Would a borderline graphics card slow down the overall gameplay?

Thanks,
Cnerd
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That's a great thing about turn-based ... it is what it is! So long as it can process all ofthe units on screen you are good.
 
This sounds very interesting. I have not played it since the original. I think I may look at previous versions until its out.
 
txa1265 said:
That's a great thing about turn-based ... it is what it is! So long as it can process all ofthe units on screen you are good.
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Yeah you're probably right. Although in past Civ games they have shown animation of enemy units within view that could bog the graphics card down. I think I read somewhere that the graphics of Civ 5 can be adjusted so you can play it on a modestly powered computer.


I'm excited about the hex units. If you've ever played Panzer/Allied General you know how addictive combat can be in hex based games.

I think, when 5 comes out, I'm going to have take a week off of work, buy 20 or so frozen pizzas and go recluse for awhile.
 
CNerd said:
Yeah you're probably right. Although in past Civ games they have shown animation of enemy units within view that could bog the graphics card down.
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You could turn that off ("Animate Enemy/Friend Movements" or something), but it still took forever to load a new turn once civs got really big regardless of what was on the screen or not on the screen.
 
Just to clarify, are you talking about the 15"/17" model that came out in late 2008? The first model to carry both an integrated GPU and discrete GPU?
 
Civ 5 will undoubtably be a great game, from a PC gamer point of view.

But from a Mac and nerd POV, all I can say is: WTF??!?!?!

First of all. Civ5 is a turn-based game with really rudimentary graphics. I simply cannot understand, how ANY graphics card produced within the last, say, 5 years should have any problems showing such graphics. There will probably be some video/animation playback as well in the diplomacy screens, but video playback really can't be an issue either.

Now, regarding the mac release. The AI and other game mechanics are totally platform-independent, and hence not an issue in the "porting" process. As mentioned above, the graphics is quite simple, and there's no reason what-so-ever of them during crazy and intense Direct3D tuning. They could write the game mechanics, and then program the graphics with SDL/OpenGL/whatever, and bam! Have a simultaneous release on Mac and PC. But they choose not to.

For a first-person shooter game, I understand that they want to tweak the PC version to the extreme and leave Mac behind. For a game like Civilization, there's no reason for this whatsoever.

All I can conclude is that, no matter how big an icon Sid Meier is, Firaxis of today is a bunch of lazy bastards. I will not be purchasing the PC version, and it is doubtful that I'll buy the Mac version. Enough is enough.
 
It will be interesting to see how the recent OSX Graphics Update affects those graphic card requirements.
 
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