Played it this weekend passed. Thought I should give Mass Effect a break.
I don't have the expansions but I'm sure they would make the game better.

Still worth playing even now.
I prefer the whole space thing though of GalCiv and I'm really liking the ship design element. You don't have such flexibility in Civ. Try the demo if there is one.

I haven't heard of any new Civ game except the one for Xbox.

Alpha Centauri was the ultimate map-based strategy game, I thought.

You could design your vehicles, all right.

* Do you still play Civilization IV?

No, but I still play Civilization III. I just couldn't get into Civilization IV like Civlization III. The combat system, while having improvements such as pikemen excelling against Knights, has other problems that weren't in CivIII such as airplanes not being able to destroy buildings in cities and artillery not being able to destroy terrain improvements such as mines and irrigation. Combat is also heavily tilted towards defense due to every unit having a counter, unless unrealistically high numbers of artillery are used on offense.

It also loses the epic feel of Civilization III. Maps are generally much smaller, and both the small size and the heavily defensive nature make it very difficult to build what feels like an empire. Even "huge" maps aren't large enough for a true epic sense.

The graphics also are quite poor. They're 3-D, but I'd much rather have the 2-D of Civilization III. GalCiv II does a much better job with graphics - I'm glad the strategy market hasn't all gone to trying to make pretty images.

* What did you think of the "Warlords" expansion pack?
* What do you think of the "Beyond the Sword" expansion pack?

Not applicable; decided to buy GalCivII and Alpha Centauri instead.

* Is a new version of Civilization about to be released that I should just wait for?

None that's been announced, so not for the near future.

* What other strategy games do you think are better than Civilization?

Civilization III is, in my opinion, the ultimate strategy game, at least in terms of fun. It's also down to $20, so even if it's not you cup of tea, it's not a huge loss. It's what got me hooked on strategy, and ultimately what led me to try Galactic Civilizations - which also seems to be better than Civilization IV.

1)Yes.
2)It's good for a non-Stardock expansion pack.
3)Probably the best expansion for Civ ever.
4)Nope.
5) I just can't say Civ 4 or Gal Civ 2 is better. They both rock. Heroes V is crap IMO and was dogged with the draconian DRM stuff. Too bad there aren't many other TBS for the PC.
I own a Nintendo DS and many of the games I have for it are TBS'es like Advance Wars, Hoshigami Remix, Front Mission, Luminous Arc

I haven't played it in awhile... BTS was a very good expansion pak. At least it was worth the money, unlike the warlords pak which i felt was a bug fix with a few units/scenarios.

I can say i will not be playing much anymore unless firaxis takes it's collective head out of it's collective rectum. Somehow they came to the conclusion they don't have to finish anything, and that I won't mind if the game doesn't work properly. Their "support" has become rather pathetic, so much so that gamers are having to step up and fix the game. But, because it's CIV, and it's so "great", everybody puts up with it. The company knows it's guaranteed money, so they don't have to really make it right...

The actual gameplay has changed alot too. The building side of the game has been shrunk down considerably. It's basically a wargame now, with ridiculously stupid AI. If you think your going to build an empire, think again. Unless of course you like being ganged up on by all the other players simply because you know how to play... I hate it, personally. I play with honor, and like to try to build relationships with neighboring countries, the AI do not.

End rant. Load GalCiv. Make ships. Drink Coffee. Smile.

1) Yes
2/3) Don't have either, so I don't know
4) Not that I know of
5) I have several that I enjoy a lot
In no particular order
Alpha Centauri
Master of Orion 2
Galactic Civilizations 2
Master of Magic

I play them all from time to time depending on my mood

Could you remember the name of the mod?

I still play it with the Fall from Heaven mod. It's awesome and getting better constantly as they're still putting dedicated work into the mod. This mod requires Beyond the Sword expansion pack which in itself wasn't too impressive. Fall from Heaven does make use of lots of good features from it though.
Get Fall from Heaven here.

With Dark Avatar, the only reason why I'd want to play CIV(even with the exps, which I have) is if I want to conquer the universe with a race I developed since the stone age.

I am a big long term player of strategy games. All Civs, all MOO, SMAC, Ascendancy and various others...

Civ 4 is the version of Civ that convinced me it's no longer an automatic buy. Out of the box, it's very heavy, crashes easily and has an AI that is clearly engaging in anti-human group behavior and over the top cheating (worse than previous additions). The game is also full of features designed to cripple the human player. Frankly, I would play MOO 3 before I would play Civ 4...If someone gave it to you for free, I would suggest loading it up just to see how bad it was, but don't bother finishing a single game. SMAC/Civ II is the peak for this series with Civ I and Civ III both being respectable fun games.

I know that is counter to thread consensus, but it really was one of the most disappointing strategy game purchases for me personally.

"* Do you still play Civilization IV?
* What did you think of the "Warlords" expansion pack?
* What do you think of the "Beyond the Sword" expansion pack?* Is a new version of Civilization about to be released that I should just wait for?"

I just bought CIV IV complete...all the addons are there, so you should get that if you want the game. I still have to play it so i can't really tell. I still play CIV III conquest on a regular basis (still haven't finished all the conquests).

* What other strategy games do you think are better than Civilization?

Historical games:

Spartan
Knights of Honor

Best TBS ever is:

MOO...still waiting for a better game...GalCiv, MOO2, MOO3, Botf, SEIV and SEV almost achieved it.

Personally, I can't imagine why there should be any complaints against Civ IV other than technical ones. The game is extremely moldable and also extremely moddable. If you think it's too slow - you can make it go faster! If you think the map is too small - you can play with as huge a map as you can possibly want!

In particular, I don't see this defensive emphasis feature. Civ IV wins through military conquest are nearly always fast and dramatic. Not the one-turn artillery wins of Civ 3, but perfectly reasonable. Diplomatic, Cultural, Religious, and Spaceship wins are all doable relatively equally.

AI behavior is superb. Not as great as GalCiv2, but the tech trading protocols are definitely a notch above. GalCiv developers need to give this game a lookover as a model for a working tech-trading paradigm. AIs can be made to hate each other through various means, and each point is a solid and encoded thing and be aimed at as a concrete goal. In fact, Monarch and higher players will tell you that Diplomacy is a necessary skill and activity at any level above Prince.

I like it. Have not got the lasted expansion but I got the reset. It is my planet bound version of Galciv II

Ah Masters of Orion 2 was the best TBS space game until Galciv2. I can't tell you how disappointed I was with that piece of crap Master of Orion 3. At the time when MOO3 was annouced I was looking fowared to an updated MOO2 that would be as fun. But when i played it I was very surprised how bad it was. But I am glad I had the CIV series and Age of Wonders:SM to fill my TBS fix until I discovered Galciv2. To tell you the truth I was not impressed with Galciv so I thought the 2nd one would be just as blah but was I suprised. It turned out to be one of my favorite TBS along side Civ4 and AOW:SM. And now that I'm playing the beta of the new Galciv2 expansion which IMHO makes Galciv2 10 times better I'm a happy camper. Now all I'm waiting for is the New DDO module and the New Age of Conan MMO to come out.

TBS games should move at a slower pace. If they are too fast then you have a RTS game and IMHO RTS games suck. For my instant Gratification fix I play shooters like COD4 and BF2 or I play MMO's like DDO (currently) and AoC (in the future)