E3 2010 Feature: Civilization V Preview

Honestly I didn't like how Civ IV was, units were too large and with the double and triple up of them there were just too many units on the field unless you purposely limited how many were shown, a simulation game does not need this kind of extravagance. So I'm still disliking how the units are made in these screenshots, I mean **** man, a tank or warrior should ultimately not be as large as a +18 city, this is ultimately the problem with having units take 1 grid space and towns taking 1 space as well regardless of how big they grow as if land grows on trees. (wait.. what?)

I would have ultimately preferred if they stopped the "artisitc" direction at Civ III and merely created "common sense with regards to the AI. They still spam cities far too close to one another like ants, they still have that stupid "aww we're best buds here's some horses...I WAR YOU, YOU LOOKED IN MY DIRECTION, RAAAAGE!" diplomacy and you still are confined in a way.

I suppose as long as Leonard Nimoy still goes Beep Beep Beep this will be a worthy game indeed!

There is nothing stopping the devs from separating the military aspect into a separate level, a switch from the sim overview to the various aspects of running a nation via advisors (upon which Civ 2's still rock hardcore) perspective is not the issue, the issue is that effectively cities are capped despite logic mandating that as they grow they consume land to maintain their growth. I'm ultimately tired of the AI constantly spamming cities and every build having to be one of containment if you want to out populate them. It's mundane. it's ultimately a minimal change to allow for "supercities" by people expanding at their leisure and actually building up their cities to consume land rather than "6 spaces; city... 6 spaces; city... 6 spaces..."

There's nothing to then create minimal units, not 3 large warriors with clubs as large as skyscrapers, but 12 smaller warriors that when engaging in combat zooms in to enlarge it. removing the confines of the grid in places would then allow the formation of an army that doesn't take up 1 damned grid space, but that if you pull every military unit you have might take up 14 spaces, 25... that is progression that I would like to see, less restrictive gameplay.

As with most things to do with gaming my problem is one of focus. Civilization effectively kept the focus on game improvements by introducing culture, government structure, tied resources into terrain, natural disasters, city states and so on so forth but they've kept a rhetoric that does not "work" and "focused" elsewhere.

You have graphical tweaks of menu, you have graphical tweaks of units and environment, you have graphical enhancement that a howitzer or battleship now produces a nice little plume of flame. Make no mistake, the only Civ game I've not purchased was Revolution since it was not on PC, so given if I can run this on a limited system I will pick this up regardless. But I just wish their focus wasn't on the glitzy crap and forcing this into the casual market as an excuse for their focus. Meat and potatoes changes thanks.