I have discovered Civilization!

[viranimus]

I guess I am of a strange minority that I really have no sort of affection for Civilization franchise. Its really not all that impressive to me.

Though, the notion that one guy has a working file from Civ2 that has ran for 10 actual years and the concept that the game could hypothetically be utilized as a simulation of sorts has its intruiging concepts... but then I get reminded.. Its Civ... after a point, it looses all semblance of simulation because it eventually gets to the point all tech trees become maxed out and well humanity has yet to ever hit that stumbling block.

 

[Palmerama]

I have also only just discovered Civilisation! Been playing Medieval II Total War & got me into wanting to play other strategy games & got the Complete Civ IV collection for £3 on eBay! My god & I thought Total War was addictive!

I also got addicted to WoW when my housemate introduced me to it!

 

[Esotera]

I want to check out Alpha Centauri myself.
(The Sid Meier game not the galaxy... I already did that joke K?)

It was recommended to me numerous times, but I would have no idea where I could get it for cheap. I didn't really look hard though so it's really on my head...

It's a couple of quid on amazon, personally it's not something that I'd continue to play as I found it a bit dated and can't be bothered to get the hang of it. But it does look like a really solid game.

OT: Discovering Mass Effect was pretty awesome, I got it a couple of years later than everyone else, for £6.

 

[Sean Hollyman]

Hah, Civilization III grabbed me in the same way. The Civilization games are some of the most addictive games out there. Their addictiveness is actually kind of dangerous.

I remember one match that lasted me over 8 hours. T_T

Sweet cheese, 8 hours? Did you both agree to take breaks and use the bathroom?

 

[MrLS]

Civ here aswell, tried Civ 4 and loved it, have a lot of hours in Civ 4 as I used to play it while doing something else like watching TV or something. Personally I like Civ 5 more though because of hexagons (and no stacks of doom). Bought Civ 5 on release and proceeded to have a 14 hour long session, thank god that it was during the weekend...

 

[Razentsu]

Hah, Civilization III grabbed me in the same way. The Civilization games are some of the most addictive games out there. Their addictiveness is actually kind of dangerous.

I remember one match that lasted me over 8 hours. T_T

Sweet cheese, 8 hours? Did you both agree to take breaks and use the bathroom?

Well, I was able to take breaks freely since I was playing CPU players. I'm sure the game would have taken longer if it involved multiple human players. XD

Or maybe we would all give up before too long.

But yeah, Civ games typically take an eternity and a half to finish.

 

[I Have No Idea]

Hah, Civilization III grabbed me in the same way.

Civ 2

it wasn't until Civ 4 that I started to lose many nights playing

Lately it was Civ5.

Mine will also be the Civ games.

It seems this thread is fast turning into a Civilization Addicts Anonymous club.

 

[ReadyAmyFire]

CivNet. Anyone remember that? Took me ages to work out why I was losing my triremes on the way to America.

In terms of getting sucked into a franchise though it was Medieval II: Total War. Still love it. *installs*

 

[gorfias]

C&C Red Alert 2 did this to me years ago! I still fire it up now and again, and revisit some of my old saved skirmishes! There is one where I took out the enemies base using only Tesla Coils (That were in a chain spreading from my base to theirs!) That was a fun match!

I got a collection of C&C including Red Alert 2 for under $20 and will try it soon.

I have Civ 4 that I got for only $10 with an expansion pak. I've tried it. Seems hard but I hear it is addictive and need something to help me kick the stupidist, cheating, glitchy thing I've ever accidently gotten addicted to: www.kabam.com 's Thirst Of Night. It is soooooo stupid. And addictive. It tricks you by giving you lots of rewards at first. Later, it doesn't take up much of your time. Go in, click on a few things, get out. But, without help from their support, I've lost about 3 week's worth of guys due to glitches.

So I thought I'd try Civ 4 (5 is still about 5 times as much money, so, to give something a try, go to the past). From what I read, I won't be disapointed.

BTW: It (Civ 4) came with a 189 page PDF of instructions! Sounds like rocket science!

 

[TD5160]

X3: Albion Prelude. I had tried the X games before, and had trouble getting into it. But this time around, I've been thoroughly addicted to the game. Got millions to my name, just got my first station, and some of the best Argon ships in the galaxy... Now to hijack a UFO

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

I also remember when I first discovered Civilization. The first game in the series I had was the the spin-off game Civilization: Call to Power and was it powerfully addictive; I love me some cyborg ninjas. I always wanted more of the mad futuristic technologies to cross over into the main Civ series but sadly that hasn't happened. However that didn't quell my enjoyment of Civ III, IV and V which still rob me of many hours if sleep.

On topic:

As for another game that grabbed me instantly was Deus Ex. I was primarily a console gamer at the time and had never heard about Deus Ex until the ps2 port was announced in an article. It just so happened that a few days later I was in the local PC World store and noticed the Deus Ex game of the year edition in the bargain bin for £10. I bought it, thinking what the hell I can try this out, despite not knowing if my computer could run it. Luckily it did and it turned out to best purchase I could have ever made.

Now if you will excuse me I now have to go and install Call to Power, Civ IV and Deus Ex again.

 

[I Have No Idea]

If you have not already get the Beyond the Sword expansion which will up the fun x 1000.
Get the latest patch 3.19 which has several bug fixes. http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=323831
And get the BUG Mod which will help out with the crappy UI the game has and make more visible information you already have that the game tries to hide from you. (needs the above patch to work) http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=274636 I recommend just downloading BUG. BAT and BULL can be a bit glitchy @ times.

I bought the Civilization IV Complete Set on Steam, so I got ALL the expansions *squeals with excitement*

But about those bug fixes, would they work with Mac OS? Because that's what I'm playing on, so I'm not sure if those mods would be compatible. Would you know?

 

[Rastien]

My first experience with a Civ game:

 

[TheTechnomancer]

LoL really caught me when i first started. Also playing my first ever Command and conquer, that was one of the few strategy games I had found by then that was better than PC Lego Rock Raiders.

 

[Joe McGahan]

Get the expansions if you don't have them and play to your hearts content. Weeks, months down the line when you feel even a twitch of boredom, looks for free fan made mods. It's a deep rabbit hole of awesome, my personal favorite being Fall From Heaven 2. A fantasy rebuild from the ground up.

Also Master of Orion 2 got me good. Still play it from time to time years later.

 

[3asytarg3t]

Yes, civilization was definitely one of those games that grabbed me. Quake 2 and the creation of the online competitive clan environment was another one of those moments. More recently, I ignored Total War for years, picked up Shogun 2 and still haven't stopped playing it. Oh, and speaking of never stopping, I still play X-Com.

 

[BlackStar42]

Civ 4, Medieval 2: Total War and Europa Universalis 3. If anyone out there hasn't used them, I highly recommend the mods Rhye's and Fall of Civilization for Civ 4 and Stainless Steel for Medieval 2. Anyone know any good mods for EU3?