Battleangel

It’s out and it is getting rave reviews.

IGN — 9.4/10 — The original Civilization is among the most enjoyable, influential games of all time. Its sequels have sought to build upon the basic model by adding greater levels of complexity and streamlining the interface. And though the sequels were definitely great games, they were still rooted in an interface and gameplay style that had changed very little since the original was released in 1991.

That’s not the case with Civilization IV. It reenergizes the core concepts of the series, staying faithful to what fans expect while also creating a wholly original game. While the game hasn’t lost any depth or detail, every aspect of the design has been streamlined to make it easier for new players to jump in and less monotonous for veterans. Die-hard fans will definitely find that the game offers up so much more variety this time around. The shape of each game is quite different, from the ways you build up your empire to the ways you tear down the empires of others.

Gamespot: 9.4/10 — If you have even a passing interest in strategy games, world history, or getting less sleep at night, you owe it to yourself to give Civilization IV a try.

Eurogamer: 9/10 — The only problem that remains is whether I can actually make it to bed and not start another game. Bodies need sleep. I’m sure I read it somewhere.

1UP: 9/10 — From the mellow sounds of Leonard Nimoy`s narration to the polished world view that allows you to smoothly scroll from satellite view to up-close and personal, this is the consummate update of a classic.

Yahoo Games 4.5/5 — Honed and polished to an enviable shine, Civilization 4 bears the hallmarks of long hours of playtesting. Firaxis shows an impressively consistent grasp of what to abstract and what to detail, and a remarkable talent for presenting large-scale strategic challenges in a format that`s easy to digest.

The tech tree btw can be found here (pdf download) if one wants to have something to do while waiting for the game.

I haven’t had time to try it out yet but it seems that Firaxis messed up the ATI support and that many ATI users are greeted with a Failed to Initialize Renderer …. As of writing this there is no workaround and no patch. The only bleak idea is that it could be a Service Pack discrepancy. Some ATI users have been able to play the game after all. Here are some suggestions for a fix though.