perfidy

I am now leaving for home. There, waiting in a small brown package, is the object of my lust. Civilization IV. Only an hour away. I have updated the countdown timer to reflect this new reality.

John bought himself a copy over lunch today, and GeekLethal finally got the Russian Mafia to pay him what they owed, and he'll be getting a copy tomorrow. That's the start of a good multiplayer game. Anyone else interested? Johno? Johno?

If you are unconvinced of the benefits of joining our little game, read this fictionalized but yet truer than true visualization by our own GL:

G33kL3th4l > I need iron. Who has iron?

John0 > I got 99 problems, but iron ain’t one.

G33kL3th4l > Wha u want trade for iron?

8ucketH3D > Johno, I’ll trade you not kicking your ass for not giving GL iron.

G33kL3th4l > wtf did I do?

John0 > You don’t know me I do what I want

8ucketH3D > J as soon as he has iron he builds Legions and he’s gonna march them up your ass

G33kL3th4l > wtf bitch let him trade what he wants and I can’t even build Legions yet and you have fucking ironclads fielded

[wik] I have it! Mwahahahaha!

[alsø wik] I have started my first Civ IV game. But not until having to...

[alsø alsø wik] If you are buying Civ IV, and you have an ATI Graphics card, prepare for some bullshit. I floundered around for far too long before checking the civ support site. I new that I had some graphics issues, as I recently built a new computer. I had gotten it so it worked, but I hadn't actually fixed it completely. So, when Civ bombed after I tried to run it and the error message indicated graphics problems, well, I just did some research and started reinstalling drivers. Reinstalled Civ and it bombed. Btw, if you're ever having problems, the diagnostic tool included in the game Black and White 2, which I bought a few weeks ago out of sheer frustation at my inability to play Civ, is actually rather fantastic.

Finally, went to the support site, and hey! There's a page just for my problem. It instructed me to uninstall Civ and delete all folders. Then uninstall every single bit of ATI software on the computer. Then, reinstall Civ and DirectX, start the game, let it bomb, then install the ATI drivers - but not any of the other software - then start the game, let it bomb, then unpack some art archive, move some files around, then start the game. That process included restarting the computer about ninety-four billion times and took about two hours altogether. But hey! my video driver problem is now really, really, solved.

[wi nøt trei a høliday in Sweden this yër?] So, first impressions after running the tutorial? I think it will really kick ass. My initial concerns/peeves are limited to the main map. One thing I liked about Civ III was the fact that you could zoom out and still see units, and move them. That doesn't appear to be possible here - once you zoom out (with the scroll wheel, cool) past a certain point all the units disappear. On the plus side, there's a globe view option kinda like google earth that looks really nifty.

All of the screnes I saw in the tutorial were clean and elegantly designed. Navigation through the menus was easy and at least so far relatively intuitive. Graphics are cool, but it will take me a while to get used to them as the style is a bit different than in III. Lots of context information pops when you rollover items on the screen, which I really dig. The interface provides lots of information without being busy or cluttered. Some UI team deserves bonuses.

We'll see about all the nitty gritty details, but so far, color me impressed.

[see the løveli lakes...] The intro movie was also impressive, and the music is significantly less irritating than in previous editions. I had brought my iPod into the office with me just in case, but so far, I haven't needed it.

[the wøndërful telephøne system...] Looking at the manual... the American unique unit is the Navy SEAL. That sounds so much cooler than the nearly useless F-15 from III. The Romans now have the Praetorian, which seems to be just a Legionary, so I don't know why they changed it to a worse sounding name. On the whole, though, the naming of things seems to be a lot more, I don't know, precise or appropriate than in III. There is indeed a space elevator great wonder, which kicks all ass: but I was also impressed at some of the others, like the Hagia Sophia, Hollywood and Angkor Wat.

[and mäni interesting furry animals...] I am so ready to kick someone's ass on this game. wtf r nukes?