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[Truean]

So it appears I can get Civ 4 and both its expansions for relatively cheap, or I can spend twice as much for civ 5 and it's expansion. Civ 4 seems to be an all in one thing. Whereas Civ 5 is spread across an expansion and DLC, which I don't like. Also it appears there's a "square tiles' v. hex" thing going on too.

Which would you do? Which game is the best in your opinion, why?

[Fayrik]

I've got a really really simple view on this, others may disagree but hey.
Civ 4 plays much better in mutliplayer.
Civ 5... Is actually a little simpler, but I think I prefer it a little on the singleplayer.

But as a recommendation, I'd probably go for Civ 4, I've enjoyed it a lot more than Civ 5.
Also, for all the nicer graphics in Civ 5, I often find myself playing entire games through with just the 2d view.

[rutsber]

I played Civ 4 a lot when I was a kid, and recently my friends and I were playing it again. I got Civ 5 a couple months after it came out, but I only ever played it for a few hours. I didn't get nearly as much enjoyment out of it compared to Civ 4. The hex tiles were supposed to increase strategy, but I didn't notice much. One major disadvantage I found was not being able to stack units. I don't remember if they could stack in cities, but I'm almost certain they couldn't on regular tiles. It made it harder to amass a ridiculously large army to massacre one city.

Which expansions? As far as I know, there are three: Warlords, Beyond the Sword, and Colonization. Warlords basically expands on the original Civ 4, and Beyond the Sword is basically and expansion of Warlords. Colonization was almost a game of its own, and I didn't really enjoy it. It seemed to limited, but it could have just been because I was younger when I played it.

I would definitely recommend Civ 4 over Civ 5, especially if you have Beyond the Sword. I'm not sure if your version would be the same as mine, but I got Civ 4 with all the expansions on one disc and it came with a few mods. In my opinion the Next War mod was excellent, and provided a lot of end-game content.

[ChairmanPoo]

Civ4 has this awesome mod, "Fall from heaven"

[Truean]

[nods] cool....

I think it's $30 for four games (Civ 4, with expansions beyond the sword, warlords, and colonization). Or $50 for Civ 5 and Gods and Kings as an expansion.

Graphics:
Has anybody noticed that Civ 4 seems somewhat cartoonish compared to civ 5, or am I missing something. Really it's mostly the rounded mountaintops and roads that make it seem that way at first glance. I really hope it has "mountain ranges," as in, ridgelines etc. I like Civ 5's mountains better.

City Radius and Cultural Radius:
So Civ 5 seems to have this ... interesting at first glance expandable (buy the square) city radius (the area of land around a city you that you can get resources from). Civ 4 seems to have this "fat cross" (not my wording but yeah) set area you can gather resources from. I have no idea what the "cultural radius is."

Hex v. Square:
No idea what the "tactual" stuff is supposed to be about in re Hexes instead of squares. If anything, it decreases tactics, because now instead of 9 directions to travel, you've got 6. Granted, the lack of unit stacking might force you to be more careful and chose higher quality units, but there is such a thing as strength in numbers.... A whole city can fit in a square, but not more than one unit...? Hum.

I'm slightly favoring Civ 4 at the moment, but certain parts of civ V look good.... I dunno.

Civ 5

Those Mountains.... Look at them....

Civ 4

I... are those mountains as nice?

[rutsber]

Cultural radius is basically your borders. Your borders expand based on how much culture you have, and you can take over other civilizations' borders if your culture is really high. That's how it works in Civ 4 at least.

[Mictlantecuhtli]

5 wasn't too good for my tastes, maybe I didn't give it enough time? I had a hard time with some of the rather dumb design decisions, like city-states in general. I tried the major mods and even then it wasn't too interesting to slog through. I enjoy 4 a lot more, but the 3rd is still my favorite.

[Truean]

Cultural radius is basically your borders. Your borders expand based on how much culture you have, and you can take over other civilizations' borders if your culture is really high. That's how it works in Civ 4 at least.

Thank you, I never understood that.

5 wasn't too good for my tastes, maybe I didn't give it enough time? I had a hard time with some of the rather dumb design decisions, like city-states in general. I tried the major mods and even then it wasn't too interesting to slog through. I enjoy 4 a lot more, but the 3rd is still my favorite.

Ok, so you didn't like city states. Can I ask what else made you not like it? I'm not trying to be nosy or anything, but I mean from the perspective of somebody who is considering buying this, you know.... Like, one of the things I hated about Skyrim is the need for a constant internet connection in single player and the fact that my at the time, brand new computer didn't really have the graphics to play it. That and of course the fact that it was buggy as hell.

Also the horse, he could go everywhere, including up the mountain, but he'd fall down the mountain getting back and kill you, or he'd jump into the sky and then "land" to kill you both. The greatest weapon the dragons had was that horse, he killed me waaaay more than they did.

[martinuzz]

I bought 5, but I don't really like it. Civ 4 however, and especially FFH2, I've played and played and played. My old disks are too damaged to perform an install on my new laptop, so I bought the cheap complete pack mentioned in the OP (CIV III + IV, Complete edition)

To my great sorrow, I can't get it to install properly on WIN7. Warlords won't copy most of it's files to my computer during install, and Beyond the sword fails to install properly as well. I can get BtS to start, but I have to click and close about 280 error messages before it starts running. I suspect this will cause problems ingame as well. I searched for solutions on the internet, but even though it seems, everyone who bought the complete edition is having this problem on WIN7, didn't find a working one yet, and it seems the developers are not making any installer patches either. I'm afraid I'm going to have to rip the old seperate disk versions from the pirate bay, and try to install those. Supposedly I should get that to work. But I don't like ripping stuff from tpb, even though I payed for the game and both expansions twice now. Does anyone know how to get the complete edition to work on WIN7? I need BtS to install properly, because it is needed for the Fall From Heaven 2 mod.

[Truean]

http://fallfromheaven.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

I think this alone might sell it for me. You could make one hell of a game with those maps....

Still please keep the conversation going about the respective games though .

[Heron TSG]

Does anyone know how to get the complete edition to work on WIN7? I need BtS to install properly, because it is needed for the Fall From Heaven 2 mod.

There doesn't seem to be a patch. I ran into the same problem and ended up just having to install the game with a downloaded ISO, though once installed I can play with my disc just fine.

Caveman to Cosmos is another good mod.

[Korbac]

I can attest to Civ 4 being a classic game. I've played the demo for Civ 5 and might get it for christmas, as it does somethings (i.e. culture) better than Civ 4, but by and large I agree with the consensus : 4 is much better.

[lordcooper]

Comparing vanilla versions Civ V wins hands down IMO, but FfH2 is an absolute masterpiece.  I've probably played that mod as much as all the vanilla Civ games combined.

[Glowcat]

Personally, while Civ 4 is a great game and should be considered if only for the mods, the Gods and Kings expansion for Civ 5 added some much needed depth which places its vanilla playability much closer to that of its predecessor's. Hexes and the removal of stacking units means the warfare portion of the game is much more involving although AIs still haven't quite been able to keep up with a good player who's learned to exploit its weaknesses. There's also a lot more 'game' in Civ5 whereas Civ4 managed to do simulation aspects better in my opinion. By this I mean the approach focuses more on developing particular strategies and you should look at the computer players more like 'players' who're trying to win a game rather than nations. There are also a few minor changes here and there which I do not enjoy but overall Civ 5 is a solid enjoyable Civ experience. I don't really feel you can go wrong with either option.

[MrWillsauce]

Civ V is extremely dumbed down. I definitely recommend Civ IV if you like strategy.