Product Description

Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution is the latest offering in the legendary award winning Sid Meier's Civilization series of strategy games, featuring the famous "just one more turn" addictive gameplay that has made this one of the greatest game series of all time. Civilization Revolution has been designed and built from the ground up for console and handheld systems delivering graphics, gameplay and controls that take full advantage of the hugely popular gaming platforms. Civilization Revolution is a watershed game offering players a chance to experience the epic empire building world of Civilization in a whole new way - in an accessible, visually immersive, fast paced, action-packed world that gamers crave.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #468 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Take 2
• Released on: 2008-06-13
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Platform: PLAYSTATION 3
• Original language: English, German
• Dimensions: .31 pounds

Amazon.co.uk

Hall of Fame Game designer, Sid Meier, has been called "The Father of Computer Gaming" with such early hits as F-15 Stealth Fighter, Railroad Tycoon, and Pirates. He put computer gaming on the map however, in 1991, when he delivered Sid Meier’s Civilization to the gaming world launching the "God Game" genre and creating one of the most award winning and addicting games on the planet. Civilization remains one of the world’s top selling PC game series with over 8 million units sold and is recognized by the press as one of the greatest game franchises ever created.

In Civilization, players strive to become Ruler of the World by establishing and leading a civilization from the dawn of man into the space age waging war, conducting diplomacy, discovering technologies, going head-to-head with some of history’s greatest leaders, and building the most powerful empire the world has ever known.

Civilization Revolution Features

Choose Your Civ – Choose from 16 Civilizations throughout history (from Africa to Germany to America to China) to lead to victory. Each time you defeat a rival civilization you’ll add an exhibit to your Hall of Achievements paying homage to your great accomplishments. With so many Civs and Leaders to play, you’ll have a new and exciting experience with every game.

Lead Your Civ – When you choose a Civ play as one of the world’s most famous historical leaders (like Abe Lincoln, Otto von Bismarck, and Mao Zedong) and compete against the other leaders as you strive to create your own history in this epic game. Each leader will have 4 special abilities giving their Civ unique advantages throughout the ages.

Real-Time Interaction – Leaders and advisors will actively communicate with you - even turning and pointing to things in the world as they speak – making the interactions more realistic and engaging than ever before.

Explore The World – Your quest to explore and discover will have you traversing the globe in search of long lost relics, rival civs, technologies, barbarians and much more.

Fast-paced Action – Accessible maps and streamlined time scale will deliver quicker games and constant action.

Intense Combat – Triple your strength by combining up to three units into one powerful army and destroy your enemies. When your units win tough battles, they will become veterans and then elites. You can then choose from a list of powerful upgrades that will give elite units even more strength to dominate in war. Your Army will wear a distinct uniform representing your Civilization, so you will easily see them on the screen as you lead them into battle.

Civilopedia – an invaluable in-game multi-media resource that informs and entertains players with authentic videos, pictures and background information about the real world elements in Civilization.

Multiplayer: The Best Ever!
Hot Join – join a game already in progress.
Simultaneous Moves – no more waiting your turn, just make your move when you’re ready.
Early Withdrawal From the Game – a player can drop out and the game will keep going.
Team Play with handicapping.

Xbox Live –Up to 4 players can battle as teams, head to head, or have a complete free-for-all. Auto-matching, ranked games, leaderboards, and achievements make the online play more versatile and fun than any previous version of Civilization.

Game of the Week – Each week a new Firaxis created map will become available to players for download. Finish the game with the highest score you can achieve, and have it posted to the Civ Game of the Week Xbox Live leader boards to see how you stack up against players around the globe!

Endless Fun - Unlockables, scenarios, mods and additional maps offer infinite replayability.

Integrated Video and Voice Chat – When playing a friend (or foe) in multi-player interact with them in a whole new way! Watch them smile as you offer your assistance, and then watch that smile fade away as your armies march into their capital.

Downloadable Content – Players with Xbox Live will be able to download extra content like multiplayer maps and scenarios not available to offline players.

Achievements – Whether you play single-player or multi-player, you will be able to unlock achievements for everything from making your first diplomatic contact, to winning the game with just a single city, to playing a game online with the legendary creator of Civilization, Sid Meier!

Tutorial – Firaxis will guide new players through their first game – they’ll learn from the masters and be well on their way to ruling the world.

Custom made for the Console
Intuitive and natural control through each gamepad
Highly detailed characters, units, buildings, landscapes and visual effects
Integrated physics for ultra-realism
Seamless interface to guide players through the game
Non-stop action
5.1 surround sound for intense sound effects and music

Customer Reviews

All over too quickly....
I pre-ordered this for the PS3 two months ago, and I was really excited when it dropped on my doormat on Friday, I had a quick bash at it that night, to get a feel for it, then had another go the next day on a harder setting (Warlord), the graphics are very good, your units and advisors and enemy leaders are well animated and funny (And, is it just me, or is Catherine The Great super-hot?), the controls are easy to work out and they make full use of the controller, the city screens were a little simplified, but I can live with that, You get some cool units and can form them together to make armies, fleets or wings which is great fun (And is also a must if you are to survive), and the more battles your armies win, the stronger they get, with promotions, upgrades etc, there are also really cool little cut scenes when you go into battle which really brings the combat to life.

So, I'm playing as the English, and building my empire, and so far I've encountered the Russians, Chinese and Germans, and this is where I start to notice flaws, the diplomacy is very basic, an opponent will either like you or not, they will make peace initially then demand something from you in exchange for peace, when you refuse, you normally go to war, which is fine by me, gives you a chance to use that shiny new knight army or spitfire wing. But that seems to be about it, you don't seem to get opponents asking you for help against an evil aggressor like they used to, or inviting you to join them on a crusade against whoever, you still get to trade knowledge with them though.

So I end up going to war with first the Russians, then the Chinese decide they want a piece of the action, then the Germans start waving their swords at me. After wiping out the Chinese, I make peace with the Germans and Russians (The latter becoming quite friendly for most of the game), but it all kicks off again with the Germans (Sound familiar?)

Anyway, after quite an impressive Anglo-German war spanning most of my Saturday afternoon and the construction of my spaceship, I get a message warning me that the game will end in 5 turns and a victor will be announced... OK, I'm not actually quite ready to stop playing yet, but no problem, I can just elect to keep going after the victory is announced, like in Civ2, after you built your spaceship, it gives you an option to carry on playing although no score will be kept, must be the same here right? Wrong, imagine my disappointment when, after I was announced the victor, the end credits start to roll! I think this is the biggest flaw in the game.

I really really wanted to keep playing, because just after launching my spaceship, the Russians, Germans(Who had surrendered), and Zulus all declared war on me for no apparent reason, there was nothing I could do to appease them, and things looked set for a global conflict of truly epic proportions! I mean who knows, we could have brought out the Nukes! This was going to be fun! But no, just as it was about to kick off, all I got was, "You've won a domination victory, thanks for playing, bye!".

This is where I feel really short changed. Another gripe I have: What the hell happened to being able to customise your world? Why can't you choose a map size any more? The map they give you is way too small, and you can't choose how many opponents you have. I have to echo what has already been said, this is a fun game, but it doesn't feel like proper Civ, as someone else here said, its Civ Lite. I can only hope that the online game is more fulfilling, when I get a ethernet cable for my PS3 I'll find out.

Overall, fun game, but way too limited and short.

Fun while it lasts...
I bought Civ Rev on the back of what I felt was a decent showing from the US PSN store demo, as positive reviews overall from sites like Eurogamer. Unfortunately, the demo's shortcomings are even more evident in the full game.
I would really, really love to avoid using terms like 'it's a dumbed-down version', and maybe use words like 'simplified' or 'streamlined' - but essentially they all point to the same issue - this is no 'revolution', it's just Civ Lite, or Diet Civ, or whatever you want to call it. And the fact that the publishers are passing it off as 'what console gamers want' is bull, and subsequently the reason that it manages to avoid the top scores.
I'll admit, the last Civ I played was Civ III, as I could never afford enough ram for IV - although it's required spec are probably not so substantial nowadays - and so I may be out of touch with drawing parallels to Civ Rev's most recent PC incarnation, but I never remember Civ III lleaving me feeling so... unfulfilled. In Civ Rev, the map size has been limited and timescales for research and construction shorterned to inject pace into the game and to allow for the world to be conquered in an afternoon, which sadly betrays the depth in game that Sid Meier's series is famous for. Everything works as it should, the control interface is slick and logical, the gameplay allows for the player to win by various means and thereby tailor the experience to the player's requirments. The problem is, it's all over far too quickly.
With games like Elder Scrolls, or GTA IV, the Final Fantasy series, or Pro Evo's master's league - it's not a complete shock to find a game taking in excess of 40 or 50 hours to get the most out of. And these are all console games - so it's a bit of a sickener to find that Civ Rev's brevity is almost used as a selling point when it becomes the game's ultimate weakness. I can afford to lose a few weeks wiping the Aztecs off the map, giving the Russians their rightful place as world leaders - so why won't the game let me? To be fair, though, the game length suits the multiplayer mode well and may well prove to be Civ Rev's lasting legacy - much like Call of Duty 4, another case of an awesome and re-playable multiplayer experience saving a game with excellent but brief single player mode.
Having played previous Civs, it is hard not to feel short changed by this latest version, and even newcomers may be disappointed by the lack of a game of substance to really get absorbed into. Ultimately, what has been included makes a great game, but there just isn't enough of it to warrant the top marks. Maybe next time around the developers will allow the player to choose how much of the Civ experience they want.

Just one more go!
Okay, it was obvious comparisons were going to made between Civ 4 (the last instalment of the series) as well as earlier versions. What you've got to remember is that this NOT continuing from these series, this is Civilisation Revolution, a new start (we hope) and a new franchise, aimed towards a new market and hopefully take some existing fans with it.
I don't fall into either camp, I did have Civ4, but it was a bit long-winded (althought excellently executed), butI certainly don't have 60+ hours to invest in global domination..
So first the bad... yes, the maps are a little small (but not overly), the online aspect still appears to be work in progress (as I cannot connect to any game as of yet, but that's not too much of an issue, there's plenty to keep me going in the meantime!), yes after extended play there is a tendency for military might over and above culture / technology, but a little bit of skill and strategy and you can still build the United Nations and win...and yes, you could argue it's over too quickly (although, personally - 3+ hours is sufficient for one game for me!) finally, yes, a little more customisation certainly would have been appreciated...
And now the good... excellent controls, you can really notice how this was built for consoles, it's so easy to control..the advisors are always entertaining... big, bold, colourful graphics (1080p support) and entertaining battle animations, great sound, chunky fx and good range of music (even the original Civ4 theme is in there!) and the replayability of this is infinite.. I've been hammered so many times (on King level no less) and thought 'right, time to start again, my tactic this time will be...' - it's so involving! And the complexity is I think set just right, yes it would be good to be able to tweak a few other things in the cities, etc. but this is a new start and those are what will no doubt come in the sequels... Finally I want to address a comment made about this game 'you have seen everything there is to see after a few games..' - that's only partially true, and actually is a plus to this...Personally I want to see the effects of everything (Manhattan Project, etc.) so that I can choose to include / exclude it in my overall strategy...
As you can see, this game is going to generate a lot of debate, the demo is available on both Xbox Live and PSN - it's definitely a try before you buy... I bought it as soon as I'd played the demo, it really is that good.