I've played Civilization IV, and all it's DLC's (or whatever you want to call their add-ons), plus Colonization, for hundreds of hours now over three years. I don't play it online or competitively, because I get all the challenge I want from the game AI. In fact, I have a new game I just started yesterday. So needless to say, I'm pumped it's truly being worked on. Not only that, but it's scheduled for a fall 2010 release! Seriously, why are all the greatest games ALL COMING OUT THIS YEAR! Sheesh, our wallets and lives need a break!
There isn't one other game franchise you can point out that has never had a blemish on it's reputation like Civilization. Not Mario (remember Paper Mario, or SMB 2?), not Zelda (look at Spirit Tracks...'nuff said), Halo (uh...ODST? Can we say no innovation?), nothing. I challenge you to find one other game series out there with multiple sequels and add-on packs that delivers 9 out of 10 ratings everytime, and often perfect 10's. Heck, I though Civilization Revolution might be the first bad mark by creating this kind of game specifically for the console and now iPhone (early ports of the Civ series don't really count, because they weren't new IP's, they were the same game. They just didn't work as well on the consoles, but if you played the same game on the PC, you would get the 9/10 scores). However, they delivered a unique gameplay that averaged a 9 out of 10 score as well! Sid knows his stuff. And he's working on a Facebook version. Hmmm...
Anyway, look forward to your comments. Especially if you have a series that you think is on par with Civilization in terms of always delivering the top notch quality. However, at least three entries of a game need to be there before you say it's on par (sorry, no "Uncharted"...still only has two but is on the right track!)
Kinto tried to get us to play civ IV two years ago and as a lan party game, it was an epic failure. Once you go RTS it's really hard to play turned based strategy games. I guess I can see the fun in playing this as a single player game but it was hard to get into at that time.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Mario franchise argument Super Mario Bros 2 in America and in Japan were two different games. Super Paper Mario is a completely different franchise from the main Mario games. You could easily argue that the Mario Party games or anything with the name Mario plastered on it brought the series down. But if you look at the main series that has been directed by Shigeru Miyamoto the game is unscathed as a franchise. Sid just has more control over his IP which is good for him but I only know of Sid because of Civ.
I would say Half-life is a franchise that still has a really good reputation. But are we basing this debate based on meta-critic scores?
Good points. No, I'm not using only meta-critic scores, just scores that you can easily find from all sources, as well as your impressions. I should have pulled the question out as it's own post. I'll have to remember to do that in the future.
ReplyDelete