Sid Meier's Civilization III (Limited Edition)

The Good
Civilization is one of those line of games that many like, some love, and a few lose their jobs-wife-friends because of it. Luckily for me I have managed not to lose any of those things but it has been close.....

Civ III like 1 & 2, has wonderful options. I can choose to be American, I can choose to conquer the world, I can choose to win by building a spaceship. The choices almost never end. I LOVE the way the graphics (not sound) in unit fighting, excellent! War weariness is cool as is the "new culture". You can tell a lot of love and thought has gone into parts of civ 3...........

The Bad
That's why its so hard for me to get to this next part.....

There were several things that really prevent Civ 3 from being a Great game. Here they are....

1. Horrible sound effects. On the nice movie cd that I received with the Limited Edition, one of the speakers said "there is tons and tons of sound in this game, it has been timed so that when you see a unit swing a axe you hear the sound at the same time" (not exactly word for word) Only if that was true..... Most of the time the sounds drag and are louder than other sounds. A ship can move 3 times and have 3 different sound levels each time! That means that I can never have my sound settings where I want them. (Sometimes I barely hear a unit; sometimes it blasts me out of my chair)

2. SERIOUS-SERIOUS-SERIOUS-SERIOUS bugs I can’t play my version of Civ for more than 30 minutes! After that the game crashes hard. I have to back out every 20-30 minutes and then get back in. I have called customer support 4 times and they still can’t get it fixed. (Drivers are new and computer is a dell not a home build)

3. Limited Edition - why did I pay the extra 10 bucks again? When I pre-ordered the game the guy at EB told me it should include a Hint manual. Now I have been playing civ since it came out in 91. I don't need a hint manual but I do collect civ game boxes and material, so I didn’t mind getting one. When I opened my new tin I was a little surprised that I only got the tin, movie cd and a letter from Sid for my 10 bucks. Come On! You could have at least given me a nicer tech map or something?

4. Yeah! The Tech map! Very small and totally useless. The other tech maps from other versions where much better.

5. Rushed feeling You just get the feeling that some of the issues of this game were just rushed into production. Which is glaring, considering other parts are very clean and professional.

The Bottom Line
What disappointment!

I tried so hard to give this one a chance. I spent my whole first day of owning the game trying to get it to work. After all that I can only play for a hour or two before I get tired of the spotty sound effects and lockups. That just makes the extra money I spend on the Limited Edition more painful. My recommendation is wait till it gets patched. Then buy it for the reduced cost.

This is one of the most painful reviews I have ever written.....