Civilization 5: Game Of The Year Edition

The latest instalment of the long running series continues the evolution of the ultimate strategy game. Starting with a single band of settlers at the dawn of man-kind the goal is to create the ultimate civilization to eclipse all rivals. Whether you do this by colonising the stars, waging war on your enemies or marvelling all comers with your sophisticated culture is completely up to you.

Forgoing the usual campaign mode Civilization instead allows players to create a world of their own devising and jump right into it either by themselves or with others in multiplayer. Customisation has always been key to the series and before each game players can choose the makeup of their world such as the balance of ocean to land or the scarcity of natural resources.

Continuing its turned based, rather than real time, gameplay this new edition does make a few changes from the previous instalment. For the first time it ditches the square based tiles and replaces them with hexagons allowing for more realistic terrain movement. The ability to stack multiple units on single tiles is also removed. This prevents the 'stack of dooms' seen in previous titles that made battles dull wars of attrition at later stages of the game.

As would be expected new technologies and units are also added to the mix and a few features, such as religion, have been removed although most impact positively on the gameplay.

In the end whether you are successful or not the Civilization series has always been about creating your own stories and yet again it succeeds.

The latest instalment of the long running series continues the evolution of the ultimate strategy game. Starting with a single band of settlers at the dawn of man-kind the goal is to create the ultimate civilization to eclipse all rivals. Whether you do this by colonising the stars, waging war on your enemies or marvelling all comers with your sophisticated culture is completely up to you.

Forgoing the usual campaign mode Civilization instead allows players to create a world of their own devising and jump right into it either by themselves or with others in multiplayer. Customisation has always been key to the series and before each game players can choose the makeup of their world such as the balance of ocean to land or the scarcity of natural resources.

Continuing its turned based, rather than real time, gameplay this new edition does make a few changes from the previous instalment. For the first time it ditches the square based tiles and replaces them with hexagons allowing for more realistic terrain movement. The ability to stack multiple units on single tiles is also removed. This prevents the 'stack of dooms' seen in previous titles that made battles dull wars of attrition at later stages of the game.

As would be expected new technologies and units are also added to the mix and a few features, such as religion, have been removed although most impact positively on the gameplay.

In the end whether you are successful or not the Civilization series has always been about creating your own stories and yet again it succeeds.

Was about to buy Civ V and then I spotted this Game of the Year edition on Play. It doesnt appear to be anywhere else and I only noticed this by total chance. Anyway - if you are going to buy Civ V get this one! This one has all the DLC which installs with the game plus the soundtrack and a big fold out poster with tech tree and lots of info. Its about the same price as the normal one too! Just buy it and thank me later. Having all the DLC already means no more downloading and saves you money too. So its a no-brainer. Oh and by the way - Its addictive as hell and Im a Civ veteran from the first one.

What can I say this game is so addictive and fun to play. It comes with all DLC stuff also so saves a small fortune for a few extra pounds will make the game even beter.
Also a new expac is on hte way also, so if u like this game it will be a worthwhile investment :) Hours of fun...

I agree that this game is a step back in terms of complexity compared to the previous, but this may just be with the intention of adding on features via expansion packs. With regards to criticisms of the lack of humour and slow paced game, if you are looking for either I would n't really recommend any of the Civ franchise!

You can read elsewhere this is generally great game.