oh sid meier, you magnificent bastard

[spatch]

Oh, and lest I forget: The opening menu music for Civilization 4 is very beautiful, in that inspirational chanting Circle of Life kind of way. Watching the menu animation under the music is also beautiful. And the lyrics? It's the Lord's Prayer in Swahili.

The game itself, of course, is another great reason to stay up all night. Even if it does need one little patch or five. Oh, and Leonard Nimoy narrates the Civilopedia and opening narration!

"Leonard Nimoy?!" I said out loud. "Why'd they get him?"

"Probably because he grew up a few blocks from here," Leonard chuckled in my ear, and all was well.

(the sad part is that Leonard Nimoy's West End neighborhood, as well as his little Omni Theater spiel, no longer exist.)

Comments

Baba yetu!

[mcsnee.livejournal.com]

Are you getting the hideous deadly crashes of doom as well?

Re: Baba yetu!

[spatch]

Hold on, one second, my PC is spontaneously rebooting.

Re: Baba yetu!

[mcsnee.livejournal.com]

I can't decide whether those crashes are better or worse than the dumped-back-to-windows-and-can't-do-anything-for-twenty-minutes-while-the-OS-tries-to-clean-up-the-giant-shit-Civ-4-took-in-virtual-memory ones.

Stupid game... if you weren't so addictive, I'd delete you!

Re: Baba yetu!

[spatch]

Last night I had a "I Quit The Game, How Come I Can't Bring Up Any Existing Windows Via Alt-Tab?" conundrum. (Had to minimize everything first... that was weird.)

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

"Probably because he grew up a few blocks from here,"

I always think of that when I hear the anecdote about where the Vulcan hand signal came from. The synagogue's probably gone too.

[grumqa.livejournal.com]

What's the gameplay like? Is it significantly different from Civ III? Will it be worth fifty bucks and not being able to be the Vikings?

[piemancer]

No Vikings again? I'm too cheap for expansion packs! Man, what's up with throwing all the cool cultures by the wayside?

But c'mon, man, whassit like, whassit like?

[spatch]

No Vikings, no, but you can be Mongol hordes like always. Oops, wait, did I say that? Sometimes I play Spain too.

Right now I'm still too entrenched in the "ooh, shiny, ooh, I like how the music themes change with advancement and zoom levels" bells-n-whistles gaga to talk about the gameplay, other than the fact that I rather like the way religion is handled (it starts in one city, then spreads via both culture and missionaries) and I enjoy the zoom levels and the terrain improvements, such as windmills on hills and pastures for animals and plantations for luxury goods. Trade routes seem to be automatic, which makes me sad because I always used caravans to explore the map a little and then make some money.

[piemancer]

I think i'd really groove on watching the spread of religion. And the... what ya call 'em... Great People- Great Philosophers, Scientists, Artists. I mean, i love ruling my world with an iron fist, but having little pretend faces on my world seems like great fun.

Except for the spontaneous rebooting.

[spatch]

What's best about the spread of religion is the twinge of pride you feel when another civ's leader converts to one of yours. (You also get a diplomacy bonus too.)

The Great People are a wonderful idea, kinda like heroes in other turn-based games, but unfortunately they don't do anything until you sacrifice 'em. They can add a permanent bonus to a city, f'rinstance, or instantly finish research or building, or a group of them can initiate a Golden Age, but once you use 'em for something, they're gone. I'm sure there's a metaphor for human achievement in there somewhere, but I'd have preferred perhaps roaming bonuses. Have a city lacking in culture? Send over Michelangelo for a while, he'll help, then move on...

[violacat.livejournal.com]

Dvorak did that!

Someone in New York hired him to come over here for a couple years to help develop an American national style of art music, hence his "American" string quartet and the New World Symphony.

Yes, I have done two or three papers/presentations on Dvorak, why?

[markm.livejournal.com]

Who put the bop in the bop she-bop she-bop?

I was so disappointed when they got rid of that opening sequence.

[spatch]

HEY CHAHLIE! THESE PEOPLE WANT TO SEE A LOBSTAH!

I realized the film's 20 years old by now. That means it contains imagery and scenes that people today might find archaic and hopelessly outdated -- the Celtics raising a shiny new championship banner to the rafters, f'rinstance.

OH SNAP

[markm.livejournal.com]

Let's start a petition to have it released to DVD. It won't have the same impact without the huge curved screen, but it could be legitimately be considered part of Boston history.

[spatch]

I fail to see why the MoS hasn't done this yet. It'd make a great nostalgia piece and I'm sure they could find retail space for it in the museum shop.

[lno.livejournal.com]

I seem to be the only person in the world who has played Civ4 for hours upon hours yet has not seen a single issue that requires a patch. Permanent black spaces even when tiles are explored? BSODs? Rebooting? Memory leaks? You people with your damn hippie computers. Get a haircut and an Athlon 64!

[fmittens.livejournal.com]

You're not the only one who hasn't had any trouble. It's been running smooth like some kind of baby/butter hybrid for me. My tech tree poster was in french, though. Researching Chasse and Elevage gets me Equitation. Yay!