Rank the Civilization games?

It's fairly obvious which Civ game the gaming press thinks is the best. A simple Gamerankings.com or Metacritic search will answer that.

I want to know which game you personally feel is the best, and which game you think the general fandom likes best.

I personally like Civilization IV the best, although that's only because it's the Civ game I played the most. I started with Civ II after I discovered that it had come with my mother's old Windows 95 PC (this was a few years after Civ III was released), so I've played that game a good number of times, and from what I understand, that one's the fandom's favorite.

I pirated Civ III & IV and played them (Don't kill me! I deleted them later out of guilt and eventually bought them on Steam, so all's forgiven, right?).

I played a few turns of the first game on DosBox but lost interest, considering the fact that it lacks all the improvements of the later games.

I've also heard a lot of hate for Civ V. I'd like to know your thoughts on that.

For the record, I'm also counting Civilization Revolution and Alpha Centauri.

Any how, here's my ranking (which is incomplete since I haven't played all the games enough to fully compare them to one another).

1. Civilization IV: It just seems to be the most refined in the series to me.
2. Alpha Centauri: The whole "design your own unit" thing is very interesting, and I do kind of prefer the whole sci-fi setting to the admittedly boring history lesson thing the main games have got going on. Even better, it's also intelligent sci-fi that isn't dictated by Rule of Cool like so many films and video games nowadays. The factions stand out more, it's more exotic, and I can build cities on the ocean!
3. Civilization III: Once again, I like the improvements.
4. Civilization II: Ah, this game seems to be the Ensemble Dark Horse of the fandom. Of course, when I used to play this game, I didn't really know what to do, so I'll have to revisit it to give it a better judgment.
5. Civilization Revolution: Bought it, played halfway through the tutorial... lost interest. Why would I play a console version of a game I already own on the PC? It was simply too childish and simple.
6. Civilization: Only played a few turns before I lost interest for aforementioned reasons. Also, I like the computer telling me where a good place to found a city is, because I suck at reading and evaluating the terrain.
7. Civilization V: Haven't played it. My cousin gave me a choice between this and StarCraft II for Christmas. I chose StarCraft because I was really curious about what the fuck Jim Raynor has been up to for the past twelve years. Judging from how the tame the Fan Backlash for Wings of Liberty was compared to that of Civ V, I'm going to assume I made the right choice. Also might of had something to do with the fact that everybody waited more than a decade for StarCraft II, compared to the meager four years waited for Civilization V.

edited 3rd Apr '11 4:15:48 PM by RL_Nice

A fistful of me.

I've only Played Civ I on the SNES and Civ IV...
Of the two, I'd say Civ IV is the best...

edited 3rd Apr '11 4:16:39 PM by Zeromaeus

Mega Man fanatic extraordinaire

The only games I've played extensively are Civ 2 and 3. I like Civ 2 more.

UN JOUR JE SERAI DE RETOUR PRÈS DE TOI

I'd probably go;

Civ IV: Probably the best overall Civ game, if you include the xpacs.

Civ II: Test of Time - I really liked the extended original campaign, where you can go to Alpha Centauri and fight aliens and such. Quite fun, as were the sci-fi and fantasy modes. This was the first Civ game I played, so it holds a special place in my heart.

Civ III: Decent, but not as good as Civ II. I still clocked a lot of hours on this, though.

Civ V: A step backwards for the series. Apart from requiring Steam which is automatically a point against it, it stripped away a lot of features I enjoyed from Civ IV and replaced them with things that didn't really work. It's also very unstable, and I don't like how they're going the DLC route instead of traditional expansion packs.

Honorable mention to Call to Power 2, which technically isn't a Civ game, but was still a lot of fun. I have played the very first game, but it was so long ago that I can barely remember it. Haven't played Alpha Centauri, either, for want of a working version.

I've only played 1-4, and the aptly-named SMAC. I'm pretty sure Civ 1 and MUDS cost me a whole GPA point in college, so I think I've got the play experience to judge them...

Alpha Centauri's my pick for the best.

Civ II would be my second-favorite, though that's probably at least partially nostalgia.

Civ IV after that, as it is pretty good, if a bit hard to adjust to.

Civ I, just because it's good.

Civ III would be my personal pick for worst. Corruption made building any sort of empire an exercise in futility, I didn't like the way resources worked at all, and I swear the AI had a nasty habit of building Wonders ONE TURN before I would've finished them, leaving me with the World's Most Expensive Barracks.

edited 3rd Apr '11 9:56:24 PM by arbane

1. CIV IV
2. CIV II
3. CIV III
4. CIV I

It's a bit hard to me to give reasons, but I really think that the fourth game really improves the series. I haven't played III much and that II ranks higher is probably due to Nostalgia Filter (I suspect that I'd like III more of I had played more of it, but not as much as IV, which highly improves the new features of III).

I've never played V and Revolution, though, and only bits of Alpha Centauri.

edited 3rd Apr '11 11:13:36 PM by Nyarly

People aren't as awful as the internet makes them out to be.

1. Alpha Centauri
2. V
3. IV
4. III
5. II

Maybe I'm just crazy, but it feels like it's getting better each time, although of course I'm more partial to the sci-fi version. The systems they remove tend to be the ones I never liked much in the first place. I especially hated the "stacks of doom" and all that.

Hmm...

Of the one's I've played.

• 4. Civ III
• 3. Civ II
• 2. Civ Net
• 1. Civ IV

Unfortunately, I can't rank III any lower than it is, since I've only played but the four, but rest assured if I could, I would. That game, while it had great improvements, had those same improvements be marred by seriously annoying problems that thankfully were fixed in IV.

"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.

Games I played:

1. Civ II
2. Civ IV in glorious, sluggish, frame-skipping 3D
3. Civ Net
4. Civ I for DOS with Copy Protection and inconsistent French translation.

"And as long as a sack of shit is not a good thing to be, chivalry will never die."

1. Civ II 2. Civ III

I haven't played any other civ games (Unless Galactic Civ counts)

Uhg god, the one thing that annoys me most about the civ games is the fact the AI never builds a navy. I remember using a map of the pacific ocean on Civ II that stagnated into shit because the AI never tried to seriously fight at sea.

My other signature is a Gundam.

Sounds like the German one. If I remember correctly, the European had all translations in one (one would choose the appropriate one before at the start of the game). At least, it's like that on my CD version.

edited 4th Apr '11 12:57:23 AM by Nyarly

People aren't as awful as the internet makes them out to be.

1. Alpha Centauri
2. IV + V (Can't really pick a favorite here, both games have things I like over the other )
3. II
4. III
5. I

1: IV
2: V
3: II (For the first Playstation.)

That's my ranks for the three I've played.

I don't think Civ5 is horrible, or even bad. It's got some really interestesting systems (such as Policies and the new way cities' cultural regions grow), and overall feels a bit more balanced than Civ4 felt before its first expansion pack. However, a thousand little annoyanaces really drop its enjoyability for me, and I'll probably always like Civ4 more.

edited 4th Apr '11 5:19:00 AM by Kerrah

The only Civs I've played to any measurable extent are 3 and 4. Of those, 4 is *definitely* better. 4 actually has the computer not cheat flagrantly at combat. Whereas 3, if you wanted to fight a war, you basically needed to climb the tech tree fast to at least tanks, to stand a chance. . .

Home of CBR Rumbles-in-Exile: rumbles.fr.yuku.com

1. Civ 4 with BTS
2. Civ 5
3. Civ 2
4. Civ 4 without BTS
5. Civ 1
6. Civ 3
I never played Revolution.

I JUST WANTED TO GO INTO SPAAACE!!!

If they actually decide to make expansion packs for Civ5, and they manage to produce as good a pack as Beyond the Sword, the game may yet become better than its predecessor.

edited 4th Apr '11 6:40:07 AM by Kerrah

1. Civ 4 (all expansions) it's just well thought-out and polished, adn great fun in MP.
2. Civ 2 The one that really got me into Civ. Oh, and the mods, and alternate scenarios and all that stuff. Great fun.
3. Civ The original.
4. Civ 5 Flawed, but had some potential.
5. Civ 3 I never liked it.

"No, the Singularity will not happen. Computation is hard." -Happy Ent

Having only played Civ 5 (well, and I rented Revolutions), I have to say that 90% of the complaints I see about it amount to They Changed It, Now It Sucks!. I've never seen anyone mention much beyond "that's not how Civ 4 did it" as the reason they don't like it.

Which isn't to say that there aren't good reasons to like Civ 4 better (I wouldn't know; like I said, I haven't played it), but I've never seen any.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.

I enjoyed Civ IV, I didn't enjoy Civ V. That's a "good reason."

@Talby: Test of Time was also my first exposure to Civilization, so it's near and dear to my heart.

As far as overall rankings are concerned, I like Civ IV the most. The iconic, Grammy Award winning theme is just the icing on the cake.

edited 4th Apr '11 10:30:26 AM by EarlOfSandvich

I now go by Graf von Tirol.

@Earl of Sandvich I just looked at your Steam account. I can see you really like Beyond the Sword and Team Fortress 2.

edited 4th Apr '11 2:45:11 PM by RL_Nice

A fistful of me.

Civilization IV. Mainly because thats the only one I played .

I also only played about 2 maps and then quit. It dosnt seems like a bad game, but its just not my style. Still, it was fun while it lasted.

"That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death itself may die."

Listening to The Shining Path.

Civ Net had a version of it too, my personal favorite but naturally you can't find it anywhere... I think Civilization III had a version of it too, but looking at it's soundtrack I can't find it anywhere. However, I do remember playing the Japanese scenario, hearing it, and thinking "well, this game might not be so bad after all."

Nevertheless, the music for III was the only part of the game I really, really liked. Going by Music alone, I'd have to say my favorite Civ Games rank a bit differently:

• 4. Civilization II
• 3. Civilization III
• 2. Civ Net
• 1. Civilization IV

edited 7th Apr '11 11:01:07 AM by KnownUnknown

"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.

Does the Warlords expansion for Civ IV change the Wonder building mechanics or anything? Because the AI players keep beating me to every Wonder I've tried building so far. This didn't happen in the vanilla game.

I guess we could count FreeCiv as well, for anyone who's played it.

edited 7th Apr '11 1:01:24 PM by RL_Nice

A fistful of me.

I like these theme song additions.

But there's no religion in Civ 5 from what I hear. So it's not worth it. I'll just play the song on Widnows Media or something.