14 DAY TRIAL // 
Can you revive a title that was successful in the past, but now everybody seems to have forgotten about it?
Actually, I'm convinced that anyone who has ever played a PC game must have lost some nights over at least one of the titles from the Civilization franchise.
For some of us, the game has transformed in an obsession and I'm sure that the number of people who turned on their PC only to play Civilization II and forget about everything else for 14-16 hours is humongous.
This year's winter will bring you Civilization IV. Will this title succeed to incite once more gamers to give up on everything and everybody to build their own empires and to conquer others?
Civilization goes 3D
It seems that a century has passed since Civilization came on floppies, and now, in the middle of the 3D madness, Civilization is force to adapt to the trends. Hence, the new game will be fully 3D and it will have cities that can be easily visualized and much simpler to organize.
The change in graphics is not the only novelty proposed by Civilization IV. Although the concept is basically the same (you build cities, you develop nations and then you have to conquer your adversaries by any means possible: political, economic or military), the Firaxis team has introduced numerous changes whose purpose is not necessarily to make the game more spectacular, but more to improve the quality of the gaming.
Each of the 18 civilizations present on Civilization IV will have their own leaders, inspired from historic figures of those nations. For Romans, Cesar will be able to approach conflicts with diplomacy, while Genghis Han will be much more aggressive. Some civilizations will have to choose between two leaders, while others will have to settle with only one.
Aside from leaders, Civilization IV will also introduce a new series of characters known as the Great People. They are cultural figures, engineers or famous explorers who can be used to complete the construction of a wonder or to discover a certain technology ahead of its time. Unfortunately, these Great People can only be used once.
Civilization IV also promises new units, changes to the existent ones, new ways of interacting, attacking and defending and many levels of upgrade which can be applied to units as technology evolves.
Religion as a persuasion tool
Another major change brought to the mechanisms that govern Civilization IV is the importance of religion. The concept of religion existed before in Civilization, but in didn't weigh as much as it does now.
All major religions will be present in the game and you will be able to convert nations to Taoism, Christianity, Buddhism, and so on. The nations whose faith will be above average will be able to convert other cities and even countries. Therefore, the religious influence exerted by a certain country will play an important part in wars, alliances and in the relations with other countries.
Although at first glance things seem pretty simple, it is not known yet how the changes brought by religion will be implemented in the game, but it's obvious that they will make the game more spectacular.
Another aspect that will make the game more spectacular is the number of cinematic sequences which will be increased to 24.
Civilization reloaded?
From what we know until now, Civilization IV looks like an interesting sequel of the franchise and although it won't have the same impact as the first games, the producers promise enough changes to make Civilization IV a top game.
Let's hope that the introduction of 3D graphics, the improvements regarding the interaction between civilizations, the concept of Great People and the modifications brought to the units will keep us once again glued to the monitors.
SCREENSHOTS
