There’s no hotseat.
There, I said it! ZING!
Did you feel your heart sink? Are your dreams and aspirations smashed to teeny pieces? Will you read on while assuring yourself, “Nahh, that can’t be. There’s gotta be more to it, waddayamean no hotseat? NAaaaahhh.” ?
Well, it’s true. I’ll say it again.
No hotseat.
So what does this mean to Civilization veterans? Simply put, gone are the days when you and your buddies crowded around the computer screen, anxiously awaiting your next turn, secretly plotting a daisy chain of revenge that would ultimately put you on top. Rather, Civ 5 gamers can only play Single campaign and Multiplayer Online. So, technically, you could still set up a game with other friends – you’ll just have to bear with the annoyances of connecting online in order to do so.
Now, if I had a solid connection and Verizon’s Wifi Hotspot device. Only then would the logic behind Fireaxis’s controversial changes to multiplayer be acceptable.
The Wifi Hotspot is portable wifi generator, capable of handling the Internet needs of up to 4 or 5 laptops (?) or other electronic devices simultaneously. In turn, you can have four players, four laptops, and one online game all in the same room. In addition, you also gain the advantage of keeping your troop movements secret. All that, I actually like. Blatantly sharing your turn with the whole room pretty much kills any hopes for strategic revenge, and really isn’t too fun when you get serious about fighting each other,
“Dude, don’t look at my screen.”
However, attaining the necessary gadgets for this scenario goes a bit beyond what people are willing to do for hotseat. The better solution would be for 2K to bring hotseat back-
PLEASE.
Looks like our prayers might be answered:
[Read second post by FyshStyx]
In that case, all we can do now is play the waiting game…and Single player.
I will admit, despite the disappointing changes to hotseat, Civ 5 continues to come off as a slick, addictive, sexier version of previous Civ games. The graphics are outstanding, the theme and menu setup is likable if not lovable, A.I behaves as always (***holes), and the unit changes seem pretty exciting. Cities now have their own defense system, allowing players to nab pesky barbarians via arrows from nearly two tiles away…
Which realistically means you’ve got some damn good archers…
You know you’re having a bad day when you get “arrowed” in the face, in the middle of the forest, from archers nearly 30 miles away.
Regardless, that and other civic, economic, and foreign relation changes make Civ 5 quite attractive to Civ 4 Fanboys like me. I also hope that in addition to a hotseat patch, 2K will include espionage and corporations as seen in Civ 4: Beyond the Sword. That would make this complete, and perhaps solid gold.
Unfortunately, I haven’t had nearly enough time to sit down and play it like it’s meant to be, 12 hours straight. I’m also aware that this review was a bit late…I apologize, but honestly I don’t mind. The hotseat was a real turn-off, and so I felt that this post should take it’s jolly old time in getting to the web.
After all, the name is Civ4Freak – so don’t be too surprised if I neglect future posts on Civ 5 gameplay.
More later, I’m off to the adventures of tomorrow.
Thanks for stopping by.
-Civ4Freak
