Glory Of The Roman Empire

[Antiochus of Seleucia]

Saw this. I'm gunna look a little more into it but I'm considering purchasing it.

 

http://pc.ign.com/objects/800/800592.html

[Primus Pilus]

Saw this. I'm gunna look a little more into it but I'm considering purchasing it.

 

http://pc.ign.com/objects/800/800592.html

 

Caesar IV will probably be the dominant game of the citybuilding types. I believe its due to be released next month.

 

There was also a CivCity Rome slated for release... not sure if its available yet or not.

[miguel]

hmm...

sound interesting

[Violentilla]

This is the one I was wondering about:

 

http://pc.ign.com/objects/818/818085.html

 

I saw it on G4 and it looked quite good.

[Antiochus of Seleucia]

Uh oh, now I have to choose between CivCity and Caesar IV. No more Glory of the Roman Empire for me.

[Divi Filius]

Glory for the Empire is a dull game that created simply for the purpose of shooting out a Rome city sim game before the major hits come out. Its shallow as you cannot get passed a simple Roman village. Nothing special too, I definitely would not recommend it.

 

Sym Rome has come out I think.

[Primus Pilus]

Looks like Caesar IV was just released on Sept. 9... for North America anyway. I'm making the assumption based on the series' history that this would probably be the one to get among the Rome city building games.

[DecimusCaesar]

Reading the discussion board on Amazon I think that there are a few glitches with the demo, one woman says it barely runs on her 6 month old computer. This looks pretty bad to anyone with an old computer. i haven't played the demo yet, has anyone here done it?

[Marcus Caelius]

Reading the discussion board on Amazon I think that there are a few glitches with the demo, one woman says it barely runs on her 6 month old computer. This looks pretty bad to anyone with an old computer. i haven't played the demo yet, has anyone here done it?

 

I have Caesar IV loaded on my not-quite-year-old laptop, and and it does seem rather "resource intensive." Mouse control is just barely possible, a symptom I associate with being right at the sys requirement borderline. It's bad enough that I haven't even thought of starting a game.

 

CivRome, OTOH, runs like a charm, even though there are a few bugs (a patch is coming "real soon now"), and is close enough to Caesar III that I wonder about copyright issues. Of the three Rome citybuilders now out, CivRome is definitely the pick of the lot.

[DecimusCaesar]

I tried to play Caesar III again recently and the game wouldn't even install on my computer...hmmm, odd...

[Julius Ratus]

I have seen both CivCity ROME and Caesar IV on the shelf. Does anyone think that Civ City will run on my 1 gb computer? Probobly not.

[Urbs Aedificator]

I am fortunate to own all three of the new Ancient City Building games:

1) Glory Of The Roman Empire

2) CivCity Rome

3) Caesar IV

I am a big fan of the ancient city building genre from the beginning. Here is my take on them so far.

Suprisingly, I find Glory Of the Roman Empire the best of the lot, but barely edging out the next competitor. With all due respect Divi Filius it is not a shallow game. On the surface it may appear so, but if you stick with the game, the many subtleties will appear. While not as in depth as the other two contenders it is hands down just more fun to play. It is rendered in a fully 3D game engine(the other two not) One can for example zoom into street level and watch quite close up actually, a citizen go into an altar and pray. This game has plenty of 'eye candy' and visually is stunning. That said, it is not without its detractions. It IS weak in the trade and tax generating areas(which were linchpins in Roman society). It does not have a game editor, and to me THIS is the great weakness of the game. It is mentioned that one can only build a village, and this is just planely not true. If one has the inclination one can try their hand at rebuilding Rome from the ground up into a HUGE city. There is a freebuild option if one finishes the lengthly campaign.

In summation, we who play these game are very used to Caesar III type games and how they function. This games premise is different(as is CivCity Romes) and just requires a change of viewing them to get full enjoyment out of them.

CivCity Rome comes in a very, very close second. I find the rendering of the graphics very good, but different from what one is used to, say like in Caesar IV. The colors and structures actually to me appear to be probably what Roman buildings did look like...not new and shiny like a Hollywood movie, but dingy and somewhat dirty. The research and trade and taxtion are fairly convoluted to make it quite a challenge even for veteren city builders. But for some reason I cannot put my finger on, it just doesn't feel as fun as previous city builders. Thats not to say its not a good game, it is, its actually a great game. worthy of anyones hard drive.

Now Caesar IV was the game that I was really looking forward to, and it was the one that let me down the most. In a nutshell, it is so full of bugs and patches that do nothing, that the game is rendered almost unplayable. I far outpace the recommended system requirements yet it appears that the designers used a new game engine that appears to work on a very limited # of systems and vid cards. They should have stuck with the Children Of The Nile game engine...thay would have had a classic on their hands...

Remember no simulation can come close to emulating something as complex as buliding and running an ancient city, but in the very least they should be fun, and give a good sense of being a Roman in your city of choice. The first two games do this well, doing so in two different but interesting ways.

Cheers.

Alex

[Vercingetorix]

In a nutshell, it is so full of bugs and patches that do nothing, that the game is rendered almost unplayable.

 

I've been playing Caesar IV quite a bit lately & have seen CivCity Rome being played by my girlfriend's son. I'd have to say that Caesar IV is the better of the two. It also seems to have a bigger fan base who are pretty talented at creating custom scenarios. The Online playing option is a pretty cool feature, as well (which unfortunately can be unreliable at times). I do agree that Caesar IV is a bit of a resource hog, but I'd hardly say that it is "rendered almost unplayable". You have the ability to zoom in on your citizens as they go about their daily business. I'm sure this looks even better with a top-of-the-line graphics card (I'm only running a GeForce 6200). I'm not running a high-end gaming rig myself and I've had very few issues with Caesar IV. Just the occasional slowdown when your city gets very large. Just my $.02 .

 

I may have to check out Glory of the Roman Empire, though.

[Urbs Aedificator]

Thanks Vercingetorix. I didn't mean to imply Caesar IV is a BAD game, it's just so darn buggy. I'm running a GeForce 9500+ which according to the developers and tech people is fine and dandy. But there are so many graphic anomolies that show up during play, and unexplainable crashes to desktop, that I've just given up in fustration.

Give GoftRE a try. It's completely different than what one might be used to aka Caesar series of city building games. But it's loads of fun, and can be quite challenging at times.

Good luck to you in Gaul against that upstart Caesar.

Cheers.

Alex

[Vercingetorix]

I've had a few unexplained CTD's as well. This usually happens when I've been playing a while and my city starts to get large. I also had to add some memory to my comp to make the game run fairly smoothly (I wanted to anyway...this just gave me an excuse to throw down the $$). Other than that, everything runs ok. I'll definately try to find GotRE.

 

Caesar who? He's a wimp!!