Medieval II or Civilization 4?

[Ichigo]

Both are (allegedly) thinking men's games, right? So for those who have played both (or even one, really, your opinion is still welcome, just don't criticize the other game if indeed you have not played it) which should I buy?

 

[Canai]

I like Civ4. A lot of my friends like Medieval II.

Both?

I'd edge towards Civ4. There are a lot of cool mods that come with Broken Sword, and it has infinite replay value.

 

[Ichigo]

It's something I can kick back to while not losing neural functions by playing something *too* mindless. That said, being a student, I don't have enough time to play both.

I'll be running this on an 8400m GS with a T7300. I'm not such a graphics whore and so I'm assuming as long as I turn down the right settings @ 1280x800, M:TW II's real time battles would be playable. I Google'd for a while and no relevant benchmarks came up though, so I'm speculating.

Decisions, decisions...

Edit: Also, would buying the game and all of its expansions at once be a good idea? Or should I play the base game and get used to it, then add in the expansions?

 

[mundane]

re: expansions, for Civ IV you'd be well set to skip the first expansion and buy the second.

 

[Bateluer]

Both are great games. Pick'em both up a few months apart.

 

[Netscorer]

I don't play Civ games anymore. Used to until TotalWar bursted on the scene with original Medieval (I skipped their first release based in feudal Japan). When Civ IV was released I tried to like it but could not really get into it. Something was always missing to me. And every time I launched either Rome or Medieval 2 I knew what I was missing. The ability to command your troops on the battlefield - decide your own fate even if the odds are against you, leave nothing to the turn of the dice as Civ does.
Civilization was a revolutionary game of the 90-ies but to me it never really improved from Civ 2 - just got overly complicated. TotalWar series showed improvement with each release, keeping me interested through the past 5 years. Both Rome and Medieval 2 have very active fan community with lots of mods, serving both to improve upon the official game and expand it into new areas. Also latest Sega release of Kingdoms Expansion Pack brings four new fully fleshed out and exciting expansions to the great franchise.

I am quite surprised you did not play either of the game. What planet are you from? Seriously!

But hey, you can buy both and enjoy them. They are under $25 on the used market, so the initial investment would not be that big anyway. After you find which game you prefer, you can try fan mods or go and buy official expansions. Don't buy expansions until you settle on which game you want to invest into, as they are real time whores.

For TotalWar there is also a great compilation available, called Total War Eras - including all three original games with their official expansions and lots of extras for cool $25. So check it out as well, as I can guarantee you that at least Rome is not dated at all and original Medieval is still a pleasure to play in custom battles.

Regarding your hardware - it will be a tough call for Medieval 2. It does require a quality graphics card or things can get choppy and outright unpleasant in battles. Even playing Rome on it would require you to make certain sacrifices in features on the battlefield. Best call would be to place pointed question on one of the Total War fan community boards (http://www.twcenter.net or http://totalwar.org/) and see what the responses will be.

Cheers,

netscorer.

 

[Ichigo]

Ah, I can't deny the allure of real time battles.

Annoyingly, it's still $50CAD here in Canada. Why won't someone have a damn sale already...?

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

I could never really get into Civ4 - I like GalCiv II better. I don't personally own Medieval II, but I hear it is very similar to Rome. I really like the Total War games for their blend of TBS/RTS. If I play a turn-based game for too long I get a bit bored, but if I play an RTS for too long I can get overwhelmed (CoH is very demanding!).

 

[Skott]

To me they are two entirely different games and hard to compare. Personally I prefer the Total War games but I've always have had a hard time really liking the Civ series. I've tried them but always lost interest in them. They are great games though. Just not my thing I guess. The TW series though I enjoy. Especially when you use the better mods to enhance the vanilla game.

Originally I played M2TW on a e6400, 2Gb RAM, and 7600GT KO rig and it played it fine at middle settings without any real problems. thats with units set to default size. Now I play it on the rig you see in my sig below with everything maxxed out and no hiccups whatsoever. I set the units to huge and I just love it. :thumbsup:

In my opinion you'll either like one or the other. Some prefer the Civ style and some prefer the TW style of play. Only way to know for sure is to try both and then decide for yourself.

 

[Stoneburner]

You know, when you get into a medieval campaign, you want to play it without the real time battles. They become more an annoyance than a feature. However, when you need to win a battle with your troops outgunned, you gotta do it manually, so its rather useful.

 

[BigJ]

Civ IV is really easy to play on the lower difficulties, but to advance to anything past Noble, it takes either:

A) A lot of trial and error trying to perfect the best strategies
B) A ton of research understanding the mechanics behind the game and how and why certain strategies that other players use work.

Haven't played Medieval II.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: Stoneburner
You know, when you get into a medieval campaign, you want to play it without the real time battles. They become more an annoyance than a feature. However, when you need to win a battle with your troops outgunned, you gotta do it manually, so its rather useful.

Autoresolve, do it all the time. Unless its an important battle, such as a battle over a city, its often auto-fought.

Lately though, defending against sieges have been kinda lack luster. After installing Kingdoms, all the enemy ever does is drop all their siege equipment and run to the edge of the map and wait.

 

[tigersty1e]

Originally posted by: Bateluer

Lately though, defending against sieges have been kinda lack luster. After installing Kingdoms, all the enemy ever does is drop all their siege equipment and run to the edge of the map and wait.

They do this in the vanilla game too when you sally out and attack them.

If you want them to come to you and attack, don't do anything when you're settlement is being sieged. After a 2-4 turns (depends) when you end your turn and it's the computers turn, the battle will start automatically. Watch out though because sometimes they'll try to starve you into forfeiting.

 

[SergeC]

Hard to go wrong with those choices.

 

[Kyteland]

I'm personally biased to Civ 4.

 

[Zenoth]

Get Medieval II, and then get the DarthMod for it, that's an instant winner right there.