Just got this new DS game. I've played Civ for years on the PC, and the DS version has the same look and feel, only newer, better -- and smaller.

Very addictive.

I dunno, my opinion on the game is sorta mixed.

For one, I don't think there is enough variation in the difficulty. Games are either very easy or very hard; on Noble and below, I can usually crush opponents before it reaches AD by regular military assault... above, I can never keep myself on pace with the arbitrarily militaristic financial juggernaut AI players. I've won once on Prince, having successfully charmed India into giving me basically all that they owned.

Two, there isn't anywhere near the level of game customization available as there is on the PC versions. Is the DS not capable of allowing you to modify the size of the game map? Or the number of computer players? Or the victory conditions?

Three, city management sucks. There's no other way to describe it. You're never notified when you finish building something, you're never notified when your city is angry or unhealthy and it is very hard to tell how quickly your city will expand or where to correctly place it to get the most out of the land resources. I understand that they were trying to dumb down the micromanagement for the console market, but come on.

All in all, I'd still rather play Civilization IV on my computer. CivRev will be a useful tool on long car/bus/plane/train rides, or when I really feel like sticking it to the French.

Yeah, despite my expression of enthusiasm, I must admit I have mixed feelings about CivRev too. But then again, I've had mixed feelings about Civ I, Civ II, Civ III, and Civ IV. I've always had a love-hate relationship with this game.

On the plus side, it's fun to kick back, explore the map, and build an empire. Nothing quite like it for gaming relaxation. And since I'm a pretty lazy gamer, that's perfect for me.

But on the downside, I hate it when I've spent hours building an empire, only to have a belligerent AI opponent launch a sneak attack when I'm unprepared for it (as I usually am). It feels like some bully coming along and kicking over my sandcastle.

So, in the PC game, I either play on the easier levels or else customize the game so I start with a continent to myself and only one or two opponents. That way I can focus on getting big fast, and the other players can eat my dust.

In CivRev, I can't get away with that. No customizing, and even on Warlord level the AI players are belligerent and aggressive. So, there's no help for it but to prepare for war.

At first, that was almost a deal-breaker for me. But then I realized that war is a lot more fun and easy in CivRev! In the PC game, it can be a very long, drawn-out affair--a slugfest--and that's one reason I dread it and avoid it. But in CivRev, at least on the lower levels (Warlord and King), it's possible to pull off a blitzkrieg and conquer the world in a reasonably short time.

As I said, I'm a lazy player, so my point of view may be unique. So far I've only won a few games on Warlord level and one on King level; I haven't tried anything more challenging.

I like the way each different civilization has its strengths and weaknesses. As the Mongols, I carved out a huge empire quickly, thanks to barbarian villages joining me. Next game, as the Greeks, I couldn't expand for a long time, but my defenses were impregnable, and I finally got enough tech advances to launch an offensive and get a domination victory.

I agree that it'd be nice to know more about where to build cities and what's happening happiness-wise and such. But at the same time, I'm happy focusing on high-level decisions and not having to micromanage those "details."

I love some features of CivRev: e.g., spies are back (I loved using them in Civ II and missed them in later versions) and the diplomacy options are a little better (though the AI players are unusually belligerent).

Other things confuse me: e.g., the Great Wall is supposed to make other players offer peace, but that seemed to work for me only once, after which the wall was ignored. And Leonardo's Workshop seemed to upgrade only some of my units, or only for one turn--something like that. I'd like to have more information on how these things actually work.

Anyhow, I've had fun with it and look forward to playing at it some more.