Play the World… Or Not

Now, I’ve already ranted significantly about this so I won’t waste too much space on this pathetic excuse for an expansion pack.

Play the World is an expansion pack to Civilization 3, which of course is an honored member of the greatest game franchise in computer gaming history. The primary focus, of course, is multiplayer.

Gee, wouldn’t it be great if multiplayer actually worked?

Now, I know that I might have certain circumstances that are preventing me from playing, but I have heard and seen tales of countless others who have similar woes. Problems with my router? Perhaps. It appears that others with Linksys routers are having similar problems, so it could be a compatibility issue.

However, when I attempted to load a copy of the game on a second computer (for testing purposes only, of course) then play against myself on the first computer, I still had error messages, missing servers and all kinds of nonsense.

My one reply from technical support was to make sure the host had certain ports open on their firewall. I tried to join something like 20 games at various times, with the various patches that have come out and not a single one was successful. I doubt that all of those folks have firewalls or haven’t bothered to open the correct ports.

My reply to technical support was ignored.

So, that leaves the additions to the single player game. Let’s face it – these “improvements” could have – nay, should have – been included with a patch to the original game. The only real additions are a few extra civilizations, such as the Spanish – who should have been included from the beginning.

And how could they add the Spanish but not the Inca?

And why doesn’t Civ3 let you choose male or female leaders like Civ2 did?

Anyway, before I get too far off track, there are some nice features, apart from the extra civilizations. All the settler and worker functions now have their own buttons (as an option), eliminating the need to hunt down keyboard shortcuts from three different locations.

I did join a multiplayer game (by myself), just to see the interface.

First impressions: the default time setting gives you about 3 seconds to make your first move. Now, I love to get the early part of the game out of the way quickly, but even I can’t click that fast! I must have lost three or four turns easily before deciding to go back to standard single player!

Well, if you happen to have $30 lying around, please send it to me and you can have my copy. Heck, I’ll probably sell it for $10.