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When wanting to start a singleplayer game you are able to customize most facets of the game, from the obvious difficulty setting to the ratio of land to sea and similar map issues. A check on the Internet servers showed that there were few people (20) playing, at least on the launch date - one can hope the servers will get busier as people buy the game. Now the choices are Internet play through Activision's servers (spread all over the world), a TCP/IP LAN or an IPX LAN. Multiplayer or singleplayer are the choices and, as shocking as it may sound to gamers today, this was not the option with Civ2, where multiplayer was added in the Gold edition made available in 1998. Once you get past the intro sequence, you're set to start your game. Rarely have I taken as many looks at an intro sequence as this one, it really is quite stunning, even if it does not run smoothly on my "mere" 6x CD-ROM. The intro sequence has, I believe, been available online for a while, but that does not make it any less stunning to fly through time from 4000 BC to a space city and the image of an alien in the monocle of what looks to be a very intelligent man. Well, first things first - the animations are what you see when you fire up the game. The problem with rating a game such as Civ:CTP is where to begin! This game has changed almost everything in Civ2, from the battle system to the way you build a terrain improvement. The big question is whether the classic could survive the separation from gaming gurus Sid Meier and Brian Reynolds. The last game to carry the Civilizationname lies some four years behind us (if you exclude the multiplayer addition to Civ2) and the shoes Civ:CTPhas to fill are huge. After much waiting, Civ:CTP, has finally arrived.
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