Which game should I buy? (PC strategy)

[rowech]

After buying a copy of Total War: Medieval and finding it not to work, I've been crushed. I had been looking forward to playing this game for a long time. Game installs fine but then when I go to play, I can only do battles. The actual turn based game fails to come up. Very disappointing. In light of this, I'm considering buying one of the following:

Civ IV
Medieval War II
Europa Universalis III
Rise of Nations
Company of Heroes
Rome Total War

I'm a little worried about the Total War series based on the Medieval game not working. Perhaps there's some sort of patch that fixes this as a known problem? Any help there would be appreciated.

I know all of these games are good but I was wondering if any stood out for some of you who have played most, if not all of them.

[JPhillips]

Civ IV in a blowout.

[WVUFAN]

Civ IV. Not even a question.

[sabotai]

EUIII in a blowout and not even a question.



:p

[CraigSca]

Company of Heroes rocks.

[WSUCougar]

Rise of Nations and Company of Heroes are the odd apples in that bunch (more traditional RTS style), but I'd give a thumbs up to all of them.

[Cork]

If you are looking for a turn based strategy game, then the clear choice is Civ 4, especially when you factor in that they have a fantastic looking expansion coming out this summer.

On the real time front, EU3 is a very good game but requires a bit of patience to be able to fully graps the games depth. Rise of Nations is also an excellent RTS as well as Company of heroes.

In all honesty, you can't really go wrong with the games you listed.

-Cork

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Civ IV easily. The 2nd expansion is coming out soon as well and should really help the latter stages of the game.

[rowech]

Really, I'm just looking for a good game since football season is out of season. I used to have Civ III and didn't care for it all that much. Is Civ IV similar or did they make some changes?

[st.cronin]

Does Civ IV have a demo? (too lazy to look)

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Really, I'm just looking for a good game since football season is out of season. I used to have Civ III and didn't care for it all that much. Is Civ IV similar or did they make some changes?

Most of the people that were fans of Civ III don't like Civ IV. I personally didn't like Civ III and think Civ IV is a much better game. They made a lot of good changes IMO. It's a much better game and the mod packs that you can get for the game are numerous as well. It's a game that keeps getting better thanks to community support.

[FrogMan]

Does Civ IV have a demo? (too lazy to look)

yes it does, allows you to play 100 turns with any of a limited number of civs (5 or 6 available I think).

FM

[KWhit]

Civ4 is the best of that bunch, by far, IMO.

[Dutch]

Hearts of Iron II: Doomsday is a lot of fun if recreating WWII day by day is your thing. :)

[FrogMan]

I didn't not comment on which one to get as I've only played Civ4 (w Warlords) out of the list. I do have to say that it is an amazing game, with its whole potential kind of untapped, by judging from the expansion coming out this Summer...

FM

[Barkeep49]

Rise of Nations with its expansion pack is the best RTS experience I've ever had, making Rise of Legends a huge disappointment for me. Though I am also a huge supporter of EU3.

[cubboyroy1826]

I say Civ 4 without a doubt. I have found i need to give the game to my son and tell him to hide it well for me. If not hidden at any given time i find that the causes me to time warp anywhere from 4-8 hours in the future where i find i have been engaged in a game of Civ 4. Pretty weird stuff.

[path12]

I wasn't thrilled with Civ 3, but Civ 4 is the best in the entire series by a long way IMO.

[spleen1015]

Civ IV for sure, but you'll have fun with Rise of Nations as well. Those are the only ones on the list I have played.

[rowech]

Hearts of Iron II: Doomsday is a lot of fun if recreating WWII day by day is your thing. :)

I forgot about that one...that was on my radar a while back.

[Eaglesfan27]

Medieval 2 is very fun and I highly recommend it, but Civ 4 still blows it away and is the one I would get if I could only get one.

[moriarty]

I really like COH if you're into RTS and you're not burned out on the WWII theme. System requirements are quite high, but there's a demo so you can test out your rig.

That said, for 'strategy', I'd definitely go with Civ IV.

[Neon_Chaos]

If you're a fan of turn-based, go for CIV 4.

But if you want an RTS, I'd got for Company of Heroes. Great game. Beautiful graphics, and nice storyline.