Civilization III offers 16 playable civilizations, and each has its own strengths and bonuses. The game begins in the year 4000 B.C., when your civilization is nothing more than a primitive tribe, and each turn progresses the game forward in time. You manage growth, military production, city development, diplomacy, and scientific research as your civilization grows from a single village to several towns to a continent-spanning metropolitan sprawl. The fun is in deciding whether to research writing or the wheel, whether to build a musketeer to take out an encroaching enemy pikeman or direct your city to work on the culturally significant Sistine Chapel. There are five ways to win the game, ranging from wiping out the other civilizations with military power to defeating them through cultural dominance, which is one of several new victory conditions.

Fans of Meier's other turn-based games will find the same addictive gameplay present in Civilization III. Building off the gameplay are several new additions, specifically the new cultural rating and the new resource management options. Every turn, each civilization earns culture points based upon how many wonders and other culturally significant structures are built within its cities. The higher the culture rating, the faster your civilization's borders grow. If your border extends to an enemy city, it's possible to capture that city without shedding any blood; the city's citizens will be attracted by your culture and willingly rebel.

The other big change is that you must collect raw materials in order to build certain units. For example, oil and rubber are required to build modern units, and if those resources aren't within your territory, you'll need to negotiate with other civilizations for them. And because the game's negotiation process is very deep and involved, you may find yourself cut off from key raw materials if you're at odds with other civilizations, which, in turn, will weaken you militarily.

The AI powering rival civilizations is quite good, and is capable of negotiating complex arrangements with both your civilization and other civilizations. These negotiations run from simple trade agreements to complex mutual protection pacts, and it's not uncommon to find an enemy civilization taking steps to isolate you from the rest of the world.

There are a few minor issues with the game, most notably with unit imbalances and the tedious endgame, which can drag on forever. These are minor problems, however, and don't detract from the overall experience. Fans of Sid Meier's other games, or anyone looking for a fun and challenging gaming experience, owe it to themselves to pick up Civilization III. --P. Meyer

Pros:

• Enemy AI is very impressive
• New additions really add to the experience
• Very addictive gameplay

• Some unit imbalances
• Endgame is a little long-winded

One major improvement over its predecessor is the notion of queueing, specifically scientific research and building things. This was a feature that first appeared in Alpha Centauri (aka "Civilization on another planet"), and helps take some of the rote functionality out of each turn. For city improvements, this is somewhat impeded by continuous confirmations of each new item. I'd love a way to turn that off, at least until the queue of items is gone. There's a "governor" mode, but it wasn't really obvious how to get it to do what I wanted. For example, I'd love to set up a profile whereby a city could produce a set of key infrastructure items -- a granary, barracks, temple, marketplace, library -- before requiring interaction.

Diplomacy is improved, although the computer plays a little too well, probably to a different set of rules. A nice map editor is included that allows you to alter some of the basic chemistry to make the game more enjoyable.

In previous versions, a Settler could colonize or perform improvements. Civ 3 removes the improvement functionality, which seriously changes the dynamics of the game in a bad way. Although it's mitigated by the automation, having to balance the number of settlers to workers distracts from the fun. Eventually one ends up with a bunch of pieces running around doing who knows what.

A final detriment is the copy protection, requiring the original CD. Although laptop unfriendly, this would be tolerable if it didn't rely on embedded errors. Specifically, occasionally the game won't play and I have to pop the CD out and back in or power-cycle my machine. It's unfortunate there's no "lite" mode whereby one can play without subjecting the original CD to the perils of airport security.

A brief description: you are one of a number of leaders in ancient times, many thousands of years B.C. Your goal is to conquer the earth. You start with a small village, and by tilling the land, exploring and meeting other tribes, and various other means, you learn new technology, expand your empire, and watch your civilization grow through the ages, from spears and chariots through miniaturization and interstellar travel. I know, I know, that's hardly anything to go on; just buy the game and trust me.

My impressions of it, as a veteran of the Civ series: as the documentation points out, if you haven't played any previous games, you won't have any bad habits to break. How true! I was never very good at earlier games and have had to start on the easiest level of this one just to learn the new tricks. Other reviewers are right on target by suggesting that culture is the key. Your area of influence is determined by each city's culture, gained through time from certain improvements and wonders. Develop enough culture and you can even seduce your opponents' cities to join your civilization. If, like me, you thought Temples were a crutch for over-militaristic societies, throw that one out the window. Trade? No longer an advancement. The Apollo Program? Can't rely on someone else to build it for you; you'll need your own.

That's right, your own wonder. There are now "Great" wonders, which are unique, and "Small" wonders, which can be built by any civilization meeting the requirements. Terrain now plays a greater role: in addition to defense, the random items that appear are now vital for certain units and actions. Want a Swordsman? Better have access to iron. No coal? No railroads.

The technology tree looks a bit smaller and is divided into Eras. Want to develop a straight-line path to Space Flight? Nice try. You need to discover all required technologies in one era before advancing to another. I think it helps a lot in terms of managing your development; the order in which you discover them gives you variation from game to game, but you don't have to worry about too many wrong turns because you all pass through the same gates.

The influence of the previous game, Alpha Centauri, is most evident in the concept of unique abilities for civilizations. In the past, the only real differences between the groups was in leader name, adjectives, city names, and color. Not any longer. Each civ has two specialty areas (out of 6, so with 16 possibilities, two civs have the same and the rest are unique), starts with two techs based on those, and gains special things based on those areas. Also, each civ has a special unit that is superior to the unit available to others. For example, the Americans get an F-16 in addition to the Fighter that everyone else uses. It's better and does more things ... but once the Fighter's been surpassed, the F-16 loses its edge. I really like this - it's one of the things that caused me to shelve Civ II for Alpha Centauri. Now, you'll replay the game not just to try alternate strategies, but to see what the difference is between the Aztecs and the French.

Air units have been changed quite a bit, by the way. You no longer "fly" based on your range, miscounting your squares to crash into the sea. Instead, you have areas of operation, and can perform one (or more) actions within that area. It takes a little getting used to, but it's a nice improvement.

Oh, one more important change: your score is an average now, not a total. No more jacking up your population in the final turns to max out your score. It's averaged over all your turns, so if you started out as the weak civ on the block, you may never catch up; alternatively, if you can get that big, early lead, you may be able to coast home. (Watch out for the UN, though.)

I really can't explain much more without going into details that you should discover yourselves, or without totally losing those who've never enjoyed a Sid Meier game. I will point out that this is version 1, so there are a few little things here and there (no male Russian? no female American? What's with calling me Mr. in a Democracy?). They're minor. Trust me. And most will be fixed.

A couple things to note: it is much like Civ II, so if you are expecting great differences, you won't find them here. Buy Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. It mixes some of these elements with a completely different storyline. Another is that along those lines, you will find that despite all the automation at your fingertips, the game drags on in the waning years. I like that, because it shows how my civilization has grown - Rome wasn't built in a day, and you can't run it in an hour these days either. However, you may prefer a quicker ending.

If you have any interest in turn-based strategy games, and don't have other people who expect to see you around over the next month or so, get this. Now. Scroll to the top of the screen and buy it. If you're female, available, and really like this game, call me! No, seriously, buy it, enjoy it, and prepare to spend hundreds of hours relishing the work of the team. This is one of the best games I own (and I do own a lot), and I've never been disappointed with a Sid Meier game ... except for Colonization ... so I recommend this one for everyone.