I've been a massive fan of Civ 4 for ages, and bought Civ 5 on steam when it was heavily discounted a few weeks back; I finished playing my first game of it a few days back.

It's a very different game to Civ 4, making it hard to compare. For example, Civ 4 works on a square grid while Civ 5 uses hexagons. Perhaps the biggest change is that in Civ 5, only one uniy can occupy a tile at a time. Not only doe this make fielding large armies harder, but it also makes battles more tactical; ranged units are better placed at the back, where they can fire over the melee units at the front.

For me, Civ 4 is just a little bit better becuase of the control over culture and religion; I like how your area of control expands over the course of the game, and how you can control that. I didn't like Civ 5's system, and I never really felt in control.

However, Civ 5 does have a nifty policy system, which allows you to unlock perks and features by being more cultured, which strikes me as more natural than policies being unlocked simply by researching the correct technology, a la Civ 4.



Anyway. Civ 5 is a great game, and is well capable of stealing a good 10 hours of your life at a time!