Now, there are some games you play for eye candy, and some games you play for gameplay. Personally, I've always been a fan of solid gameplay over a bunch of eye candy with no sustenance.

Civilization Revolution is a game that focuses on the latter, but I'm not going to hold that against Sid Meier, or anyone at his company for that matter. As far as delivering what you need in an easy to handle package, they've done near perfect.

So now we take a look at the graphics. As you make cities, raise armies, and fight wars, there has to be something to look at. For starters, your city will noticeably change as the game goes on. Build a barracks; and you see one actually appear at that city.

Also, rather than the battles of old in Civ, where there's a winner and a loser, you can actually watch your troops fight, although it doesn't seem balanced when watching sometimes. You'll know what I mean when you lose your tanks to long-bowmen. Seriously, what kind of arrows do these guys have? I'd like to get my hands on some!

Now, let's get to the sound. I'm going to save you some frustration. First thing you should do when you get this game is go straight into the sound options. From there, turn off advisor volume. That's right, all the way down to nothing.

Now you can play for hours without Simish-speaking advisors mumbling at you all the time. This option can make the difference between a fun time and an annoying struggle, so make sure you change it as soon as you possibly can.

Aside from those annoyances, the sound is great, albeit repetitive. There wouldn't be much lost if you chose to listen to something from your MP3 library instead of the game sounds. They aren't that bad, they just aren't at all vital to the gameplay itself. At least, that's what I find myself doing once I've been playing a few hours, just to break up the monotony in the sound.