Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I've been very excited to see the latest iteration of Civilization on the PS4. It's been a long time since Civilization was on the Playstation Platform. Before I get into the good or the bad, let me get out the awful. I put the disc into the system, it installs, I launch the game. What is the FIRST THING that greets me?? A request to purchase expansion packs. HELLO?! Could I play the game I just purchased, BEFORE you try and get me to shell out yet more money for expansions?? The Good: Graphics are on par. Very detailed, and nice to look at. Each unit is unique (though a little hard to distinguish when zoomed out). Voice Acting is also on par. The cut scenes are nice, and the narrator is good (though her voice does get to be a bit much for my personal taste). Play is very "Civ like". This is good as it lends itself well to people familiar with the franchise. Turn based, building units or developing your city, technology trees, culture, etc..... The bad: Everything else. Trying to find information is first and foremost. Yes, Firaxis, there really SHOULD BE a manual included. Trying to open menu, after menu, after menu to find information is VERY frustrating. You don't have to include a strategy guide, but a technology tree, a list of wonders, a list of tile types, a list of units, would be EXTREMELY helpful. Then there are the controls. Can you just jump from city to city, or unit to unit? NOPE! First you have to find one of the aforementioned items (city or unit), then choose a sub menu, where you can then cycle through available cities (or units). This is kind of just pointless. A simple L1 or R1 should take you back to the next/last unit/city. I played through the tutorial. I usually do to find the nuances of the new version, get use to menu layout, etc. I'm on like my 40th turn, and what happens.....THE GAME BRICKS! On the Tutorial. Come on. My advice, skip the tutorial. (I had built a campus, and then I was free from the tutorial for a few turns so I built a library, then about 10 turns later, the tutorial suggests I build a library, but since it was already built, I cannot leave the city build menu, so I have to abort the game....and guess what, reloading doesn't change the fact the library is already built, and that the tutorial still thinks I have to build one......so have to abort the game. My advice, if you're going to play the tutorial, don't build ANYTHING until the game decides you should.) Also, virtually everything is accomplished by the Square button. The same button ends your turn. Hope you don't tap it once too often..... The computer AI is going to get you. Just try and keep up with the production rates of the Computer Cities. Everyone likes a challenge (I usually play on Diety mode), but why does the AI have advantages that you don't see when playing other people? Unfortunately the game doesn't even tell you all the bonuses the AI gets, so it's a painful learning curve to find out what mysterious bonuses have been granted to your enemy that you wouldn't normally experience. These things could all be fixed with patches (except for the lack of any instruction guide). And if Firaxis does improve this, then I'll amend my review. So I'm happy to see a new Civilization game, but it needs some serious polish. Firaxis seems to have pushed this out for the holiday season without actually finishing the project. (Who can't even build a non-bricked tutorial?)