To console or not to console

I've been debating whether or not to get an xbox360 or playstation 3 games console.

The reason is that the next incarnation of what is probably my favourite series of games, Civilization Revolution, is only going to come out on those consoles. The reason for this is that it's specifically designed as a console version of the game.

And there in lies my dilemma. I've recently been going through a bit of an obsessive time playing Civ3 and it's brought out to me what I found disappointing about Civ4. It was too simplified. In Civ3 I always play huge maps with slightly fewer races than recommended.

The reason for this is that I like to build a huge empire with lots of cities. Micro-managing all these cites is then what I deem to be a big part of the fun (I know, I'm weird). I like to build them all up to be as big and as good as they can possibly be, with as many improvements as possible and lots of specialist citizens. It's only then does my attention really turn to global conquest, with the added advantage that by this time all of the modern units are available, as well as railroads and transports to move lots of stuff around quickly.

In Civ4 that's not what you're supposed to do. Micromanagement is still there to some degree, but things like corruption and War Weariness have been removed, making the job basically easy.

Also, in Civ4 the idea is to have specialist cities - ones that produce great people, ones that produce units, ones that do science, ones that do culture, etc. That's not what I like to do.

Also, the world scales are considerably smaller, and this is another thing that doesn't appeal to me - I like big empires as I say, and not necessarily because you've conquered stuff, just big worlds. To me this is what Civilization is really all about, and it was taken out in Civ4, predominantly in the name of making the game more 'fun'.

And that's the problem with CivRev - it takes that Civ simplification (or dumbing down) concept even further. Yes it's gonna look a lot prettier even than Civ4, and it'll have a proper online experience (not that I play games online) but the stuff I like is not gonna be there.

But the other side of the coin is that this will be the first Civilization game I won't have bought and played, and that feels like a bit of a shame. Still, it also means I don't have to buy an expensive console just to play one game.